Incoming juniors and their families gathered in NCSSM-Morganton’s historic Barn to hear from Chancellor Todd Roberts and a panel of staff and current students. (Photo: Emily Cunard)
NCSSM opened its campuses to the incoming Online and Residential Classes of 2027 recently during Welcome Days in Durham and Morganton, a festive day for students and their families from all over North Carolina. They excitedly explored dorms and classrooms, gained additional insight into student and academic life at NCSSM, and, particularly for the Residential students, discovered the wide range of extracurricular options.
NCSSM-Durham was first to host students, with Online students arriving the morning of April 26 to begin the process of adding NCSSM distance education courses in the evening alongside the curriculum at their local high school.
Cora Kassop, from Southern Pines, was one of them. She shared her excitement at being able to engage in NCSSM academics without having to leave behind her friends and activities at Pinecrest High School.
“NCSSM Online is just the perfect opportunity to combine the sports and extracurriculars back home with rigorous NCSSM classes,” she said. “And being here today is amazing. It’s really cool to see like-minded students walking around that I will hopefully collaborate on projects with in the future.”
By that afternoon, incoming Residential juniors had arrived for their Welcome Day session. Among them was Reece Armstead, from John A. Holmes High School in Edenton. While it was still a few months before he would move into his residence hall on campus,, he was eager to get started.
“It’s so exciting to be here and hear all the passion of the people around me,” he said. “I want to try a little bit of everything that the school has to offer. I know that I’m going to make some pretty great connections with all the people here, and I think we’re all gonna eventually find something we’re really passionate about. That’s the main thing I hope to gain from this; connections and a passion that I want to pursue.”
NCSSM-Morganton hosted Welcome Day for its incoming Residential students the following weekend, on May 3. Akshaj Puttoju, an incoming junior from Apex Friendship High School in Apex, spent the morning getting to know his soon-to-be home away from home.
“Like with other kids that came [to NCSSM] before me, the opportunities here were a big part of why I applied,” he said of how he came to embrace the NCSSM motto Accept the greater challenge. “All the research opportunities and opportunities in STEM really intrigued me.”
NCSSM’s Chancellor, Dr. Todd Roberts, spent Welcome Day on each campus engaging with incoming students and their parents.
“In some ways,” he said, “Welcome Day is the most exciting day of all. With Move-In Day, students are nervous about the reality that they’re not riding back home with their parents that afternoon, and parents are tearful that they’ll be leaving their kids behind. At Commencement, there’s lots of joy for sure, but tears again, because this time, it’s NCSSM and its people that graduates are leaving behind.
“With Welcome Day, though, it’s all smiles.”
While official enrollment numbers will not be available until August, preliminary data for the Class of 2027 show nearly 800 finalists across both campuses and the NCSSM Online program who represent more than 250 schools across 80% of the state’s counties.
