A significant portion of NCSSM’s incoming Residential and Online Class of 2028 finally got a chance to spend a few immersive hours on campus recently as attendees of the school’s Welcome Days, held on consecutive Saturdays in April on NCSSM’s Durham and Morganton campuses. All together, nearly 650 students and their families visited for the day’s activities.

Durham was the first to host, with Online students moving through campus in the morning, and Residential students following in the early afternoon. For both groups, the welcome sessions began with an enthusiastic reception from current students who lined the walkways to welcome students to campus. NCSSM’s Chancellor, Dr. Todd Roberts, provided the official welcome to NCSSM once all attendees had gathered in NCSSM-Durham’s Charles R. Eilber Physical Education Center. Following the chancellor were various members of NCSSM-Durham’s faculty, staff, and student body who provided an overview of next steps and answered questions to help students prepare for their upcoming NCSSM experience.

With the formal welcome and introduction to NCSSM complete, students and their families scattered throughout campus where they got to meet with instructors and staff members to learn more about specific courses, student life, and – perhaps most importantly – sit for their official NCSSM student photo.

Sarah Chambers, from Burlington Christian Academy, was one of the early-rising future Online students on campus. She was particularly excited by the information she learned about NCSSM’s Mentorship and Research Program.

“I think it’s definitely going to help me as a student,” she said. “I’m going to be able to learn to do the research … and learn the things in chemistry and biomolecular genetics and stuff that I’m interested in that I can’t get anywhere else.”

Jaiden Lyons, from Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, will be one of NCSSM-Durham’s newest Residential students this fall. He applied to NCSSM so that he could “branch out” in STEM. And while he’s still looking forward to the academic opportunities NCSSM provides, his time mingling with incoming and current Residential students at Welcome Day revealed to him another side of the school he wasn’t as familiar with.

“It feels like it’s a really big community here and everybody seems like they’re really close,” he said. “I’m excited to have a group of people I can be around all the time and really get to know and make lifelong friends.”

NCSSM-Morganton’s Welcome Day, which saw Morganton Residential students coming to campus, was held the following Saturday. The schedule followed the same format, with students and families gathering in NCSSM-Morganton’s iconic Barn to mark their first steps on campus as official NCSSM students and families. Afterward, they dispersed to various parts of campus for additional informational sessions. This incoming group of Morganton students will be the first class to begin life on a fully-completed campus.

Highlighting the afternoon for both the Morganton and Durham incoming Residential students was an athletics and club fair where student organizations shared information with incoming students on how to become involved in extracurriculars at NCSSM.

Moksha Ramidi, from Cox Mill High School in Concord, will be among the incoming juniors arriving on the NCSSM-Morganton campus in August. His visit to campus for Welcome Day left him eager for the new academic year to arrive.

“I’m so excited,” he said. “The school gives more of a college vibe than like an actual high school. Seeing the different classes I can take, which aren’t as specialized in my home high school, and just the environment makes it feel like a different world.”

“There are so many dates on the NCSSM calendar each year that we look forward to, but Welcome Day ranks among the top,” said Roberts, NCSSM’s Chancellor. “It’s always such a hopeful time, both for us and the students and their families who will be coming to us either as Online students or as Residential students. Everyone is super excited, but what’s really incredible is that, as excited as they are,  they don’t really know just how amazing and transformative their next two years will be. We know that the time the students will spend together at NCSSM will enhance not only their lives, but the life of the school as well.”

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