Big rolling bins made moving in much easier in Morganton. (photo: Emily Cunard)
And we’re back. The 2025-2026 academic year is now officially underway at North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.
The start of the new school year began in earnest with Move-In Day, which saw Residential juniors and seniors from throughout the state complete their transition to campus. The first wave of incoming students arrived Friday as juniors rolled onto each of NCSSM’s campuses in vehicles stuffed to the gills with belongings. There waiting for them was a small army of faculty, staff, and senior students in leadership roles (who quietly returned to campus the week before in advance of all that was to come) ready to use muscles they hadn’t used all summer. With all the activity and boxes piled high in straining arms, it was sometimes hard to tell who was a new student and who was a helper, but there were clues: an extended arm and a pointing finger was almost certainly an NCSSM veteran. A hesitant step or a look of nervous anticipation? That was probably a junior brand new to campus.
Kedzie Rule, from FernLeaf Community Charter School in Fletcher, is one of NCSSM-Morganton’s newest students.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking at first,” Kedzie says. “The hardest part is not knowing anyone. But about midway through the second day I started meeting people, and I started settling in and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna be fine. I’m here now. Just go out and do the best I can.’”
Having allowed the juniors two days to knock the summer rust off of campus, the seniors returned on Sunday to assume their hard-earned roles as veteran students. Gone were the nervous glances and uncertainty of which direction to go. In their place was confidence and ease and hugs between old friends from opposite ends of the state who hadn’t seen each other all summer. And just maybe, as groups of new juniors stood by socializing while stealing glances over their shoulders at the returning old guard, there was even a bit of swagger.
But there was something else, too, a feeling that perhaps not every returning senior would admit to, but one that was quite likely common.
“I’m feeling ready, and I’m looking forward to another great year,” said Dominick Pietryga, a senior who came to NCSSM-Durham from Chatham Early College, “but I also feel kind of sad and envious of the juniors. I’ve enjoyed my time here but now I’ve only got one year left of this. The juniors get to experience this for the next two years.”
Whether juniors or seniors, Move-in ended the same, with students hurrying off to join this group or that of chatting, laughing Unicorns and Dragons, while parents headed back home, the rearview mirror no longer obscured by boxes, an extra seat now available in the back.
Ranjani Balaji – mother of incoming Durham junior Pratima Ashok from Ardrey Kell High School – spoke for many parents on Friday as she sat with her husband, Ashok Mathur, and their son Prashant in Durham’s cafeteria while Pratima busied herself across campus with organizing her side of her dorm.
“As a parent, it feels like a part of you has been separated,” said Balaji, “but we are also looking forward to Pratima’s success and life journey. This opportunity that has been given to her will shape her in more ways than what we as parents could have. Pratima has been a blessing to our family, so we feel like we are parting with that blessing and placing it in your hands.”
Completing the kickoff events was Convocation, which saw students dressed in their best assembling in Morganton and Durham after the end of the first day of class on Tuesday for an official welcome from NCSSM administrators, followed by a keynote address from Michael Martine ’87. Convocation rotates between campuses each year, with NCSSM-Morganton hosting this year. The event was livestreamed to students in Durham.
“There will be times when you feel weak,” Martine shared with the students. “There will be times when you feel strong. NCSSM and the people who make up this amazing institution will help each of you grow great, and in your greatness, you will help others along their journeys as well.”
