Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

As the foot traffic of our students and faculty subsides in the summer months, lighter steps stampede our campus here in Rolla, and we are delighted to welcome our early learners. On a daily basis, I see hundreds of grade schoolers, middle schoolers and high schoolers attend one of our over 30 summer camps and experience university campus life. 

You see, at the heart of our summer camp programs lies a simple belief that every student deserves access to great opportunities. And every student has the potential to meet those opportunities if made available. For elementary campers, that means a first look at STEM2 and what college life feels like. For middle and high schoolers, it means going deeper and developing skills, exploring their natural passions, and beginning to see themselves as future engineers and scientists, if they are so inclined. Our summer camps provide for the potential to meet opportunity.

Experience has also shown that early learning establishes the foundation of later academic aptitude and success. The early learning years and exposure to simple but practical experiential learning are fundamental to strong, sustained interest in lifelong learning and achieving full potential. 

So, it was based on these simple principles that our summer camps started over 50 years ago with our Introduction to Engineering camp – one of our most popular camps to this day. This summer, S&T is offering 33 summer camps for K-12 students along with two camps for K-12 teachers. Currently, nearly 1,200 students and 23 teachers are registered and our July camps are still accepting applications. Past attendees tell us that “the camps were excellent for helping shape future careers and lives with intention rather than letting them form aimless and tangled.”

The parents had similar words of praise for the camps. “You changed my son’s life,” one parent wrote. One mom said, “My teenage son was having a hard time at home and almost didn’t come to camp due to personal turmoil. He was so thankful that he was encouraged to attend. He felt his life had been changed because of his experience on campus. He now has a plan for what he wants to do and has a clear vision, which he did not have before. My son hadn’t opened up to me like this in a very long time.”

Another exciting summer activity on our campus is aimed at empowering our incoming freshmen who might need a review of fundamental subjects to succeed as S&T students. Our Summer Momentum Programs are designed to “help first- and second-year students start strong on their college journey along with their supportive Momentum cohorts. They fulfill core, major or elective requirements while building a strong foundation for success.” 

In the same spirit of preparing our incoming students for success, one of my favorite summer programs here at S&T is our math workshop. Fast Track is an online, self-paced, asynchronous program that provides the opportunity for our incoming students to strengthen their math skills and build confidence. “By completing the workshop successfully, incoming students can automatically place into a higher math course for the fall semester. To be clear, Fast Track focuses on improving placement, not skipping classes. Students work through core math concepts, so they will be better prepared for their next course.”

Early learning benefits extend far beyond schooling years and shape students’ lifelong learning trajectories. Strong literacy and numeracy skills, passion for learning, critical and possibility thinking abilities, and essential social and emotional competencies are all fostered when early learners are offered high-quality experiential learning. Here at S&T, our highly qualified educators partner with students and embrace the principles of inclusivity and holistic development to ensure that every student is exposed to and envisions possibilities.

Only by providing opportunity will we ever know if the potential achieves capacity.

Warmly,

-Mo.
 
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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu