Every year a select few students from all over the state are selected to participate in the Governor’s Honors Program (GHP), a highly prestigious and selective educational program. This year, North Atlanta has four students who will participate. They are sophomores Lilly Nail and Colin Brake and juniors Diego Alvarado and Andrew Friedman. Nail, Brake and Alvarado will be in the program’s communicative arts track. Friedman will participate in the Engineering-Computer Science track.

More than 3,000 students were nominated to the state level competition and over 1,600 participated in this year’s audition process. Atlanta Public Schools will send 14 students, seven from Grady and four from North Atlanta. Drew, Mays, Therrell and Maynard Jackson are each sending one student. The program starts in mid-June and all honorees will study together for a month at Berry College in Rome.  

The selection process for GHP is extremely rigorous. Students are nominated by their teachers based on a subject a student is strong in. Things kick off with an lengthy interview and that selection process that might include interviews, essay writing, and possible activities that pertain to a specific discipline. All of the paths toward Governor’s Honors have one thing in common: rigorous amount of work.

Nail described the process as intense and stressful. Meeting the requirements was one challenge. Even more nerve-wracking, she said, were the series of interviews. “It was a lot of waiting and anxiety and that was hard to deal with the closer we got to the deadlines,” she said.

Nail said all the work put in will be worth it once the program starts in mid-June. “With all the rigour it took to the get this far, I’m assuming it’s going to be pretty great program,” she said.

Clarke Peoples, a program veteran from last summer, said her experience was wholly positive. “It was really a life-changing experience that taught me so much,” she said.

The North Atlanta finalists say they are excited to see what will come of this long academic odyssey. It’s said that all roads lead to Rome. This adage will certainly hold true a talented quartet of North Atlanta scholars on the path toward self-discovery this summer.