Murray State to host Governor’s Scholars Program again

Across the state of Kentucky, over 1,000 of the Commonwealth’s most outstanding students have been chosen to attend one of three universities hosting the Governor’s Scholars Program. Murray State is one of the three universities which were selected to host the program for the next three years.

The GSP is a five-week summer program for outstanding Kentucky students who are completing their junior year in high school. The program is designed to stimulate the students academically and personally, with a strong liberal-arts program and residential life experience.

The host universities are chosen through a bid process, administrators of Murray State said they are pleased to be a host school again. Also chosen were Bellarmine University in Louisville KY. and Centre College in Danville KY.

The GSP students will be divided among the 3 schools, Murray State will host approximately 350 students.

Don Robertson, vice president of Student Affairs, said the GSP will be very beneficial to Murray State in the upcoming years.

“The most important thing is getting those students on our campus,” he said. “We’re already seeing more Governor Scholars coming to Murray State than we have in the past, because there is nothing like being on campus. That’s what sells the students,” said Robertson.

Warren Edminster, director of the Honors Program, said the numbers show a marked increase in the number of GSP students who actually come to Murray State when we host on campus.

“Before we hosted the GSP on campus, MSU received less than 1 percent of students in the program,” he said. “Since we have been hosting it on campus we have seen that jump up to about 4 percent.”

During the five-week program at Murray State, students attend courses of their choosing and are asked to participate in a personal development seminar twice a week under the direction of their residential advisers, said Edminster.

“Typically the students will have a major and minor course of study in the program, as well as an elective,” said Edminster. “The students are also encouraged to participate in clubs that would help them experience something they ordinarily might not.”

Jacob Paul, senior from Clinton, Ky., is a former residential adviser for the GSP. He said one of his favorite things about being an advisor was spending time with the students.

“Almost every night my scholars and I would bond in the hallways, and I got really close with a lot of them,” he said. “It was one of the best summers I have ever had.”

Emily Ashby, senior from Murray, who participated in the GSP in 2007, said the program was very beneficial to her college career.

“My time in the program flew by but I enjoyed every second,” she said. “The issues we discussed have carried over into almost all the classes I have had at Murray State.”

Story by Alex Berg, Staff writer.

 

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