Local students thrive at Mountain Vista Governor’s School

The Mountain Vista Governor’s School (MVGS) for Science, Math & Technology challenges area students to reach their full potential as independent thinkers who become capable of assuming leadership roles in an ever-changing global society.

MVGS — which serves high-achieving 10th, 11th, and 12th graders at the two Lord Fairfax Community College campuses in Middletown, Va., and Warrenton, Va. — offers a research-based, technology-enhanced, integrated program in math, science and the humanities.

“Recently, students from both Warren County middle schools attended a showcase at the Governor’s School and when they came back they were absolutely raving about the things and the projects that they saw,” Alan Fox, director of secondary education for Warren County Public Schools (WCPS), told the Warren County School Board during its regular March 4 meeting.

Alan Fox, director of secondary education for Warren County Public Schools (WCPS) updates the School Board on the Mountain Vista Governor’s School.

Students attend MVGS during the morning and then attend classes at their WCPS home schools in the afternoon, said Fox, who on Wednesday introduced Dr. Rosanne Williamson, director of MVGS, to School Board members.

Williamson provided a presentation on the school, while several WCPS students discussed their classes and activities at MVGS.

Dr. Rosanne Williamson provided a presentation on the school.

“We just wanted to share with you some of the things that have been happening at the school,” Williamson told the School Board members.

MVGS opened in 2006 as one of the state’s 19 governor’s schools, she said, noting that Virginia is unique in that its governor’s schools operate via a regional program that requires at least three school divisions to come together to serve a community of learners.

MVGS was formed by seven northern Virginia school divisions that joined to serve gifted high school students from Culpeper, Fauquier, and Rappahannock at the Lord Fairfax Community College Fauquier Campus, and those from Clarke, Frederick, Warren, and Winchester City at the college’s Middletown Campus.

The sites are connected by technology for two-way interaction among teachers and students, and existing lab facilities support project-based and technology-enhanced learning opportunities, said Williamson.

“Students have opportunities to get together, to learn, to do projects, to do research — to do a different kind of program,” Williamson said.

The MVGS curriculum revolves around math, including math analysis, calculus, and statistics; humanities like English, philosophy and U.S. government, among others; science, such as chemistry, physics, and biology; and electives, which are comprised of research, computer science, psychology, and economics.

The collaborative, interdisciplinary environment also enables students to gain college credit while attending high school.

In fact, most classes are dual-enrolled, with students able to earn more than 60 hours of college credits, allowing them to graduate high school with an associate’s degree.

Currently, MVGS enrollment for the school year 2019-2020 is 210 students, a number that Williamson said has been the average for the last four school years.

To date, she said that 701 students have finished the MVGS program.

And once MVGS students graduate high school, they tend to go on to seek a four-year degree, with roughly 75 percent of MVGS alumni attending Virginia institutions of higher education and approximately 25 percent of alumni attending out-of-state universities, Williamson explained.

Of the MVGS alumni who opted to attend college in-state, she said 28 percent went to the University of Virginia; 16 percent attended Virginia Tech; and other top choices were William & Mary, James Madison University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and George Mason University.

Meanwhile, out-of-state choices have included Notre Dame, Harvard, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Brown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgetown, among many others, Williamson said.

While attending classes at MVGS, “not 100 percent of our students are hard-core math people,” said Williamson, who added that some students are more interested in the humanities or research, for example.

With MVGS daily instruction being on-site four days a week for 4.5 hours, every Wednesday is set aside as a Focused Learning Experiences (FLEX) day that includes seminars, field research, and special events, among others.

Five seniors from Warren County High School and Skyline High School who attend MVGS also came to Wednesday’s School Board meeting to give firsthand accounts of their weekly schedules and course work, as well as their FLEX day choices.

The MVGS Foundation continues to be successful, sponsoring two major annual events, as well as participating in the Give Local campaign, Williamson added.

She also said that MVGS is working to increase its diversity and this year made the student application available in Spanish and produced a Spanish-language video to encourage more diverse participation in the MVGS program.

School Board members James Wells and Kristen Pence thanked Mr. Fox for bringing in WCPS students to report on a variety of their educational opportunities.

School Board Chairman Arnold Williams Jr., agreed saying, “It’s not the first time we’ve had students in here and it’s great to see… where we are, where we’re going, and how bright and intelligent these students are.”

“Kudos to those who raised them through our school system or outside our school system,” Williams said. “That’s a community and that’s what we’ve got to have. I greatly appreciate it.”