Roo Honors Academy is a one-week program designed to academically challenge and expand the minds of high school students who are entering grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. 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.
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.
Courses Include:
Sports In Society
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
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
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
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.
