On July 24th, just a few days before move out time, a few of Bella Ezumah’s journalism and mass media class had the honor of attending the Music Theory and Performance focus area’s musical called the “GSParody”. This group of hardworking scholars pulled together a great show for the rest of the community to watch.  As scholars settled into their seats, excitement filled the… Read more: The GSParody Musical

Have you ever wondered about a popular religion in the most populated country of the world? Scholars from Bella’s and Eka’s general studies took a walk to the Islamic Center of Murray to learn about the Islam religion which is popular in India. Once they got to the center, the scholars removed their footwear out of respect to the cleanliness of the religious center. … Read more: A Trip to The Local Islamic Center

Written by Aisahnvi, Khushi, and Lana On Wednesday July 24th, Breanna’s film studies class had their very own film festival. Scholars filed into every seat and began filling the floor, waiting excitedly to watch all the short films. The crowd’s reactions were spot on. The room burst into laughter, or ached with fear depending how the films made the viewers feel. Shrika Chennakesavula mentioned,… Read more: GSPhilms

Here at Murray GSP, Dr. Iin Hadayani teaches the Agribusiness & Biotechnology focus area. Today in Dr. Iin’s class, scholars got to experience what it is like to be in a college course. They were visited by Dr. Ken Sulvic, a statistics professor, and discussed the basic ideas in elementary statistics and how they are used in agriculture and real life. Dr. Ken presented… Read more: Statistics in Agribusiness with Ken Sulvic

The Governor’s Scholars are college ready, but we don’t exactly feel ready. There are many emotions associated with choosing our future college, the most common is frustration. There are thousands of colleges to choose from, but here at the Murray Campus a college fair was hosted for us on July 23rd to help narrow down the options. There were large colleges like the University… Read more: The Flair of the College Fair

Led by Brenna Sherrill, the Film Studies focus area creates an exciting and engaging environment. The class has learned about various aspects of film including, genre, lighting, cinematography, and characterization. Upon my arrival several costumes and props were being pulled out of what can only be described as a Mary Poppins bag. From cowboy hats and monk costumes to bonnets and bandanas, these scholars… Read more: Five Star Film Studies

Photo Credit: https://sugarspunrun.com/funnel-cake-recipe/ After a rainy week, everyone’s mood was boosted when it was announced that GSP would be hosting a carnival. After General Studies, many scholars were excited to head to Winslow. Walking through sparkling curtains of streamers, the students were met with a large array of food and entertainment. Not only were there fun games and prizes, but there was also a… Read more: Scholars Flood to Winslow for Games, Food, and Fun

On the march from Franklin Hall to the CFSB Center, three hundred and fifty scholars filed into the building for one of our last convocations at Murray State. Presenting this convocation was the President of Murray State University, Dr. Bob Jackson.   His speech encompassed the meaning of community in relation to our responsibilities as Governor’s Scholars. Essentially he told us as the next leaders… Read more: Be Bold: Forever Blue and Gold

On Sunday June 23rd, 350 of the top incoming-seniors in Kentucky moved into their temporary home for the Summer, Murray State University. Nobody knew anyone and no one knew what to expect. Many scholars, like myself, had never left home for this long. This would be a completely new experience for all scholars across the state. At GSP, you’re never alone. Whether it’s your… Read more: 5 Weeks… Gone too Soon

Right after a late Leadership Seminar class, scholars had the opportunity to enjoy singing along to songs while the sun set. Blankets, Towels, and snacks were brought down to the front lawn of Franklin Hall, and friends enjoyed screaming their hearts out with their friends. They also had the opportunity to request their favorite songs, which made the event feel more personal. Songs from… Read more: Franklin Sing-Along

The GSP Jam Band welcomes all musicians! Led by the RA Ben, this band has guitar players, a bass player, a pianist, some percussion, a singer, and even a trombone. Everyone is welcome to attend Jam Band, even if you go to only one meeting. Together, this band jams out every Saturday for an hour and a half, using songs such as Sweet Home… Read more: GSP Jam Band to Perform at Showcase

The Volleyball Club welcomes any level of skills to play together at the Wellness Center! From scholars currently playing on their school team to scholars who are playing for the first time, the volleyball club builds a community by playing together. RA Monica leads the club, ensuring a referee is there for the matches played. The club is quite popular, often having around 30… Read more: A Community Built On The Love For Volleyball

How do you describe something that changes in every second of its existence? The answer is that you let it speak for itself. “Improv” is the shortened version of “Improvised Acting.” Like the name suggests, improv is just acting in the moment rather than the traditional scripted scenes we are familiar with from movies, television shows, plays, and musicals. Although improvisation acting is a… Read more: Improv: Acting at it’s…

Wednesday’s are especially long-winded for a GSP scholar; a total of 5 and a half hours of intense class time and not a lot of break in between makes for a long day. By 4:30, students are exhausted mentally and can’t wait to waste some time doing literally anything that helps them get their mind off things. Clubs have been the main outlet for… Read more: GSPast Their Primers

GSP has had a variety of activities throughout the past few weeks, but one has stayed constant; regardless of where you are or what time it is, you’ll see scholars occupied with thread. Friendship bracelets have been taking up the free time of the students here, and it has been a great way for scholars to connect over a common hobby. Most of the… Read more: Scholars Bond Over Bracelets 

On July 11th, Ekambaram (Eka) Elumalai’s general studies class set out to the Sri Ganesha Temple (Hindu Cultural Center of Tennessee) with the guiding question “What is Hinduism and what is its importance in Indian culture?” Eka’s class core is to learn about India from movies, dances and religions. Sarah’s general studies class about boredom joined the trip to the temple, The 2 hour… Read more: Sri Ganesha Temple (Hindu Cultural Center of Tennessee)

The Tier List Club at Murray GSP has been one of the most popular clubs this summer. Led by RA Jacob, each Thursday afternoon, scholars had the opportunity to express their opinions on how they rank various topics. The topics so far have been; fast food, candy, disney pixar movies, and disney princesses. In a room full of 17 year olds, it is safe… Read more: Ranking Madness at GSP

On Thursday at 1 PM, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman gave an inspiring convocation at the Johnson Theater. Because of Andy Beshear’s trip to South Korea and Japan, Coleman visited GSP Murray and shared her perspective on being a high-ranking state government official. Coleman stated that in order to be successful, one should find something they are passionate about, build a network in that area,… Read more: Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman Visits GSP Murray

On July 9th, 2024, students in Scott Takacs Business, Accounting, & Entrepreneurship class enjoyed an intense game of Monopoly to learn the evils of fraud and how to handle cash control. The students were divided up in teams with different jobs within the game. Some teams were given direction to play monopoly the traditional way. This was by purchasing properties, hotels, paying rent honestly,… Read more: Monopoly Madness: The Edutainment of Business, Accounting, & Entrepreneurship

How do you say common words? Why do you say common words? These two seemingly simple questions were attempted to be answered by John Kincaid, a 1990 Governor’s Scholar at Centre College with a PhD & MA in English from University of Texas (Austin). Kincaid spoke to the scholars on Wednesday the 10th in Johnson Theater. Started the convocation, Kincaid explained to the audience… Read more: Flaxcid or Flaccid?

Healthcare Industry is a course taught by Tate Renzenbrink, it focuses on the various fields of study dealing with health issues from a broad range of perspectives, e.g. medicine, insurance, disabilities, physical therapy, etc. This day, they were focused on the medicine part of the course, delving into the effects that World War II had on Japan’s blood supply.  On July 9th, while I… Read more: Crimson Consequences: Discussing Blood with the Healthcare Industry

The political and legal issues focus area is one of deep discussion and extreme intellectual thinking. The students and their great teacher, Drew, both explained that most days were spent reading from aPlato’s republic. However the day I was in the class it was mostly an open discussion on modern politics, the ideas behind them and how we can improve the situation we are… Read more: If Men Were Angels

DNA, crime scenes, and more! The Forensic Science pathway at GSP is a very interesting class taught by Dr Abul Yarali. Abdul is a professor in Cyber Security here at Murray State University. I had the opportunity to observe the Forensic Science class on the evening of July 9th, and I was interested to see what they were working on. When I got there,… Read more: Forensic Science at GSP

Anne Justice, who was a scholar on the GSP Murray Campus in 2011, introduces the concepts of Cultural Anthropology to a group of 19 scholars.  Cultural Anthropology is defined as “anthropology that deals with human culture especially with respect to social structure, language, law, politics, religion, magic, art, and technology” (Merriam Webster). Anne, on the other hand, defines this tedious definition through fun activities… Read more: Cultural Anthropology Converses About Quilts 

In the morning of July 17th, the Scholars of the Journalism and Mass Media Focus Area had the privilege to take an on campus field trip to Murray State’s local NPR station, WKMS.  The station is a non-profit FM station which had been licensed to Murray State University as of May 1970. It will celebrate its 55th birthday next year! WKMS is not only… Read more: Scholars Discuss News Deserts at WKMS 

This year, journalism isn’t the only class taking on a big project; the music theory and performance focus area also has a big gift in store for the rest of the scholars. Their gift is a musical performed at the final group showcase. I was lucky enough to sit in on the class this past week and learn a whole lot about what is… Read more: Music Theory Takes on Showcase

On July 9th, 2024, I got the honor to visit my general studies teacher Ekambaram (Eka) Elumala for his Biological & Environmental Issues Focus Area. Eka is a biology teacher from Mercer County Senior high School, Harrodsburg, and had previously taught in India, Republic of Maldives and Malaysia. The class started by visiting their compost bins filled with dirt and organic matter. The composting… Read more: Exploring the Biological & Environmental Issues in Everyday Life 

After living in Japan for over a decade, John Clayton is using his mastery of Japanese to teach the next generation of Kentucky Governor’s Scholars the spoken and written aspects of this language. Scholars in the Japanese Language and Culture focus area have spent the last two weeks learning Hiragana, one of the three writing systems used in Japan. On Tuesday, they got to… Read more: Scholars Continue to Learn Japanese Through Haikus

On Thursday, John Clayton’s General Studies class took a field trip to the Kentucky Center for School Safety building here on Murray’s campus. While there, they got to serve the local community and Kentucky as a whole by putting together emergency preparedness bags. These bags – containing basic items like first aid kits, flashlights, water bottles, and information packets – are prepared each year… Read more: Volunteering at the Kentucky Center for School Safety

Photographer: Preslee Decker For the past two weeks, the Astronomy focus area has been taught by Rico Tyler and Travis Oliver, but this week they welcomed special guest Bob Summerfield to both Tyler’s focus area and his general studies class.   Bob Summerfield has appeared on numerous television programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Discovery Channel and NASA-TV, as well as newspapers nationwide. According to… Read more: Bob Summerfield Stars in Rico Tyler and Travis Oliver’s Astronomy Focus Area

Photographer: Foster Thompson First subject: what caused the decrease in cigarette usage in the US? The increased hassle, or increased awareness in the population? The opening leads straight into the discussion of the psychology scholars. Led by Jodi Treadway, the class goes into a discussion on the cause of this behavior change, and how it relates to bigger behavior changes. By the third Tuesday… Read more: Discussing Behavior in Psychology

Photographer: Anabelle Price On the evening of July 9th, Sarah Beach started her class with an engaging question: “What is your favorite GSP story told this summer?” Sarah Beach is the instructor for the Philosophy focus area here at Murray during the duration of the Governor’s Scholars Program. During the school year Sarah is a professor at Spalding University, where she teaches Communication Studies.… Read more: Philosophy In Focus

Photographer: Hao You Ever wondered why the twin spirals are even there at Churchill Downs? Turns out, it is just to “add pizzazz” as Max Longmeyer from the Architectural Design focus area said in his presentation on the building. The class taught by Zach Standley, recent Architectural Design graduate, has been working on a slideshow presentation about a specific building or building style.  Students… Read more: Architectural Design Explores Styles from Past and Present

Photographer: Khushi Patel Lauren Hines, is a real estate agent and active learner at Murray, who advocates for traveling and learning languages around the world teaches this class and provides students with information such that the world is more than it may seem but less than they may think.  During Tuesday’s meeting students emphasized how population in different countries affects voting, healthcare, and relations… Read more: Murray GSP presents Model UN – International Relations

Many communities across the country celebrate the fourth of July with things such as fireworks, parades and unique traditions. The city of Murray is no different. Their unique tradition, though, is a marching kazoo band. The participants of this important tradition were our very own governor’s scholars. They marched through the city of Murray with their obnoxiously-colored kazoos to the tune of You’re a… Read more: GSP Scholars March in Murray

Photographer: Ella Chuppe Matthew Woodward teaches the scholars in the Historical Analysis focus area to do more than just view the perspectives of historical figures this year. Instead, he encourages them to discuss history from a modern, ordinary lens in order to fulfill the GSP objective of expanding scholars’ mindsets. Woodward utilizes the novel Hidden America to achieve this objective, with each chapter of… Read more: Scholars Analyze History from Ordinary Perspectives

Photographer: Grace Conley Last night, the journalism class had the honor to go and observe the physical science focus area. The Physical Science focus area has 18 students and is taught by Kenny Barrese. He is professor of mathematics at Brescia University in Owensboro. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy before earning a PhD in math from Michigan State. Barrese loves… Read more: Physical Science Dives Deep Into Coal

Photographer: Anabelle Price Held on July 8th at 7:00 pm Johnson Theatre slowly filled up as scholars came to watch and participate in this GSParody of Family Feud! This Murray GSP ‘24 event filled the dreary and damp night with joy and excitement as all those in attendance watched with glee as our friends answered GSP themed questions rapidly to attempt to win. No… Read more: GSParody: The Scholar Family Feud 

Photo Credit: Travis Oliver On July 2nd, at exactly 1:45 pm, students in Rico Tyler’s general studies course “Same Topic, Different Perspective” were able to capture the Tiangong Chinese space station orbit across the sun. This station is very similar to our very own International Space Station, just about half the size. Tiangong’s main goal is for scientific research to assist humanity on Earth and… Read more: The Viewing of Tiangong in Rico Tyler’s General Studies

Throughout GSP, students will have the opportunity to watch multiple films as part of the Classic Film Series. This week featured two movie days, including one double musical installment. Do the Right Thing was screened Wednesday evening of the first week, and scholars had the choice between Singin’ in the Rain and Rent for that Saturday afternoon showing. Wednesday’s showing of Spike Lee’s 1989… Read more: Scholars Spend Week One Viewing Classic Film Series

Tori Murden McClure arrived to speak to the scholars of the Murray State campus on June 24th to speak about her success as an adventurer. The first convocation in Johnson Theatre was encompassed by the idea of “first building a life, then making a living.” Murden McClure addressed the scholars by introducing herself, along with her core values that led her to success. Murden… Read more: Convocation Week 1: Tori Murden-McClure

As scholars met outside Franklin Hall to prepare for the Olympics, the excitement was clear as day. Scholars gathered with their Leadership Seminar to paint faces, chant, and get group photos before the event began. Each team of scholars chose their own unique theme filling the crowd with bright and unique colors. When the time came, the teams headed to the IM Field to… Read more: GSP Olympic Builds Community

Last night, on July 1st, 2024, the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program had the honor of welcoming former president of the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU) to their Murray campus. After graduating from Louisville, OJ Oleka continued his academic career at Bellarmine, earning his MBA and Ph.D. Oleka ran for Kentucky State Treasurer in 2023 and lost, but he shared with the… Read more: Murray GSP Welcomes OJ Oleka!