The Roo Honors Academy invites high school students to participate in a fun and intellectually engaging one-week summer enrichment program, June 20-24, 2022, in the Honors Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
RHA 2022 will offer non-credit classes on the sociology of sports, public health and infrastructure, communication, and criminal justice. For course descriptions, click on the text below:
+Sports in Society
Morning class with Dr. Stephen Christ
Sports are such a pervasive and important part of American culture, yet we rarely step back and examine their influences on society as a whole. This course will explore the ways in which sports are entangled in social, cultural, political, and economic forces in the United States and across the world. From professional to recreational, this course will examine why we participate in sports and how they shape our understandings of race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Ultimately, this class will teach students concepts from sociology in order to understand how sports influence and are influenced by American society.
+ Urban Health in America
Morning class with Dr. Amanda Grimes
Health-promoting environments are often unequally developed, leaving communities that are already underdeveloped, even further behind. Streets and public spaces should be a culture of active living. However, car-centric social norms have dominated a large majority of streetscapes and landscapes within the US, resulting in a society increasingly burdened by chronic diseases associated with physical inactivity. This course will explore how a community’s built environment influences how we live, work, play, and ultimately our health. In this class we will apply public health theory to analyze how individual, interpersonal, organizational, and policy factors influence our ability to walk and bike through the city safely and comfortably.
+ Harnessing the Power of Communication
Afternoon class with Professor Erin Blocher
Communication fuels all our daily interactions. In this class, we will unpack the power of communication and cover some simple tips to create communication magic. Our sessions will focus on understanding your own personal communication style and how to adapt to others, how to decode and get the most out of the communication dynamics in a team, why listening matters and how to ask powerful questions that make an impact, how to design important messages so you can feel confident giving bad news or giving feedback, and tips for how to be an engaging public speaker. We will mix theory with practice in this hands-on class that is sure to boost your communication abilities.
+ Bias and Perception in the Criminal Justice System
Afternoon class with Professor Dale Dan-Irabor
Everyone is trying to sell you something. In the United States, corporations spend billions of dollars per year on advertising with the hopes of creating and influencing the public’s perceptions. Perception, logical or not, permeates all of society – including our criminal justice system. This class will explore how perceptions are formed, how they are influenced by marketing, and what role they take in decision-making processes. In addition, we will examine how myths and faulty perceptions of crime and criminality influence how different individuals interact with the criminal justice system. These myths are deeply embedded into multiple systems in our country, and this course will explore why.
Participants will choose one morning course and one afternoon course taught by UMKC faculty members. All classes will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the Volker campus, near the Country Club Plaza. On Friday, June 24th, families and students are invited to attend a dinner and the student exhibition. Dinner will begin at 5:00PM, and the students will showcase what they learned throughout the week until roughly 6:00PM.
Students need to provide their own transportation to and from the campus. Lunch will be provided throughout the week. Students who successfully complete each course will receive a Recognition of Achievement certificate from the UMKC Honors Program and a Roo Honors Academy T-shirt.
This selective program is open to thirty students in grades 9-12. Tuition is $275; children of UMKC employees are eligible for a $20 discount. Need-based scholarships may be available. For more information about scholarships or other questions about the Academy, please contact Margo Gamache, Honors Program Director of Student Services.
Participating students also have the option of spending the night in the UMKC dorms for the whole week. This option comes with an additional cost of $295 ($205 for room, $50 for dinners, and $40 for breakfasts). Students who are interested in this option can indicate their interest on the application.
Please click here to apply to RHA 2022. Thedeadline to apply is June 1, 2022, and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
