RELEASED: June 19, 2003

DANVILLE, KY—A Centre summer tradition gets underway Sunday as the 2003 Governor's Scholars Program begins.

In the program's 21st year, 332 outstanding Kentucky high school students will study a variety of topics at the college June 22-July 26.

Each student, a rising senior, was invited to the five-week program which provides academic and personal growth in a challenging, non-traditional experience that balances a strong liberal arts program with a full co-curricular and residential life experience. The students choose a major and minor field of study, selecting from various themes. The courses in each major will be taught during morning seminars. Faculty members are drawn from colleges, universities and high schools in Kentucky and beyond.

International studies will be a major focus of this year's GSP. Many of the GSP faculty, staff and resident advisors have had experience in teaching, studying and living abroad and will pass along their experiences to the students. They have traveled and explored such destinations as France, Great Britain, Latin America, Turkey, the South Pacific, Vietnam and Japan. An International Day will be held July 12.

Among the special features of this year's GSP at Centre: a visit from playwright and musical director Mary Hall Surface, a 1980 Centre graduate who won a 2002 Helen Hayes Award; a lecture by cross-Atlantic rower and Kentucky native Tori Murden-McClure; and a workshop led by deaf artists Chuck Baird and Jeff Carroll.

Clarence Wyatt, the Pottinger Associate Professor of History and special assistant to the president at Centre, will serve as the campus director of GSP. The program, which began in 1983, has grown to nearly 1,000 students each summer on the GSP campuses.

"Centre has hosted the Governor's Scholars Program since its inception. The program reflects Centre College's engaging approach to the liberal arts and sciences—small classes and one-to-one interaction with outstanding teacher/scholars. It’s what we do best," said Centre President John Roush.

The GSP at Centre is staffed by 19 faculty members, 10 members of the office staff and 17 resident advisors, many of whom are students at Kentucky colleges and universities.

Sherleen Sisney is statewide director of the Governor's Scholars Program. There will be two other GSP campuses this summer: Northern Kentucky University and Eastern Kentucky University. Every school district in the state will be represented this summer at

GSP campuses. Aris Cedeno will serve as academic chair of GSP.

For more information on the program, go to http://www.kygsp.org/.

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