Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

"College is way different than high school"

Newton-Conover Health Science senior says school helped prepare him for next step

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: June 7, 2009

NEWTON - Editor's note: This is the second in a seven-day series on area graduates.

From his first semester at Newton-Conover Health Science High School, Cha Nathan Lo knew he chose the right school to attend.

"The Newton School portrayed itself as getting us ready for college, and lets us take college classes at CVCC," he said.

Lo's taken two classes at Catawba Valley Community College through the program, and has enjoyed the high school's focus on math and science.

"Math comes real easy to me, and has ever since I was little," he said. "I love to build stuff. My uncle used to give us mechanical toys to build."

Lo decided in part to come to the Newton School, as it is commonly known, because his older brother attended. He would have gone to Newton-Conover High School instead. However, since coming to the school, Lo's said he's loved it.

"There's a lot of free time, and the teachers have motivated us to do our own work," he said. "They've helped prepare us for college."

He said he's also happy having yearlong classes, instead of block scheduling, so you feel like you can enjoy classes more. The teachers also become closer with the students, helping them prepare for college.

Lo will head off to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte after he graduates from the Newton School on Wednesday. He said he selected it for the engineering program.

"I want to go into the Air Force after college, and get a job with them," he said. "I want to join the ROTC program my freshman year, and be in it throughout college."

Lo said he hopes to major in computer, mechanical or electrical engineering, and do something with it in the Air Force upon graduation.

And although he'll be leaving home, he'll have family nearby. His sister is a senior at UNC-Charlotte, and Lo said he'll live in an apartment close to her.

Though he loved the Newton School, Lo said he's ready for something new.

"College is way different than high school," he said. "I'm ready for that."