Governor's School of North Carolina

by Kevin Cherry, 2006

The Governor's School of North Carolina [2] is the nation's oldest statewide residential summer program for academically gifted high school students. Founded in 1963 at the urging of Governor Terry Sanford [3] and his adviser John Ehle [4], the Governor's School was originally funded by a Carnegie Corporation of New York [5] grant and donations from Winston-Salem [6] businesses. In 1966 the General Assembly [7] decided to continue the school with public funds, and in 1978 Governor James B. Hunt Jr. [8] expanded the school to a second campus. The program is open to rising seniors, with exceptions for rising juniors in the performing/visual arts area. Offering a noncredit, six-week curriculum, the school is located on two campuses with 400 students at each: Governor's School West at Salem College [9] in Winston-Salem and Governor's School East at St. Andrews Presbyterian College [10] in Laurinburg.

The State Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction [11], through the Exceptional Children Division [12], administers the Governor's School. A board of governors appointed by the State Board of Education serves the program in an advisory capacity. With an emphasis on the study of twentieth-century theories as they relate to the past and the future, the school's curriculum is divided into three major areas. In Area I, students explore their chosen subject area. Area II relates that chosen subject to other topics and fields of study on the abstract level through an investigation of philosophy, ethics, epistemology, and aesthetics. In Area III, students explore the interaction of self with society, learning about their own values, morals, and thought processes. There are no tests, no grades, and little homework.

Each local school superintendent or private school headmaster submits a quota of student names based upon the school population. The top two students chosen by each superintendent are invited to attend Governor's School, and a selection committee chooses remaining students from the pool of eligible candidates. Students in the performing and visual arts also audition.

Video Credit:

A Program Unlike Any Other, available from the North Carolina Governor's School Foundation at http://www.ncgsfoundation.org/ [13] (accessed November 8, 2012).