Math master McArthur expanding knowledge at Governor's Honors Program camp

Jul. 12—That Grant McArthur is focusing on math at this summer's Governor's Honors Program camp would've shocked him only a few years ago.

"In seventh grade, I was really bad at math," said McArthur, a rising junior at Southeast Whitfield High School. "I did terrible, (so I realized) I'd better change something."

He spent his summer preparing for eighth-grade math with YouTube videos, which helped alter his perspective, he said.

"You don't have to be in your head calculating super large numbers. As long as you get the right answer, it's right."

Additionally, he began to see "lots of patterns in math that relate to the real world," he said. "You can connect math to everything."

McArthur "is very much an out-of-the-box type of thinker (who) tends to be fascinated with the process rather than just the outcome," said Lori Lyn Hicks, who taught McArthur math this past school year. "We have discussed different mathematical theorems and how these theorems came about, (and) he sees the beauty in mathematics and how someone can make sense out of something that seems like chaos."

At the Governor's Honors Program summer camp — currently ongoing — attendees select a major and minor on which to focus, and McArthur chose social studies for his minor, he said.

"I like social studies a lot," and one of his social studies teachers, Michael Powell, nominated him for the Governor's Honors Program.

This isn't the first academic-focused summer camp attended by McArthur, as he attended the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP) while in middle school, "a good experience," he said. To earn an invite to the camp where students pursue interests and collaborate in a learning environment, students have to excel on either the ACT or SAT, and McArthur scored highly on the reading portion of his ACT.

Duke TIP is committed to helping students and their families evaluate, strengthen and grow the student's academic potential and is geared toward students who scored exceptionally high on the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP), Georgia Milestones or other standardized tests, according to Dalton Public Schools. Students are given the opportunity to take the ACT and/or SAT to prepare and determine their strengths and weaknesses while also allowing them to tap into their academic abilities.

Georgia's is the longest continuously running Governor's Honors Program in the nation and the largest on a single college campus (Berry College), according to the Governor's Office of Student Achievement. Georgia is the only state that does not charge students or families to attend its summer camp.

McArthur spoke with fellow Raiders Jade Bearden and Jayden Richmond, who both attended last summer's Governor's Honors Program camp, and they told him "it's the real deal," he said. "They said the professors were really down to earth."

"I was very nervous" during the application process, which includes interviews and essays, McArthur said. "It's nerve-racking, and I looked over my essay like six times."

When he learned he was a state finalist and would be invited to the camp, "I was really, really happy and excited," he said. "I found out on my way back from a baseball game, so I was trying not to scream on a bus at 11 p.m., but it wasn't easy."

McArthur has been a catcher — he also pitches — since third grade, so devoting a month of his summer to the Governor's Honors Program camp presented a quandary.

"I was worried, because I do travel baseball in the summer," but he can play summer ball next year, the one after, etc., and "there's always fall ball," he said. "I can't do this (camp) again."

The camp "is a perfect fit for Grant, (as) he will be able to discuss mathematical concepts with others with the same passion just for the pure enjoyment of it," Hicks said. "It will be possible for Grant to branch his knowledge even further with his natural curiosity in this type of setting."

McArthur is considering becoming an engineer, but he'd love to combine his baseball and math aptitudes and passions to become a baseball statistician.

"If I can't play baseball, that would be cool," he said. "I've always wanted to work for Baseball Savant," a stats-based Major League Baseball website.

McArthur "has the double benefit of not only having a natural ability to understand math past that of computation but also having a passion for it, (so) a career in a mathematical field would be a great fit for him, (but) whatever career he chooses will benefit from having him in it," Hicks said. "It would not be a surprise at all to hear in the future that Grant has discovered a new theorem or has advanced his chosen field in a significant way."