2020 Governor's Honors Semifinalists

NCSS Announces 2020 Governor's Honors Semifinalists
Posted on 02/26/2020
2020 Governor's Honors SemifinalistsTwelve Newton County School System (NCSS) high school students have been named semi-finalists for the 2020 Governor’s Honors Program (GHP). The GHP, open to all sophomores and juniors, is a free residential summer program for gifted or highly talented students who are passionate about the subject. Students interested in attending must participate in a series of interviews and should be able to speak eloquently and in great detail about the subject they choose. They are students who desire to work with their subject outside of school and go above and beyond. Students may be nominated in Communicative Arts (ELA), all the Foreign Languages, Math, Science, Social Studies, Dance, Music, Theater, Visual Arts, Engineering, and Agriscience.

According to Dr. Nikkita Warfield, NCSS director of secondary education, each school has a school level GHP coordinator.

“The coordinator informs teachers about the program and asks teachers to nominate students who are highly talented and qualified to meet the criteria of the program,” Warfield explained. “After the teachers provide the coordinators with student names, the coordinator meets with students to provide them with an overview of GHP and how the nomination process works. Additionally, the school-level GHP coordinator checks to ensure students meet the criteria. If the student meets the criteria, the coordinator informs the teacher and has the teacher complete the GHP nomination form. The teacher completes his or her portion as well as assists the student with filling in his/he nomination information (essays). After this process, each school has a school-level interview to select winners to compete in the district.”

She added, “The next layer of this rigorous process is the district level interviews. All identified students from each school compete in the district level interviews. If selected as district winners, the students’ names are submitted to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA). The students are next contacted by GOSA to complete a state application in efforts to be selected for state interviews. If selected, students become semi-finalist and then compete in state interviews. Students selected as finalists from state interviews will have the opportunity to participate in the GHP summer program.”

NCSS students who have successfully passed the school and district-level interviews and had their applications approved by GOSA to be named a semifinalist in the program are as follows:

2020 Governor's Honors Semifinalists; This is Alt Text
 NAME   SCHOOL    GRADE    SUBJECT AREA 
 Lilliquin Farino   Alcovy High    10    World Languages--French 
 Brennen Reilly   Alcovy High & NCCA STEM Institute    11    Mathematics 
 Hannah Gaston   Eastside High    11    Social Studies 
 Warth Haymore   Eastside High    11    World Languages--Latin 
 Cason Kauffmann   Eastside High    11    World Languages--Latin 
 Joyce Li   Eastside High    11    World Languages--Latin 
 Rafael Soria   Eastside High    11    Music--Woodwind: Flute 
 Matthew Walker   Eastside High    10    Communicative Arts 
 Brie Worton   Eastside High & Newton College & Career Academy    10    Visual Arts 
 Russell Danilchuk   Newton high & NCCA STEM Institute    11    Engineering--Mechanical & Electrical Engineering 
 Kyle Stoddard   Newton High & NCCA STEM Institute    11    Music--Brass: Tuba 
 Sean Ware   Newton High    10    Visual Arts 

“Congratulations to our students who have been named semi-finalists in the 2020 Governor’s Honors Program,” said Warfield. “These students have successfully completed two rigorous interviews and had their applications approved by the state to move forward to the next round of competition. It is nice to see so many students so passionate about a subject area, that they wish to participate in a program to learn more in-depth information about the topic. I commend them and wish each of them well in the next phase of the Governor’s Honors Program.”

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