Amy Linn Schleter, a senior at Karns High School, recently completed the Governor’s School in Computational Physics at Austin Peay State University.

Schleter was among 36 high school students in the program, held June 1-July 3. As a Governor’s School student taking two intensive courses, Schleter earned eight hours of college credit.

Funded by the state, Governor’s Schools are designed for gifted high school students with each school providing challenging, intensive learning experiences in specific disciplines. The Governor’s School in Computational Physics was APSU’s first Governor’s School.

The Governor’s School in Computational Physics was approved in late Summer 2008, long after other Governor’s Schools had begun recruiting for their programs. Despite this disadvantage, APSU’S Governor’s School received about 100 applications.

From these applications, only 36 students were selected for the five-week Governor’s School at APSU. For Summer 2009, the program will have more funding available to accept 62 students.

Computational physics combines physics, computer science and applied mathematics to provide scientific solutions to complex problems. In addition to earning college credit, participants took trips to such computational research centers as Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s National Center for Computational Sciences and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.