Arts: Artful Scholars

It’s no surprise that the arts thrive on the edge of Falls Park where students from all over the state live and perform at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. Also not amazing is the fact that these students routinely win awards. This year is no different with one honor this spring bringing recognition not only to the school, but the entire state. Uchechi Kalu and Jake Ross, recent graduates and creative writing students, were among twenty individuals nationwide who were named Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

Each year up to 8,000 students working in nine artistic disciplines participate in the YoungArts program sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts. Kalu, who hails from Orangeburg, and Ross, from Greenville, emerged in the group of sixty finalists and were then selected as the only two students representing South Carolina as Presidential Scholars in the Arts. This pair, along with 121 academic scholars, visited Washington, D.C., in June and presented their work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Their teacher, Scott Gould, says it’s no accident that these two were honored, especially because all of the creative writing students work incredibly hard. “When you have writers that practice their art that often, it’s not a fluke,” says Gould.

“I’m really grateful that this is one of the opportunities I’ve had since I’ve come to the Governor’s School—it’s very exciting,” says Ross. Uchechi Kalu echoes Ross’s feeling, “Without this school, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity. It’s a sign of what the school can do for someone who doesn’t have the opportunity at home.”

After mixing with fellow promising young artists in the capital, these two wordsmiths are on their way to even bigger things, namely college. Kalu will be hitting the books at Princeton and Ross will be attending the University of South Carolina Honors College—young scholars indeed.