Governor’s School alum rhymes to give back

Robert Wells doesn’t write poetry for the money.

The 2008 UNC graduate will donate all the profits from his debut poetry collection, “War on X-Mas,” to the North Carolina Governor’s School program.

Wells, who attended the program in 2003 and studied English, said Governor’s School was essential to his artistic development.

“It really helped me open up and figure out who I am and what I want to be doing,” he said.
“The people there actually want to learn.”

Wells also said that if he had not attended Governor’s School, he wouldn’t have applied to UNC.
Many of the poems from his collection were conceived at UNC and workshopped by his professors, he said.

The collection is available as an e-book on Amazon for $3.50. Amazon collects 30 percent of any sales over $3, giving a 70 percent profit to the authors. So far, Wells has sold 20 copies, raising $70 for the program.

Governor’s School is a six-week residential program for high school students that provides academic and fine arts classes at Salem College in Winston-Salem and Meredith College in Raleigh.
Since the 1990s, threats of budget cuts have loomed over the program, said Roice Fulton, vice president of the Governor’s School Foundation.

When the program’s funding was cut from the state budget in 2011, Fulton said advocates of the program “jumped into action.”

Alumni of the program were given three weeks to raise $100,000 by last year’s August 1st board meeting of the State Board of Education and reached their goal in nine days.

“People really responded to the sense of emergency,” Fulton said.

The program has also been soliciting North Carolina foundations and businesses for donations.
Dana Royal, a UNC junior and a 2008 Governor’s School alumna, contributed to the donations to save the program last year.

She said that, like Wells, her time at Governor’s School was a formative experience for her.

“I want someone to have the same opportunities that I did by going to Governor’s School,” she said. “It teaches kids they can get out of their hometown and do something big with their lives.”

Royal also said that the program benefits the state in the long run.

“Most of these kids are coming back to North Carolina to work, and it allows the state to grow,” she said.

Last year, Governor’s School participants were required to pay $500 in tuition to mitigate the lack of funding.

Wells said this charge would make students less likely to apply to the program.

He said he wants to help fund the Governor’s School so students can benefit from the same opportunities he did.

“I would say Governor’s School was the best service I’ve ever gotten from the government,” he said. “It was the best six weeks in the totality of my education, including my time at UNC.”

Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.