Clinton Lewis Clinton Lewis/WKU
Colby Winters of Catlettsburg has presented astronomical research at the international level. Gabriella Lynn of Hopkinsville is studying at London’s Royal Veterinary College. Cayenne Warren of Falmouth is conducting research for scientists on board the International Space Station.
Other than a fantastic résumé, what do these Kentucky youth have in common? They are attending, or have graduated from, one of the Commonwealth’s residential STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) programs for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors. Yes, high school.
“It’s just a really great opportunity for students who are maxed out in certain courses in their district. They have taken all the advanced courses [their district high schools offer], and they’re just ready,” said Sunshine Stamper, assistant director of admissions, public relations and recruitment for the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Morehead State University. “For us, it’s a great opportunity to kind of build that pipeline of students into STEM careers.”
Craft Academy welcomed its first group of Kentucky juniors and seniors in August 2015. It is modeled after Bowling Green’s Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University, which launched in 2007.
“Back in 2007 when we were created, there was a big push of trying to build more STEM students within the state … and also keep those students in state if we could,” said Elise Swift-Taylor, Gatton’s assistant director of admissions and public relations. “Some of the counties send us the best of the best. We see students being able to develop … and they do so much more than what they probably would have done if they would have stayed in their hometowns.”
Just ask Cayenne Warren. With NASA as a career target, Warren has been able to study alongside Morehead State students at the university’s Space Science Center. She also joined the ExoLab program that teams students from across the country with scientists aboard the International Space Station to study the behavior of legumes on Earth and in space.
“I am a junior from Pendleton County High School, a small school in northern Kentucky. I had limited access to advanced courses as well as courses that fueled my interests,” Warren said. “I joined the Craft Academy hoping to help strengthen my academics, but it has become so much more to me. I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for the world.”
The Craft and Gatton academies accept a limited number of students from across the Commonwealth based on GPA, letters of recommendations, essays and ACT scores. For Craft, that number per class is 60, with 95 generally accepted at Gatton. When students complete the two-year programs, they will have earned both a high school diploma and at least 60 college credit hours, free of charge. Funding for both programs comes from state appropriations approved by the Kentucky General Assembly.
Craft Academy also receives significant donations from coal magnate Joseph Craft III and his wife, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft. Joe Craft said they were approached in 2014 by state legislators to help launch a second academy, building off the success of Gatton.
“While the Gatton Academy was open to students throughout the state, at that time few students from east of I-75 enrolled,” said Joe Craft, a native of Hazard. “We wanted to help those from regions of the state where we were born and raised [and] to help them understand they can achieve success beyond what they may think possible as they begin their life’s journey.”
Senior Colby Winters is one of those students on his way to achieving his dreams. “Classes at Morehead State University were refreshing compared to the standard form of education at most high schools that Craft Academy students came from,” he said. “For me, taking advanced courses in calculus, cosmology, space science and even political science broadened my perspective in education and simultaneously aided in narrowing my prospective career field … I am also extremely appreciative of this opportunity to take courses that most high schools simply don’t have the resources to offer, such as differential equations, spacecraft mechanical design, or information theory and codes.”
Gabriella Lynn said she wouldn’t have believed months ago that she would be studying veterinary medicine in London. But in May 2020, she learned that she had been admitted to the Royal Veterinary College and was the sole recipient of the institution’s full scholarship.
She credits the study-abroad programs offered by Gatton as well as the educational support, advice, and all that she learned and experienced at the academy.
“Just all those compacted together really made it an important thing for me to get to where I am,” Lynn said.
Swift-Taylor and Stamper say it’s not just the academics that make the programs special for their students. They learn how to work with other students whom they would not have met at their home high schools.
“They’re in [a college] class with a very diverse group with a very diverse population of other students, and they are living on campus, so they get that residential experience,” Stamper said. “We also do a lot of [activities] here because they are still high school students. Outside of the classroom, we are still trying to provide opportunities for them that they would see in their home high school, such as clubs and organizations like FBLA [Future Business Leaders of America], Kentucky Youth Assembly and more. We also have evening and weekend activities.”
While Gatton and Craft students take classes alongside traditional college students, their residential life is a bit different.
Gatton students live in Florence Schneider Hall on WKU’s campus under the supervision of residential counselors who live on the floor with students. Craft students reside at Grote-Thompson Hall at Morehead.
In addition to nightly curfew checks, both Gatton and Craft students are prohibited from visiting other residential halls, and college students are not allowed inside Gatton’s and Craft’s halls.
“They have to sign in and sign out if they go off campus,” Stamper said of Craft students. “They can drive, but they have to be in the county through the week. If they go home, they need a parent’s written permission.”
Swift-Taylor said Gatton students aren’t allowed to drive at all while on campus and can only drive to and from their hometowns.
“As a WKU alumnus, I can attest that there is a difference being a WKU student and being an enrolled Gatton student,” Swift-Taylor said. “They’re having their own experience within this own little world of WKU at Gatton.”
Warren said applying for Craft Academy was the best decision she ever made. “I have developed a wide variety of skills and a sense of independence to help me in the future,” she said. “The students and staff are friendly and welcoming, creating a family-like environment for everyone. I joined hoping to help strengthen my academics, but it has become so much more for me.”
Ashley Fraser
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft host her first 4th of July Independence Day Celebration at Lornado, her official residence located in Rockcliffe Park. Photo by Ashley Fraser
Crafting Excellence
When several state legislators in 2014 teamed up with Dr. Wayne Andrews, then-president of Morehead State University, to pitch an idea to Joe and Kelly Craft for a second residential STEM program in Kentucky, the timing couldn’t have been better.
Joe Craft, the CEO of the Alliance Resource Partners coal company, is a native of Hazard. Kelly Craft, a Barren County native, is the United States ambassador to the United Nations.
The couple was looking for ways to “give back” to their state, particularly to improve the future of eastern Kentucky. So the opportunity to help the region’s youth couldn’t be passed up.
“This request was an easy YES!” Joe Craft said.
Kelly Craft, who also served as the first female U.S. ambassador to Canada (2017-2019), said growing up on a farm taught her the value of treating others with respect. “My father, a veterinarian, taught me the example of a hard day’s work,” she said. “My mother, an educator and homemaker, provided me with a desire to learn, to always compare myself with yesterday and improve upon my abilities, always be curious, and give back to my small town of Glasgow.”
Thanks to the Crafts’ initial donation of $4 million, the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics was able to welcome its first group of juniors and seniors to the Morehead State University campus in August 2015.
Sunshine Stamper, Craft Academy’s assistant director of admissions, public relations and recruitment, said the Crafts’ dedication didn’t end with that initial donation. They not only offer scholarships to Craft graduates to help them complete their undergraduate degrees, they also take a keen interest in each and every student who attends.
“They come every year to graduation. Not only are they the speakers at the ceremony, they stay and speak to every student and family that want to speak to them,” Stamper said. “They want to talk to the students; they want to know what they’re passionate about. They want to hear about some of the ideas they’re having, what research projects they’re working on … They take pride in watching these students grow and evolve.”
The Crafts said it’s just how they were raised. “Joe and I combine our life lessons of growing up in Kentucky to giving back to our state, and we feel there is no stronger investment than with the youth, the future leaders of Kentucky,” Kelly Craft said. “Our priorities consist of giving back to Kentucky what she gave to us—the opportunity to go out unto this world and be welcomed back to make a difference.”
— Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley