PHS’ Spencer attends STEM program

Philadelphia High School’s Zavien Spencer put in extra classroom hours for his AP Computer studies in a special statewide program earlier this summer.

Spencer was one of 200 students from 24 rural schools in Mississippi to attend the Global Teaching Project’s sixth annual Advanced Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Summer Preparatory Program at Mississippi State University.

GTP’s Summer Program provides promising high school students from rural Mississippi communities immersive instruction to help them prepare to take various Advanced Placement (AP) science courses in the coming school year.

Spencer will be a junior this fall. He applied for the program and was accepted, his AP computer teacher, Deana Cumberland, said.

“We worked on binary numbers,” Spencer said. “We were there for three days. It was like a classroom setting. This will give me a head start for my classes this fall.”

The instructional sessions were led by highly accomplished, Mississippi-based, AP-certified teachers.  Students also worked very closely with teaching assistants who are STEM majors or recent graduates from some of the nation’s leading universities. 

“Zavien took my Exploring Computer Science class,” Cumberland said. “That gave him some knowledge going into this camp.”

In addition to instructional sessions, the Summer Program provides extensive recreational opportunities, speakers, tours of research facilities and university libraries, and other activities.