The NCoGS Newsletter is a new endeavor spearheaded by the Executive Committee and Colorado affiliate, Colorado Student Leaders Institute. This newsletter will be sent out quarterly in November, February, May, and August at noon on the last business day of the month.
Please feel free to submit program deadlines, alumni opportunities, job opportunities, other special events, and any other interesting articles or information you think might benefit the NCoGS community.
To submit pieces, please contact Zachary Gabehart with Colorado Student Leaders Institute at zachary.gabehart@ucdenver.edu.
Please submit all pieces by the third Friday of the month in which the newsletter is sent.
We look forward to connecting!
Letter From the President
Hello, and welcome to our newly designed newsletter. My name is Royal Toy, and it is my pleasure as President of NCoGS to introduce you to our organization, remind our current members of our goals and plans, and to welcome all those who may be interested in joining with us as we firm-up our mission and purpose as an organization.
The National Conference of Governor’s Schools Inc. is devoted to the development and support of excellence in programming for youth. We are particularly dedicated to the enrichment of youth through programming in several areas such as gifted and talented education, leadership, creative production, and non-traditional approaches to encourage growth in the rising generation.
We further work to encourage personal growth in all who are involved in governor’s schools and to establish habits of ethical decision making and civic responsibility amongst students, faculty, staff, and all who are affiliated with our individual programs and NCoGS as a whole.
Our hope in offering these programs and in working together as an organization is to advance the quality of education and to prepare students for leadership and engagement in their future academia and careers, regardless of the field of application.
We extend to you an invitation to participate more fully in this organization. You not only benefit from the opportunity to learn from others’ expertise and the innovations in their programs, but to share what has become valuable to your program, your expertise, and perhaps, most importantly, by adding your voice in supporting and developing the opportunities that are provided to our nation's youth.
If you are not yet a member of NCoGS, or if your membership has lapsed, please join or re-join us. If you are a current member, connect frequently by sharing the successes of your program and the talents unique to your program so that we can all grow this National organization together, increasing the reach of our impact to every student who might benefit from the programs we provide.
Best,
Royal Toy
President, NCoGS
Royal Toy, Ed.D. Associate Professor, Director PACE programs / Teacher Education Division
2021 NCoGs Mini-Grant
The National Conference of Governor's Schools has funds to annually award mini-grants up to $1,000 to affiliate programs that are current, dues-paying members.
These grants are intended to be allocated for an event, activity, or program what reflects a Governor's School curriculum that the program could not do without NCoGs support.
For grant awardees, a report on how the grant was utilized to be given/presented at the annual conference in October 2021.
Proposal requirements:
-Program name and administrator
-One page letter with a short description of the event
-Budget for proposed event/activity/program
Criteria:
-Money must be allocated for an event/activity/program that would not be possible without NCoGs funds
-Awardee must attend and present at the 2021 Annual Conference
-Applicants must be current, dues-paying members
Applications from 2020 applicants will be considered as-is unless withdrawn or edits submitted.
Apply
DUE: March 1, 2021
DECISIONS: March 31, 2021
Program Updates and Deadlines
Colorado
Applications for the 2021 COSLI program are now open!
2021 COSLI Application Open: October 1, 2020-January 31, 2021
Acceptance Decision & Notification: Early March 2021
The COSLI Summer Program was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two 3-week sessions will be held during the summer of 2021 from June 20-July 10 and July 11-July 31.
Georgia
The Governor’s Honors Program of Georgia has opened its online application to over 3,000 nominees across the state of Georgia. Nominees within 11 nomination areas will have the chance to submit an application by January 8, 2020. GHP alumni can always fill out our database form and be invited to share their alumni success stories.
Kentucky
The Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program (GSP) is in the process of planning for its 39th summer with 1,020 students representing all 120 Kentucky counties. The summer will take place on three sites, staggered between June 20th and July 31st, 2021: Centre College, Morehead State University and Bellarmine University. The nominations from schools and districts are expected to reach the State-wide competition between January 25th and February 8th, 2021. At the present time, the GSP is hoping to maintain its five-week in-person format to accomplish its mission of enhancing Kentucky‘s next generation of civic and economic leaders. For information, please visit our website: gsp.ky.gov or call 502-209-4420.
Missouri
The Missouri Scholars Academy is forging ahead with nominations as if all were right with the world, but we won’t actually know if the University of Missouri will allow for an in-person Academy until early next year. Should we be allowed to hold the Academy in its traditional format, that’s what we will do. The Exec Board is discussing options for a virtual Academy, but unlike last summer’s virtual offerings, there would be an associated cost for 2021 so that MSA could pay faculty and staff.
Extra-Curricular Activities during a Pandemic
By: Celeste Archer
Edutopia, the newsletter produced by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, released an article last week explaining how extra-curricular activities play a vital role during this pandemic. This is certainly no new news for governor’s schools. In Colorado, we find ourselves in the yearly justification for monies provided by the state. Our student advisory board has been writing letters to our state legislators. Every single one of the students say that COSLI, Colorado’s governor’s school, provides a key part of their high school experience and engagement.
Students from the Summer, 2020 class in Colorado held an eight week book club, reading Educated by Tara Westover. The discussions were lively and long. The written responses were equally engaging and filled with alignments to the student’s own lives. But all are looking forward to the promised session in 2021 (Colorado will hold two shortened sessions to accommodate Classes for 2020 and 2021).
From the article: “When it comes to school activities, ‘canceled’ has been the recurring refrain during the pandemic…Those social connections are especially important to teens, and they may be a blind spot for school systems. A 2020 survey of secondary students and teachers conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International, for example, revealed that while teachers favored strategies like ‘more counselors’ to address the stress and isolation of the crisis, middle and high school students chose things like more opportunities to ‘socialize with fellow students’ and ‘online clubs and other extracurricular activities’ by large margins. For teens, the simple need for peer-to-peer connection in unstructured forums outweighed structured programs like counseling and mindfulness sessions.”
This year’s annual Colorado mailing has this quote from a 2019 alum: “The most significant experience of my high school education was attending Colorado Student Leaders Institute. We are sometimes so deep in the details that we forget to honor the impact and importance of governor’s schools and what they provide to the best and brightest students in our states."
To read the full Edutopia article see the link below. https://www.edutopia.org/article/extracurriculars-play-vital-role-during-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR3dYTJaabCQkysEChGtdMonM5a2LS1LhjJcA4CjmX9D5Ah7csxZmPoEaI4
NCoGs Website
Be sure to check your program information on the NCoGs website at ncogs.us.
Contact Royal Toy (retoy@lcsc.edu) to obtain your permissions to make edits to your page or to make updates.
2020 Virtual Sessions
Pennsylvania
By: Ben Campbell
The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University went virtual this year and managed to adapt most of the program to operate through Zoom. There were many challenges, but also some unexpected benefits from the change. Besides saving on room and board, faculty and counselors could be hired from anywhere they had an internet connection. The students were assigned virtual roommates and PGSS experimented with ways of building an online community. The virtual format also allowed the program to bring in guest speakers from distant places. One special guest to the program was an alumnus from the PA Governor's School for the Arts (closed since 2009) and also a CMU grad. Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes) visited PGSS for 90 minutes via Zoom for a discussion of his education, career and Governor's School memories hosted by PGSS Faculty member Ben Campbell. Mr. Quinto then took questions from the students, moderated by PGSS Director Barry Luokkala. Mr. Quinto has been an active participant in lobbying the state of Pennsylvania for funds to support the Governor's Schools for Arts and Sciences.
Vermont
The Governor's Institute of Vermont ran 8 online intensive programs for 270 students this summer. The program had surprising success and they are currently piloting a school-year online enrichment program for motivated teens that meets one weekend a month October through May. If anyone would like more info about making a similar move to online go not hesitate to contact the GIV team and they are happy to share what they have learned so far!
Fall 2020 Conference
By: Celeste Archer
This year's Fall Conference was one that fit the times. Held hybrid in Buena Vista, Colorado, the views were certainly breathtaking, although the in-person numbers were smaller. No matter, Zoom allowed for great discussion and presentations on some of the most important topics for today's governor's schools.
Members of NCoGS have access to the recorded sessions. Be sure to take the time to hear from some of our states' leaders in discussions about what a "perfect" governor's school looks like, how to create scholars with integrity and empathy, the importance of civic-engagement, how NCoGS plans to help grow governor's schools across the nation and so many more important hot topics. The goal of NCoGS is to support states support their best and brightest students. See some great photos below. View the Conference Agenda Here
"The function of education to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education" -Martin Luther King Jr.
