DeSoto County MSMS Student Receives Inaguaral MSMS Scholarship

Alumna Kimberly Thames established fund to lead future engineers from one alma mater to the other

Kimberly Thames

Kimberly Thames (BChE ’06) fondly remembers her tenure as a student both at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science and in the University of Mississippi School of Engineering. Desiring to help provide that experience to others, she recently established the MSMS Engineering Scholarship, which has been awarded to a deserving freshman from DeSoto County.

The scholarship was created by Thames, a senior projects and facilities engineer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to attract high quality students from MSMS to the Ole Miss engineering program. The $2,000 scholarship is based on potential applicants’ overall academic achievement, successful completion of AP college-level science and math courses, leadership/extracurricular activities and scholastic scores.

“I am very grateful to be a recipient of the scholarship,” said Amanda Gurley of Hernando, inaugural recipient of the gift. The civil engineering major is the daughter of Kenneth (another UM alum) and Cynthia Gurley. “It is a dream of mine to pursue a master’s in civil engineering and I know graduate school is a lot pricier than undergraduate.  This scholarship helps me toward that dream.”

Gurley said she plans to focus on water resources and hopes to be a part of making clean water easier to access.

“In Mississippi, clean water is available for us but this is not the case everywhere,” she said. “And there is always room for improvement on how we receive our water and how it can be reused.”

Thames reflected upon her decision to establish the scholarship.

Amanda Gurley

“As MSMS is a very challenging residential high school, many of the students would have been valedictorians at their old high schools, so they may be overlooked for that type of scholarship as they chose to attend a more competitive school,” she said. “However, many students are taking second-year college-level courses by their senior year, which makes their transition into a demanding engineering program a bit easier.”

As an alumna of MSMS and Ole Miss engineering, Thames wanted to give back to both schools in a mutually beneficial way.

“With this scholarship, I saw an opportunity to provide an extra incentive to Mississippi’s best and brightest technical students to enroll in engineering at Ole Miss and for Ole Miss engineering to add more top students with strong college-level science and math backgrounds,” Thames said.

UM School of Engineering staff said they are most appreciative of Thames’ generosity.

“The MSMS scholarship established by Kimberly Thames is an example of the altruism of our alumni, whose gifts continue to move the School of Engineering forward,” said Kevin Gardner, development officer for engineering. “Amanda Gurley is certainly deserving of being the first to receive this gift.”

“Kim’s donation is made to MSMS, but it certainly benefits Ole Miss as it gives scholarships to MSMS students to enter the engineering school,” said Alex Cheng, engineering school dean.

Clint Williford, chair and professor of chemical engineering, said Thames “wonderful” gift stands out in two ways.

“Firstly, it will encourage a bright, goal-setting student at MSMS, such as Kim was, to pursue an engineering career,” he said. “Secondly, Kim showed leadership by making this gift so early in her career. It speaks to her maturity, a long range view and empathy for others. Kim demonstrates that engineers are not only good students and good professionals, but good, caring people.”

Thames believes the Ole Miss engineering program sets itself apart from other programs with its smaller, more personal “community-style” learning setting within a large university.

“The engineering program also has liberal art electives, research jobs and leadership development opportunities for students early in their college years that many other engineering schools don’t offer,” she said. “I wanted to open doors for more MSMS students to have this unique engineering experience.”

The Mississippi Legislature established MSMS as a residential junior and senior high school in 1987. A member of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology, its purpose is to bring the state’s elite students together.  The school focuses on four ideals: scholarship, creativity, community and service.

For more information about MSMS, visit  www.themsms.org.