Official page for the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science student-run newspaper!
The Vision began during the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science second year of existence by an eager group of student reporters and retired MSMS instructor, Jack Carter. For the next few decades, The Vision has shifted between print and online publications and seen a colorful staff of countless high school journalists. As a two-year high school, the halls of MSMS and the staff of The Vi
sion see students come in as juniors and graduate as successful seniors rapidly. Thomas Richardson is the current advisor of The Vision, working with willing students after school throughout the week to perfect and publish their works on a weekly basis. MSMS alumnus Thomas Richardson, the 2019-2020 JoAnne Sellers Newspaper Adviser of the Year, is in his fifth year of leading The Vision staff. After graduating from MSMS in 2004, Richardson received his bachelor’s degree at Millsaps College, where he served as the sports editor and columnist for the student newspaper, The Purple & White. Richardson went on to earn a master's degree at Vanderbilt University and two additional master's degrees from Mississippi University for Women. He is in his eleventh year of teaching high school English in Mississippi. 2020-2021 The Vision Editors: Muneebah Umar, Editor-in-Chief; Gracie Rowland, Managing Editor; Luke Bowles, Managing Editor; Kate McElhinney, News Editor; Fiona Dawe, Opinion Editor; Henry Sanders, Student Life Editor; Tejus Kotikalapudi, Entertainment Editor; Hardy Cooke, Sports Editor; Blake Cheater, Lead Copy Editor; Clare Seo, Social Media Editor; Karlene Deng, Photography Editor; Elisabeth Seage, Multimedia Editor; Carter Moore, Graphics Editor.
Grace Ann Courtney and Yash Malhotra, both MSMS class of 2025, recently were elected lieutenant governor of Girls/Boys State. The American Legion Boys State and American Legion Auxiliary Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs for high school juniors, which focus on exploring the mechanics of American government and politics.
Thomas Easterling was named director of academic affairs for the 2024-2025 school year, per a school announcement today.
Easterling said, “As Commander Desmond Walker put it during his commencement address, MSMS is ‘a social, personal, professional and leadership development incubator.’ Teaching here for the last 20 years has been immensely rewarding professionally and personally. I look forward to helping students and staff tap into as many intellectual, cultural and leadership opportunities as possible.”
📝Grace Ann Courtney
Mississippi Department of Education has appointed Ginger Tedder as Executive Director for the next academic year. The decision was announced at noon today [April 18] after a MDE board meeting.
Residents of Goen Hall evacuated at approximately 7:35 p.m. after a carbon monoxide detector triggered in the dorm. MSMS is working with Atmos Energy, MUW Police and the Columbus Fire Department to assess the building, according to Interim Executive Director Ginger Tedder.
This incident comes less than five months after a carbon monoxide alarm activated in Goen on Nov. 30, forcing an early morning evacuation and prompting investigation from Atmos.
📸 Mariane Powell
MUW campus is under lockdown after campus police received reports of multiple shots fired east of campus. Students on campus have been instructed to shelter in place until the lockdown is lifted.
The MSMS tennis team secured a satisfying 5-2 win against New Hope only to face a score reversal to Starkville Academy the week of Feb. 26.
📝 Isabella Givens
📸 Joe Yang
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“Career Day”
🖼️ Adair Gaines
📧 Send us your best original artwork for a chance to be featured as comic of the week!
The MSMS French Club raised $243 from crêpes sales in a Feb. 12 fundraising event that also allowed students to sample French cuisine.
The event took place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the class periods of French I & II, and this timing gave anyone with a lunch period a chance to buy a crêpe and hear from club members. The students who operated the event were given an extra challenge: speaking in French the entire time.
📝 Langston Smith
📸 Langston Smith
🔗 Link in bio to read!
The MSMS tennis team posted mixed results against Houston and Heritage Academy in late February, sweeping the former 7-0 and dropping its match against the cross-town competition 4-3.
📝 Sebastian Harvey
📸 Iris Xue
🔗 Link in bio to read!
Heavy overnight rains and minor flooding delayed the start of Friday classes to 9:30 a.m.
📸 Logan Wood
State Sen. Dennis DeBar of MS District 43 recently introduced a bill to the proposing MSMS relocate to the campus of Mississippi State University by the 2026-2027 school year.
The Vision will provide additional coverage of this developing story as information becomes available.
📝 Ray Taylor
📸 Mariane Powell
🔗 Link in bio to read story & view resolution!
“The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science offers a wide variety of rigorous math classes in the fall semester for incoming juniors, ranging from Algebra II to AP Calculus BC; however, there are staggeringly different gender distributions between entry- and higher-level junior math classes,” Xue writes.
“The fall Trigonometry and AP Calculus BC classes have a majority Frazer enrollment compared to Algebra II and Foundations with a majority Goen enrollment, a trend which might stem from the annual math placement test or students’ previous educational opportunities.”
📝 Iris Xue
📸 Caleb Youngblood
🔗 Link in bio to read!
The MSMS tennis team will open its season at 4 p.m. Feb. 15 with a home match against South Ponotoc at the MUW Garrett Tennis Courts.
📝 Morgan Smith
📸 Adair Gaines
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“Frazer waterworks”
🖼️ Grace Ann Courtney
📧 Send us your best original artwork for a chance to be featured as comic of the week!
“Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!”
“Don’t you mean Happy Robert E. Lee Day?”
“While I cannot speak for the happy part of the latter statement, it is unfortunately true that MLK Jr. Day is celebrated on the same day as Lee Day in Alabama and Mississippi,” Taylor writes.
“This is about a Civil Rights hero getting the honor he deserves without anything, or anyone, competing for his limelight, or, even worse, countering the cause King advocated for in the first place. King deserves to be celebrated for the monumental leader and heartening pastor he was.”
📝 Ray Taylor
📸 Ray Taylor
🔗 Link in bio to read!
Frazer Rooms 205-208 were suddenly flooded by an erupting toilet at approximately 5 p.m. on Feb 1. Students quickly responded, assembling an army of mops and buckets while restricting water flow with towels and rugs.
📝 Sebastian Harvey
📸 Noah Lee
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“‘The Curse’ is an enigma of a show that leaves viewers wanting more and less at the same time,” Ross writes.
“‘The Curse’ is a show just shy of genius which viewers will either love or hate. It’s a multilayered, complex commentary that mirrors the artificial progressiveness rampant in society today. With Fielder and Stone front and center, it’s something absolutely horrifying to witness.”
📝 Atticus Ross
📸 Showtime
🔗 Link in bio to read!
Dorms will reopen Sunday, Jan. 21 at 12:00 p.m., a one-time exception in light of travel challenges for students across the state.
🖼️ Grace Ann Courtney
Both MSMS soccer teams fell to Vardaman for the second time this season on Dec. 7, with the Frazer team losing 7-2 and the Goen team losing by a 7-0 mercy rule.
📝 Mariane Powell
📸 Courtesy of Sydney Beane
🔗 Link in bio to read!
In the spirit of finals week, The Vision’s Editorial Board pays homage to all kinds of test takers — from the yappers to the nappers and everyone in between.
📝 The Vision’s Editorial Board
🔗 Link in bio to read!
In two home games against Winona, MSMS soccer kicked off its first district matches on Dec. 5 with varied outcomes: Frazer won 9-1 by mercy rule, and Goen lost 3-2.
📝 Isabella Givens
📸 Maple Griffin
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes fell flat on my ears. As a stand-alone movie, it has its merits. However, when viewed in consideration to the other movies in its franchise, it misses the mark,” Smith writes.
📝 Morgan Smith
📸 Lionsgate
🔗 Link in bio to read!
In their soccer matches against Vardaman, both MSMS teams got off to rough starts that cost them their games: Goen lost 7-3 and Frazer lost 3-2.
MSMS faces Winona next at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 5 at the Columbus Soccer Fields.
📝 Morgan Smith
📸 Morgan Smith
🔗 Link in bio to read!
MSMS juniors and seniors convened in Pohl Gymnasium with curiosity and questions for prospective universities at the annual College View on Oct. 9.
📝 Isabella Givens
📸 Caleb Youngblood
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“Gaslighting”
🖼️ Adair Gaines
📧 Send us your best original artwork for a chance to be featured as comic of the week!
MSMS is working with local first responders to determine the cause of an early morning carbon monoxide alarm that forced the evacuation of Goen Hall residents before 6 a.m.
📝 The Vision’s Editorial Board
📸 Maddie Brain
🔗 Link in bio to read!
The Mississippi Department of Education will begin searching in earnest for a new MSMS executive director in early 2024, MDE Chief of Communication Jean Cook said in a Nov. 14 email.
“MDE plans to conduct a survey of faculty/staff early in 2024 to collect input on the qualities needed in the position and the priorities of the positions,” Cook said in the email to The Vision. “MDE will engage the alumni, as in the past, to assist in the interview process.”
MDE’s upcoming search will be the second since former MSMS Executive Director Germain McConnell left for a job with Oxford School District in 2021 and his replacement, Donald Cook, was fired by MDE in late September.
📝 Ray Taylor
📸 Courtesy of MSMS
🔗 Link in bio to read!
“Fire alarm apocalypse”
🖼️ Grace Ann Courtney
📧 Send us your best original artwork for a chance to be featured as comic of the week!
“The finale for ‘Adventure Time’ aired in 2018, but, since then, three new spinoffs have been released, with ‘Fionna and Cake’ being the most recent. Based on the gender-swapped versions of the main characters of Pendelton Ward’s original series, creator and executive producer Adam Muto takes a silly premise and turns it into a thought-provoking piece of animated television,” Neal writes.
“‘Adventure Time’ was never a stranger to discussing mature themes, and ‘Fionna and Cake’ continues this trend. The major theme in the new show is the finality of consequences. More specifically, it focuses on how the consequences of actions are permanent and how — even though someone might regret how a particular situation ended — they must find peace and acceptance with these consequences to continue with their life.“
📝 Jacob Neal
📊 Produced by Adam Muto
🔗 Link in bio to read!
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The Vision is the student-led online news publication for the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.
2017-2018 Staff
Co-Editor-in-Chief: Mariat Thankachan
Co-Editor-in-Chief: Yousef Abu-Salah
Graphics Editor, Senior Cartoonist: Vivienne Tenev
News Editor: Brady Suttles
Student Life Editor: Helen Peng
Entertainment Editor: Sage Schaumburg
Sports Editor: Aurelia Caine
Opinion Editor: Kevin Liao
Photography Editor: Keely Brewer
Social Media Editor: Alexz Carpenter
Copy Editor: Olga Goupalova
Copy Editor: Victoria Gong
Assistant News Editor: Gary Nguyen
Student Life Editor: Hayden Stokley
Assistant Copy Editor, Assistant Entertainment Editor: Peter Nguyen
Staff Writer: Jilkiah Bryant
Staff Writer: De’Arius Jefferson
Staff Writer: Timothy Lewis
Photography Co-Editor: Kerrigan Clark
Staff Writer: River Gordon
Staff Writer: Nique Hairston
Staff Writer: Likhitha Polepalli
Staff Writer: Elizabeth Smith
Staff Writer: Michelle Luo
Staff Writer: Arin Kelly
