Local Catholic high school students will be spending part of the summer as members of the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program.

The students from St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, for the 2013 program are: in math, Josh Chatfield, of Decatur; in visual arts, Ana Haynes, of Lawrenceville; in communicative arts, Grace Obiofuma, of Lawrenceville, and Lydia Pedersen, of Lawrenceville. Nick Twiner, of Atlanta, was named an alternate.

And from Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Atlanta, Meredith Jones, a tenth-grader, will be concentrating in the area of communicative arts. She is the daughter of Todd and Joann Jones, of Atlanta.

From Marist School, Atlanta, the students are: in communicative arts, Christopher Bowman, of Atlanta; in Latin, Zach Denton, of Atlanta; in music, Dennis Frank, of Atlanta; in mathematics, Joey Paris, of Roswell; and in French, Matthew Shehata, of Atlanta.

Two students from Blessed Trinity High School, Roswell, chosen, both in mathematics, are: Alex Moore, of Acworth and St. Vincent de Paul Church, Dallas, and Ameet Kallarackal, of Roswell and St. Peter Chanel Church, Roswell.

Sophia Eldridge, of Jefferson, a student at Monsignor Donovan Catholic High School, Athens, and member of St. Joseph Church, Athens, was chosen in the area of visual arts.

The Governor’s Honors Program is a residential summer program for gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors. A function of the Georgia Department of Education, it takes place on the campus of Valdosta State University. The 2013 program will be the 50th summer, making it the longest continually running program of its kind in the nation. Nearly 3,000 students were interviewed and auditioned in January and February, and from those nominees 690 finalists were chosen to participate in the 2013 program. Since the program is fully funded by the Georgia General Assembly, there is no charge for students to attend.

Students arrive on the campus in late June. For four weeks, students will spend the morning in their major area of nomination, exploring topics not usually found in the regular high school classroom. During the afternoons, students choose another area to study.