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College at a very young age Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell photo Members of Ray Foster�s "Face It: You Love Masks" class show off their creations at the Southern Oregon University Academy Friday. The Academy, now in its 20th year, provides a dorm-stay program for talented and gifted students in fifth through eighth grades. SOU program gives talented students a look ahead By Sara Murphy Believe it or not, some kids don�t mind summer school. The Academy program at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, they say, is kind of like camp, kind of like college. In any case, it�s a whole different world from the elementary and middle school classes they attend most of the year. "They pack so much in a day, it�s just awesome," says Janelle Engstrom, a Roseburg sixth-grader. "You could do a whole year in a week." Academy officials say the dorm-stay program for talented and gifted students gives the kids a chance to taste college life, learn about the world and make friends who share similar interests and abilities. As the last of this year�s two weeklong sessions wraps up today, the program is celebrating its 20th anniversary. "The whole purpose behind Academy is to give students an opportunity they would never have during the regular school year," says Ray Foster, a South Medford High School pottery teacher and 20-year veteran Academy instructor. "Because of the level of these students, I can get them to do in one week what would take two weeks for my high school students to do," Foster says. Since students attend Academy because they want to learn, organizers say asking eighth-graders to dissect cow entrails and sixth-graders to analyze poetry from World War I isn�t too much to ask. After finishing four classes by 2 p.m., afternoons and evenings are filled with swimming, Shakespeare plays and philosophical discussions about whether community service should be required in public schools. Don�t forget the food. "You can eat as much as you want," says Pennsylvania sixth-grader Peter Grauman over a cafeteria lunch of cold cereal, cake, a hamburger, milk, soda and a bread stick. "The program definitely exposes students to what it would be like to go to college," says Academy Director Steve Plotnick, a teacher at Rogue River High School. "They�re on the college campus, taking classes, living in the dorms." Officials are using the program�s anniversary to raise scholarship funds for students whose families couldn�t afford the $425 tuition. The program is self-supportive, with tuition providing the major source of funding. In spring, SOU�s Youth Programs office received a $10,000 endowment gift that will help with scholarships for Academy and other youth activities, says youth programs director Carol Jensen. Academy also is launching its own drive, with a goal of raising $10,000 for a financial assistance fund. Jensen hopes to be able to meet that goal each year. About 300 students in fifth through eighth grade attend Academy each year. About 80 percent of the students live in Southern Oregon, with most others coming from other parts of Oregon, Washington and northern California. Most all the students come back for a second year. "We have a lot of students who come for all four years," Plotnick says. That�s certainly true for Aaron Unis, a sophomore at University of San Diego and 1999 graduate of North Medford High School. Unis attended Academy as a student and junior counselor and, now, as a senior counselor. "As a student, I loved it because I was a shy kid when I was in fifth and sixth grade and, here, I could just be myself," he says. "Now I get paid to do this." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA