TRYON – Wayne Carson has been accepted to the National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF): Pathways to STEM to be held at Wake Forest University in July and is in need of funding assistance.

Carson is a rising 6^th grader at Polk County Middle School and was accepted to the leadership forum, but the scholarships were depleted prior to Carson’s acceptance.

The tuition for the week is $2,164, not including required clothing and travel expenses. Deposits already made are non-refundable and were paid prior to discovering no more scholarships were available.

Carson is 11 years old and the son of Gavrick Carson and Alana Wilkins. He was an honor student at Tryon Elementary School.

NYLF is for outstanding elementary school students from across the nation to explore life as an engineer, doctor or detective.

“This is a great opportunity for high-achieving scholars to get outside the classroom and see, through hands-on interactive learning, how to innovate and think creatively,” said Andrew Potter, chief academic officer for NYLF. “These students, who have already proven themselves academically, are challenged to work on real-world, student-created projects to bring their studies to life.”

Students attending the program study engineering, medicine and forensic science and join classes introducing them to potential college and career paths.

“They will scrub in as doctors, build robots and investigate classic ‘whodunit’ crimes,” Potter said. “Each experience is designed to tap into a student’s natural curiosity. For many, this is the beginning of a lifelong passion for a special area of interest.”

For more information about the forum, visit envisionexperience.com/Pathways.

Carson was nominated for the program through his computer teacher at Tryon Elementary.

A fund has been set up to help Carson attend the forum at the State Employees Credit Union, located at 74 Weaver St., Columbus, N.C. in the care of Casey Spurlin.

Donations for Carson can also be mailed directly to Spurlin at 594 Red Fox Rd., Columbus, NC 28722.

Carson’s NYLF is scheduled at Wake Forest in Winston Salem from July 17-22.