Due to the economic downturn, state funding and essentially the existence of Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science at WPI has been threatened. We, the students, alumni, parents, friends, teachers, and administration have organized this effort to effectively lobby the legislation to save the institution. This website will provide updates as well as the next step in our call to action.
As of now, we ask you provide us with your contact information as well as post how Mass Academy has impacted your life (Alumni: please tell us what you are up to!) The information and stories will be used in our lobbying efforts. Also, please direct any person who has also been impacted by Mass Academy to SaveTheAcademy.org.
Our son, Nigel is currently a Froshmore (a Freshman but his second year ) at WPI and graduated from The Massachusetts Academy of Mathematics and Science. In his application, I wrote a letter stating what I hoped Nigel would get out of the experience; my hopes were far exceeded. I had paraphrased a favorite story of Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
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!!).