More Speak About Governor’s School Experiences

I quoted a film I saw in Gov. School (GS West, 1991, History) just this week. Our state shouldn’t deprive future students of this amazing experience. – Beth Glenn

GSW 2004, Music. Best six weeks ever! It really helped me to push myself forward and embark on a career path in music education! It was such a memorable experience! – Richard Jordon

GSW 07, English. It’s the reason I’m an English major now. Almost all my college friends went to an equivalent form of GS in their states and loved it. Allowing Governor’s School to fall apart would be a huge disservice to the higher education of the children in North Carolina. – Robin Yang

GSE 2008, Meredith College. I came from a very small tourist town in WCU, where education was not at the most important thing, sports were. GSE helped me escape from the overbearing predjudices in my town and rethink the morals and the beliefs I was taught, so that I could take ownership of what I believed in and I knew exactly what kind of person I was. – Taylor Boss

GSW ‘95 Music. I was helping my wife at a Middle School Leadership conference for Johnston Co. today and Bob Etheridge was the keynote speaker. Before he went on, I chatted with him about how important GS is, how I remember him speaking when I was there, and his involvement in the program. He’s on board – that’s the point of my post.

Some of you may be interested to know his daughter went to GS also and loved the experience. Also, he went to the same school in Johnston Co. as my father-in-law and late grand-father-in-law, just miles from where we live, the conference was, and my wife teaches. It’s a small world. – Aaron Pinkston

GS ‘74. Music. From a rural high school with no orchestra (only band) to playing the French horn solo in Brahm’s 3rd, and the amazing experience of The Firebird Suite. Not to mention the brain-expanding process. It was the experience of a lifetime. – Anne Wilfong

‘86 GSE Social Science Alumni – GSE completely changed my perception of myself. I went to high school in Duplin County with 60 students in my class. How could I ever hope to compete with kids from Raleigh and Charlotte that could take advanced classes?

GSE was an amazing opportunity to interact with students from across the state. It gave me confidence that I could effectively interact with people from all walks of life, with different social and economic advantages. It gave me the confidence I needed when I interviewed for scholarships and when I left home to attend a large university.

I thank the people of North Carolina for the tremendous gift of Governor’s School, and I encourage its continued support. I pray that this program will continue so that my children will one day have this opportunity. – Lynn Sutton

Governor’s School (‘74) absolutely changed my life. I can’t imagine the course of my life and career without having been exposed to modern music, playing in an orchestra. I tell the story all the time: a rural southtern boy with no exposure to the above who becomes a composer. A truly visionary program whose foundation is unmatched by any other similar program that I’ve heard of. – John Morrison

GSE, 2005. Governor’s School was an absolutely amazing experience for me, and everyone that I know who attended. Although I recieved a lot of criticism from my conservative and relatively closed-minded community for the radical and raw ideas that GSE instilled upon me, I have ulitmately determined that GSE gives its students wide open spaces to develop their own philosophies, and the freedom to agree or disagree with the things that are shaping our generation and the world as we have known, and will know it. – Hannah Hunt

An Open Letter from Tanya Olson

Tanya Olson, one of the GSE faculty who was relieved of her position by the DPI, has sent me an open letter that she wrote to former Governor’s School students explaining her situation.

Click here to read

From the Director’s Mouth

N.C. Department of Public Instruction Exceptional Children Director Mary Watson says…

• 2003: “The school is designed to encourage them to develop their potential for contributing to society as creative leaders in their various fields of endeavor. Acceptance into Governor’s School is one of the highest honors that we provide for North Carolina high school students.” Source
• 2004: The academic environment of the Governor’s School thrives upon students’ intellectual curiosity. Acceptance into Governor’s School is one of the highest honors provided to high school students.” Source
• 2005: “Being a Governor’s School participant opens students’ eyes to the world in an entirely different way and enables them to experience rigor, relevance and relationships in a manner that is unparalleled in the typical high school experience.” Source
• 2006: “Governor’s School provides some of the state’s best and brightest students with a unique opportunity to explore and develop their talents.” Source
• 2007: “Governor’s School provides some of our more academically gifted students with a unique opportunity to explore and develop their talents in a specific curriculum area while building strong friendships with other students who share similar interests.” Source

In addition, this sentence appears in the press releases from 2003-2005, but not in 2006 or 2007. “The courses and activities are designed to stimulate student creativity, move students to question basic assumptions, explore unanswered questions, and develop an acceptance of the process of change.” (Emphasis added)

All of these quotes were taken from press releases on the NC Public Schools website announcing the selection of Governor’s School students. Stumbling upon these press releases has given me an interesting view of how the politics surrounding NC Governor’s School have changed since I attended.

Governor’s School Provides the Right Education

This is an editorial written in 2006 by a UNC-Chapel Hill student for the Daily Tar Heel.

The N.C. Governor’s School provides the right education

College Admissions Essay

As I hugged my friends goodbye, tears streaming down my face, we promised to reunite. I was loath to leave them and a summer full of new experiences behind. The summer of 2006, I attended the Governor’s School of North Carolina in social science. When I first arrived, biting my lip, my stomach in knots, I did not know what to expect. I had never been away from home for two weeks, much less six. I was going to be surrounded by almost 400 people whom I had never met. As much as I tried to be brave, I cried when my parents left. But the few tears that escaped my eyes then were nothing compared to the bawling I would do when I had to leave Governor’s School six weeks later with many new friends and a few new ideas about life.

Within a few days, my class compiled a list of over two hundred topics to discuss, including censorship, genocide, and the War in Iraq. I was amazed at the insight of my classmates. At my high school, most of the students do not care about current issues. But here, everyone was aware of current events, and everyone had opinions on them, usually strong ones. I was excited to be intellectually challenged, to be able to participate in discussions where everyone’s point had logic behind it, where students took the debate seriously.

While I had high hopes for the summer, I also felt in over my head. In school I tended to be on the quiet side, usually preferring to quietly absorb the material instead of speaking out in class. At Governor’s School however, I was encouraged to speak up. One of my instructors commented on a journal entry I wrote for class in which I confessed my tendency to be less vocal. She urged me to contribute even if my opinion was not fully formed or if the explanation behind my words was not complete. I began to feel more comfortable sharing my ideas. We discussed controversial topics and were forced to question our beliefs. While my beliefs did not change as a result of these discussions, I became more comfortable with them as a part of who I am. I also became less shy outside of class, introducing myself to someone new each day or saying hello to someone I met the previous day. By the end, I had fallen in love with Governor’s School.

After our final assembly, “I’ll miss you!” and “You better keep in touch!” were common exchanges heard through the mass of tearful hugging students. Looking around, I thought about my days there. I had grown from someone who sometimes preferred sitting on the sidelines in class and out, watching others act before her, to someone wanting a more active role. After six weeks, the program ended, but I what I gained from the experience, my new ideas and my new comfort with the person I am, will stay with me forever.

- Mollie Mayfield
GSE Social Science ‘06

Support from a Parent

“Accept nothing. Challenge everything.” I hope that somehow I imparted this motto long before Moriah ever attended NCGS. I have spent the last 19 years believing that I am my child’s primary teacher. It is my responsibility to mold her and teach her values and morals and to instill in her the priceless value of an excellent education. More than any teacher through magnate elementary and middle schools as well as her private high school experience, it is my responsibility to teach and to train. I should have given her a strong enough foundation in values, morals and teaching by age 16 that she could endure 6 weeks of learning at NCGS.

I believe that children start deciding around middle school about who they are, separate from their parents and siblings and friends. I believe the first way that they begin to determine who they are is by determing who and what they are not. NCGS begins to expose our children (some who have been in a exceedlingly narrow world until NCGS) to other ideas, other opinions, other cultures, other experiences. If you value learning, this is an amazing and wondrous thing. Please expose my child to the issues in Darfur. I hope if nothing else she comes away with an appreciation for her life here in the US and a decision to change some small portion of this world for the better. Please expose my child to different religions. I hope that when she says she is an evangelical Christian, it is because she made that decision for herself and not because she was “born” into it. Please expose my child to the creativity of 6 hour theater and to art outside her comfort zone. I hope that the creativity she learns here will be applied when she works in a 40 hour week job (if she chooses that) or when she parents or when she helps a friend. Please expose my child to people who have chosen a different lifestyle than her. I hope that she appreciates that we live in a country where you are free to choose and I hope that makes her decision for her own life less random and more decisive. Please challenge the ideas that I gave my daughter. I hope that she makes them her own and if not, I hope that she takes the seeds of those values and plants them for herself and grows them her own way. Please urge my child to be exposed to things to analyze, discuss and accept or reject. I hope that she realizes that the re-gurgitation of a normal school education will not help her near as much in life as this approach. Please encourage my child to take responsiblity for her own education by having optional speakers and movies and seminars. I hope that she begins to define herself and know herself so she does not have to go through endless rounds of college parties hoping someone or something will define her instead. Please give my child the opportunity to go to NCGS with other intelligent, curious, enthusiastic, and passionate kids like her. I hope that she does not feel as alone as she had at times in traditional school. I hope that she finds kindred spirits. Please let my daughter explore herself and her ideals in the academic and open environment of college while still having the supervision of high school. I hope that she is better able to handle the social pressures and decisions of college because she experienced it with a safety net at NCGS.

No one formed Moriah at NCGS. She did not come back with an altered sexuality or with liberal values. She did seem to have molted some of her intellectual child-skin. She seemed to me to have wiggled out of her caterpillar cocoon. She seemed to know who the young adult Moriah, independent of me would be. She stood taller. She spoke more surely. She looked people in the eye more and knew the value of her opinions. At NCGS, she seemed to have found her wings.

So, as a parent who saw NCGS as a blessing, I say thank you for this opportunity. I thank you that you grew my daughter taller and stronger. I thank you and I ask you to listen to some of our voices before making any rash decisions about NCGS.

Thank you,
Rebekah Harden
Parent of GSE English ‘05 Alum

Personal Experience

I would like to echo many of the sentiments that have been posted already and say that what is gained from this experience goes deeper than politics and beliefs, conservative and liberal, views and opinions; it is the knowledge that you can have your own opinions and they will be respected by all. The knowledge that for once in your life at least you will be accepted, completely, for who you are. That you will learn, both in the classroom and out, and those lessons will stay with you forever. And those lessons, like most other things at Governor’s school, can be applied to everything, universally, and will stay with you for the rest of your life.

- Emylee McIntosh
GSW English ‘07

Personal Experience

Attending North Carolina’s Governor’s School East during the summer of 2006, impacted my ideas, values, goals, and aspirations. Growing up in Clinton has been an amazing experience, and I would not change a thing about it. However, this small town can seem almost like a box at times- one that protects you from the rest of the world. Governor’s School presented me with the challenge to question things I had never questioned before. I actually became stronger in the things I truly believed, but also formed new opinions as well. I watched documentaries, read books, and listened to speakers who helped me build on the ideas I already had for what I want to do with my future. I realized where my true passions lie, and gained methods to attain them. I met individuals who taught me the real reasons for the necessity that we are all unique in our own way. So many of my peers and I had completely different beliefs and opinions on many things. We respected and appreciated each other even when we did not agree. I realized that in order to learn more about myself, I have to learn more about those around me. Learning was extremely fun at Governor’s School. My curiosity was sparked, and the flame continues to burn. I now have an aspiration to learn and serve others 24/7, whenever and wherever I can. Stepping out of my comfort zone (in the way I think and the way I act) is the only way to grow as a person. Growing as a person became my goal, through GSE 2006.

- Olivia Shipp
GSE Instrumental Music ‘06

College Admissions Essay

The day that I moved into my dorm at Meredith College for Governor’s School, I was accompanied by 399 strangers. Though I was enthusiastic about the program, I had no idea that these people would later become the best friends I would ever have. Furthermore, I did not know that the person I would get to know the most at Governor’s School would be myself.

Accepted for choral music, I was the only student from my school to attend Governor’s School in 2005. The program offered me the chance to learn in a college environment—my peers and I stayed in dorms, ate cafeteria food, and did our own laundry. Classes were held in the morning, and in the evenings we saw films and heard speakers that challenged our minds.

All students took classes in philosophy and personal ethics. I found myself drawn into the discussions about ideologies, religions, and politics, stretching my mind by thinking about thought itself. I was constantly challenged to ponder the profound questions of human life: Why are we here? What is the nature of human nature? Is there a God? Who exactly am I?

Our instructors sought to pry open our minds, often playing the devil’s advocate to introduce different perspectives. In class discussion, fellow students not only challenged each other’s ideas, but also shared their personal experiences and opinions. Being at Governor’s School was like living in a bubble—I was given the opportunity to examine and criticize the outside world in an environment that would not ostracize others for their beliefs.

In addition to my philosophy classes, I attended chorus rehearsal twice a day. Governor’s School East’s advanced ensemble of women studied and performed works written in the twentieth century by composers such as Randall Thompson, Eleanor Daley, and Charles Ives. My musicianship flourished as a result of this rigorous study, but my mind was also opened to new types of music and other arts from the concerts and performances that I attended. I discovered the beauty of abstract art. I wondered at what point noise became music, listening to John Cage’s 4’33”. Governor’s School helped me to redefine art and beauty in my mind.

For the first time in my life, Governor’s School allowed my mind and my personality to be free. My experience that summer changed my life forever, making me more confident in my own beliefs and changing the way that I think. Surrounded by scores of intelligent high school students, I found that a love of high-minded discussion and a thirst for knowledge had been sparked in me. Not only did I become a better musician, I also became a better citizen, more aware of the world. Governor’s School taught me the things that one is not taught in high school—to be open-minded and respect others’ values, and to fully know and believe in one’s self.

- Anna Diemer
GSE Choral Music ‘05

Excerpt of Poem by Alumnus

Before I quivered, appreciated the fetal position
more than your typical seventeen-year-old. Now!
I act on stage! I’ve played open mics! I present my Art
boldly with neither pretense nor fear.
I’ve done what I have done!
I have been shown what it is to be yourself
I have been reformed and
I have minds fresh and new clamoring inside my head.
They knew me more than I did myself, there;
they validated my creativity
my idiosyncrasies
my tiny flaws
and my colossal ones.
There were times:
I had to stand for what I thought to be true and
that standing, my friend, has made all the difference.
I am more me than I have ever been and more proud of that…

- Jon O’Neill
GSW Visual Art ‘07