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RELEASED: June 3, 2004
DANVILLE, KY—For the third year in a row, Centre will host the Whitney M. Young Scholars program. From June 13 to 25 Centre will be home to approximately 30 economically-disadvantaged students, who are also among Kentucky's most academically talented students.
The Whitney M. Young Scholars program recruits academically talented students from grades 7-12 to study on area college campuses each summer. Over a six-year period the program prepares them for high school graduation and successful entry into post-secondary educational institutions. Participants in the program at Centre are rising 11th-graders from the Jefferson County (Ky.) area.
J.H. Atkins, assistant vice president and associate professor of education at Centre, says that this program helps prepare the students for the upcoming academic year. The program finds out what classes the students will be taking in the fall and tries to give the participants a head start before they begin the school year.
According to Atkins, 96 percent of those who go through the program go to college.
During the two-week program, courses will be taught in science, language arts, humanities, mathematics, social studies, technology, heath and physical education.
One of the topics for discussion this year will be Brown v. Board of Education, the ruling 50 years ago this year that desegregated public schools. Two Centre graduates and Supreme Court justices, John Marshall Harlan (class of 1850) and Fred Vinson (class of 1909) played pivotal roles in the Brown decision. Harlan cast the lone dissenting vote in Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the separate but equal principle, and Vinson was chief justice on the court when Brown was first argued before the court. Several of his opinions undercut the legal justification of "separate but equal."
The group will attend Danville's Great American Brass Band Festival, tour the National Underground Railroad Museum in Maysville, Ky., visit Shakertown, see a play at Danville's Pioneer Playhouse, attend a Lexington Legends' baseball game and see a glass-blowing demonstration at Centre's glass studio.
For more information on this program, contact Atkins at (859) 238-6223. You can also visit http://www.lincolnfdn.org/oldsite/scholars.htm.
Dr. Whiney M. Young Sr. led a prominent boarding high school for African-American youth in Kentucky. He served as an educational leader for nearly 40 years. Dr. Whitney M. Young Jr., born in Lincoln Ridge, Ky., was a civil rights leader. He was executive director of the National Urban League, and served on commissions under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He died in 1971.
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