Gathered in SPED Gifted Facilitator Kate Moore’s classroom on Sept. 29 at 1 p.m., gifted students eagerly listened to a speaker from the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science (KAMS) at Fort Hays State University.

“The KAMS program itself … is an academic school year program for the junior and senior year. It involves students who are interested in and are willing to–with their family, including their families being interested and willing–to leave Manhattan, go to Fort Hays State University and live on campus where they take a full academic load,” Moore said. “It is an accelerated and compacted program that allows students to get two years of high school and two years of college simultaneously.”

Taking place in Fort Hays, high school students send in their applications for the program in February of their sophomore year in hopes of reaping the benefits of a cheap Associate of Arts degree and high school diploma. This is difficult for students to achieve due to the program being very elite, accepting only 25 Kansans and five out-of-state and country students to attend.

“Well, I think it’s an amazing opportunity for just the right student … it has a lot of mixed advantages with a few disadvantages,” Moore said. “There have been a few [students] who’ve applied. To my knowledge we’ve never had one accepted.”

The KAMS program, although far from home, allows students to gain college experience for prices much cheaper than what a senior would pay going in as a freshman.

“[Participants] come out with basically 60 hours of college credit that they have not had to pay tuition and fees to get,” Moore said. “They do have to pay their living expenses, and that amounts to about 3500 dollars a semester. But that’s their dorm room, that’s all the living expenses and most of their food.”