The PGSS Campaign, Inc. is a non-profit organization that seeks to reinstate the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (PGSS) for future students and create a professional network for alumni.
PGSS is a rigorous summer program that allowed students to engage in the sciences, be challenged intellectually, and develop personally. With admittance based upon merit and not tuition or boarding expenses, PGSS allowed students to attend regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background.
Through private and public funding, we seek to secure the future of PGSS as an annual program that fosters scientific thinking, scholarly collaboration, and interpersonal connections in our society while encouraging women and minority students to consider scientific careers.
To Our Alumni
“To say that I would not be where I am today without PGSS is a profound understatement. It is the single most exceptional and enriching program in science education that I’ve ever encountered, and I fervently hope it is given the opportunity to continue.”
-Paul Ricker, PGSS 1985
Many of our experiences during those five-weeks at Carnegie Mellon University called PGSS cannot be easily summed into words. There are powerful, simple testaments such as Paul’s explaining what those involved in the program already know. PGSS is an incredibly enriching educational and scientific program, one that is provided free of charge, allowing any student to reap its benefits. But really, it is impossible to capture the myriad effects PGSS has produced over the years.
For many, it was the first time we met dozens of people like us. For once, peers were not afraid of science and numbers but talked about superconductors or black holes into the wee hours of morning. It prepared us for the rigors of college and primed us for collaboration in our disciplines. For hundreds, it helped us discover the disciplines we love. It led to friendships and professional relationships that have enriched us for many years after those weeks. For some, it was a first summer love, and for others it was even the love of decades.
For many, it was one of the few times we would be intellectually challenged during those years, finally meeting ideas we couldn’t immediately grasp. For the first time, our individual skills weren’t enough, forcing us to learn to collaborate for success. We met concepts in the sciences that were foreign and engrossing. We were introduced to the possibilities that lay in the future — schools that may have seemed out of reach or careers we previously barely imagined.
PGSS alumni have become members and alumni of the world’s predominant institutions and professionals in fields of mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, and many others, making headway in cancer therapy, sustainable design, and the mission to Mars. CEO’s and lawyers, educators and artists, as well as scientists, engineers, and physicians have all arisen from our PGSS classmates.
We ask you to remember your days at PGSS; contemplate their benefit, both personal and professional; and become a part of the PGSS Alumni Association.
We ask you to support our society’s future, invest in the richness of this experience for a younger student, and help bring back the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences.