Just days after summer break started for the CMR student body, senior Ayana Gray was on a plane headed for an intense six weeks of college instruction.
She spent six weeks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Boston campus taking the physics, calculus 2, humanities, computer science, and bio chemistry courses with 73 other students from across the United States and one student from Mexico.
“I had to go through a very intense application process in order to get in,” Gray said.
She took this opportunity to look more closely at the campus and the academics offered at MIT to decide if she wants to apply to attend the university next fall.
“[I fell] in love with the idea of college and freedom and being surrounded by students your own age 24/7. It made me realize all that MIT has to offer,” she said.
Gray’s top three college choices; MIT, Harvard, and Boston University, are all in the Boston-Cambridge area, which she also fell in love with during her six weeks there.
Traveling to Boston and just hanging out on campus with all the friends she made in her time there, was one of her favorite pastimes.
“I’m too broke for the world, but they had some great stuff,” Gray said of shopping in Boston instead of Great Falls.
As well as wandering the streets of Boston, the group traveled up to Maine for a day, where they spent time on the beach.
“It was super fun, like they had an amusement park on the beach,” she said.
In preparation for college, Gray is enrolled in an online mathematics course through MIT.
Gray said she is looking forward to her life after high school, especially now that she has some experience living on her own in a dorm under her belt.