Goodbye, son; hello the rest of your life

By: Katya Lezin
For The Charlotte Observer

We’re eating a lot of leftovers at my house these days. That’s because I have yet to adjust my grocery shopping and dinner portions to reflect the fact that Noah, my 16-year-old son who devours each meal as if it were his last, is no longer at home.

Noah will finish his remaining two years of high school at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, where the state of North Carolina now gets to pick up the tab for his voracious appetite, which extends to learning as well.

NCSSM is a public residential high school for juniors and seniors, founded on the historic grounds of the former Watts Hospital in Durham. It provides a specialized curriculum in the areas of math, science and technology, and it also has one of the richest and most extensive humanities departments in the state.

We first learned about NCSSM when Noah’s Math Counts Team at Randolph Middle School competed at the state championship, held on the NCSSM campus.

Noah, then in eighth grade, came home in a state that he referred to as “nerdvana.” He couldn’t get over the array of classes offered and the caliber of the faculty.

The entire NCSSM faculty holds master’s degrees, and a third hold doctorates. The student to faculty ratio is 10 to 1, with an average class size of 20.3 students.

Students apply during their sophomore year of high school in a rigorous process that mirrors that of applying to college.

Unlike colleges, NCSSM has a legislative mandate to only accept students from North Carolina. The 680 juniors and seniors represent North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts roughly equally, with approximately 90 North Carolina counties represented in the student body.

When we dropped Noah off Aug. 14, Steve Warshaw, vice chancellor for academic programs, told the auditorium full of parents we should think of our children as having won a $54,000 scholarship.

That’s because there are no fees associated with applying to or attending NCSSM. The rigorous coursework, clubs and activities, and even the room and board, are free.

The North Carolina legislature picks up the tab because the NCSSM founders – former N.C. Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.; former governor, senator and Duke University President Terry Sanford; and academician and author John Ehle – believed that, as the NCSSM website states, “regions which invest in the creation of human and intellectual capital will receive global economic returns, the key to success in a worldwide economy.”

Both their investment and their foresight have panned out.

Nearly 80 percent of NCSSM graduates attend UNC schools, and nearly 75 percent pay North Carolina taxes.

And NCSSM gives the state bragging rights, since it is one of only 13 schools nationwide included every year among Newsweek’s “Public Elites,” a distinction given to high schools whose composite SAT scores indicate there are few or no “average” students.

To receive a diploma from NCSSM, students must meet higher graduation requirements that include, but are not limited to, precalculus and mathematical modeling; advanced biology, chemistry and physics; a nationally recognized humanities program; and mastery of a foreign language at an intermediate level or higher.

In addition, NCSSM students are required to complete daily chores, three hours of work service per week and at least 60 hours of community service during their two years at the school.

Noah’s classes this semester include electives like advanced Latin poetry, theatre performance and ultimate Frisbee.

He has also signed up for the drama club, Odyssey of the Mind, space settlement club and the Quiz Bowl team. He has also learned how to scrub a toilet and do his own laundry, two skills that might trump his ability to solve advanced algebraic equations.

For me, letting him leave two years ahead of schedule was the ultimate maternal sacrifice, but I also know he is where he needs to be.

In addition to the unparalleled academics, NCSSM offers Noah the opportunity to make lifelong friends.

He is surrounded by an diverse student body who share a genuine love of learning. We talk by Skype daily, and each call home ends with “I love it here!” – and then he feigns technical difficulties before I can comment on his unmade bed in the background.

© The Charlotte Observer