Just Down the Street (Prompt #2)

By Grace Han Cunningham

NCSSM was in the local newspapers in Durham quite a bit - there was a lot of excitement and skepticism about if/how it would work out.

I was a practically a 'lifer' at Durham Academy (DA) - started there in 3rd Grade and was the only Asian student in my grade. My two younger brothers were lifers - both started in 1st Grade. For some time, we were one of maybe 2-3 Asian families at DA and I was the only Asian female student in my grade and several grades around me. DA was mostly white and affluent and very Southern. My best friends were the other smart girls who didn't fit in with the Southern, White, cheerleader, horse-back riding, lax playing, churchy kids: one of two Jewish girls (yaaaassss, Sarah Krigman, also Class of 1982 was my grade school bestie - some of my favorite memories are of the many sleepovers we had at her and my houses) and another smart but socially awkward girl named Karen Mitchell. I have no idea if Karen Mitchell applied but Sarah and I were ready to move onto a school that was more challenging and potentially more inviting to smart kids.

Smart kids rarely fit in at private school. Sarah and I would trade being named Student of the Year for several years and classes at DA, while academically excellent and looking back, really well executed - DA had nice labs, computers, arts, etc.; they simply weren't challenging. Also with private schools, you are in a class of maybe 30-50 kids a grade and they are the same students every year, so by middle school, everyone knew what everyone's talents and abilities were. 

I was never part of the 'in-crowd' at school but teachers appreciated my academic excellence. I'm sure I was quite socially awkward and nerdy. I did a lot of afterschool clubs like Book Club, Math Club (Mrs. Williams was the best!) and Yearbook <eye roll>. I wish my parents weren't so focused solely on academic achievement as it left me socially inept but that's all they knew too. My adult daughter appreciates that I was not a Tiger Mom and instead focused on her being well rounded, not just academically excellent. She, like myself, however remains totally lacking in school team sports abilities and I only got a Letter in track because I'm sure my coach, Dennis Cullen, didn't want me to be the only runner on the team who didn't Letter. 

I liked my teachers. I remember my science teacher, Bobbie Hardaker, was convinced the school would be a failure and was very dismissive about any conversations about NCSSM. I was happy to see many DA faculty and staff end up at NCSSM after all. 

I figured it wouldn't be hard living 10 minutes from my house - yes me and Bev Adams lived closest to the school. (Note: Story for another time - when I got in trouble for letting Gary Steele illegally park his car at our house so he could drive back and forth home on weekends, lol). Bev was in my development but we had never met since we attended different schools. We met for the first time when the Durham Morning Herald gathered us and John Armitage for a photo and interview in the summer of 1980. And I have never lived away from home so the idea was exciting! If I needed anything, Mom & Dad were 10 minutes away! Couldn't get any better - NCSSM was even closer than DA.

I had nothing to lose and lots to gain! So my dad nominated me as soon as the application period was open and the ball was rolling. I was excited to step through the process and have saved every scrap of paper, letter, SAT score used for the application process. It was with zero hesitation that I accepted the offer to join the inaugural class at NCSSM.

1970's Hazy Recollections (Prompt #1)

By Grace Han Cunningham

I've always archived my memories in good old fashioned, glue and paste scrapbooks but none of them contained anything about world or local events - just my travel, academic awards, report cards, holiday and birthday cards. My sole focus at the time was academic excellence - as was typical for many immigrant Asian families. So most of what I remember of outside events from the late 70s' is based on what I recall seeing on CBS Evening News, which my family watched every single night together in the family room.

We grew up in the modest house my parents bought in 1971 in Durham - a one story, brick ranch style house that was common in middle class neighborhoods - our development in west Durham was one of many "Brady Bunch" style neighborhoods full of identical houses with different roof colors but all NC clay red brick homes. My 95 year old mother still lives there today! My father was a professor at Duke and several other faculty members lived in our neighborhood.

Every night we would sit in the family room after dinner and watch Walter Cronkite deliver the news. Most of what I recall dominated the news was the oil embargo of the early 70s and more clearly, the constant stories and photos of long lines for gas during the US oil crisis of 1979. I remember my parents being worried about how much gas cost and how long my mother had to wait in line to fill up our wood paneled station wagon (was it a Dodge Aspen? I can't recall but we had that thing for decades and all three of us kids drove it to school. My two younger brothers nicknamed it "The Tank" and it was well known at the Durham Academy high school parking lot). We all attended Durham Academy and Mom had to drive us to and from school. My dad would pick us up in the afternoons as he did not teach any afternoon classes.

During that time frame we had two cars - the station wagon and a little brown Dodge Dart which was nicknamed "Brownie". That was what my father used to drive to Duke and had the faculty parking badge affixed to its windshield. But "The Tank" was what we all remember as our family car growing up.

Gas in 1979 was still leaded and cost $0.86 a gallon. I remember when gas first crossed the $1 dollar a gallon threshold in 1980 and how shocked everyone was at the prices then. Ha, if we had only invested in oil stocks then. According to the website, 1970s flashback.com, these were the average prices in 1979:

Cost of a new home:  $71,800.00
Median Household Income:  $16,461.00
Cost of a first-class stamp:  $0.15
Cost of a gallon of regular gas:  $0.86
Cost of a dozen eggs:  $0.85
Cost of a gallon of Milk:  $1.62

Why come to NCSSM? (Prompt #2)

By Kathleen Benzaquin

As a staff person my perspective may differ a bit from that first class of students but I daresay we shared similar reasons for doing so.  I was struck by the uniqueness of such a public school; the creative reasons for it were unlike any place I had seen or been to before. My M.O. has always been to find a situation that was the first of its kind or gave me the opportunity to start something where I saw a need. This school, only a dream still, was perfect. It involved creativity, risk and making things happen.  It would require students, faculty and staff to go outside their comfort zones, to make a change from known to unknown and to trust that this educational and emotional risk would pay off.  My role was to create the residential, work and community service programs as well as the student activities program all so similar to offerings on a college campus.  This was suited to my professional background and seemed to blend my skills so well.  I was excited for this opportunity but even more so I couldn't wait to meet the students, the "Pioneers" as we called them!

A visit to the guidance counselor's office (Prompt #2)

By Ami Shah

I did not know anything about the school and was never planning on applying. One day the guidance counselor called me and one other girl to the office. I was not sure what the two of us could possibly have done wrong. You never went to the office unless you did something wrong, like cheating or causing a fight or smoking weed on campus! 

She then told the two of us about the school and would we like to apply? I took home the paperwork and handed it to my parents for them to look through. There was absolutely no way that my parents were going to let their daughter go away to a boarding school and live in a school with boys and girls who were 15/16 years of age. Much to my surprise, my dad thought that education would be better than my rural high school and was all for me going, my mom needed more convincing. Thank god my dad convinced my mom to allow me to apply.

Writing Prompt #2: Why did you go to NCSSM?

Why did you decide to leave home and go to the NC School of Science and Math in Durham? (Alternatively; write a story about your life in the first half of 1980.)

Description:
Write a story about your personal reasons for applying for the School of Science and Math in February of 1980, and for accepting the invitation (in May 1980) to enter the first class. (Try not to focus on the application process. That may be the subject of a future prompt.)

Describe in action, dialogue, and/or details the reasons that you chose to apply for an unproven public residential "STEM"-focused high school rather than attending the high school in your own home town.

Differences (Prompt #1)

By Kathleen Benzaquin

I remember coming to North Carolina in 1977 after a terrible blizzard in New York State where I was working. I was struck by the vestiges of segregation that I faced so different from what I knew from a pretty integrated society up north.  My husband held a door open for a Black woman who appeared shocked by this act of kindness, what we took for granted was not so easily seen in my new state.  This was brought home on my interview with NCSSM's Mike Collins before the school opened.  During my tour of the facilities we met up with the security guard who worked for the hospital for many years. He spoke of a ghost that haunted the place who he swore he had seen and heard. It was a white male searching for his wife who had fallen ill. However, as she was Black and the hospitals were segregated, she was taken to the Black one where she died.  He roamed the halls looking for her.  A far fetched story? Perhaps but one rooted in the history of the times.

The Shah (Prompt #1)

By Ami Shah

I moved to North Carolina in 1976: the bicentennial, America was 200 years old! The country of dreams, hope. 

Moving to the south was a bit of a culture shock. 

In 7th grade I remember Ku Klux Klan rallies in my town of Salisbury. The white hoods did not seem to faze my classmates, as their dads and uncles were members of the KKK. Being naive, I never thought the KKK were targeting me, the brown kid. I was the smart kid. One of the two brown kids in my school, the other one was an Afghan boy, also very smart. 

A few years later in 1979, the unthinkable happened. Iran’s government was overthrown, and over 53 Americans were held captive in the us embassy in Tehran for over a year. The Shah (king) of Iran was exiled. Now I was not Iranian, nor had I ever been to Persia, but my surname was Shah. It was easy to interpret this last name with being Iranian. I remember students thinking I, an immature, naive 10th grader as somehow being responsible for the hostage crisis. My smart friends knew this was in no way mine or my family’s fault. Regardless, the hostage crisis was a time of stress and uncertainty, not only for all Americans, but especially brown kids.