In his two years at NCSSM, Belton Moore ’16 learned that the limits of possibility are defined only by the scope of ambition and willingness to work hard. From that came an unshakable confidence in his own ability to create the life he wants to live, a life centered on lifting up those around him.

But when the call came from his high school alma mater to be the school’s 2026 Convocation speaker, he was stunned. That the school would select him, a relatively young alum among a seasoned base of more than 15,000 accomplished alumni, left him speechless.

Moore is no slouch by any measure. He has dedicated himself to advancing economic development with a focus on rural and tribal communities and has, though still early in his career, assembled a resume that already includes some impressive roles such as a policy associate with former governor Roy Cooper’s Hometown Strong initiative and a program officer for the Native American Agriculture Fund. Today, he is a Graduate/Professional Young Trustee on Duke University’s Board of Trustees and just took on a new role as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group’s Raleigh-Durham office.

Still, Moore was completely surprised by NCSSM’s invitation. Upon ending the call, he turned to his wife, Kamryn (also a 2016 NCSSM alum), who was standing nearby. “I think,” he said to her, “they made a mistake.”

“Just be proud of it,” Kamryn told him. “You’ve got something to say.” 

On August 18, Moore will return to the campus in Durham that he once called home to share his story and remind students that they are experiencing what will likely be one of the most meaningful and transformative periods of their young lives.

Back home

For Moore, the path to NCSSM started on a farm in rural Robeson County. The cattle, the soybeans, the corn and the wheat his family grew provided Moore and his three siblings as much work to do on the farm as they wanted. And work, Moore did, though some may have exerted themselves a bit more than he. But he held his own. 

Farming was his oldest brother’s passion, though. Moore found himself less focused on the life cycles of the family farm and more on the news on the TV in the evenings and in the newspapers his grandparents read.

And he tagged along, too, with his folks on trips to local community meetings where his parents engaged in community discussions on matters relevant to folks in Robeson County. What he saw on TV, what he heard about at the commissioner meetings and around the dinner table, and their relation to what he saw in his own community all started to connect in Moore’s mind.

“Politics and international relations and economics – things like that – I started to appreciate,” Moore says.

NCSSM was someone else’s initial ambition in the Moore family. An older sister (Belton is the third of the four Moores) applied to the school. Ever curious, Moore tagged along on an early trip to Durham for his sister and parents to learn more about the opportunities at NCSSM. His sister was accepted but chose, in the end, to remain at Purnell Swett High School and continue the long history of Moores achieving high school success closer to home.

But the visit lingered in Belton’s imagination. Though not a metropolis, Durham was a bit intimidating with all the cars and people and buildings and movement. And NCSSM’s reputation as a place of vigorous study was a little bit frightening, too, even to a kid not really old enough to be thinking about things like vigorous study.

“It was definitely a little bit scary, but still exciting,” Moore says. “Honestly, it seemed like a place where anything was possible.”

As he moved through the first two years of high school back home, Moore found himself developing a close relationship – and something of a fun-spirited academic rivalry – with a classmate – Kamryn – who would go on to become his wife. Those first two years at Purnell Swett, the two duked it out, gaining, yielding, and regaining the top spot in the class on an almost weekly basis.

Though Moore’s academic interests were mainly in the social and economic aspects of life, NCSSM stayed with Moore.

“I was happy at home, but that curiosity was there like, what else is out there, you know?” Moore says. “What else could I be doing, and how could [NCSSM] maybe set me up to do other things later on?”

And there were external motivations. The sister, the oldest child in the family, who had gotten into NCSSM but chose to stay home? Moore would prove that he, too, could meet that challenge. 

And then there was Kamryn. She was considering NCSSM, too. Seriously considering.

So, when Kamryn accepted her offer of enrollment, the matter was settled. Moore accepted his offer as well.

An altogether different world

Moore’s transition from the farm to NCSSM was smooth thanks to some NCSSM summer programming that helped ease him into things. But as with nearly all juniors early in their experience, there was some concern that maybe he wasn’t as prepared for the challenge as were others. The social scene, too, felt unfamiliar. An early conversation with a Charlotte-raised classmate, a student who would go on to become a dear friend of Moore’s, seems almost comical in Moore’s memory. She asked Moore if he had spent much time at the community pool over the summer. He asked what she meant. 

“She was like, ‘Doesn’t your HOA have a pool that y’all can go to?’” Moore says.

No such thing existed where he was from, Moore told her. There were plenty of drainage ditches and irrigation ponds around, but no HOAs, no community pools.

“It was daunting,” Moore says. “I mean, it was a totally different world.”

For the first time, Moore was having to put in hours and hours just to prepare for a regular test. But the challenge was welcome. There was no pressure from anyone – not even himself – to be the best in the classroom. Moore knew he was surrounded by talented students, and he knew that a number of them arrived better prepared than he. What mattered was that he put forth his best effort to be more knowledgeable after a test than he was before it. The only expectation was that he work hard and take it seriously.

“Having that bar set and the people there to support you, that was a big thing,” Moore says.

So, too, was learning the importance of developing a broader vision of a task at hand, and understanding that a single grain of sand doesn’t constitute a beach.

“NCSSM taught me to have a longer-term mindset and focus on those longer-term goals,” Moore says. “I realized that if I didn’t do good on a test one particular day, that wasn’t going to define my future. You just kind of have to wake up every day and give it your all, and do that over a long period of time.”

True self

Several weeks have now passed since Moore was asked to deliver the Convocation speech for NCSSM. He’s drafted his speech and revised it and tinkered with it over and over. And still, he hasn’t quite squared himself with the fact that he is returning as someone with wisdom to share. “There’s definitely a lot of imposter syndrome going on,” he says.

Perhaps, once Moore finally takes the stage to deliver his remarks, he’ll remember his own characterization of his time at NCSSM, and lean upon those words as he offers encouragement to the classes of 2027 and 2028.

“When I think back about it, it was kind of like a little utopia,” he says. “All that mattered was I am who I am, you are who you are, and we’re here together doing our best and having fun while doing it.”

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