Mississippi Junior Academy of Sciences

The Junior Academy elected four officers and four board members to guide its activities during the 1996/97 school year. Rachel Hutchins from Poplarville High School will serve as president and Brad Solomon from Stone High School as vice president. Other officers and board are: Kevin Keeton, Morton High School (Secretary); Adam Friedman, St. Andrew's Episcopal (Reporter); and board members Perry Fletcher (Morton), Brandon Smith (Stone), Katie Burge (Poplarville), Ryan Sundaram (St. Andrew's).

This group will meet in September along with their teachers to plan the annual paper competition to be held in the latter part of January, 1997. The main topics that will be under discussion during this meeting are selection of the competition site and procuring a keynote speaker. Traditionally the students have had the opportunity to select the competition site from a group of institutions that have volunteered to serve in that capacity. The "volunteer" institution is asked to provide meeting rooms, judges, and a meal for the conference attendees (approximately 100-125) on the day of competition. This year Belhaven College, Delta State University, and Jones Junior College have offered to serve as host. The Junior Academy is appreciative of these offers and always welcomes new ones. If you feel that your institution would like to be considered as a host for the upcoming year or in the future, please contact Susan Nodurft. High school students considering submitting a paper for the Spring competition must have it postmarked no later than December 1, 1996.

The Junior Academy would like to welcome Dr. Joan Messer-McCoy who recently agreed to assist with the youth activities. Joan is a biology instructor at Jones Junior College and received her degree in biochemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi. We are eagerly looking forward to Joan's participation.--Susan Nodurft