(From left to right) Juniors Max van Wagtendonk, Sekou Sesay, Isabelle Duncan, Anna Shaikun and sophomore Will Simpson pose for a photo recognizing them for their Governor’s Honors Program notifications. Five Clarke County School District high school students were selected as state finalists for the program, which will take place at Georgia Southern University from June 18 to July 15. “I was also nominated for GHP my sophomore year, but I got really nervous during my first interview and didn’t even make it past department level,” Shaikun said. “This year, I looked at more sample questions ahead of time, came in more prepared, and felt a lot more confident in myself. I’m so glad I decided to go for it a second time.” Photo by Scott Thompson
Three Clarke Central High School finalists named to summer residential program.
The Clarke County School District announced that five CCSD high school students — three from Clarke Central High and two from Cedar Shoals High — have been selected as finalists, and two additional students from Clarke Central have been selected as alternates for the 2023 Governor’s Honors Program (GHP).
GHP is a four-week-long residential summer program for gifted and talented high school students from across the state’s public, private and home schools. The program offers instruction different from the typical high school classroom and is designed to provide students with enrichment in their area of talent so that they can become the next generation of global critical thinkers, innovators, and leaders.
“In my major, (Communicative Arts), I took two classes a week, analyzing film, poetry, and creative writing prose, all forms that humans communicate with each other and it was cool,” CCHS senior Nico Willman, who attended GHP last summer, said. “We analyzed the Godfather for one of my classes and all the symbolism that’s present throughout the first and second movies and that took the entire week.”
While Willman’s experience with the program took place at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, the program will now take place at Georgia Southern University from June 18 to July 15.
This year’s CCHS state finalists include Sekou Sesay in Visual Arts, Anna Shaikun in Communicative Arts, and Max van Wagtendonk in Engineering–Mechanical Design. CCHS students Isabelle Duncan (Dance) and Will Simpson (Engineering-Programming) have been named alternates for the program.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend GHP. I’ve already met a bunch of really awesome people who share my passion for communicative arts, and that’s just during the interview stage. Also, I’ve heard a lot of positive things about the program from recent alumni and from adults who attended when they were my age, so I’m really excited.”
— Anna Shaikun,
2023 Governor’s Honors Program finalist
“I’m so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend GHP. I’ve already met a bunch of really awesome people who share my passion for communicative arts, and that’s just during the interview stage,” Shaikun said. “Also, I’ve heard a lot of positive things about the program from recent alumni and from adults who attended when they were my age, so I’m really excited.”
CSHS will send Eva Lucero for Visual Arts and Delia McElhannon for Agricultural Research, Biotechnology, and Science.
“We want to congratulate all of these students for this exceptional accomplishment,” CCSD Superintendent Dr. Robbie Hooker stated in a press release. “We also want to extend a special thank-you to Jodi Bolgla at Clarke Central and Stephen Castile at Cedar Shoals for their work in coaching these students through the intensive GHP application and interview process.”
