 All right, so we are recording. So good evening, everyone. I am Alicia Stokely. I am currently serving as the director of summer programs and extended partnerships at the Durham campus location of the North Carolina School of Science and Math. And we're just so elated to have all of you here with us this evening. Now, tonight we have a special treat for you. Not only will you be learning information about Summer Accelerator, you will also be learning information about another opportunity that we have on campus called NCSSM Connect. But we're gonna get to that shortly. Now I'd like to open the floor to my team for them to unmute themselves so they can introduce themselves as well. So we're gonna start off with Taylor. Hi, everyone. Good evening. I'm Taylor Flock. I'm currently serving as a program assistant in summer programs on the Durham campus. All right, and now we're gonna popcorn it over to Blake. Hey, everyone. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. My name is Blake Reed, and I am the associate manager of summer and extended programs on the Durham campus. And lastly, we're gonna popcorn it over to Camilla. Hi, there. I am Camilla Brothers. I am the director of instructional leadership in the division of extended learning. And I'll be talking to you a little bit later on about the NCSSM Connect program. Good evening. All right. Well, thank you, team. And let's go ahead and get started. Taylor, feel free to take it away. Yeah. So hi, everyone. I'm gonna talk to you a bit about what programs we have available in summer accelerator. So we have four different categories this summer. We have early accelerator, summer accelerator or residential program. We have accelerator day camps new this summer. And then we also have our summer accelerator online. So I'll tell you a little bit more in-depth about each program. Good to go. Yep. Okay. Perfect. So early accelerator. Early accelerator is a day program for rising fifth and sixth grade students. Each course is a week long. So students would come starting on Monday and then come each day through Friday. These courses are really amazing. There's a lot of fun topics. They're taught by really skilled instructors and leaders in their field. And it's a great place for these young children to learn with like-minded peers and participate in enrichment activity, outside of their normal instruction time during the year. So this year, we're gonna have programming held on NCCSMS Durham and NCCSMS Morganton campuses. So they'll be on campus throughout the summer. And then we also have a couple options located at the NCCET in Hickory. So that's our new day program location and they're able to offer a couple of early accelerator courses as well. So just a reminder, for summer accelerator in general, participants do not have to be residents in North Carolina. They can be from anywhere. Yep. So on to summer accelerator for grades seven through nine. So this program is what we like to call our middle school group. So they're rising seventh graders through rising ninth graders. And it's a great way to introduce these students to exciting topics except that critical age for engaging and encouraging their interest in STEM topics. So for this program, we have residential courses. So what a residential course is, it's one week on campus. So they'll come on a Sunday and then stay overnight through the end of the week and you'd pick your students back up on Friday. We're offering those programs on the Morganton and Durham campus. And then new this year, we have a day camp option, as I said, in Hickory. For our residential courses for this grade, there is no online component prior to starting the course. But if you wanna do the fully online course offerings we have as well, it would be two weeks of online instruction. And on to our high school group. So this is summer accelerator for rising 10th through 12th graders. So this is another great area for students to really engage in a course that they may be thinking about for college or something that they wanna go on to later in life. It's a great way to get some hands-on knowledge about a topic that they may not get during their school year. So the options for this is a residential week-long program. For high schoolers, there isn't an online component with this. So they would do two weeks online of asynchronous work with their instructor to kind of get some prior knowledge on the course. And then they would come to campus for the week, same thing like the middle school, come on Sunday, stay overnight through Friday when they would be picked up again. These options are at both campuses, so Morganton and Durham. And then if you're interested in just doing the day option, don't wanna stay on campus, we have the day option available in Hickory this year. Same thing with our online program, except this would be the three full weeks for this grade level. So the first two weeks would be asynchronous and then that last week of the course would be synchronous, a required meeting time with the instructor. Thank you, Taylor. So now let's talk about some of the goals that we have been able to gather from some of our past participants with summer accelerators. So hearing it straight out of the horse's mouth, straight from the source is what we like to call it. So we're just gonna go through a different quotes and just kind of talk about them. So first point that we have up here is I enjoyed the case studies in the class. They were fun and an enjoyable way to learn epidemiology. I love playing basketball in the gym and going out to pelicans and glow in the dark, capture the flag was a fun activity too. This student put together, honestly, a smorgasbord of everything that in captures a week during our residential program. So when they get on campus, they are really deep diving into their specified course of study and really learning all of the nooks and crannies in a different way than they would their regular school education. But in between time, we love to have fun as well. You work hard and you also play hard, right? So we try to incorporate student life activities in between those classroom times, like open gypsy football, going to pelicans, seeing what is around the areas at both campus locations. Now, glow in the dark, capture the flag that's a fun activity that our staff as well as our students look forward to every year. And it's something that's become a tradition from years to come. So definitely if your students are attending summer Accelerate the Summer, definitely ask them about that. That has been very popular, it's a great way just to have fun. Let's just put a quote. So this is one that I really enjoy reading. Being able to meet new friends that I would likely spend time outside of camp with, learning new things, having the feel of being away from home in a college-ish setting. And I thought that was well put. So not only the Summer Accelerator exposes you to different course topics that you normally wouldn't do a deep dive into during your regular academic school year, but it also kind of gives you a taste of how it would be if you did leave home for college or let's say that you are looking into applying to actually attend the residential school other than the Khan School of Science and Math. This will definitely give you that feel so you can see how it is staying in the dorms, eating the wonderful cafeteria food, interacting with NCSS administrators, as well as alumni from the school, since we do hire them to be a part of our seasonal staff. The next quote that we have up here is, I think the fact that I got to take a break from home for a whole week, made friends and spent time with them. The whole experience built up more day by day and class was actually so fun. The atmosphere was just so relaxing, but I still learned so much. So this truly encompasses the kind of work-life balance that we're trying to portray to our students when it comes to interacting with them during those student life and then also giving that rigorous push of coursework that we have embedded into our programming. So don't get it twisted. Their schedules are slam packed. However, we want to make sure that it's well balanced, that they're not stressing out about the courses. It's the summer, right? We want them to take joy and pride in the courses that they're learning and then also pick up some new hobbies and as well as network amongst their peers that are with them. With us, not only residents of North Carolina attend Summer Accelerator, but we have people from around the world that are actually stepping foot in the lovely halls of our Durham campus location and our Morgan's and campus location. So we want them to utilize that time to learn about those different people, learn about their core values and how their culture is interacted with our culture. I promise it will be a great experience for the both of them. So the fun part, how to apply. So we do have this information located on our admissions site under Summer and we have the link at the very bottom. But it's a simple two-step process. So part one of the application must be completed by a custodial parent or guardian. Now for rising fifth through 12th graders, that's when another part comes in. But for our early Accelerator audience, which is arriving fifth and sixth, you will just fill out that part one of the application, which is fairly simple. So you put in the general information about yourself and your child, select the courses that they would like to attend, and then we will reach out to you once our team has been able to review it. Now for our rising seventh and 12th graders, this is where part two comes in. So a short answer portion must be completed by the prospective participant. So we just want to learn a little bit more about your child to see what interests them into coming into Summer Accelerator. It's not so much of trying to kind of lead out to see if they have all of the information in the world about that particular topic, but we just want to see their curious mind works throughout that short answer portion and as well as getting to know themselves as well. So once part one and part two of the application is completed, that's when it will come over to us, our personal admissions team. So we can review those short answers and the complete packet and then be able to put your child into their selected courses. Now, if you have not been looking at our website, we have a lot of course full on the side of them. So we are filling up fairly quickly. So if you have not been in the application, I strongly urge you to do so tonight. And if you have not completed the application, I strongly urge you to do so as well. Now, with the participant out here, applicants are asked to rank their courses for which they are applying and about their interest in experience with course topic on the application. So we do have a liner in the application where you're back second or third choice option that is very useful to us on the back end when we do receive your completed application. So if we're not able to get you to that first course, we can automatically look at that second or third choice. But if you do not put it down, don't fret, we will definitely reach out to you via email or phone call to receive your second and or third choice. All right, and now I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Blake Reed. Thank you. Hello again, everyone. I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about the short answer questions and then some FAQs in the next few slides after this one. So the short answer questions, that's exactly what they are. We used to call them essay questions and we found that was pretty intimidating. We are not looking for four or five paragraph answers to each of these questions. We're looking for two, three, four sentences. And like Alicia mentioned, we were really just trying to get to know, know the student through a piece of paper or through some answers here. So really just wanna learn about them and know why they're interested in coming and just get to know a little bit about their accomplishments and whatnot. So also a little tidbit about short answer questions if you are an alumni of the program. So if you get into the program and want to come back, you do not have to submit these again. So you would just do the first part of the application. The only exception is if you participate in the Early Accelerator Program as a rising fifth or sixth grader and then want to come back as a rising seventh grader, you would have to complete these questions. Cool, some FAQs. So can I enroll in classes with overlapping dates? In short, yes, you can. We just want you to be very careful. This is really being specific to some online courses that might have a asynchronous week and then a synchronous week. So we just want you to make sure you check the dates and the class meeting times. What are the policies for regarding COVID? COVID is still here, unfortunately. In short, we follow the UNC system guidelines and the schools guidelines and the city of Durham's guidelines. So right now there's not a mask policy. They are optional and it could change and we will keep anyone up to date with any changes as we get closer to summer. Just participating in Summer Accelerator helped me to get into NCSSM online or residential. Again, in short, no, it does not. It is definitely something neat. You could put on your application that you attended Accelerator but they are not given a special treatment when they apply to the admissions. Thank you so much for going through this FAQs and short answer questions, Lake. So this is just a short little slide to remind people that we do have scholarships and also discount opportunities available. So if you go to our website and look up in our admissions page, you will see a nice little question of how can I receive financial aid and it kind of gives the whole field. On your application, we do have a question asking if you would like to receive more information about this. If you click yes, then you will receive a follow-up email with everything listed out. Currently we have been able to give out a lot of scholarships. So if you are interested in one of those, the sooner the better, please get those applications in and we still have some of our discounts available as well. So feel free to look at that website. So now for some more fun stuff. So we want to stay connected with our families as well as prospective students. And we want to give you a taste of what's to come for Summer Accelerator. So we have three social media platforms that we would like to share with everybody. If you can please like in or follow us at any one of these platforms. So we try to target different audiences on each of them. So you kind of get a different feel per se from each one of our social media accounts. So let's talk about Twitter. So with Twitter, you can follow us to learn about interesting science facts, inspirational quotes, setting tips and more. We really like to also post up to date information about what's happening on our campus and also share stuff from the actual school social media accounts as well. Now for Facebook, that's really for our news, very important updates when we have really courses. If we have a new course alert that we want to share with everybody, core spotlights as well as instructor spotlights as well. In the past, we've also done prize in door prize giveaways throughout the summer as well. So feel free to like that page. Last but not least, we have our Instagram page. So this page becomes more live during the summertime. So we like to give a really boost on the ground view of what's happening in summer accelerators. So you may see your child running through the lawn or doing an activity through one of our stories or one of our posts for our pick of the week. We also share course and instructor spotlights as well as learning about exciting but weird science facts and different things of that sort. So if you have not already, feel free to follow our social media platforms. And these are also like located on our website as well. Now I'm going to turn the reigns over to Ms. Camilla Brothers. She is going to share with you about an exciting program that we have at NCSSM called NCSSM Connect. Camilla, take it away. Wonderful. Thank you. I want to thank you so much summer team for allowing me to visit for just a few moments to talk about NCSSM Connect. And so once again, I'm Camilla Brothers I'm the director of instructional leadership and we can advance to the next slide, please. And with NCSSM Connect, these courses are honors level and AP level STEM and humanities courses that students can take with us in their local school. So these courses are open to high schoolers ninth through 12th grade in North Carolina public schools. And so we have a partnership, we established a partnership with the high school in order to get students registered. So on the next slide, you'll see our, let's see, next slide please. On our next slide here, if you're familiar with NCSSM, you're familiar with the residential and online program. And just to make sure we don't have any confusion about the difference between NCSSM Connect and the online program, I just wanted to highlight a few points about both programs. So with the online program, just like the residential program, students apply in their sophomore year of high school and if accepted, they participate in their junior and senior years. And so those courses are asynchronous format. So students, third year traditional online self-paced type courses. And so that's the online program. And so now we're gonna talk about NCSSM Connect. And with NCSSM Connect, there's not an application process. However, some of the classes do have prerequisites. These are standalone courses and they are synchronous. So they happen at a scheduled time on scheduled days of the week. And so that's why we require that partnership with the public school to ensure that the courses fit into the students schedules. Next slide. So here, these are the course offerings we have for our fall semester. You wanna take a look at those. And then on the next slide, we have our courses for the spring semester. And I'm just giving you a very quick overview, but I'm gonna put our website in the chat and you'll be able to find more information there. So then on our next slide, this is where you have our website. So if you visit our website and you go probably a little bit down to about the middle of the page, you'll see the course offerings. So if you click on any of those course titles within the course catalog, you'll show you more information about the course. This is where you would find if there's a prerequisite, a course description and there's a video for the course. So if we have any high schoolers that are in the audience and interested in taking an NCSSM Connect course, talk to your school counselor. And then if your school counselor is not familiar with the program, feel free to have them contact me. Also on our webpage, ncssm.edu forward slash NCSSM Connect, there's a place there that you can request more information. So you fill out a couple of a little questionnaire there and I'll be happy to forge you more information about our classes and the NCSSM Connect program. And on our last slide, we asked that you follow us on social media. So we visit us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I believe that's all the information I had. Let's advance to make sure. Perfect. Thank you so much for this opportunity and I look forward to seeing you. Thank you so much, Camilla and thank you so much to the rest of our summer programs team. This does conclude our information session. So as you can see here, we have viable information if you would like to learn more about NCSSM Connect as well as summer accelerator located on our screen. And when we also have our emails up there as well for you to jot down. At this moment in time, I would like to open the floor up to any questions that somebody may have. You can either drop your questions in our chat box or feel free to unmute yourself and we will start the discussion. Yeah. So there's already a question in the chat about when they can expect updates on the waiting list. So our waiting lists are on a rolling basis. So unfortunately there's not a said date that you'll hear something by us from as spots open up. And of course is when we move down the list. So it could be at any time, unfortunately. But there's always a chance. So. All right. Are there any more questions? At this point I'm going to stop sharing my screen so I can see your lovely faces. All right. So we got another question in the chat. There is no online portion for early accelerator, correct? Yes, that is correct. There's no online option for early accelerator. All right. Any other questions? All right. Well, it sounds like we did a great job today in decimating this information out to everybody. So at this moment I am going to stop recording.