Georgia Governor's Honors Program Picks 22 Local Students

Eighty-five Fulton County high school students, including 22 from schools in Alpharetta and Milton, have been selected as finalists for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, the Georgia Department of Education recently announced.

The Governor’s Honors Program is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors that takes place on the campus of Valdosta State University. The 2013 program will be the 50th summer, making it the longest continually running program of its kind in the nation.

The 85 Fulton students were chosen out of the nearly 3,000 students from across the state who interviewed and auditioned over three weekends in January and February. From those and from those nominees, 690 finalists were chosen to participate in the 2013 program. Since the program is fully funded by the Georgia General Assembly, there is no charge for students to attend.

Students will arrive on the Valdosta campus on June 23. For four weeks, they will spend the morning in their major area of nomination, exploring topics not usually found in the regular high school classroom. During the afternoons, students choose one of the other areas in which to study. The curriculum in all the areas is challenging and engaging. Evenings are filled with seminars, activities, concerts, and performances.

Selected for the 2013 Governor’s Honors Program are:

Alpharetta High School              

• Trisha Ahmed                                    Biology
• Bryson Culver                                    Biology
• Nicholas (Grant) Farsi                         Communicative Arts
• Ju Eun (Esther) Hwang                       Music/Woodwinds (Flute)
• Soundarya Kanthimathinathan            Communicative Arts
• Lillian Ko                                           Music/Strings (Cello)
• Jongrak Koh                                      German
• Anastasia Mulia                                 Chemistry
• Ranjani Sundaresan                           Chemistry
• Yuchen (Kenneth) Yang                      Mathematics
• Diana Ye                                           Social Studies
• Mingcheng Yu                                    Music/Piano

Fulton Science Academy High School           

• Grayson Bianco                                 Mathematics

Milton High School           

• Jason Byrd                                        Music/Voice(Tenor)
• Kaley Desher                                     Biology
• Cassie Gallagher                                Visual Art
• Jeshua Jemson                                  Physics
• Ivan Liu                                            Music/Strings (Cello)
• Chandler Moore                                 Social Studies
• Meghana Nallajerla                            Biology
• Naganavya Ravoori                            Social Studies
• Austyn Wohlers                                 Communicative Arts