Announcements

• Make a Difference Student Competition: This is an opportunity for students in grades 7-12 to complete a project that improves their community. The Mody Endowed Fund in Service Learning was established at the Western Kentucky University (WKU) Center for Gifted Studies (CGS) with the hope of sparking a passion for volunteerism among high-achieving young people. As part of this initiative, the CGS is holding two competitions for young people who wish to develop an original service-learning project or develop and expand an existing project:

  • One competition is open to Kentucky students in grades 7-12; prizes range from $500 to $1,500.

  • The other competition features $500 microgrants and is open to current Gatton Academy students who have attended the Summer Camp for Academically Talented Students (SCATS) or the Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth (VAMPY) camp in the years 2022-2024.

  • Learn more about the competitions and find the 2024 application online. Applications are due November 15.

•  Martin Luther King, Jr. Contest Student Essays, poetry and artwork may be submitted from now until Nov. 27, 2024. Winners will be invited to attend the awards ceremony on Jan. 9, 2025, at the Kentucky Historical Society. Please contact Tressa T. Brown at (502) 892-2607 or Tressa.Brown@ky.gov. for more information. Please see flyer for links to submit entries and other information.

• Supporting High Achieving Students of Color: This free virtual professional development opportunity will be held on December 5, 2024, from 1:00 to 4:30 ET. The event will offer practical strategies to support high-achieving students of color. For more information and to register, please see the flyer. Please contact (371) 278-3493 or email GLEC@IU.EDU for additional information or questions. 

• Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), is now accepting submissions for the 2024-25 program, an opportunity for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be a part of a musical theater production. Students will have access to the Writing is ReWriting Resource Center, workshops, and constructive critique opportunities to cultivate their songwriting skills throughout the submission window, which ends January 31, 2025. Register for the online songwriting workshop at namt.org/challenge. For more information, contact Cynthia Warner at (502) 782-4982.