Thirty-one Hall County School District students have been selected as semifinalists for the Governor’s Honors Program.
The GHP is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors. Managed by the Governor’s Office for Student Achievement, it will take place this year at Berry College in Rome. The 2017 program will be the 54th summer, making it the longest continually running program of its kind in the nation.
According to a news release from the school district, public and private high schools across the state nominated over 3,200 students who represent the "best of the best" in eleven areas of study: Agricultural Science, Communicative Arts, Dance, Engineering, Mathematics, Music, Science, Social Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts and World Languages. Of these, less than 1,700 were selected as semifinalists and will be interviewed and auditioned on February 25. Approximately 650 finalists, one-fourth of one percent of eligible sophomores and juniors in the state, will be chosen to participate in this year's program. Since the program is fully funded by the Georgia General Assembly, there is no charge for students to attend.
During the four weeks of the program, students spend the morning in their major area of nomination, exploring topics not usually found in the high school classroom. In the afternoons, students choose one of the other areas in which to study. Evenings are filled with seminars, activities, concerts and performances.
Dr. Sally Krisel, Hall County’s Director of Innovative and Advanced Programs, said, “GHP is such a prestigious program that even being nominated at the school level is a tremendous accomplishment. I congratulate all of the outstanding students who were nominated. I know these 31 Semifinalists will represent the district well at the statewide interviews.”
The Hall County semifinalists are:
Name Nomination Area School
Victoria Clendenning Communicative Arts Johnson High School
Clyde Kelly Communicative Arts Johnson High School
Sydney Yancey Communicative Arts Johnson High School
Kristen Wedegis Dance Chestatee High School
Lindsey Sewell Dance North Hall High School
Nathan Greene Engineering North Hall High School
Alexis Smith Mathematics Johnson High School
Maximiliano Hernandez Mathematics North Hall High School
Georgia Warnock Mathematics West Hall High School
Gracyn Potter Music North Hall High School
Gabriel Ezeta Music West Hall High School
Madison Cottrell Science Chestatee High School
Dahlia Galvez Science Chestatee High School
Owen Ozaki Science Chestatee High School
Amanda Laidlaw Science Flowery Branch High School
Melanie Valencia Science Flowery Branch High School
Vanessa Nunez Science West Hall High School
Noah Merck Social Studies Chestatee High School
Jonathan Walls Social Studies Flowery Branch High School
Britney Bales Social Studies Flowery Branch High School
Eleanor Luciani Social Studies Flowery Branch High School
Samuel Corbett-Rogacki Social Studies Johnson High School
Luke Derusha Social Studies Johnson High School
Jordan Battle Social Studies North Hall High School
Tristan Prather Theatre East Hall High School
Veronica Nash Theatre Johnson High School
Kathrin Merritt World Languages Flowery Branch High School
Helene Hand World Languages Johnson High School
Nathan Moore World Languages North Hall High School
Georgia Tran World Languages West Hall High School
Katherine Burchfield World Languages West Hall High School
