NORTHFIELD, Vt. (WCAX) – The Governor’s Institutes, a summer program for Vermont high schoolers, is getting underway in the coming weeks.
Students spend one to two weeks at colleges, diving into career-oriented topics like arts, engineering, and math. An estimated 600 students will attend this summer.
At Norwich University, the site of one of the nation’s oldest engineering programs, students are building bridges this week and seeing how many hundreds of pounds they can hold.
“It’s the whole building process. Like, we had to design the bridge ourselves and now we’re having to actually bring that design to life — which is really cool. So, I really like that this is very hands-on — in your making stuff, learning — you’re learning while doing it,” said Lucy Driscoll, a student from Bennington.
The student’s bridge was able to support 600 pounds.
Institutes are running now through July 28th. Since the program began in the early 1980′s, 13,000 students have taken part.