Students proudly representing HRA at Virginia Governor’s Schools in summer 2026 (left to right): Ryan Wartell ’27, Lily Doan ’28, Caroline Short ’27, Jaya Amin ’27, and Simón Molina Alarcon ’27 (not present: Merritt Jones ’27)
Hampton Roads Academy extends its congratulations to six talented Upper School students who have been accepted to highly selective residential Virginia Governor’s Schools for summer 2026. This year’s outstanding cohort consists of sophomore Lily Doan ’28 and juniors Jaya Amin ’27, Merritt Jones ’27, Simón Molina Alarcon ’27, Caroline Short ’27, and Ryan Wartell ’27.
The Governor’s School Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Advanced Learning, in partnership with local school divisions, colleges, and universities, offers rising juniors and seniors the opportunity to work with seasoned educators and take a “deep dive” into a field of academic, artistic, or professional interest. Experiencing life on a college campus for four weeks, students meet peers from all parts of the state as they engage in fun and challenging activities inside and outside the classroom.
“Our students are competing against other highly qualified applicants from across the entire Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Upper School English teacher and Dean of Student Life Laurie Hager. “It is a significant honor to be invited to attend.”
“An Immersive and Impactful Experience”
A faculty member for the Humanities Summer Residential Governor’s School for four years prior to joining HRA, Hager stressed the interdisciplinary nature of these prestigious programs, challenging students to build connections among multiple subject areas. As she explained, Governor’s School instructors consistently design innovative courses prioritizing deep learning opportunities for students.
“It was an immersive and impactful experience for me as an educator, and it informs my teaching and administrative philosophy to this day,” Hager said.
Year after year, HRA Upper Schoolers who have found their time studying at Virginia Governor’s Schools to be equally enriching.
“I was surrounded by peers who were uniquely passionate and ambitious for the subject,” said senior Gage Beach ’26, an alumnus of the summer 2025 Latin program hosted by Randolph-Macon College. The unique curriculum, his teachers’ depth of involvement, and an environment that allowed for the sort of independence he will soon encounter in college, Beach explained, “rejuvenated my spirits and enjoyment of academia.”
For junior Aaron Carlson ’27, who attended the vocal music program at Radford University last summer, the true value of a Governor’s School program lies in a curriculum that offers invaluable lessons for life beyond the classroom. Carlson recalled that he not only gained technical insights into topics like arranging and composing music, but also learned about such matters of professional conduct as networking skills, audition protocol, and performance etiquette.
“Gov School for music taught me that being a better musician meant becoming a better person,” he said, “and that talent and technique only take you halfway.”
An Outstanding Achievement
HRA’s newest group of Governor’s School students began their journey toward such rewarding educational experiences in the very first month of the 2025-2026 school year. In September, Hager introduced prospective ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-grade applicants to this summer’s residential programs during a Homeroom period where recent Governor’s School alumni, including Carlson and Beach, fielded questions from their peers.
In October, current sophomores and juniors were invited to submit their names and programs of interest to the Academy Affairs Committee, which evaluated the candidates and nominated the most highly qualified students based on their coursework, relevant experiences, and overall maturity.
Nine nominees then began a rigorous application process. Depending on their chosen program, students prepared essays, completed auditions, took challenging tests, or faced some combination of these forms of adjudication in December.
Successful applicants passed both regional and state-level selection rounds during the spring semester and were offered admission to programs in math, science, & technology, engineering, visual arts, agriculture, and the humanities in April. Accepted students are most often rising seniors, but on occasion—as was the case this year—a rising junior will be admitted to a Virginia Governor’s School as well.
HRA’s 2026 Virginia Governor’s School Cohort
Each of this year’s Governor’s School students is an exceptional scholar with an impressive record of achievement in their areas of interest and in their studies as a whole. The range of programs to which these outstanding Upper Schoolers were accepted reflects the Navigator community’s incredible range of unique talents and unmatched standard of excellence.
Engineering (in Partnership with Jefferson Lab): Lily Doan ’28
Tenth grader Lily Doan was one of only six students from throughout the Commonwealth to be admitted to this year’s summer Governor’s School for Engineering, hosted by William & Mary in partnership with Jefferson Lab. “To be selected to participate in the JLab program as a sophomore is a real accomplishment,” said Upper School science teacher Dr. Maribel Gendreau, “and I am super proud of her!”
Doan’s acceptance into this competitive program marks the latest in a string of accomplishments in the sciences during the first half of her Upper School career. In the spring of her freshman year, she joined HRA’s REACH (Real-world Experience and Academic Choice) Initiative, directed by Gendreau, with a focus on applied sciences and technology. After Gendreau introduced her to Girls Who Code, a nonprofit that seeks to close the gender gap in STEM-based careers, Doan quickly enrolled in the organization’s summer Pathways program, where she learned about game design and web development. This past fall, she established a Girls Who Code Club at HRA to help other female students deepen their knowledge of coding. For her own part, she is currently taking Dr. Devi Adhikari’s Python programming class at HRA and plans to continue studying computer science next year.
Visual & Performing Arts: Jaya Amin ’27
Under the mentorship of Visual Art Department Chair Emma Kamerer, junior Jaya Amin qualified for the highly prestigious Visual Arts program at Radford University by assembling an exceptional portfolio of graphite drawings and monochromatic oil paintings. As she explained, her work explores “the actions and emotions we go through without words … through the human body, an intricate structure that allows said complex thoughts and ideas to be created inside of it.”
An AP Drawing student and National Art Honor Society (NAHS) member, Amin has earned an impressive list of honors and creative opportunities as a student at HRA. During summer 2025, she completed an internship with Williamsburg Art Gallery (as well as a shadowing experience with Virginia Plastic Surgery) through the REACH Initiative. This spring, she was one of eight talented HRA Upper School artists featured in the student exhibition Prefaces at the Mary M. Torggler Fine Arts Center at Christopher Newport University. Amin’s work has also been selected for the 2026 NAHS Juried Art Show, held concurrently with the inaugural HRA Art Show on April 17-19, allowing her to forge meaningful connections with established professional artists.
Humanities: Merritt Jones ’27 and Ryan Wartell ’27
This year, HRA was honored to have two students accepted to the Virginia Governor’s School for the Humanities at Radford University: juniors Merritt Jones and Ryan Wartell. This interdisciplinary program, spanning philosophy, English, history, and international relations, will allow the students to explore a wide-ranging selection of courses complementing their individual interests.
Both Jones and Wartell have built up résumés that are as well-rounded as the educational experience they will enjoy over the summer. On top of a challenging course load at HRA, Wartell is a member of the varsity boys tennis team team and a curatorial staff volunteer at the Mariners’ Museum and Park. He is also deeply involved in both the visual and performing arts, participating in NAHS and the a cappella group Nowhere to Hide and competing with distinction in prose interpretation as a member of HRA’s forensics team.
Jones is likewise engaged in both athletics and the arts as a varsity field hockey player and treasurer of the Academy’s NAHS chapter. She has further distinguished herself in leadership on the Mayor’s Youth Commission of Newport News, for which she served as a delegate at the 2025 National League of Cities annual conference. Firmly committed to community service, she is a member of both the Youth Volunteer Corps and the Operation Smile Club and volunteers with THRIVE Peninsula food pantry.
Math, Science, & Technology: Caroline Short ’27
Participating in the Governor’s School for Math, Science, & Technology at the University of Lynchburg in summer 2026, junior Caroline Short is a highly accomplished STEM student on campus at HRA and beyond. She has pursued a wide range of internship opportunities to build a foundation for her intended professional path as a labor and delivery nurse and gain exposure to careers in the sciences more broadly. Last summer alone, through REACH, she worked with Navigator parent Dr. Brittney Drames at Suffolk Pediatrics and HRA alumna Sarah Matheson Harris ’09 at Matheson Oyster Co., a sustainable oyster farming business in Gloucester.
This school year, Short has built on her summer internship and shadowing experiences by taking both Dr. Gendreau’s anatomy and physiology class and Marcy Ouellette’s AP Environmental Science class. She also serves as secretary of HRA’s Women in STEM and Engineering (WISE) program. During the coming summer, she plans to pursue an independent research project in addition to studying at the Virginia Governor’s School.
Agriculture: Simón Molina Alarcon ’27
For Simón Molina Alarcon, participating in the Agriculture program at Virginia Tech will be something of a full-circle experience. The junior grew up with significant exposure to farming as he assisted family members who worked in agriculture. Now, through the Virginia Governor’s School, he will apply rigorous scientific knowledge to this critical professional field.
Since joining HRA last year, Alarcon has become highly active in the school community as a member of NAHS and the varsity boys tennis team. His service work has been extensive, including volunteering for the library, tutoring peers in Spanish and geometry, and teaching English in the community. As president of the STEM Club, he has demonstrated leadership skills in advancing the sciences at HRA, a background that will serve him well as he pursues his studies in agriculture this summer.
HRA applauds all six of the incredible students representing the Academy at Virginia Governor’s Schools in 2026!
