Craft Academy is a gifted dual-enrollment program in cooperation with Morehead State University where current sophomores can apply to spend their junior and senior years living on campus at Morehead. Last year, three sophomores from GRC were accepted into Craft and are currently enrolled there for their junior year.
“When I got the e-mail I was pretty stoked,” said GRC and Craft Academy student Calloway Coates. “I remember I was playing tennis and I looked at my watch, saw the email saying I got accepted and cheered mid-point.”
At Craft Academy, students take a full schedule of college general-education classes offered at Morehead, which creates a much harder curriculum for most students. Now, they are taking college classes like a college student with a lot of work and study being done independently.
“I started my classes on [August] 18th and so far it has been tough,” said Coates. “Not as tough as it’s gonna be, but so far it’s been really good for me.”
While Craft Academy does offer harder classes, the benefits outweigh its difficulty. Craft Academy is well known for being a big bonus on your college applications, being on the Washington Post’s Public Elites List.
“The perks from an application standpoint are huge,” said Coates. “It’s really well known, especially by some larger colleges for being a really good school. Outside of that, it’s still an incredible experience to get to be on your own and really mature as a person because you have to start taking care of yourself, and that’s just been liberating”
Outside of classes, there are plenty of things for students to do around Morehead’s campus. They offer a variety of sports facilities like tennis courts, a gym, a pool, and even some hiking trails.
“The rec center here is really cool,” said Coates. “It has a lot of cool stuff like a massive swimming pool with a diving board and pickleball courts. I’ve already gone hiking a few times. There are trails of different difficulties too, which is cool if you want a bit of a challenge.”
Overall, Craft Academy is a good option for excelling sophomores looking for a big change for their last two years of high school.
“I would say I recommend Craft for everyone who wants to go into really any field that involves higher education,” said Coates. “Especially if you’re excelling in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, but even if you aren’t, it’s still an incredible opportunity to get ahead on your gen-ed courses for college.”
