Seventeen Harwood Union High School students attended the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV) this summer. GIV is an immersive learning experience for Vermont high school students to develop skills, meet mentors and other likeminded teens and gain experience in a college setting. For the first time since summer 2019, GIV’s nine summer institutes were held in person in residential settings on college campuses throughout Vermont. Students were required to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The institutes offered this summer include Arts at Castleton University, Astronomy at Northern Vermont University Lyndon, Engineering at Norwich University, Entrepreneurship at Vermont Technical College Randolph, Environmental Science & Technology at University of Vermont (UVM), Global Issues & Youth Action at Landmark College, Health & Medicine at Norwich University, the Kenneth I. Gross and Tony Trono Mathematical Sciences Institute at UVM and Technology & Design at Champlain College.
The Harwood students who participated in GIV this summer are Sarah Bevacqui, David Boucher, Mikey Casey and Annibel McMillion in the Arts; Michelina Merriman in Astronomy; Scout Bednash and Damien Garcia in the Engineering Institute; Molly Caffry in Entrepreneurship; Ayla Cattanach and Ella Cisz in Global Issues & Youth Activism; Anthony Fowler, Adam Porterfield, Noah Rivera and Tony Viola in Health and Medicine; Atticus Ellis and Tim Wilson in Mathematical Sciences; and Victor Fowler in Technology & Design.
GIV was founded in 1982 with the advent of the Governor’s Institute on the Arts, a two-week intensive program led by professional artists of a variety of disciplines, from music to film and sculpture. The Arts Institute remains a popular and well-renowned program and, over the years, GIV has added other institutes in various disciplines to give Vermont teenagers experience in a field they are passionate about and may want to pursue.
All GIV institutes offer high school credit through the sending school’s flexible pathways program and the Entrepreneurship and Environmental Science & Technology institutes offer college credit. Some of the host colleges also offer scholarships to students who have attended GIV on their campuses. Students from all over Vermont apply for the institute of their choice with essay questions and recommendations from teachers and other adults. Payment is on a sliding scale.
More information about GIV can be found at giv.org.
