By Omar Garcia, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-947710.mp3
Dallas, TX – Businesses are clamoring for more graduates with highly developed math and science skills. An elite program in Texas is delivering some of the brightest scholars, but state budget cuts could reduce the program enrollment by one half next year. KERA's Omar Garcia is a recent graduate of the University of North Texas which houses the program known as "TAMS." Omar takes a closer look at the scientists TAMS is graduating.
It's a cool evening on the UNT campus in Denton. Graduation night has arrived for the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Sciences, commonly known as TAMS. As senior Katheryn Shi of SugarLand leads her classmates into the hall the room erupts in a constellation of camera flashes. Nearly one-hundred-and-fifty graduates take their seats.
It is a scene found at hundreds of other commencement ceremonies around the state. Dr. Richard Sinclair, dean of TAMS, says this graduating class is different.
Sinclair: "Our mission is to bring bright young Texans who have completed the tenth grade to TAMS and to focus them on careers in math, science and engineering, which is needed by the state. What we're trying to do, in short, is to create young scientists."
Sinclair's breeding ground for young scientists goes back over two decades. It was launched by UNT in 1987 and little has changed since. During the two-year program juniors and seniors earn their high school diplomas and accumulate enough credit hours to leave TAMS as college juniors.
The high school students live in a UNT dorm set exclusively aside for the program. They attend regular and honors-level math and science classes with traditional North Texas students. Academic requirements to get into the program are stringent. Once accepted a student must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA or face expulsion.
Dr John Allen, associate dean of TAMS, lists the class of 2010's achievements on graduation night:
Allen: "This has really been an incredible class. Your average GPA is 3.7. We have 35 National Merit Finalists, 3 Goldwater Scholars, 8 Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalists and 2 Finalists."
The Goldwater and Intel scholarships are considered the nation's most prestigious for university math, science and engineering students. TAMS students, while technically still high schoolers, are eligible. The Academy had more Goldwater scholars in 2010 than any public Texas university and, as many as Harvard and Princeton.
Katheryn Shi is one of these Goldwater scholars. The tae kwon do black belt says the science and math classes offered at her home high school would not have been a challenge.
Shi: "This is amazingly cool! It's a very, very stimulating environment. It's not "oh, you're such a nerd for liking this or doing well." It's wow, congrats, you did so well on that, you're so good!"
TAMS graduates can be found in some of the most prestigious scientific circles in the country. Laurie Carrillo is a 1994 graduate of the Academy. She says the program helped her pursue her childhood dream of working in the space program.
Carrillo: "It had always been my dream from very early on back when I was five or six watching Sally Ride launch Oscar the Grouch out of his trashcan."
After graduating from TAMS the teenager from San Antonio went straight to work for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and is now an engineer in the Thermal Analysis Branch of NASA's Engineering Directorate.
Carillo: "The shuttle launch before last I was lead for the passive thermal. So from 1AM to 9AM I was there in the mission evaluation room of mission control sitting there manning my console for when the shuttle was attached to the ISS. It's kind of humbling looking back, because when you're standing there it's your decision."
TAMS administrators say they never forget these genius overachievers are also just kids who need normal high school experiences. There's a student council, clubs, dances, even a prom that Katheryn Shi says was complete with "DJ's and shiny lights." TAMS Director Richard Sinclair says the program also provides counselors to help the high school teens adjust to college pressures.
Sinclair: "For those times when things do get a little heavy, and they are teenagers with a lot of drama in their lives, and there's a lot of academic demand, we have very good support services. We have a full-time adolescent psychologist who has been with the program now eighteen years and works with the kids through these issues."
The TAMS model is being replicated in other parts of the country. Sinclair has consulted in the development of similar programs in Kentucky, Kansas, Georgia and Colorado.
Following graduation Katheryn Shi enrolled in Stanford. She's hoping for a future in research as a tenured professor. This year Laurie Carrillo received TAM's first Distinguished Alumnus recognition for her work with NASA. Carillo says she set her goals high and TAMS helped her reach them.
Carrillo: "I knew where I wanted to go but I didn't always know how to get there and TAMS was the how-to-get-there."