Honors Program Interview with Jason Swedene, Professor & Honors Program Director
Junior Imani Bryant practices writing an essay like she must at the Governor’s Honors interview for county and state.
Katherine Shambaugh currently serves as Copy Editor and Photo Editor for the North Cobb High School news website The Chant. Kat, a senior in the International…
The third step is the online application. Nominees are expected to complete all the required components, which usually includes essays, letter of recommendations, and essay questions of some sort. However, the task is determined by the student’s nomination area.
Last year, two students from Cass were GHP Finalists: Jenna Keeler (Communicative Arts) and Brianna-Necole Gonsahn (Social Studies). When asked what being a GHP Finalist means, Keeler stated, “GHP finalists are among the best in the state with their crafts. While at GHP, we went to productions by some of the best student actors, heard poetry by some of the best student writers, listened to some of the most moving musical pieces I’ve heard in a young band. Finalists foster a sense of community and knowledge, partaking in their own miniature culture as they learn and grow. To be a GHP finalist is to work to be a better version of yourself.”
The fifth and final step is accepting the position. Finalists are notified and are offered admission. They only have to formally accept or decline.
As the nominees begin learning who is moving on to the online application and who is not, things will start getting tenser and progressively harder. But in the meantime, we wish these nominees the best of luck!
For the seventeen that interviewed, the local interview was the first time being interviewed by people outside the Cass family. However, many agree that it went much better than expected. In a humorous, joint interview with juniors Atisham Ajmal and Caleb Doolittle—both of whom are nominated for science (however, Ajmal’s is specifically for biology, while Doolittle’s is for physics), they said they believed that the interviewers were much nicer than they initially believed they would be. Doolittle states, “I loved it. I feel like everyone has the same answer on this. The [interviewers] were very, very friendly and very open. They asked a lot of questions; I asked a lot of questions. Really, it was more of a conversation than a traditional interview would be. […] It was a very friendly environment.” Ajmal agreed, saying, “The questions were really related to me; [the interviewers] were interested. […] I thought they were going to be just really grouchy people in there. Like, ‘Okay. What do you like to do? Wrong! Ding dong, your opinion is wrong.’”
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