Leah Frazier, an Academy of Math and Science senior from Russell, was taking senior-level math and science courses as a sophomore in high school — and she was bored.

Frazier said her mother laughed when Frazier told her she was applying to the academy.

“She said there was no way I was going to leave her two years early to go five hours away, but when she saw this place, she said, ‘You need to be here,’” Frazier said.

Frazier is one of 10 students from eastern Kentucky enrolled in the academy. There are 122 academy students.

Tim Gott, director of the academy, said recruiters are especially focused on getting more students from the eastern part of the state.

“We want to have representation from all over Kentucky,” Gott said. “We want diversity socioeconomically, ethnically and geographically.”

The academy’s had students from 87 of Kentucky’s 120 counties since it opened in 2007, Gott said.

Denine Sergent, academic counselor at Rowan County High School in Morehead, said most students find out about the academy through their teachers or each other, not through recruiting.

Corey Alderdice, assistant director for admissions and public relations at the academy, said recruitment methods include spreading information to students through high school workers such as guidance counselors, sending letters out to students who have an interest in careers in math or science and hosting regional and online information sessions.

Alderdice said regional

information sessions are designed so that people around the state don’t have to drive more than an hour to get to one.

Distance is one of the main factors that deters eastern Kentucky students from enrolling at the academy, Gott said.

“It’s not poor education,” he said. “Like anywhere, there are pockets of outstanding schools throughout the region.”

Ben Howard, an academy junior from Morehead, said he wasn’t challenged enough in his Advanced Placement classes in high school.

“I had some amazing science teachers, and they tried to challenge me, because, even when I was taking senior-level classes, it was with average students,” he said.

Sergent, who is a counselor at Howard’s old high school, said a select number of students need collegiate-level challenges.

“We prepare our students really well, but for those that are exceptionally academically inclined and self-motivated, we encourage them to apply to the academy,” she said. “The academy goes above and beyond what we could do for them.”

Sergent said the school has a good Advanced Placement program and benefits from being near Morehead State University.

Advanced programs can be expensive, and good teachers are difficult to find, Gott said.

Room and board, tuition and books are free for all 122 academy students, he said.

“If a student is strong enough to be here, they should be,” he said.

Students from northern Kentucky and the Louisville area have the most representation at the academy except for those in Western’s own region.

Frazier said smaller city schools don’t get as much money as those in bigger cities.

“I look at some of my friends here from bigger cities, and they had so many academic opportunities in high school, but growing up in eastern Kentucky taught me that there is so much more to life than academics,” Frazier said. “I like the roots it gave me.”

Howard said he knows students from his high school that he thinks belong at the academy but never applied because of the distance or because they were so involved in athletics or orchestra.

The academy implements closed weekends, when all students must go home to visit family, Gott said.

“These students are leaving their homes two years early, and they need a strong sense of community and reason,” he said. “This is home.”