Before I attended the North Carolina Governor’s School, past alumni told me that the experience was one of the best times of their lives. I was skeptical, but these words have proved to be true time and time again.
I attended the 2025 North Carolina Governor’s School session for mathematics. I was at the West Campus, so for four weeks during the summer, I lived at Greensboro College. By the end of those four weeks, I did not want to leave.
The NC Governor’s School has existed for 62 years, with the goal of providing an academically enriching experience for high school students in ten areas of study. The arts disciplines are theatre, dance, instrumental music, visual arts, and choral music. The academic disciplines are mathematics, English, Spanish, natural science, and social science.
The program is publicly funded, so for many students the tuition is free, but it depends on the school system. I live in Wake County, so I had to pay $300, but most students I talked to paid nothing.
Students have classes in three areas. Area 1 is the discipline for which the student applied. Area 2 is Applied Philosophy, and Area 3 is Self and Society. There are also daily elective seminars on diverse topics, ranging from “Foam Sword Fighting” to the “History of Gangs in El Salvador.”
Area 1
My Area 1 was math, and I learned a pretty even distribution of applied and pure mathematics. I took classes on graph theory, knot theory, and number theory. I also did a group research project on game theory and chaos theory.
The experience was also unique, because out of 48 math students, there were only eight of us girls on West Campus. Having so few girls was not really a challenge, because all the instructors and students were incredibly welcoming.
In terms of the math we did, I enjoyed applied math much more than pure math — graph and game theory were my favorite topics. It was extremely beneficial to have exposure to diverse areas in mathematics, but also helped me realize that I want to focus my career on more than just math.
Rowan Proctor, senior, attended Governor’s School East at Meredith College. His Area 1 was Instrumental Music, and he plays the clarinet. “There were parts [of Instrumental Music] where it was challenging because they gave us improv projects, and I’ve never done improv before. It was a lot of new material, but it was a lot of fun to play music without having to be limited… There wasn’t a lot of pressure to be the best. It was just like, we’re all here for the same thing. We’re all a team,” said Proctor.
Ben Cooper, senior, also attended Governor’s School for Instrumental Music at the West Campus, as a tuba player. “Attending Governor’s School for Instrumental Music was totally different from anything I had done music-related before that. The music was all contemporary and had new and interesting techniques involved… Outside of our concert music, they were stretching our brains about what music really is and what classifies sounds as music,” texted Cooper.
Area 2
Our Area 2 class was Applied Philosophy. It consisted of whole class discussions, debates, and thought experiments. We discussed metaphysics, ethics, and other philosophical topics.
The question, “How do we know what is real?” pervaded our everyday discussions, and I remember it all came to a head when the class was discussing if we could know for sure whether there was a tree in Sweden. I was adamant that there were definitely trees in Sweden, but then the discussion turned to, “What counts as Sweden? What counts as a tree?” That is just a snippet of our conversation.
We also debated over morals, especially pertaining to the use of AI or the accumulation of wealth. The discussions about AI were relevant because college application season was coming up for many of us. The discussions about wealth explored how billionaires like Elon Musk acquired their money, and how they continue to keep it.
The class was unique. I got to hear so many students’ perspectives on so many topics, and practiced my argumentation skills. It expanded my mind, and while I don’t think I’ll be a philosopher, it was interesting to think about life in a different way.
“My Area 2… got me to think about everything that I know and start questioning things that I maybe would not have questioned before,” said Cooper.
Area 3
Area 3 was called Self and Society, and like Area 2, was mostly whole-group conversation. We learned about ourselves and our perspectives within society, discovering a lot about each other along the way.
We did many activities, such as ranking what is normal, seeing how long we can keep an ice cube from melting, having an auction for character values, and much more.
“We had to do an assignment in Area 3, where we had to choose who lives or dies. [We had to make] a fallout shelter based on who was the most important [for survival in an apocalypse]. And then we made [a fallout shelter] that was based off of ourselves, but we didn’t know it was us… And as we went on, we slowly figured out what it was about,” said Proctor.
At the end of the session, we wrote letters to our future selves, that we will receive in the mail one year from now.
I learned so much about other people from that class, including the importance of conversation. The class was an opportunity unlike any other, having the chance to open up to people who started out as strangers, but quickly became acquaintances.
Seminars
The optional seminars were probably one of the most interesting parts of Governor’s School, because they were about anything and everything. There were often around six seminars per day, split between two time slots, and I attended at least one daily.
As a math student, I of course attended math seminars, many of which Bob Davis — the site director — presented. He was a phenomenal lecturer, discussing topics like the “Shape of the Universe” and “Modeling Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Over Time.”
There were several social studies seminars, including the “History of the Alphabet” and “Aliens and Pseudoscience.”
I also went to science seminars, including many on pre-med and the medical field, which inspired my interest in pursuing a career in that direction.
There were multiple required seminars. For one, an artist named Sherill Roland presented. He discussed his experience being wrongfully incarcerated, and how it shaped his journey as an artist. Vanessa Woods presented the second required seminar, discussing her work running the Duke Puppy Kindergarten.
“There were so many fun elective seminars that I enjoyed. There was one where a person who was on the jury of a murder trial explained how that all worked… and their experiences with that. That was really interesting,” said Proctor.
The seminar that left the biggest impact on me was called “Humanizing Immigration.” One of the Spanish instructors discussed her experience studying abroad in Mexico and working at migrant shelters across the country. She told stories about the people she met, and it was eye-opening to hear the specifics about migrants’ journeys.
Campus Life
Now, the program was called Governor’s School, but we had plenty of free time to hang out with our friends. I spent hours in the student center, learning card games — Cabo was a favorite among us. There were also activities on the quad every evening, like line dancing, lawn games, and yoga. We even had open mic nights every Sunday for people to perform their musical acts, and a dance at the end of the session.
“My favorite Governor’s School memory was definitely the murder mystery. Getting to run around campus with all of my friends and seeing the fellows dressed up in costumes was so hilarious. I will remember that forever,” texted Cooper.
Greensboro College is a pretty small campus, so it was easy to walk to all of the places we needed to go. The dorms were fairly nice and had sinks in them, and the dining hall food was good — the chocolate chip cookies were a staple.
A couple of students were photographers, so they visually documented the whole four-weeks. It was definitely special to be able to look back on all of those moments.
“The campus life at Governor’s School is like nothing else. Everyone is so friendly because you are all in the same situation of being somewhere for a month, where you knew no people before coming, so everyone is super outgoing. I made countless friends there. I miss it so much,” texted Cooper.
The People and the Lessons
By far, the best part about Governor’s School was the friends I made. I met people from all over North Carolina who inspired me to be more outgoing, curious, and fun. We shared so much laughter, while also learning about each other.
I honestly learned more about life from the people at Governor’s School than I learned about math, and I learned a lot about math. I gained so much perspective, confidence, and appreciation for the people around me.
“Governor’s School was some of the most fun I’ve ever had, and I learned so much about people, how to think critically, and just overall how to be a better person,” texted Cooper.
“Overall, I think that I learned to give out into the world what you want to receive. I learned that a community doesn’t have to be based on competition, because that’s typically how it is in the band here. I think I just learned how to appreciate things more, appreciate music, and just be able to think and use my brain,” said Proctor.
If you are considering applying to Governor’s School, do it. If you were accepted into Governor’s School and are attending, know that it is the experience of a lifetime.
Leave a Reply