Although proud to have hosted the North Central Region (NCR) Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (JSHS) for 50+ years, the MAS board and staff made the difficult decision over the summer to allow another organization to take on this role going forward. We did so for many reasons—but the bottom line is that we no longer believe MAS is the best fit for this role.

In most regions, colleges and universities host JSHS—or academies with closer ties to universities than ours. These institutions typically possess staff, appropriate event space, and communications infrastructure they can commit to their regional JSHS, enabling them to cover out-of-pocket event expenses with funding from the national level. In contrast, as a nonprofit, MAS must secure enough funding to cover all program expenses, including staffing, overhead, and event space. Thankfully, increased flexibility in how we could use the limited funding from the national level and going virtual enabled us to continue offering JSHS for the past few years. Given the current outlook, however, we did not anticipate ever being able to afford a return to an in-person JSHS—or being able to do the kind of outreach to educators that we believe should happen to help the program reach a more diverse pool of high school students from across the entire tri-state region (North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota).

In addition, our staff was stretched thin in past years by organizing and recruiting volunteers for two statewide events concurrently (JSHS and the State Science Fair), resulting in some confusion for participants and volunteers—and less than ideal staff focus on each program. While we might have been able to continue pushing our staff and running a virtual JSHS with limited reach alongside the State Science Fair for some years, we did not feel this was best for anyone or in keeping with our strategic priorities.

No longer hosting JSHS will not only enable NCR JSHS to be free of our specific organizational constraints, but allow MAS to return to providing a high-quality, in-person State Science & Engineering Fair—and increase access to science fairs for more Minnesota students. It remains our hope that by turning JSHS over to a new sponsor, both the State Science Fair and JSHS can grow, return to in-person formats, and flourish.