Academy of Math and Science confers degrees on first grads

Though only in residence for one academic year, 54 students of the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky received that new institution’s inaugural high school diplomas in a ceremony Saturday afternoon at the Colonnade in front of Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center, only about 50 yards from the building where they’ve lived and studied for the last few months. Click here for photos from the graduations. Academy director Tim Gott congratulated not only the students, but their parents and guardians who took a chance on sending their children to a new venture in which they worked with Western Kentucky University undergraduates and professors in college classes. Those parents and guardians are responsible for much of the students’ inevitable success, he said. Among the graduates was his son, Andrew Gott of Bowling Green, who plans to major in astrophysics at the Florida Institute of Technology. Andrew Gott told the crowd assembled on the Colonnade steps that their experience resembled “Hope of the Flowers” by Trina Paulus. It’s the story of a yellow caterpillar who, inspired by example to do more, became a butterfly. Like the yellow caterpillar, they’d spent all year wrapped up - in tough classes within the cocoon of Florence Schneider Hall, he said. Now was their time to break free, and they all had within them the ability to fly, Andrew Gott said. Alyssa Mavi of Ashland, going on to study neuroscience and business at the College of William & Mary, reminisced about dorm life as well as joining in published scientific research. Many of the students traveled to Italy, and while there all Mavi wanted was to buy a genuine cameo ring, she said. But she fell ill and was taken to the hospital in Pompeii, where she’d planned to make that purchase. She was surprised to find later that her classmates had bought one for her - indicative of the friendships that have formed during their year together, Mavi said. The academy graduates are students from 35 Kentucky counties interested in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Sixty are admitted each year, to complete their junior and senior years of high school; over two years, they earn 60 college credit hours in addition to traditional high school requirements. Saturday’s graduates spent only their senior years in residence. Forty-four of them plan to go to Kentucky colleges, with 24 staying at Western, according to a university press release. One of those is Marion Eichholtz of Louisville, who will return to major in math after an autumn studying in England. Even back at Western, though, she’ll still miss the academy’s unique lifestyle and the graduates who have left, she said. Watching her cross the stage were her grandmother Judy Zimmer, sister Hallie, mother Lisa and father John Eichholtz. Her father said it was a tough choice to send Marion Eichholtz off to a new academy. “I had my apprehensions at first,” he said. But it turned out to be a great experience, well worth the worry, John Eichholtz said. Before the academy, she took community college classes in Louisville, but Gatton’s courses were harder and more fun - plus there was that trip to Italy. “I took things that I wouldn’t have been able to take, if I hadn’t gone here,” Marion Eichholtz said. Western President Gary Ransdell asked them to think of all the future academy students who will look back on this first class. They’re responsible for having set the image of the academy, he said. “You are part of history for the commonwealth of Kentucky,” Ransdell said. “You are part of something special.” Jim Wiseman, vice president of public affairs for Toyota Motor Manufacturing of North America - a major supporter of the academy - delivered the keynote address, giving several points of advice. Objective advice for the future is hard to come by, but “sunscreen would be it,” he said. The rest came from his own experience. Wiseman told the graduates to respect parents, each other, future co-workers and friends; challenge themselves, as Toyota did in developing hybrid cars when other firms declared them impractical; to seek every opportunity to broaden their learning, through reading and experience, and not to waste time being jealous of others’ success. “Enjoy life. It is a gift,” he said.
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