Lakeside, Druid Hills High Students Nominated for State Honors Program

Students from Lakeside and Druid Hills high schools are among 143 others the DeKalb County School System has nominated for state-level interviews for the Georgia Governor's Honors Program.

The Governor's Honors Program (GHP) is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors. A function of the Georgia Department of Education, it takes place on the campus of Valdosta State University. The 2013 program will be the 50th summer, making it the longest continually running program of its kind in the nation.

More than 2,900 students from across the state will be interviewed and auditioned over three weekends in January and February, and from those nominees up to 690 finalists will be chosen to participate in the 2013 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 regular high school classroom. During the afternoons, students choose one of the other areas in which to study. The curriculum in all the areas is challenging and engaging. Evenings are filled with seminars, activities, concerts and performances.

“GHP is such a competitive program that even being nominated is an accomplishment,” said Dale Lyles, director of the Governor's Honors Program. “I congratulate the students of DeKalb County School District and look forward to meeting them and their parents at the interviews."

He added that many if not most of GHP's past participants regard it as one of the most life-changing events in their lives.

The school district's nominees from Lakeside and Druid Hills high schools for the 2013 program are:

Lakeside High

• Chris Eriksen, Agriscience/Environmental Science
• Grace McKenna, Biology
• Katharine Morford, Biology
• Aneesa Rupasingha, Biology
• Samuel Pennel, Chemistry
• Holly Brooks, Communicative Arts
• Aisha Rupasingha, Communicative Arts
• John James, Executive Management
• Emma Heneine, French
• Phoebe Warren, French
• Lydia Podowitz, German
• Andrew Teachout, Latin
• Allyn Waller, Latin
• Marjorie Floyd, Mathematics
• Alisha Stupp, Mathematics
• Jonathon Hollis, Music/Jazz (Jazz Trumpet)
• Bernadette Bridges, Music/Voice (Alto)
• Melana Letourneau, Music/Woodwinds (Flute)
• Sang-Chan Kim, Physics
• Zack Shepherd, Social Studies
• Priya Patel, Spanish
• Kanak Parmar, Technology

Druid Hills High

• Nima Shogi Ghalehshahi, Biology
• Craig Hearn, Communicative Arts
• Ian Hinze, Communicative Arts
• Adriano Iqbal, Communicative Arts
• Connor Spruell, Communicative Arts
• Meera White, Communicative Arts
• Anna Bergstrom, French
• Abishkar Chhetri, Mathematics
• Arthur Foley, Mathematics
• Linh Phan, Mathematics
• Ali Zain ul Abideen, Mathematics
• Claire Lenz, Music/Piano
• Maranatha Genet, Social Studies
• Rebecca Grieco, Social Studies
• Ella Henry, Social Studies
• Jacob Pierce, Social Studies
• Michael Torbott, Spanish
• Savannah Wall, Theatre Design
• Geoffrey Solomon, Theatre Performance
• Reese Blutstein, Visual Arts
• Ethan Huggins, Visual Arts
• Britaney Kemp, Visual Arts
• Jin Kim, Visual Arts
• Emma Niceler, Visual Arts
• Claire Rieder, Visual Arts

This article was provided by the school district.