In 1980, Gov. Jim Hunt, along with the former Gov. Terry Sanford and academic John Elhe completed an effort to open the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, or NCSSM.
The school, located in Durham, was the first of its kind—a public, residential high school where students studied a specialized curriculum emphasizing in Science, Technology, Engingeering and Mathematics (STEM).
NCSSM, which has gone on to generate thousands of living alumni since its inception, has seen those alumni give back to North Carolina in big ways. These distinguished individuals have become tenured professors, teachers, physicians, entrepreneurs, filmmakers and university presidents.
According to the school’s website, alumni have generated an estimated $500 million just in North Carolina, and with the advancement of distance and online education, that number will continue to grow.
Gino Lerebours, sophomore in statistics and graduate of NCSSM, said he has found that his STEM based education and experiences have complemented at NCSSM strongly complemented his education here at the University.
“I am constantly surrounded by innovators who look to shape and improve the world by understanding how it works. It has inspired me to look on how I can help further society with my area of expertise,” said Lerebours.
N.C. State benefits from NCSSM students as well. According to a profile by NCSSM, between 2007 and 2011, 342 students from the school were in attendance at N.C. State, while average enrollment at NCSSM totals 680 per year.
But NCSSM is not the only STEM school to serve the people of North Carolina. Centennial Campus Middle School, a joint venture between N.C. State and the Wake County Public School System, has been on the forefront of education for the last 10 years.
Integrating a strong science and engineering education with the traditional Wake County middle school curriculum, Centennial Middle is on the forefront of education management.
Michelle Woods is the STEM coordinator at Centennial Middle. Woods said students had a huge technological emphasis, including having a one laptop per student in order to ensure that each student has the proper resources.
Woods said the school bases much of its curriculum from a national provider called Project Lead the Way, which uses a rigorous STEM curriculum to educate middle school and high school students all around the nation. The school also offers programs provided by LEGO Robotics, which provides a medium to teach students programming skills.
While students of N.C. State come from Asheville to Wilmington and beyond, schools like NCSSM and Centennial Middle will continue to prepare students for N.C. State and other universities alike.
