Six to attend Governor's School
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 14, 2016 1:46 PM
Six rising seniors from Wayne County Public Schools will be attending sessions at the Governor's School of North Carolina this summer.
The 2016 session runs from June 19-July 27, with 670 of the state's most distinguished rising high school juniors and seniors engaging in academics and arts programs on two campuses -- Governor's School West, established in 1963 at Salem College in Winston-Salem, and Governor's School East, established in 1978 and located at Meredith College in Raleigh.
Attending Governor's School West will be Naquana Sessoms from Goldsboro High, studying English, and Cassidy Mason from Southern Wayne High, studying math.
Representing Wayne County at Governor's School East will be Paul Podbelski from Charles B. Aycock High School, in math; Louise Freeman of Southern Wayne, studying English; and Hayralah Alghorau and Keagan Kermode, both of Wayne Early/Middle College High, in the areas of social science and natural science, respectively.
The Governor's School of North Carolina, the oldest statewide summer residential program for intellectually gifted high school students in the U.S., was founded in 1963 by then-Governor Terry Sanford. While it does not involve credit, tests or grades, it has a reputation for challenging students in a unique learning environment.
Faculty and staff include distinguished teachers and professionals from public and private schools, colleges and universities across the country, as well as artists and scholars.
The program is open to rising seniors, with the exception of the performing arts areas, which include rising juniors.
Students are first nominated by their local superintendents, charter school directors or private school headmasters. Each school system, charter school and private school is allotted a certain number of nominations based on the student populations. There are 10 specialization areas for nomination, English, foreign language, mathematics, natural science, social science, art, choral music, instrumental music, theater and dance.
To help offset program costs, the General Assembly enacted a tuition fee of $500 per student in 2010. It falls to the public school system, charter school or private school to pay the students' tuition, and to determine how the funds will be collected if one of their students are chosen.