With the support of the Virginia Board of Education and the General Assembly, the Governor's Schools currently serve in their various forms around 1000 gifted students from all parts of the Commonwealth.
The concept of the Governor's School actually started as a three-year grant funded program in Stafford County, Virginia, from 1970 - 1972.
Shirley C. Heim, Stafford County Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools, envisioned a program where the average person would be exposed to the arts.
Isabelle P. Rucker, Director of Special Programs for the Gifted, oversaw the residential sessions until her retirement in the fall of 1979,[1] and served as a mentor to both faculty and students for many years.
Most schools specialize in a particular subject, and each serves a single region, only accepting students whose parents or guardians live within a predefined list of nearby cities or counties.
Source:[2] Though there are 19 Governor's Schools designated by the Commonwealth for some amount of instruction during the academic year, many are intended only to supplement the education provided by local districts; these only offer a limited subset of classes, either on a partial-day basis, or in limited form to upperclassmen.
In the Northern Virginia region served by TJHSST, extensive courses were developed by private companies to help prepare students for the rigorous testing procedure.
There is typically no relationship between the institution at which the Summer Governor's School is held and the program its other than providing the infrastructure support for what resembles a college lifestyle.