Seventy-Five Students Invited to Participate in GSSM’s Accelerate Engineering Program

COLUMBIA, SC – The South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics (GSSM) has welcomed its third and largest class of 75 students from across the state to Accelerate, the School’s new, three-year, online engineering program designed to help motivated high schoolers jumpstart engineering degrees and careers.

Developed by GSSM, Accelerate is designed to cultivate the next generation of creative engineers and technical leaders by offering high-achieving students a path toward earning as many as 40 semester hours of college credit during the last three years of high school.

Curriculum includes virtual synchronous instruction throughout the school year, as well as hands-on, team-based projects during weekends and summers. Accelerate students remain in their home high schools. Courses are taught by GSSM and Clemson University faculty.

“We are excited to welcome these future engineers to our program,” says Dr. Karen Den Braven, GSSM’s director of engineering programs. “They are an impressive group of students. Eighty-two percent are in the top ten percent of their class at their home high schools and are very high-achieving in math, science and English.”

GSSM is partnering with school districts across the state to deliver Accelerate. Current partner school districts include: Berkeley County School District, Darlington County School District, Dorchester School District Two, Greenville County School District, Horry County Schools, Lexington School District One, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five, Pickens County School District, Richland County School District One and Spartanburg School Districts Five, Six and Seven.

The number of schools and students participating in Accelerate will increase annually.

Accelerate corporate partners include: AdvanceSC, American Honda Foundation, AVX, BMW Manufacturing Co., The Boeing Company, Comporium Communications, The Daniel-Mickel Foundation, Duke Energy, GE, The Graham Foundation, Google Data Centers Grant Fund of the Tide Foundation, HillSouth, IEEE Foundation General Fund, Integrated Systems, Inc., International Paper Company, Nucor Steel, SCE&G, Sonoco Products Company, Time Warner Cable and Westinghouse Electric Company.

For more information about Accelerate, click here.

About GSSM

The South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics (GSSM) is a two-year, public, residential high school in Hartsville, SC, specializing in the advanced study of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with a unique emphasis on economics and entrepreneurship.

GSSM’s residential program can serve as many as 288 high school juniors and seniors annually from across the state. In addition, the school impacts more than 10,000 teachers and students each year through its innovative virtual and outreach programs. Learn more by visiting www.scgssm.org.