Sci High Expectations

After a four-year hiatus, the Governor's School for Sciences is back at Carnegie Mellon University.

BY KRYSTAL HARE

Mural on the roof garden at Carnegie Mellon University, photo by Andy Schultz

CMU re-establishes Governor's School for high-school seniors
High-school students interested in science should probably explore their passions a bit before committing to a college track. Fortunately, they'll have an opportunity to do just that: After a four-year hiatus (due to state budget cuts), the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (PGSS) will return to Carnegie Mellon University this summer from June 30 to Aug. 3 — opening its doors to 56 of the state’s brightest high-school seniors. Students accepted into the program will take biology, chemistry, computer science, math and physics courses — and all of their tuition, room and board expenses will be covered. The application deadline is Feb.15.

Fun fact: All PGSS alumni went on to college. Ninety percent of students pursued science-, technology-, engineering- and math-focused careers.

Chatham works with Sojourner House
Chatham University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA) program has already tested the therapy of the written word through a previous partnership with the Allegheny County Jail (Words Without Walls). But now Chatham is teaming up with Sojourner House to start Make Mine Words: Writing Your Way to Recovery, to help the women at Sojourner heal and fight addiction through writing creative journals and responding to creative writing prompts.

Duquesne environmental research team can now help make rivers clean
Sewer outfall, mine discharge and drilling contamination — Pennsylvania’s waters might have seen better days, but they’ve also seen worse. Over the years, various organizations have been working to rid waterways of past industrial footprints and prevent new ones. An environmental research team from Duquesne University’s Center for Environmental Research and Education (CERE) plans to aid the cause, thanks to a $100,000 grant from Three Rivers Quest funded by the Colcom Foundation of Pittsburgh.

The CERE team will not only participate in river sampling in the Allegheny, Jefferson, Clarion, Butler, Armstrong, Westmoreland, Indiana and Cambria counties, but also teach community groups in those areas how to collect and test their own samples in order to keep waterways clean.