A12 THE BERTIE LEDGER-ADVANCE,THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16,2021
My Governor's School Experience I CAN IYA DAYE, BECHS STUDENT
im
G overnor's School is not
your typical summer pro
gram for gifted students.
It is a place to find others
that love learning to learn with you.
It is a haven for those who may feel
misfitted by their home community.
It is an environment for all people to
love each other for who they are as
individuals and a whole. Governor's
School is a place for exploring new
things every day (for a month), from
academics to the inner self.
The significant experience that
I had here was the opportunity of
staying on a college campus. Mer
edith College is an all-girls college
in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was
also the campus used for Gover
nor's School East. Since there are
always a lot of accepted applicants
for Governor's School, it is a sepa
ration of them between two cam
puses, Meredith and High Point
University. Meredith College is one
of the colleges I'm considering ap
plying to for the next steps of my
life. To get to live on its campus for
a month helped me see how I would
be living on campus by myself. Inde
pendence and responsibility settled
on me, and I had to make good use
of them. Balancing those things and
academic work is not an easy thing.
Good decision skills are a must
when living by yourself. One mis
take can easily throw you offtrack.
The academic work that I now
know of is another significant expe
rience I got from Governor's School.
While it offered many subjects that
you could go there for, you could
only choose one. Math is what I
picked since I want to go to college
and become an applied mathemati
cian. Each staff member in a subject
department was either in their ju
nior year of college, graduated from
it, or in graduate programs for their
Master's or Ph.D. For the math de
partment, there were three teach
ers that math students switched
between every day. My homeroom
teacher, Logan Gray, was in grad
uate college for her Ph.D. in math
at UNC-Chapel Hill. The second
teacher, Robert Houck, or his nick
name MathRob, was a well-experi
enced math teacher at the Longleaf
School of the Arts and had been
at Governor's School for about 22
years. My last and favorite teach
er, Yvonne Chazal, teaches adjunct
math at Wake Tech Community Col
lege. These three astonishing teach
ers taught us students something
we could never forget. From Logan,
we learned about knot theory; from
MathRob, infinity, and Yvonne, com
binatorics. All three of these top
ics are graduate-level math topics,
and I think it is pretty amazing that
I now know much information about
them. It was hard to understand at
first, of course, but you caught onto
it after you figured out what to do.
I could go on forever about this
life-changing experience, but the
last significant experience I got out
of it was meeting new people. At
Governor's School East, there were
a total of 350 high school students.
Most of us were juniors, but there
were also sophomores who were in
dance, choral music, or instrumental
music. No matter what your choice
was for going there, you could easily
make friends with them. As a math
student, I made friends with others
in French, Social Science, and En
glish. To this day, I stay in touch with
some of them if I am not too busy
with school work and college appli
cations. Even though I was one of
the minority students and a very an
tisocial person, I still managed to do
that. In addition, they were also very
passionate about learning. To meet
teenagers that love learning as I do
was the most surprising thing I ever
discovered. I long to be around peo
ple like that every day as the nerdi-
ness in me would like that very much.
Ever since the end of Governor's
School, I have missed it so much and
wish to go back. My high school ex
perience will never be like the one
at Governor's School. However, I am
making the most out of it by being
a college advisor to my senior class,
f hosted a college essay seminar for
seniors and juniors to learn more
about writing their college essays.
Most days, I have sent out schol
arships to my class that they may
want to apply for college tuition. If
our guidance counselor is nowhere
to be present, I am constantly help
ing them apply for colleges and
answering any questions they may
have. Governor's School changed
the mindset that I once had and has
made it into something more ma
ture and ready to prepare for col
lege. If any other high school junior,
or sophomore, can attend it, they
should definitely take that chance.
No one can have the same experi
ence as mine without actually having
experienced it themselves. I can also
use it for bragging rights on college
applications, so why miss a chance
like that? I promise you you'll never^
see high school the same anymore.
\
A group of BHS students
participated in ECU MADE
(Multicultural And Diver
sity Experience) at East
Carolina University on Saturday,
November 20, 2021. MADE at ECU
gives current high school students
an opportunity to see how they
can benefit from an exceptional
education and wonderful social ex
perience at East Carolina University.
MADE at ECU offered our students
the chance to meet with current
students and faculty, learn how to
apply and pay for their education,
explored ECU's scholarship oppor
tunities, and learned about the many
different majors offered at ECU.
Here are pictures of our students
being given a tour of the Richard R.
& Joann M. Eakin Student Recre
ation Center.
The Eakin Student Recreation
Center is a 150,000 square foot
facility that has six basketball
courts, a 27 ft rock climbing wall.
Adventure Center, indoor and
outdoor pool, 12,000 square
foot weight and fitness area,
indoor track. Indoor Cycling
Zone, Mind & Body Zone, Resis
tance Training Zone, Functional
Cross Training Zone, 3 racquet-
ball courts, 3 multipurpose stu
dios, the Cardio Zone with pre
mier equipment that features
Netflix, cable TV, and internet
access, classroom space, a fam
ily changing room with show
er, and a newly added Athletic
Training facility. Our Adventure
Center has indoor and outdoor
sporting equipment available
for rental. There is access to day
use lockers and rental lockers in
the locker rooms.
m
SSBSSSr
Candy Corn Experiment (Colerain Elementary School)
Students in Ms. Square's class used the scientific method to answer ques
tions, form a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, make observations, and
draw conclusions.
\
WBES Fall Festival
West Bertie Elementary School hosted a Fall Festival where students had
the opportunity to participate in various games and activities. Some of
the activities were "forehead" painting, corn hole, bingo, cake walk, con
nect 4, and dancing. Admission included a hot dog, chips, drink and 4
tickets. Students also had the opportunity to purchase additional tickets.
Vi
WBES Red Ribbon Week
Students at West Bertie Elementa
ry School pledge to be drug and
bully free. They participated in the
following activities for Red Ribbon
Week: wear red, wear mismatched
clothes, dress like twins, wear
school colors - green, black and/or
white and wear boots.
WBES Scholastic Book Fair
Students had the opportunity to
visit the Scholastic Book Fair and
purchase items.