The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV), a four-decade old high school enrichment program that more than 10,000 Vermont students have attended, has had to improvise its way through the Covid-19 pandemic. For help, it turned to a professional improviser: Elizabeth Frascoia is a Vermont native and professional jazz trombonist and singer who has performed with pop stars like Michael Bolton, and on Saturday Night Live, American Idol, the Tonight Show and at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. In January, she took over the reins of GIV as executive director.

Frascoia is helping to steer the program through its second summer of remote programming. Governor’s Institutes have traditionally been held on college campuses throughout the state, from a program in global issues and youth action at Landmark College in Brattleboro to a math institute at the University of Vermont, as well institutes in the arts, engineering, health sciences, and other focus areas.

This year, the institutes have been rebranded as “immersions” with the promise that they will carry out GIV’s commitment to provide students with “high-impact, world-class learning opportunities that stimulate their personal growth and expand their aspirations, perspectives, and career horizons.” The application deadline is April 1, 2021.

Frascoia discusses her journey from growing up in Woodstock, to studying neuroscience at Harvard University, launching a career as a world traveling jazz musician, to returning to Vermont to lead GIV, the oldest governor’s school in the country, as it improvises its way into the future.