The self-coded computer game Michael Martine '87 debuted as a child at his family’s Halloween party was one of the earliest indicators he was a perfect match for NCSSM. (photo: Nina Merklina Photography)
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics has grown tremendously in the decades since Michael Martine ’87 graduated from the school, but it has remained very familiar ground for him. He and his wife, Emily ’88, whom he met at NCSSM, have remained deeply involved in the school’s evolution both as engaged volunteers in significant roles on NCSSM boards and committees too numerous to list and as parents of kids who followed in their footsteps and became NCSSM graduates. But one thing Martine has not done is formally address the student body.
That’ll change soon. Martine, who serves as the Director of Asset Engineering for IBM Consulting, will help NCSSM kick off the 2025-2026 academic year as the keynote speaker at NCSSM’s 46th annual Convocation.
A destiny written in the. . . code?
Ever since he was a kid, Martine had been enthralled with math and science, drawn especially to computers. By the time he was 12, he was hanging out at Radio Shack, taking in-store coding classes on chunky TRS-80s. And while many kids his age were ordering Sea-Monkeys and little green army men from ads on the backs of comic books, Martine was poring over magazines that contained assorted computer code. All that geeking out culminated in the nerdiest of party tricks during a Halloween party his parents hosted in their home. While guests mingled, Martine worked the room, encouraging party goers to set their drinks down and stop by his very own Radio Shack Color Computer, given to him by his parents, to try their hand at the knock-off Choose Your Own Adventure program he had coded himself.
“They could sit down at the computer and walk through this moonlit forest at night and go left or right. The coolest thing was that I had coded the program to play these spooky ghost sounds at certain points.” Forget all the candy and costumes; for Martine, it was the highlight of the evening.
By junior high, Martine was beginning to grow frustrated at school. His grades were stellar, but he felt hindered by the sluggish pace at which he was allowed to advance. Shenanigans among his classmates, like tricking their biology teacher into repeating the same lesson plan for an entire week, didn’t help. His parents, who knew about a new school called NCSSM that was receiving a lot of attention from media outlets, introduced him to the idea of one day applying.
From then on, Martine was at every information session and every open house his parents could get him to. He visited the school so often, he says, that his mother joked that he could lead the tours himself.
Martine’s letter of acceptance arrived at his home while he was swatting at tennis balls outside during gym class at Ragsdale High School. Someone from the main office tracked him down and told him that his mom had called and needed to speak with him. Martine left his gym classmates on the tennis court and went to dial his mother back.
An envelope from NCSSM had arrived in the mail for him, she said. It was in her hand.
“I was like, ‘What are you waiting for?’” Martine recalls thinking. ‘Open it!’”
His mother read the letter to him over the phone.
“There was no question,” Martine says. “I knew I was accepting the offer of enrollment. I mean, they had VAX computers there!”
NCSSM was a brand new world. At Ragsdale, Martine says, he was “sort of a nobody” known by a few as the guy who did A/V Club, played some soccer, and did a lot of computer stuff. The depth and breadth of the friendships he formed at NCSSM were a pleasant surprise.
But there were challenges. “NCSSM taught me a lot of things, and some of those lessons were tough,” Martine says. “I had to grow in a lot of ways that I was ill-prepared for. I had to learn how to behave when suddenly everyone knew who I was. I had to learn how to behave when I was no longer making the highest score or the best grade in the class. It was very humbling, but I learned a lot.”
Despite the challenges, Martine knew NCSSM was where he was meant to be. “I clung to this place tremendously,” he says. “I poured a lot of energy into trying to explore how and why I felt the way that I did about things, but I knew that this was the place I needed. That rich set of experiences helped me grow so much.”
Decades in the making
With the start of this school year, 40 years will have passed almost to the day since Martine arrived on campus as a brand new junior. Those years have only deepened the appreciation he feels for the opportunities he had at NCSSM, and the life those opportunities have since allowed him to live.
“Each year, you realize more and more how so many people pour their love and care into you here as a student,” he says. “You don’t see it at the time. The person I am today I can trace back in many ways to the two years I spent at Science and Math, and I feel like I can never adequately repay the school and the state for what was invested in me. But I try. And it’s important for me that I try.”
Watch and listen live from 4-5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 12, as Michael Martine delivers the keynote convocation address from NCSSM-Morganton’s historic Barn.
