Are you a sophomore or junior who wants to explore a subject more deeply than you can at CHS? Luckily, every summer, the Virginia Department of Education runs a program designed for you. Our state Summer Residential Governor’s Schools host free, prestigious programs at local universities.
Governor’s Schools cover every subject: STEM, humanities, medical sciences, marine biology, engineering, world languages, agriculture, and the arts. Rising juniors and seniors who get in can learn from experts in their field and meet other students who share what they’re passionate about. This year, nine CHS students got the honor of spending three weeks in a Governor’s program, and three of them spoke to KTR about their summer programs.
CHS senior Michelle Wong attended the Governor’s School program for math, science and technology. “I highly recommend it!” she says. “I took a class on meteorology for all three weeks, and it was a whole different aspect of science I had never thought of before.”
Michelle says she liked her schedule: every morning she had a three-hour class during the week with free time and other activities afterward, like a few field trips on meteorology and environmental science. “One day we went hiking up the Blue Ridge Mountains for cloud watching. My class got to go into the Radford garden for river quality testing too.” On the weekends, her hall went roller skating and saw movies.
Outside of class, Michelle says had a lot of free time to spend with friends around the University of Lynchburg. “I was living with sixty other girls, but I spent a lot of time in class, which was smaller,” Michelle said. “You still kind of have to put yourself out there to meet people outside your class, but it’s worth it.”
Sadie Sherman, who is now a junior, also represented CHS at Governor’s Academies this past summer. Sadie spent four weeks at the Latin language academy at Randolph-Macon College. “I liked it a lot,” she says. “It’s a very good immersive experience, because you’re completely surrounded all the time by Latin and people who like Latin. If you’re really interested in it, there’s no way to lose your focus.” Latin students don’t even have their phones to distract them, because electronics must be left at home.
While they’re at the Latin Academy, students can take up to six classes on classical subjects like Ancient Greek, translating Ovid, and comparing Appalachian music to ancient poetry. “We also spent part of the day in different groups writing plays in Latin, which we performed at the end,” Sadie explains. “There was always an evening activity too. We did arts and crafts sometimes, or we would listen to a guest lecturer, who would talk about art history, coins, frescoes.”
Sadie says she really liked the community at the Latin Academy. However, from her experience, there are very few students who are coming from central Virginia. “All of the Gov Schools pull much more from northern Virginia than they do from anywhere else in Virginia,” she said. “Like, if there’s forty kids who went to my Gov School, maybe seven of them were from outside NOVA. That was the ratio.” Even though the demographics of where students are from may be skewed, Sadie had a great time at her summer program, and she’s still in touch with friends from the summer.
At Radford University, CHS senior Charlotte Abney went to the very selective Governor’s School program in theater, culminating in a showcase at the end of the summer. “It was really beautiful to see, like, all these different walks of life come together,” she said. “I had only known these people for three weeks, and I think putting that together with these strangers from all different parts of Virginia was really beautiful to see.”
Charlotte explained that the theater program has an intense schedule. “We would do activities in the morning typically, like yoga, dance, or choreographing. Then there was an acting class in the afternoon, and sometimes singing workshops.” Classes would even assign homework for some courses. “I would pretty much be busy all the way taking the end of the day,” Charlotte said. “We had to write monologues based on our experiences for homework. But it was all fun stuff, stuff I loved.”
Since theater students spent so much time together in class and in their showcase, Charlotte says she had a good time making friends and getting to know other actors from all over Virginia. “I feel like I really made some friendships by the end,” she says. “There was a lot of social stuff that [Radford University] would provide for in the evenings, so they would be mixers, and there was a Halloween bash in the summer.” Meeting people who were serious about theater was also important to Charlotte, and she says it was one of her favorite things about Governor’s School. “I’m trying to pursue this for college, and it made me feel really, you know, ready to embrace that kind of environment.”
If you’re thinking of applying to Governor’s School for next summer, every student who spoke to KTR recommends it, but they advise you to devote time to the process. “It’s like a baby college application,” says Michelle. “They ask for a few essays, one about you and why you’re applying, and then an academic one about your subject.”
Students also have to submit transcripts, activities, awards, and two recommendation letters through the online application. Sadie suggests, “it’s good to get a recommendation from a teacher in school and then someone else who’s an adult that mentors you in some way.”
For students who want to attend a Visual or Performing Arts program, Governor’s School auditions are the main way to get in. “Auditioning was definitely a several week process,” says Charlotte. “There was one set of auditions, then an adjudication process, and I had to record a monologue, like a self tape.” Like other summer programs, Arts applicants also have to submit teacher recommendations and complete a short essay about why they’re interested in their subject.
When asked what new applicants should know when they start the audition process, Charlotte said, “It’s always worth a try, you know? If you don’t get in, it just means you weren’t a fit for their group. But if you do, it’s amazing.”
According to Sadie Sherman, applicants from Charlottesville may even have an advantage. “All the Governor’s Schools want more diversity across the state, so I would definitely say at least apply for whatever you’re interested in,” she says.
Every summer Governor’s School program can be a great opportunity for rising juniors and seniors. If you want to learn more, you can reach out to the CHS gifted coordinator, Jeff Smith, at [email protected]. You can also look into the programs in more detail here on the Virginia Department of Education website.
