The understanding of life

By Rylan Tuohy
Muhlenberg County School

Jared Holt never thought he would break a rule at the Governor’s Scholars Program. But when he was standing alone in his dormitory laundry room, he reached for his forbidden cell phone, while surrounded by rumbling machines that he couldn’t figure out.
Jared Holt had never before done laundry.
When he arrived at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Jared was one of nearly 1,100 high school seniors who had been accepted into the prestigious Kentucky’s Governor’s Scholars Program, a five-week college residency designed to encourage academic excellence and leadership skills.
But his five-week vacation from home also included some unexpected rules and responsibilities. Among the rules were mandatory attendance at classes and daily curfew. Cell phones were restricted to the dorm rooms. Among the responsibilities were personal hygiene and household chores often performed by parents, like housecleaning and laundry.
Now Jared is an intelligent fellow, now an incoming senior at Paducah Tilghman High School. And, like his fellow Governor’s Scholars, he completed a rigorous seven-month application process to be accepted into the program. To him, laundry was more of a challenge than a chore. So instead of learning how to do the laundry, he decided to hire someone else to do it for him.
It just happened that he had a friend who was attending GSP on the same campus. She had agreed to do his laundry for an “unknown amount,” but the night before his laundry was to be done, Jared’s phone beeped. The text he received was a set of detailed instructions on how to do laundry. His employee had quit.
Jared looked down at his stinky pile of clothes and thought perhaps he could make it until Family Day in two weeks. In fact, out of the 358 Governor’s Scholars on the Bellarmine campus, an estimated 70 percent of males who went home on Family Day had their parents do their laundry, according to an informal survey.
But Jared knew he couldn’t make it.
“I either need to get some Febreeze,” he said, “or tackle the laundry machine.”
He did the latter.
So here he was standing in the middle of the laundry room, his face reddened by frustration and the moist heat of laundry equipment, with his forbidden phone in hand. The text said separate lights and darks, but there was only one washing machine open, “So I just put them both in together,” he said.
After 45 minutes had passed, he found his laundry still dry.
He had forgotten one small detail – pulling out the knob.
Of course, Jared isn’t the only one who has suffered an embarrassing defeat in a battle with a couple of dumb machines. John Stigall, a fellow scholar from Heath High School in Paducah, mixed his new, self-made, tie-dyed shirts with his whites and ended up with rainbow-colored v-neck T-shirts. Alex Gardner, a staffer in the GSP office, found remnants of detergent all over his clean laundry. Turns out he had had poured the detergent directly onto his clothing. And Morgan Davenport, a Residential Advisor in the dorms at Bellarmine, recalled the time when she was a scholar in 2008, and one of the students persuaded another one that red items wouldn’t bleed onto white clothing if you stuck them in a mesh bag.
Pink was all the rage that year.
“Individual experience is important”, said Aris Cedeño, Executive Director of GSP. In this case, he said, parents may complain about the different colors of clothing that scholars bring home, but in GSP, every person leaves campus having a unique learning experience, not the same.
“What you learn here is all in the understanding of life,” he said. “Laundry included.”

Naptime in Cralle Theatre

By Lauren Tucker
Holmes High School

The lights are on in Cralle Theatre, the cold air always flowing. The rustle of people shuffling in their seats, the clinking of knitting needles and the occasional snore all seem too loud as sports journalist Billy Reed tells his audience about the 30 most important sports events in Kentucky history.
Reed’s audience was the 358 Kentucky high school seniors who were selected by the Governor’s Scholars Program for a five-week course in academic and personal achievement on the Bellarmine University campus. The scholars were polite, of course, but who could blame them for squirming through a long speech about sports history?
Brian Rich can. Entertainment was not the point, according to Rich, who is GSP’s associate campus director at Bellarmine. The convocation speakers provide another opportunity for scholars to expose themselves to a variety of subjects and perspectives, he said and the speakers enhance a lifetime of growing and learning.
“Don’t block yourself off at age 17,” Rich said, adding that it’s the scholars’ own loss if they don’t listen to what the speakers have to say.
GSP is all about growth and learning. Nearly 1,100 students go through the program staying at Bellarmine and two other GSP campuses at Centre College and Murray State University, and for many it is a life-changing in the process. The scholars take field trips around Kentucky, learning about their Focus Areas of study and incidentally gaining new pride in their state. Also, every scholar takes a seminar class where they discuss issues like discrimination, stereotypes, learning how to express their own opinions, while respecting the opinions of others. They practice breaking out of their comfort zones, and building meaningful relationships with other people despite their differences.
Bryan Rich said that learning civility and how to be friendly while discussing different opinions are among the most important skills that scholars learn.
It’s all a part of the GSP Experience that Rich and GSP Executive Director Aris Cedeño emphasize on Opening Day of the scholars’ five-week adventure. It encompasses academics, leadership, personal development, community service, and yes, it includes the convocation speakers.
“A goal of GSP is that every scholar goes home with a role model,” Aris Cedeño said, and many of those role models can come from the speakers.
So Bryan Rich is right. It is the scholars’ loss if they don’t listen to the speakers that GSP brings to the community. The speakers are vital to the GSP experience, and they are carefully chosen to enhance that experience. To be invited, each speaker must have a Kentucky connection and a sense of state pride. They each must be from a different field: science, journalism, college presidents, Kentucky board of education members, and so on. And although the GSP directors don’t look over the speeches, they are expected to contribute something valuable to the scholars’ experience.
This year, the first speaker on all three campuses was Tori Murden McClure, who lived and was educated in Louisville, was the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set the tone for the convocation series, speaking about living life as an adventure. She encouraged scholars to persevere and use their talents to make the world a better place.
The second speaker, former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, was also a favorite. He opened a very candid Q&A with all the scholars. Answering one question, he said that one of the most important things a scholar can learn is that it is okay to be smart and to be yourself.
Billy Reed made the scholars think about some of the great achievements of Kentuckians in the history of sports, especially in the time of civil rights and integration. Aaron Thompson, professor at Eastern Kentucky University and a member of the Council on Post-Secondary Education talked realistically about how far a good education will get you.
Not only do scholars learn from the speeches, Rich said, but they also learn to be patient and experience new things without shutting themselves off from things they might not like.
Brian Rich first heard Tori Murden McClure speak when he was a Governor’s Scholar in 1996. On that day, she became his role model, and she still is. She inspired him when she said that what matters are not your accomplishments, but how you interact with the people in your life.
“The GSP Experience carries over to life outside GSP, he said. “It hasn’t gotten old for me, and it’s Year 14.”

Brain on wheels

By Connor Tracy
Mayfield High School

“I’m Elias Eells, I’m from Oldham County High School, and I’m training to bike across Iowa.”
It was the June 19, the first night of introductions in Elias’s dormitory hall and this quiet statement from a tall, skinny with glasses brought responses like, “What?” “Wow!” “Really?” The students, all incoming high school seniors who had been selected by the prestigious Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program for a five-week residency at Bellarmine University in Louisville.
So maybe they were expecting Elias to talk about his academic achievements. But a grueling bicycle ride across the state of Iowa? Really? They weren’t totally wrong, but there was this other side of him.
"Elias at first seemed introverted,” said Renee Laurent, a classmate from Caldwell County High School, “but as time went on, he became one of the most social people in our seminar"
Governor’s Scholars is an intensive course of academic and personal development that keeps the 358 scholars at Bellarmine busy seven days a week. So during their precious time off, most scholars spend their free time hanging with new friends, playing cards, throwing Frisbees or learning new things in the many clubs formed by GSP staff. Some scholars work out at Bellarmine’s sports training facility. The athletes come and go, but one fellow seems to be there constantly, riding a stationary bike back in the corner of the room. Elias Eells is almost a fixture there, riding for two to three hours per visit.
Elias expects to be inducted into Governor’s Scholars on July 23, Graduation Day. His big race in Iowa will begin on July 24. Elias is looking forward to catching up with his family, and the ride will be a perfect opportunity for this. This is his third year of being involved with the race, called Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. It’s a week-long trip that usually averages around 472 miles.
“RAGBRAI is like a community on wheels,” Elias said. “At the end of the ride everyone is dirty, sweaty, and tired, but they always come back…. “This is so wonderful, and the experience sticks with you.”
GSP Executive Director Aris Cedeño says, “The goal is every single scholar goes back home having a role model.” Many people wouldn’t expect to find this role model in a fellow student but Elias Eells demonstrates qualities that have inspired those who know him.
In addition to his dedication to sport, he is fully engaged in the GSP experience of intellectual growth and service to society. He currently has a 4.19 weighted grade point average and plans to take five AP classes in his senior year. His activities include the Louisville Youth Choir, Beta Club, National Honor Society, and Young Democrats.
But for now he is 100 percent bike rider, and he’d like to have company.
“I strongly encourage participation in RAGBRAI,” he said,” and I would love to see more folks from Kentucky out there.”
Well, maybe next year….

The truth about Captain Red Beard

By Dean Summers
Madisonville-North Hopkins

Behind the Beard: An Inside Look on an Outside Guy
For most people, the name Captain Red Beard might conjure up a vision of a gruff pirate or maybe a muscle-bound superhero.
How about Governor’s Scholar? Captain Red Beard’s secret identity is Michael Perry, a senior from DuPont Manual High School in Louisville. The drop of a hat or the hint of an audience can turn Michael into Captain Red Beard, the big, hairy jokester and intellectual wit who is becoming a legend on the Bellarmine University campus.
He’ll saunter into a crowd of people, and when they least expect it, BAM! He takes over the room and grabs all the attention. You cannot escape him. He will find you, make you laugh, and you will remember his name. How could you not? Captain Red Beard is not your average persona.
On June 19, the first day of the Governor’s Scholars Program on Bellarmine’s campus in Louisville, Red Beard was already inserting himself into random conversations and making awkward moments hilarious. He was unfazed by the fact everyone around him was a complete stranger.
GSP is a five-week summer residency offering academic courses and leadership training to nearly 1,100 Kentucky high school seniors on Bellarmine and two other Kentucky campuses, Centre College and Murray State University. The application process is highly competitive and rigorous, based on grades, extracurricular activities and public service. Only the best and the brightest from all over the state are accepted. Michael Perry is one of them.
With 358 scholars on the Bellarmine University campus, cliques start to form. Of course every school and workplace has them, and they are not always welcoming.
“Human nature tends to exclude others that are ‘not like me.’ Therefore cliques are not good in the long run,” said GSP Executive Director Aris Cedeño. “You must be accepting of others, and that is what GSP is all about, the community.”
Michael seems to break down those social barriers simply by force of his personality.
Interestingly, it was tragedy that brought him to the place he is now. When two of his cousins died, “It changed the dynamic of my family. It made me see people in a different light,” It impacted Michael in a way that he has used positively to approach people from every clique and bring them together through the joy of laugher.
It should be no surprise to discover that this complex individual has a deeper, intellectual side to him. Other than just being that “social, big hairy funny guy”, Michael says, “People could also see me intellectually and say, here’s someone who knows what he is talking about.”
In an odd pairing Michael’s roommate Tolu Odukoya is from his rival high school in Ashland. They have become fast friends at GSP.
“He’s very funny, very smart,” said Tolu. “We stay up talking about books, music, and cracking jokes. He’s a nice guy, he understands me, and knows what he wants.”
Michael enjoys reading, listening to music, and eating with friends. He’s also class president, a member of the quick-recall team, and performs discus and shot put for DuPont Manual’s track team.
Asked to describe himself, Michael immediately morphed into Captain Red Beard: “Jovial, jocular, and Jehovah’s witness. No, not really, I was just looking for another ‘J’ word.”
Respect the Red Beard.

The community birthday

By Anita Shanker
Western Hills High School

June 19: Move-In Day. My family and I spent the morning hauling luggage up to my new dorm room on Bellarmine University’s campus. The Governor’s Scholars Program had begun.
While we unpacked the gear that would sustain me for five weeks, I met my roommate. She seemed nice, but my terror at having to live with this stranger couldn’t be squelched with one meeting.
Later in the day, the crowd of mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and other assorted relatives and friends was gone. An uneasy silence fell over campus. All that was left was us scholars, 358 strangers huddling together in a strange place. My thoughts turned to my birthday, which would pass while I was here, without the laughter and hugs of family and friends.
I wasn’t really feeling sorry for myself. Acceptance to Governor’s Scholars, a summer residency program for high-achieving students entering their senior year of high school, was a great honor. I was just feeling a little lonely.
Despite GSP’s efforts to make scholars feel welcome, many others with summer birthdays shared my anxiety. But the staff makes sure that birthdays spent away from home are not birthdays forgotten. During Community Meetings every Monday morning, GSP Executive Director Aris Cedeño recognizes the week’s birthday-scholars and leading a brief but jolly song in their honor. For me, the recognition from over 350 people made my pulse pound, but it also made me feel akin to this crowd of scholars.
Kelly Ren, a scholar from Henry Clay High School in Lexington, had her birthday 11 days into the program. She didn’t make many friends during the first few days of GS, and her initial anticipation turned to fear. But she ended up having a great birthday. She took the initiative to make sure she had it all: cake, balloons, and pizza. Here, scholars are free to make decisions about their own happiness – to party or not to party, that is the question.
Sometimes parties aren’t possible. Isaac Potter of East Ridge High School in Lick Creek had his birthday on Opening Day, so he spent it hauling luggage with his family and making awkward introductions to strangers. He’s not bitter about the bad timing, but in retrospect that he wished his birthday had fallen later in the program so he could have spent it with all his new friends.
Noah Wiersema, of Central Hardin High School in Elizabethtown turned the bad birthday karma to his advantage: “It’s a great ice breaker. ‘Guess what? It’s my birthday.’”
Cedeño said that in his 20 years of experience with the program, only one scholar dropped out because she didn’t feel comfortable spending her birthday away from family. But, he added that GSP was a community.
“When one suffers, we all suffer. When one is happy, we all are happy,” he said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to spend holidays elsewhere – out of our comfort zones.”
Reflecting on the importance of his new friends and community, Dakota Waldecker, of Meade Co. High School in Brandenburg, said he felt disappointed because he couldn’t spend his birthday with his friends and family at first, but became excited after seeing the way the community treats birthday-scholars.
“Friends make a difference,” he said.”They make experiences meaningful.”

We are family

By Sam Rogers
Eastern High School, Louisville

Deep in the confines of Petrik Hall on Louisville’s Bellarmine University campus, there is a flurry of movement as a deadly conflict breaks out. A war zone is soon established in dorm room 309C as Tostito projectiles are launched amid shouts and squeals as the missiles fall short of their targets. Reporters and other observers scatter as debris descends around the room. Soon the floor is littered with the remains of broken chips, and the two combatants break out in hearty laughter at the thought of that last dreadful throw.
“That was not even close to my mouth!” said Governor’s Scholar Rachel Grey of Edmonson County High School.
“I’m sorry; you keep moving on me!” said fellow scholar and roommate, Nikki Marcum of North Laurel High School in London, Ky. The girls continue to laugh and talk with one another, interacting as if they had known each other their entire lives.
“I feel like Rachel could literally be my twin,” Nikki said.
Every year, over one thousand of the state’s best and brightest high school students are invited to spend five weeks of the summer on one of three college campuses around the state, as a part of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program. In addition to Bellarmine, this year’s host campuses are Murray State University and Centre College.
“The GSP is one of the very few programs in the nation that addresses the needs of high achievers, where competition becomes non-existent,” said Aris Cedeño, Executive Director of the Program. “These scholars will return to their high schools and hometowns as the best ambassadors of the state of Kentucky.”
Lasting memories and deep friendships are invaluable side benefits of the program.
Nikki Marcum is a cross-country and track runner from Laurel County. Athletic, confident, calm, and optimistic, she still felt nervous about attending GSP this summer.
“I was anxious about being away, meeting new people, and the whole program in general,” she said.
Her newfound friend Rachel Grey, a musician from Edmonson County, shared the same insecurities regarding the five-week program.
“I was worried about not making friends,” she said. “And I knew I would miss my boyfriend.”
On June 19, Move-In Day at Bellarmine, Nikki and Rachel made their way to “nerd camp” with friends and families and loads of luggage. This would be the day they met.
“To be honest,” said Nikki. “The first time we met, I thought she was going to be snooty and conceited.” At this point, Rachel, miffed by this response, let out a shriek of shock and surprise, accompanied by yet another Tostito projectile in Nikki’s direction.
“I thought Nikki seemed really nice,” said Rachel, to Nikki’s laughs. By the end of the day, the two girls had bonded, and they have been inseparable ever since.
The two friends were not the only ones who arrived at Bellarmine on Move-In Day. The hilly campus was jammed with cars and sweaty parents as 358 scholars hauled their luggage up the steps to their dorms. By late afternoon, the campus fell quiet as 358 strangers sat in their rooms contemplating five week of loneliness. They came from all corners of the state, bringing with them different cultures, backgrounds, genders, races and ethnicities.
As Cedeño is fond of saying, they had become a community, one where scholars are encouraged to express their true selves regardless of background or differences.
For Nikki and Rachel that was easy. After nearly five weeks of living together, they act like sisters who have lived together for their entire lives. Nikki has recently taught Rachel how to spit the right way (“She was having trouble spitting out her toothpaste every morning. So I had to teach her how….” And Rachel has been keeping Nikki informed with random bits of wisdom (“Make sure to take off your mascara every night, or bacteria will eat through the make-up while you’re sleeping.”)
“I feel like Nikki could literally be my sister,” said Rachel. “We have the same sense of humor, and by the second week, we were comfortable enough to fight like sisters. She’s a good listener, and we care about each other.”
“Rachel is always going to be there for me, to talk or anything,” said Nikki. “And she’s not afraid to look dumb with me.”
Their closeness seemed to gravitate to the other girls on the floor. By the end of the first week, the girls of Petrik 3 had all become fast friends, uniting into one, big happy family. At the nightly hall meetings, the noise was deafening as the room filled with excited chatter, bags and boxes of food were passed around, and laughing girls danced to the music. Each of these girls comes from a completely different background, yet they have become the best of friends
“I have never been around a group of girls this nice,” said Rachel, munching on a Tostito chip.
“I love our floor!” said Nikki, opening a can of salsa.
The walls of Petrik 3 are lined with poster-size scrapbook pages. Each night, the girls, as well as their Resident Advisor Morgan Davenport, fill out one “page,” and hang it on a wall. Themes include Summer, Fall, Spring, Hollywood, Freshman Memories, and so on. These posters are representative not only of the many personalities of Petrik 3, but the spirit of community that is characteristic of GSP.
“This is my third year as a Hall Buddy,” said Jeanie Adams-Smith, who teaches Journalism as a GSP Focus Area. “And this is the best group I’ve ever had! The enthusiasm is great, and I’ve truly enjoyed these girls.”
The entire GSP community seems to have bonded, just as the girls of P3 have. Scholars here are encouraged to take an “intellectual risk,” and even if it fails, the whole community is urged to support the effort.
“At GSP, you become your real self, your real ‘you,’” said Cedeño.
“You throw in all of these different people, with different backgrounds, and your first thought is that it wouldn’t work,” said Nikki, as she and Rachel laughed and threw chips at each other. “But somehow, everybody meshed to form one big happy family.”

In times of trouble

By Rachel Puckett
John Hardin High School, Elizabethtown

The Governor’s Scholars Program at Bellarmine University is not “just another summer camp.”
It is designed to provide a select group of Kentucky’s top high school seniors with an intensive five-week academic and residential life experience on a college campus. Each student’s life is filled with activity, from dawn till dusk and beyond, seven days a week.
It’s a great honor and great opportunity, but it is demanding. It is stressful.
But for many scholars, the toughest part is being away from home for five weeks. GSP allows family visits on just one day during the program – Family Day. Beyond that, students are restricted to campus and their contact with family and friends is limited to phone calls from the dorm room. The daily advice and comfort of mom and dad, the smell of home-cooking, and the laughter of old friends are a thing of the past.
A scholar’s daily schedule can be quite demanding: Wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, eat dinner, go to seminar, go to bed. And repeat.
It’s part of the plan. The GSP encourages discipline and independence for success in academics and leadership. But sometimes the plan can fall apart.
For Kristen Dyer, a scholar from Cumberland County High School in Burkesville, that moment came suddenly and dreadfully when she saw a string of messages on her cell phone.
It was the evening of June 22, during the first week of GSP, and she was watching a movie at Cralle Auditorium when Louisville’s tornado sirens began to sound. Kristen and the other scholars in attendance were herded to safety in the basement of Cralle. When the severe storm eased, the scholars were shuttled back to their dorms.
When Kristen got back to her room she found 11 missed calls from her parents.
“I thought they were just worried about me because of the storms,” she said. That night, four tornado touchdowns were confirmed in Jefferson County.
Kristen called her parents, and they told her that her friend Alisha Wright had been killed in an auto accident outside of Burkesville. Kristen was devastated. She had grown up with Alisha, and they played on the same softball team. She was in shock. She felt guilty for being away from home when she needed to be with her family and friends.
“I felt like I should’ve been there the whole time, and it wasn’t real until I got there,” she said after returning from the funeral.
But then Kristen recalled the reaction of her new friends at Bellarmine – the girls in her hall and her Residential Advisor Susan Ahmadi. They came to her and quietly gathered around her in her time of grief.
“Even though they barely knew me, they all comforted and supported me,” she said. “I don’t think I’d still be here if it weren’t for them.”