Brief Overview of the Institute
Prior to 1993, there had been no summer mathematics program available in Vermont for talented high school students. To fill this void, in 1993 Tony Trono (a brief biosketch appears at the end of this overview) and Ken Gross founded the Mathematics, Science, and Technology High School Summer Enrichment Institute, a one-week residential program in mathematics and mathematically based science, engineering, and technology for thirty of the most talented secondary school students in the state of Vermont. In this unique program, held on the UVM campus, students participate in a series of courses and seminars that take them far beyond their experience in high school mathematics and science courses, and provide them with a broad exposure to the frontiers of mathematics and the mathematical sciences, including engineering, biomedical research, and computer science.
 1997 Summer Institute students look on as their model bridges are tested for structural strength. (Burlington Free Press photo.) |
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Today, eleven years after its founding, this Institute remains the only such mathematical sciences enrichment program for gifted students, not only in Vermont but in all of northern New England. By any standard of judgment, the students selected for the Institute are truly outstanding, and graduates of the Institute who have completed college are already assuming scientific and technological positions or are continuing their graduate study in areas of mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. |
Students are selected on the basis of excellence demonstrated on the Vermont State Mathematics Prize Exam given by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UVM, the Vermont State Mathematics Talent Search conducted by the State Mathematics Coalition, the Vermont High School Mathematics League Competitions, the Vermont School Portfolio Assessment, or by teacher recommendation. In the selection process, the organizers emphasize gender and geographical equity. In particular, participants are widely distributed geographically across Vermont and priority is given to students from rural areas as well as to younger students (freshman and sophomore high school students, and exceptional middle school students). In 2003, female students outnumbered male students 19 to 13, and five of the eight instructors were women.
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The instructional staff for the Institute is comprised of professors from mathematics, science, medicine, and engineering, primarily from universities in Vermont; secondary school mathematics teachers from Vermont; and technology oriented individuals from the private sector and government laboratories. In particular, the Institute faculty includes internationally renowned researchers. In regard to residential aspects of the Institute, students live together in a UVM residence hall, and room and board are provided. College students who are graduates of prior Institutes, some of whom are now professional mathematicians and scientists in their own right, serve as peer advisors, living with the participants in the residence hall. The Institute is free of charge to the participants. |
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 UVM chemistry professor Michael Strauss leads a hands-on lesson in molecular structure at the 1998 Summer Institute. (Burlington Free Press photo.) |
In short, the Summer Institute serves not only as a means of educational enrichment, previously available only to students in Vermont who were willing and financially able to go out-of-state for a portion of the summer, but provides a means of "intervention" in college and career planning. For by exposing talented Vermont students to the excitement of mathematically rich interdisciplinary frontiers and providing attractive role models in an enjoyable interactive environment, participants find that they leave the Institute with expanded horizons in the mathematical sciences and expanded career goals.
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