Program offers area youth classes throughout U.S.

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — About 130 students from San Luis, Ariz., are taking summer classes at colleges and universities around the nation as participants in Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth program.

The students from the Gadsden Elementary School District are taking three-week classes in the areas of science, technology and humanities in this summer’s program.

Johns Hopkins recruits academically gifted students from around the world to for college-level classes taught at such institutions as Yale University in Connecticut, Lafayette and Haverford college in Pennsylvania, Princeton University in New Jersey, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, University of California, and Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Students in the sixth through 11th grades can qualify for scholarships from Johns Hopkins to take the summer classes based on the scores they achieve on the same ACT test given to students seeking full-time admission to universities.

Students at the San Luis-based elementary school district have participated in the Johns Hopkins program for more than a decade, but owing to funding cuts fewer were able to get scholarships this summer, said Homero Chavez, a counselor at Southwest Junior High in San Luis.

“Internationally, the program has a smaller budget this year, apparently because there were fewer donations from sponsors because of tax law changes,” said Chavez, who recruits Gadsden students to participate in the program.

Whereas in years past nearly $1.2 million in scholarships was available to the Gadsden student, the amount this year was cut to $750,000.

Still, he said, Gadsden district students did well overall on the ACT test they took in the spring to quality for the summer program. Of about 460 who took it, 75 percent passed.