The Alabama School of Math and Science, the Mobile-based public magnet school, is expanding its reach into rural parts of the state through a new outreach program built around a subject almost guaranteed to grab a student’s attention: rockets.
Staff and current students from the Mobile school recently traveled to Sumter Central High School and Livingston Junior High in Sumter County for the outreach program’s first rocketry demonstration. Students there built their own model rockets in small groups before heading outside to watch them launch, giving them a hands-on introduction to the kind of science programming ASMS is known for.
The school’s president said the outreach effort reflects a core part of ASMS’s mission, which centers on developing the potential of high-achieving students statewide, with particular attention to those who may not otherwise have access to challenging academic opportunities close to home, including students from economically disadvantaged communities.
The trip was led by the school’s director of student services and public relations coordinator, along with several ASMS students who volunteered as outreach leaders, helping guide the rocket-building activities and answering questions from the younger students about life at the residential math and science school in Mobile.
Organizers said the younger students responded enthusiastically to the demonstrations, with the rocket launches drawing particular excitement from the crowd. For many students in rural counties, the visit offered a rare glimpse of the kind of specialized STEM programming available at ASMS, a school that draws students from across Alabama to its Mobile campus for an intensive residential academic experience.
The Sumter County stop is just the beginning of a broader outreach push. ASMS said its team plans to take the rocketry program to Perry County and Wilcox County next, continuing an effort to introduce students in rural, often underserved parts of the state to opportunities they might not otherwise know exist.
School officials say they hope the visits plant a seed with students who might not have considered themselves candidates for a selective math and science academy, encouraging them to look into ASMS and similar programs as they plan for their education.