News and Progress
Gifts help academy for Missouri's brightest juniors
Missouri Scholars Academy: 25 years of summer school
Sept. 9, 2009
Shakespeare in the pool, human chess, square dancing in the street; these activities aren't part of a high school student's typical summer vacation, but are if that student is a part of the Missouri Scholars Academy.
Since 1985, the Missouri Scholars Academy, or MSA, has hosted a three-week summer program at MU for the best and brightest incoming high school juniors from around Missouri. In 2009, 330 students participated in the program's 25th anniversary year.
Ted Tarkow, who helped create the program and serves as co-director, said he wants students to be proud of the talent they possess.
“MSA means to me that learning can be refreshing, exhilarating, (and) can really open up academic and personal lives,” Tarkow explained. “If you do this with impressionable teenagers, what you’re doing is setting them up for an adventure in learning that the rest of their lives can in fact be.”
To see a video about this year's academy, click here.
In 1984, a group of parents in Springfield, Mo. conceived MSA when they saw other states providing opportunities for gifted students during the summer. Tarkow said these parents approached the state government and asked why a program like this was not available in Missouri. The inaugural session was held in the summer of 1985.
The students are selected through a nomination and application process. Some districts send more students based on enrollment. Academic program instructors comefrom high schools, colleges and universities from around Missouri, and college students serve as resident assistants. Michael Kersulov, a high school teacher from Crestridge High School, came on board with MSA this year after hearing about it in December. He taught two classes during MSA 2009: Shakespeare, and comic books. He said MSA further reaffirmed his choice to teach high school instead of college because he enjoys seeing the students’ progress.
“The first time I asked a question here in my class at MSA, I would say about 90 percent of the students raised their hands to answer it,” he said. “Also, they’re just really energetic. They realize that it’s a good thing to be here.”
MSA Scholar Lauren Null said she really enjoyed the variety of new activities she was able to experience, and felt that overall, MSA was a very positive and fun environment.
“There's a lot of people here but no one’s negative,” she said. “Everyone’s trying to uplift everyone else.”
The 2010 state budget includes essential funding of MSA's operating expenses, but more funding is needed for the program to accommodate the same number of students as in years past next summer. Private gifts will help MSA continue to offer the high quality program students have enjoyed for the past 25 years.