Whitney M. Young Scholars are Centre bound

RELEASED: June 5, 2008

DANVILLE, KY—Whitney M. Young Scholars will be getting a glimpse of what college life is like during their sixth-annual visit to Centre's campus. From June 8 through June 20, rising high school juniors will live in the dorms, attend classes and take part in a variety of social and educational activities on campus and in the community. Click here for photo slideshow.

A new activity for the program this year will be participation in the Summer Food Service Program, which provides free meals to the area’s eligible low-income children.

The Whitney M. Young Scholars program recruits academically talented students from grades 7-12 to study on area college campuses each summer. The program prepares them for high school graduation and successful entry into post-secondary educational institutions.

During the two-week program, students take courses in science, language arts, humanities, mathematics, social studies, technology, health and physical education.

Some of the highlights for this year's participants include attending Danville's Great American Brass Band Festival; participating in an African-American cemetery scavenger hunt that will focus attention on the importance of local history; designing and launching a rocket as part of their mathematics and science curriculum; a tour of the National Underground Railroad Museum in Maysville, Ky., and tours of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati and the Rankin House in Ripley, Ohio, locations that provided safe haven to those fleeing slavery. Students will also visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

Dr. Whitney M. Young Sr. led a prominent boarding high school for African-American youth in Kentucky and served as an educational leader for nearly 40 years. His son 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 U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He died in 1971.

For more information on this program, contact J.H. Atkins, assistant vice president and associate professor of education, at (859) 238-6223 or jhatkins@centre.edu.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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