Innovate High School is an event run by the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Mansfield Center on the University of Montana campus. The event went on during April 3 from around 9-3. The day was packed with experiences from taking classes with college professors to touring the stadiums and learning facts about the university. 

    The day started with guest speaker Peter Hessler, a writer for the New Yorker and an accomplished writer of his own books. He told us about his experiences abroad and how much things have changed since he was a member of the Peace Corps, teaching at schools in China. This lasted for about an hour and it was very engaging and interesting.

    We then went off in small groups to classes and activities that we signed up for. I went to a class about cybersecurity in one of the lecture halls. The class was pretty short but informative, we learned all about the available positions, how hard it is, and how important it is for the world to have. Without it most big companies would loose millions. Other students attended classes on movement and approaching social problems, among others.

    After that we went to an all-you-can-eat lunch in the university’s food hall. I honestly thought it was very good for being campus food. I was put into the wrong group after that and had to tour the Adams Center and football field, which was cool, but I’ve lived near campus my whole life and been there countless times, so it wasn’t anything super impressive, the other kids seemed into it though. 

    To end off our day we went back to the Mansfield Center, where  sponsors of the event gave a speech about the whole event and then talked about college and admissions and the importance of trying your hardest. 

    The event was mainly kids from neighboring towns like Hamilton, Ronan, Frenchtown and many others. I feel like it was mainly geared towards them because Hellgate was the only school from Missoula there and a lot of us knew most of the information about the college. 

All that aside it was a very fun event and I would recommend going if you get the chance.