By: Heidi Hingst
A scholar’s time at Missouri Scholars Academy (MSA) is jam-packed full of classes, evening activities, and, well, other scholars. The first week of MSA’s focus is on building community. Scholars meet many different people, but three groups emerge with which they spend most of their time. Every day, a scholar will meet with their academic major, their academic minor/Cor-PSD group, and their house. Scholars’ time in these three groups helps build community among the group as a whole.
The first part of a scholar’s day is their academic major. The three hours every day spent in majors often bring a group of people close together, not just to each other, but to the faculty as well. Frankie Synovec, MSA’s resident life coordinator, stated that one part of MSA’s first week that was strategically scheduled was the Faculty Smorgs. This activity was placed in the first week, she said, to “break down” the “status separation” between the faculty and students to bring everyone closer together.
After lunch, and the gathering named “Big Group” (where 330 high-schoolers are crammed into Geology auditorium), scholars head to their afternoon class: their minor. They are surrounded by a different group of individuals than their major, and therefore forced to branch out and interact with new people. After one hour of their minor class, scholars participate in an activity called Cor-PSD. Cor means heart, and PSD stands for Personal and Social Dynamics. Paul Rohmmeler, who fondly referred to himself as “the last of the [MSA] originals,” stated that “it was clear after two years that PSD was really the heart of MSA,” and “the glue that held MSA together.” When asked how PSD helped to build community among scholars, he stated that it gave opportunity to really “let other people in to know us.” The group of people that a scholar is surrounded with during Cor-PSD becomes very close to them over the duration of MSA, and contributes to the MSA community as a whole.
The last batch of people that scholars will bond with is their house. River Pich, one of the RA’s of the 6th floor was asked how community was built among the houses. River responded, “I don’t really have to do much… [my house] all have this sense of respect and [want] to build this community… I think just throwing things out there and letting [them] go for them is really all I have to do.” The way that River’s house took to one another without much prodding really shows the sense of connection that scholars at MSA feel with one another.
MSA was designed to affect the scholars, but what has been the actual impact so far? When asked about the ability of Faculty Smorgs to break the status separation between faculty and scholars, Katherine Cronk and Elizabeth Trower responded enthusiastically. “I did Ake’s Smorg, because everyone loves Ake,” Katherine stated, “and now I feel like me and Ake are tight. I think it worked.”
“I think it worked, too” Elizabeth cut in. “I had Stephanie’s Smorg, and she just explained something really important to her… and I could tell that she is someone who is just amazing at talking to people and [she] makes everyone feel welcomed.” Other scholars had similar feelings towards Cor-PSD. Scholar Sophia Bolin said that, “people are so open to share their hurts with you… it’s a really, really great environment that MSA has fostered [where] all of these strangers can come together and say things that are really hard for them to say.” Scholar Jimmy Morefield was asked if he felt a sense of community in his house, and he replied, “we definitely have become really close… before we even knew that the houses were going to pick names… we immediately decided to come up with [one]… and started bonding.”
Between majors, minors, Cor-PSD, and houses, scholars have many opportunities to create deep, lasting bonds with people and build a community here at MSA. Not only is this the intent, but it seems that the jobs of the faculty and RA’s to create community is having the desired impact on the scholars as well. Hopefully, as the weeks go on, scholars will feel the community that is Missouri Scholars Academy.
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