On Monday, Feb. 23, five sophomores found out that they had succeeded. They had been accepted into the Massanutten Regional Governor’s School.

These students will then make the transition to spending the first half of every school day at the Governor’s School, doing research and learning in a different environment. This year those five were sophomores Abby Botticelli, Zach Benevento-Zahner, Casey Wilson, Molly Campillo and Anna Derrick.

“I was super excited. I put a lot of effort into getting in and I was super happy that it worked out,” Benevento-Zahner said. The application process included a transcript of your academic record and the activities the applicant was involved in, as well as teacher recommendations and a short essay. The sophomores also had to go in and write a long essay in person for the Governor’s School.

“I really tried to think of every possible problem and solution that could have happened during the essays and I think that’s what helped, instead of just going borderline and safe,” Botticelli said. The applicants all had different experiences when it came to the application process.

“I wrote my essays differently than everybody else did. It was more of, like, a bullet point format and I heard they actually really liked that, so that helped me stand out,” Benevento-Zahner said.

The program offers a completely different setting to learn in than HHS does, which is why it appealed to many of the students who chose to apply.

“I thought it was really cool how there were higher level classes and you get to join with people from other schools. It’s just a different learning environment than here. You also get to do a research project, so I thought that was good,” Wilson said.

The news these students received will shape their high school career for their remaining two years, making them full of projects, students from other schools, and a new perspective.