Growing up in a public school system, I have seen one reoccurring hurdle: what to do with the kids who excel? They are talented, they have broad interests, and they are driven. But they cannot do it all by themselves – they cannot teach themselves how to think like a research scientist or analyze like an engineer – without the proper environment. The teachers are the Academy are the most influential and profound educators I have ever met, Johns Hopkins professors included. Mass Academy, on top of providing a rigorous junior-year program (of which it has taken two years in required freshman introductory courses at WPI and Hopkins to fully review), teaches something invaluable: the art of asking and answering your own questions. In an age where engineering and mathematics are becoming increasingly more fundamental to top-ranking careers, programs like the Academy, which do not teach textbook skimming and fact regurgitation but intuitive questioning and analysis, are what students and our community need more of in order to successfully solve the problems presented to us every day.

The Academy offers a surprising number of opportunities even beyond the sciences. 126 hours of community service are required for graduation. Each year, a professional string quartet spends a week in residency at the school. The musicians are respected international professionals who frequently appear with the Boston Symphony and other world-class music ensembles. Keeping with the Academy’s unsaid motto of presenting not just an idea, but an opportunity, one student musician is picked to perform with the group each year. I am a violinist. After performing with the musicians at the Academy, I was offered the opportunity to be a resident artist at the Killington Music Festival, a nationally respected chamber music festival. My experiences there were invaluable; the door of musical opportunity opened up in a way that could have never happened with my previous public high school music program. I was accepted into the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. I am now studying at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, in addition to working toward a mechanical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins. I can confidently say that, without Mass Academy, neither of these would have been possible.

In short, the Academy did not teach me calculus, chemistry, or French – a student can pick up a textbook anywhere. What it taught was how to learn, how to think critically, and how to grow into a well-rounded human being.

Please continue funding for the Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science. You will be changing and enhancing the lives of our state’s most promising students, tomorrow’s most promising leaders.

I am writing to you to ask your support in the continued funding of the Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science at WPI. Currently the state provides sufficient funding for special needs students, which is appropriate. However there has been clearly insufficient focus on the gifted & talented students who represent the future scientists, engineers, business owners who will drive the economy of the Commonwealth. We have been publicly building our Biotech business here and need to support those students who will one day be employed in those businesses. What better way to retain those gifted students than to provide them with the education that they need to excel.
I commend to your reading an article that appeared in the March 9, 2009 issue of Newsweek written by a woman who has two children one that is autistic and the other gifted. Her perspective is invaluable since she is able to see it clearly from both sides. I have attached the link to the article below.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/186960

I would appreciate your consideration in retaining the funding for Mass Academy of Math & Science in this week’s budget deliberations.

Dear Representative Harkins,

I was surprised to hear from one of my colleagues that the Massachusetts Academy of Science and Technology has been removed from the 2010 House budget. The partnership this high school shares with Worcester Polytechnic Institute sounds like just the sort of program Massachusetts should be supporting, not closing down.

Students who get a head start on college classes at WPI are the kind of people we need at General Dynamics C4 Systems. We are a leading supplier of secure communications systems and employ over 400 engineering professionals in Needham. (We also have locations in Taunton and Pittsfield; our headquarters is in Scottsdale, AZ.) For our business to grow in Massachusetts we need to be able to access young talent with skills in math, science and engineering.

If Massachusetts is to remain competitive in attracting and keeping high tech employers, it seems to me that funding a school like this one is a step in the right direction. I am a resident of Needham as well as an employer, and I support Representative Pedone’s amendment to put Mass Academy back in the budget; I encourage you to do the same.

Respectfully,
Michael Guzelian
Vice President, General Dynamics C4 Systems

My name is Kevin Shepardson, and I am an alumnus of the 2001 graduating class at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI. I was shocked and dismayed when I heard that funding for the Mass Academy program had been cut from the proposed state budget. It is neither hyperbole nor overstatement to say that attending the Mass Academy changed my life, as virtually every significant decision I have made in my life since first attending the Academy has been shaped by my experiences there. Prior to attending the Mass Academy, my academic life had lacked the level of challenge I needed to grow to my full potential - an experience shared by many of my fellow Mass Academy students. At the Academy, however, we were constantly faced with new challenges that enabled us to fulfill our true potential for academic excellence. These challenges were presented in a supportive environment, filled with encouragement and a degree of individual student-faculty interaction that larger schools are unable to provide.

In addition, while at the Academy I had such a positive experience with Worcester Polytechnic Institute that I ended up completing both my B.S. (Mechanical Engineering) and M.S. (Materials Science and Engineering) degrees there. Because I had already, through the Mass Academy, completed a year under a freshman course load, admission was made significantly easier. The year of WPI courses I took while at the Academy were also excellent preparation for the academic rigors of college, easing a transition that can come as quite a shock to many college freshmen.

Students are also not the only ones to benefit from the Mass Academy program. When I attended the Academy, faculty turnover was relatively rapid, with visiting scholars spending a year teaching at the Academy before returning the school from which they came. Many longer-term Mass Academy faculty had also recently taken teaching jobs elsewhere. Even WPI professors would teach Academy classes (in addition to those WPI classes that happened to include Academy students). These visiting educators, like their students, were challenged to grow and learn. When they arrived at the Academy, they brought with them their insights, experiences, and methods, which enriched the learning environment there. When they left the Academy, they were encouraged to take what they had learned there with them, to help improve the quality of teaching in schools throughout the Commonwealth. Few programs provide such an excellent environment for this level of growth shared between students and faculty.

Since its founding, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has always placed great value on education. This emphasis has greatly benefitted the citizens and businesses that make their homes here, through the creation of large numbers of highly skilled professionals. Eliminating the Mass Academy program would be a significant step back in this endeavor, depriving many of the Commonwealth’s most promising students of an opportunity to truly flourish. Further, it would deprive the educators of Massachusetts of an opportunity to hone their craft, and to learn and pass on new and better teaching methods. The destruction of the Mass Academy would negatively impact our state’s educational system as a whole - something we cannot afford in these challenging economic times.

Unlike private schools, the Mass Academy is open to any student residing in Massachusetts, and charges no tuition, providing a unique opportunity to students from financially disadvantaged families. In addition, a significant portion of its funding is provided by Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I know of no other high school programs that provide such advanced academic programs while placing so little financial burden on both students and taxpayers.

In conclusion, I ask and urge you to oppose the elimination of funding for the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science. It is an investment in the future - the future of its students, the future of our schools, and the future of our state. Please support the Mass Academy, for the good of your constituents and that of all the good people of this Commonwealth.

Sincerely,
Kevin Shepardson

In light of the fiscal crisis in this state, we find ourselves in a battle with the state government over funding for the Mass Academy. This is a battle not to be taken lightly. ALL parents and students need to reach out to their State Reps. and State Senators for their help in “Saving Mass Academy”. The more they know about the beneifits of the school the better off we are. All they need is to be educated on how the school works, how much the school and students benefit the community, how the students sending schools don’t lose a dime to Mass Academy, and how these students will someday be the future leaders, teachers, engineers, and CEO’s of our state, and country. It’s a no brainer to us. It should also be a no brainer to all who have the knowledge of what goes on at the Mass Academy of Math and Science. WPI should be commended for their part in the school as well. Let’s hope they will voice their support to the state government too.

Always fight for what you truly believe in!

Thanks,
Phil Millette

There was a farmer. The farmer had chickens in his back yard. But he had a strange looking chicken. And the farmer wondered, I mean, this strange looking chicken, it does behave like the other chickens, it pecks away, but it doesn’t—it doesn’t look quite like the others.
And then a traveler comes along who knows about this and he says to the farmer, “No, no, no, man, that’s no chicken there. That’s an eagle.”
And the traveler says, “Please, give it to me.”
And the farmer gives him this strange looking chicken. And he takes this chicken and he goes, up, up, up, to the top of the mountain. And he waits for the sun to rise. And as the sun glides through, this man says, “Fly, eagle, fly.”
And this strange looking chicken spreads out its pinions, shakes itself, and lifts off. And it soars and disappears way, way into The rising sun.

Well, Nigel really was an eagle but it took a place such as Mass Academy to nurture him to reach beyond his comfort zone and fly. Trust me, there were several tumbles and scrambles and times he thought about returning to the safety and comfort of the barnyard where he would be hand fed twice a day…

All of the young men and women at Mass Academy are eagles. Yes, many may have been fortunate enough to discover it on their own, or they may have been like our son, a bright young man who was numbly scratching at worms in the dirt at a public school that just wasn’t challenging him and couldn’t offer him the mental stimulation he needed to thrive (not to say that public education isn’t good for the majority of people, myself included…) At Mass Academy he found his niche and grew into a happy, self-fulfilled, well adjusted man with lots of friends who encouraged him to soar and reach for the sky.

Nigel has a double major in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics and has joined a fraternity. Last summer he helped build gears and write CAD for a robot that can rescue soldiers out on the field. This summer he will be traveling with 2 of his Mass. Academy friends to Belgium and Germany (then working to pay it off!!).

Mass Academy became part of my life when I was in 6th grade. My sister attended Mass Academy and my mother was on the PTA. My sister fell in love with the school, and my mother became equally involved, finding her closest friends in this school as well.

Despite the amount of work and time I saw my sister putting into her schoolwork every night, I anticipated my opportunity to apply to the Mass Academy. When my letter arrived in the mail I was so proud to have been accepted.
I knew that once I started at the academy I would finally be in an environment my sending school could not provide. I came from a city where the highschool contianed over 1,500 students and had classes of 40 students, to the comfort of about 5 classrooms and 15 students per class. My teachers were available to help me whenever I needed it, and the other students were just as eager to help and learn as I was.

Although Junior year was the most difficult year of schooling yet, I have come out with confidence in my ability to learn, teach, plan, present, create, and communicate new ideas and improve on older ideas. These skills can be contributed to the multitude of projects that I worked on almost every week at the academy.

For my Science Fair Junior year I adapted a remote controlled car into a communication device for deaf children, which then carried over with me as I decided to learn and study American Sign Language for my senior independent study project. For my group engineering project Junior year i was part of a team of four that designed and manufactured a gardening bench for a group member’s aunt who has two prosthetic legs.

I have worked at a halfway house, tutored underprivileged children, and worked at a food pantry and a thrift store where the profit is used to pay mortgages for needy people in the Worcester county. At other schools running a basketball game is considered community service, but at the Academy the 56 hours we serve in the community must benefit needy people or animals and requires direct contact with those who we are helping. This makes the experience much more enriching.

Ultimately my experience here has been more than I imagined that day I received my acceptance letter. I suppose that the only way to understand how positive this school has been in the lives of my loved ones and myself is to experience it firsthand.

I hope that the effort in each story from friends, families, teachers, and students alike prove how important the academy is on an academic and personal level.

Thank you,
Olivia Paquette

In addition to its top-notch academic program, which will allow its students to become leaders in mathematics and science to aid in Massachusetts, all students perform community service to aid in the disadvantaged in this state, whether it be tutoring underprivileged students or volunteering in other areas. Part of this learning is not just to learn math and science but how to give back to the community as a whole.

Although my sending school has been a good place to learn, the Academy’s environment has been something that I have noticed to produce considerable growth in its students. It is a unique environment different from any public or private school such that eliminating funding and cutting the school would be extremely bad for overall Massachusetts economy, to a similar effect of cutting upper level classes in high schools.

Allow me to tell you about something that Massachusetts is doing right. Along with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the legislature has been funding Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, an 11th and 12th grade high school for academically accelerated students. My son is fortunate to be a junior at Mass Academy. The Academy has helped him evolve from a student of untapped potential into an engaged scholar with strong connections to his school and community.

Mass Academy students participate in high-level studies and conduct real research; they don’t simply process information to pass a test. Besides the rigorous course work in mathematical modeling, applied physics, computer science, engineering, Spanish, humanities, and technical/scientific writing, this year my son participated in a Harvard/MIT math meet, a Fitchburg State computer science competition, a 48-hour national math challenge, and a DuPont essay competition. At the regional science fair, he won a Naval Research award for his project on artificial intelligence and swarm theory. “I know grad students who couldn’t handle that level of programming,” a WPI grad student in computer science told him. Next month my son will compete in the state science fair at MIT. Last year, without the support of Mass Academy, he didn’t even qualify for the regional fair.

The educators at Mass Academy know that talented students require strong connections with peers and teachers in order to reach their full potential. The collegial atmosphere of the Academy fosters these bonds. Juniors frequently work together in small groups; they do not compete with each other for class rank, but instead challenge each other to put forth their best efforts, as they work toward common goals. The parent/teacher conference I attended at Mass Academy was unlike any other I’ve been to. I sat down with all six of my child’s teachers and was amazed to discover how well they knew my reticent son and just what he needed to flourish academically and socially.

As with academics, community service is conducted at a high level at Mass Academy. Service learning is directly built into the Academy’s engineering curriculum. My son’s group of four is currently designing a device to help a child with cerebral palsy write. Students also carry out individual community service projects that must pass stringent requirements and be approved by the principal. In my son’s case, he attended training sessions at Tufts Vet School in Grafton and tested to become a registered Pet Partner, qualified to visit nursing homes, hospitals, and schools. He and our Golden Retriever currently volunteer at a Worcester nursing home and have made special connections with residents who have lost the ability for traditional social interaction. My son would never have taken on this challenge without the Academy behind him.

My son is just one of the talented Mass Academy juniors who have already begun to enrich the communities where they live and learn. If these high school juniors can accomplish this much in their first year, just think what they can do their last year when they take all their classes at WPI. Then, think what it means if Mass Academy loses its funding, and please put Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science back in the 2010 House budget. As you make your difficult decisions, remember that if the Academy closes, it is not just these current students and future gifted students who will feel the loss. The loss of what they might have accomplished will ripple throughout Massachusetts communities, businesses and the high tech industry for years to come.

This article mentions “partnerships with universities” as part of the bold new vision for education in the Commonwealth. Yet such a model already exists in the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI, a school founded by the Massachusetts legislature seventeen years ago. MAMS provides a superior education in math, science, technology, as well as the liberal arts for one hundred grade 11 and 12 students drawn from many communities. Neverthless, the continuation of remarkable school is in jeopardy: MAMS funding is excluded from the current House budget.

Governor Patrick should visit the Academy to see what is already in place and functioning successfully in the Commonwealth. Current MAMS seniors are on their way to top-tier colleges and universities, and generations of MAMS alumni are working as successful professionals—in engineering, medicine, military science, R+D, and other fields. MAMS graduates will help to rebuild the economy of Massachusetts. The bottom line: we need this school now more than ever.

Incidentally, in terms of standardized testing, MAMS students earn both the highest SAT and MCAS scores statewide. However, the real value of the school is in the educational model and opportunities that it provides.

It would be nothing short of legislative malpractice to let this school close as a casualty of the 2010 budget.