STARKVILLE, Mississippi USA — It’s only nine miles down Oktoc Road from Mississippi State University to the Berk home, an old farmhouse more than 100 years old — the central hallway works cleverly as the family’s kitchen.

But in the original kitchen the paradox between past and present couldn’t be plainer. It’s where Matthew Berk, a 15-year-old pilot and home schooled student, builds his model rockets. The walls and old cupboards are lined with various rocket parts along with radio-controlled airplanes, his real affinity.

Matthew Berk, 15, of Starkville, will participate in the World Space Modeling Championship in the Team America Rocketry Challenge next week in Manassas, Va. Photo: Skip Descant.

“That’s really what I’m most interested in, is radio-controlled planes,” said Berk one afternoon last week as a relentless thunderstorm blew sideways across Oktoc’s rolling hills.

Berk leaves next week to participate in the World Space Modeling Championship rocket contest in Manassas, Va., where 100 teams from around the country will compete for first place, a $60,000 scholarship along with a trip to an air show in London. Three teams from Mississippi will be competing: the Monroe County Advanced Learning Center, Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science and the Starkville Christian Home Educators, of which Berk and fellow team members Justin Burger and Sam Miller are part.

Matthew’s parents — Michael and Trish Berk — moved out to the country about 15 years ago from their home in Starkville. The move to the old farmhouse, though Arcadia in its removal from town and still so closely connected to Starkville, was problematic in one key area any family with two small kids would worry about. The Berks simply did not see the county school system as a workable education option.

“At the time I think it was on probation, and maybe it still is, but we just knew it wasn’t as strong academically, as the Starkville School District,” said Michael Berk, an architecture professor at MSU.

And that’s when Michael and his wife Trish explored home schooling.

“I thought, well, I could do this,” said Trish Berk, noting their oldest son Jamen was somewhat the “guinea pig,” but went on to become a National Merit Scholar. Jamen Berk just graduated from State in biological sciences with a 4.0 average.

The family refers to their home almost jokingly as the Oktoc Free School, and the name apparently picked up traction.

“I guess we’re sort of real. The Oktoc Free School gets credit card applications,” laughed Michael Berk. “We’ve had a number of people contact us about enrolling their kids.”
 
But when it comes to nurturing his children’s interests, Michael Berk points to the numerous aerospace experts in the area and at MSU.

“Even if I had the money, I couldn’t buy this level of expertise for Matthew,” said Michael Berk, mentioning people like Greg Stewart, the general manager at Aurora Flight sciences and others in MSU’s aerospace engineering program.

Matthew, how did you become involved in rocketry and aerospace interests?

I always enjoyed planes and everything. I started flying radio-controlled planes a few years ago. And from there, I started meeting people who were also flying radio-controlled planes and that got me involved in the glider club over at Bryan Field.

Are there people you look to as somewhat mentors through this whole process?

The person that brought me into rocketry was Greg Stewart, the general manager over at Aurora and he got me involved with the contest.

How did this begin? Who initially competed in the Team America Rocketry Challenge, and what does it mean to make it all the way to the finals?

More than 600 high schools from around the country competed. And the goal is to have a rocket take two eggs as close to 750 feet as possible and have the entire flight from liftoff to touchdown last as close to 45 seconds as possible. The top 100 teams go to Manassas, Va., to compete in the finals.

So Matthew, I understand you also have a pilot’s license and go up in gliders. What’s that like?

You get towed up by a regular plane, up to three or four thousand feet, or higher even, and they release you and you stay up for as long as you can with the thermals and just the clouds and air currents around you.
 
How long have you stayed in the air?

I’ve stayed up for more than an hour.

How many times have you done this?

I’ve been flying since fall 2006, and I soloed in October 2007. I fly every weekend that I can. Which, the last several weekends haven’t been so good, with all of the wind and the rain we’ve been getting.

Being on the home-school schedule is pretty different from the conventional classroom which is more regimented. What’s an average day like for you?

We don’t have a set schedule. There are goals that we have laid out and that we have to complete each day. And usually I can get through my entire curriculum in a few hours. But one of the great things is if there’s not a whole lot to get done or if I understand something really quickly, we can move through it quickly. Or, if there’s something I’m having trouble with, we can stay on it until I understand it.

Does not having the daily interpersonal relations and exchanges with other students your age in a regular school setting sometimes seem strange? Are you friends with a number of kids your age?

It doesn’t seem to be a problem. I have several friends at Starkville High School. It’s just, I don’t see them at school. I see them other times.

Do you see yourself moving into aerospace as a career?

Yes, I’m planning on going to college and taking classes in aerospace, and I’ve been looking around. But actually Mississippi State has a flight lab and it seems to be a really good choice. So I’m thinking about staying here and studying aerospace.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I would think I guess I’d be finishing up graduate school and I guess in a job in maybe something like Boeing, or some other company.

Copyright © 2008, The Commercial Dispatch.