PEARCY -- Three Lake Hamilton High School juniors will attend Governor's School at Arkansas Tech University on July 5.
The juniors are Evan Welch, cybersecurity specialty; Zander King, mathematics; and Cindy Ramos, social science.
Welch said he expects the experience will be "awesome" and ultimately life-changing for him and may help him realize cybersecurity is something he wants to go into.
"It is an honor and a privilege to be selected out of 400 students to go to Arkansas Governor's School. Obviously, I will take this with great pride and humility, as I respect my superiors," King said.
"I think it's just a great opportunity to be able to go and really figure out what it is I want to do with my future. I think the Governor's School will help me make a decision on that," Ramos said.
Welch said he decided to go into cybersecurity because he has always been interested in computers and how they work. He has been doing his own work with computers and studying cybersecurity for the past two years.
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King said he decided to go into mathematics because he wants to become an electrical engineer, and part of an electrical engineer's job is knowing basic mathematics such as algebra and geometry.
"I believe that this program will not only help me tweak out mistakes that I have with algebra, geometry, but it will also train me with things that will allow me to perform my job well as an electrical engineer," King said.
Ramos said she decided to go into social sciences because she wanted to study social relationships.
"I think that's great for what I want to do. I'm thinking more like sociology and all that. How other people think, and it's just been like a good interest of mine," Ramos said.
For Governor's School, this year, the students can't drive themselves and have to get someone to drop them off, and they can't have any visitors the entire time they will be there.
Governor's School officials are also asking for students to get tested for COVID-19 a few weeks in advance, and if they have been vaccinated, they are to provide proof.
Welch said he hopes to learn what he wants to do for the rest of his life while at Governor's School.
"It's still up in the air on what exactly I want to go into, what I want to do, where I want to go to college, if Arkansas Tech is actually the college I want to apply to and go to," Welch said. "Maybe they can show me ways that I can intern for people and companies that can really help me out with a career I want to go into."
King said he hopes to hone in on his mathematics skills.
"We as human beings use math every day; we have to use math in order to tell time; you have to use math in order to know how much money we've spent, or how much money we gained that week," King said.
"I think this will help me to determine what I want to do for my future as well. Obviously, I want to be an electrical engineer, but if that doesn't work out, maybe Arkansas Governor's School will help me find a different avenue for me," he said.
Ramos said she hopes to learn what she wants to do in her life by attending Governor's School.
"I think it is going to open up many doors for me," she said.
One thing Welch, King and Ramos all said they were interested in is the friends they are going to make.
"I'm excited because this is going to be kind of the first experience with me living in dorms for a while. (I am) getting to experience that college life experience and meeting new people. If the people that I meet are pleasant, it's going to be a nice experience," Welch said.