Read the first Issue of The Academy Times: Student-Powered Stories below! Or download the PDF to read it with a screen reader.

When you hear the word “gifted,” what ideas pop into your head? Emily would like to change your mind. Her TEDx Talk will encompass her personal and educational experiences growing up profoundly gifted; the stereotypes she faced, the challenges she overcame, and the educational path that lead to her becoming a college freshman at fifteen.

Emily was a senior at Lake Forest College when she made this TEDx Talk. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Writing from Lake Forest College and an MFA in Creative Writing from National University. She is a published, experienced author focusing on fiction, poetry and academic writing. She is a poet, educator and illustrator now based in Chicago. She is the author of “I Want Your Emergency. In March 2023, she will begin her education to become a funeral director at Worsham College of Mortuary.

Is August the Sunday Scaries of Months? We often hear the term Sunday Scaries that feeling you get Sunday evening after a beautiful weekend when you start to think about all the things you have to get done the next school or work week, but lately many of us are feeling the August Blues. That end of summer feeling knowing that school is starting up again, we are back in our Monday-Friday routines, the days are getting shorter, you’re starting to feel the crisp air in the morning, and before we know it, winter will be here.

I find myself thinking these things, and I don’t know why! September brings so many beautiful things! First, the start of a new school year, where school supplies are shiny and fresh, you or your child may have a new teacher that you have heard fantastic things about, and the opportunity to make new friends or try new things is there! It is exciting.

Fall also brings so much natural beauty, changing the leaves from green to yellow and orange. You can now get a light jacket when you go for a walk or hike or just out for the evening. The stadium lights shine on a football field, whether for the NFL or the local high school. The smell of warm soups, root vegetables, and pumpkin spice will now take over your house.

So why yes, while the days will no longer smell of sunscreen and fruit, the sun will set a little earlier you will be back to schedule and routine. I say try to embrace the Fall. Don’t be scared of it! And, maybe, just maybe, try something new this fall and get out of your comfort zone.

Giftedness does not just go away when you turn 18, but most resources for gifted individuals do. This was a painful realization as I entered my adult life after graduating from college. Everyone has the “after college you’ll enter the real world” talk at some point in their lives, but I did not realize how true that statement is, especially being a neurodivergent individual. All the intensities and overexcitabilities are still with me. I have been fortunate to grow up with my giftedness supported, from being homeschooled, where I could learn at my own pace, to starting college at 15 through a program built for neurodivergents. Even without such an obvious sign that I am “different” from my peers, I am sure I’d have experienced similar feelings of “otherness” had I not taken an accelerated path. After graduation last year I intended to take a gap year to allow time to acclimate to the “real world” before entering law school, and thank goodness I did. This past year has eased the transition from being in an environment tailored to cultivate a gifted mind to one full of neurotypicals. Though I have not had trouble fitting into the culture of my workplace or forming a routine without the structure of school, there was a noticeable learning curve when entering the “real world”.

It is at this point in life when clear rules transition into the broader social contract we all participate in. Being neurodivergent, it is inherently difficult to make this transition. Many have made this transition without ever knowing it, a feeling of “otherness” hanging over them. I however am doing so with a painful sense of understanding. Other students will be at least two years older than I and will have had more time to learn the ground rules of the real world. Is bringing a gift for the host of a small social gathering acceptable in your early 20s or is that more early 30s social etiquette? I certainly can’t purchase a bottle of wine. The structural systems in place, such as higher education or the workplace, don’t exactly have “gifted” or “honors” sections. How am I supposed to find others like me if we are no longer branded? What will it be like living on my own? How do I navigate having an asymmetric personality in a society that has minimal idea what that means in practice?

I have no answers as to how to facilitate this transition; I’m just now at the beginning of the journey. My goal is to share my experience so that those who are starting this transition have some inkling of what’s coming and that those who have already gone through their transition know they are not alone. Throughout my life I have met many adults, professors, even my own family, who are no doubt gifted, but had to experience life without knowing why they felt this “otherness.” They forged their own path through society with minimal support, attempting to conform while still living with this unidentified “otherness.”

My motivation to start this series of articles is not just due to my current experience, but by that of two mentors in my life, both of whom found their giftedness by relating to my neurodivergent teenage woes. Two brilliant people who might have forever felt they were alone in their experience. Giftedness is something that will be with me, with us, until the day we die. Don’t let the lack of obvious resources equate to a lack of deserving support, love, and acceptance.

As back to school season kicks off this month depending on where you are located, planning for the school year can be a daunting time for both parents/guardians and gifted students. Parents want their child to thrive in their learning environment and it can be helpful to create a plan to set an intentional tone for the school year.

Below are some tips on ways to create meaningful engagement.

Support

Returning to school whether it’s hybrid, homeschool, public, or an alternative school setting can be anxiety inducing for gifted students and families. Creating opportunities for children to talk about how they are feeling whether it’s after school, during dinner, or before bed will encourage them to communicate and get a sense of how they feel in their school setting. 

If the school curriculum is not challenging enough or stimulating, gifted youth can feel bored and unmotivated to participate.^[1] Creating an environment where the listener is understanding, encouraging, and empathetic allows for gifted children who are experiencing these emotions to feel safe and be able to approach others with their needs.

Creating a Plan

It takes a community to pave the path of a gifted child’s learning journey. It’s important to identify the issue at hand and determine if there can be adjustments made. Collaborating with the child, their teacher, or counselor on possible solutions to re-engage them is the second step to addressing a situation if a gifted child is feeling highly unmotivated in their school setting.^[2] This solution will help the student feel more empowered in creating their own decisions and determining the options that work best for them.

Seeking Resources

Although each gifted child may need different and individualized support, research studies show that high levels of disengagement can lead to underachievement as gifted students need to be stimulated with learning opportunities that will encourage behavioral, affective, social, and cognitive engagement. ^[3] Looking into resources with gifted programs, connecting with other families, or speaking to the child’s counselor are options to find the right tools in supporting a gifted child who is feeling unmotivated.

^[1] https://www.sengifted.org/post/bore-out-a-challenge-for-unchallenged-gifted-young-adults#:~:text=The%20basis%20for%20boredom%20in,%E2%80%94intensity%2C%20complexity%20and%20drive

^[2] https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-blog/paving-the-path-to-meaningful-engagement-for-high-potential-children/

^[3] https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1272799.pdf

The theme of this year’s conference was Earth Science, with a special focus on equipping children with the tools necessary to problem-solve, innovate, and create change in a world with endless solutions.

It’s no coincidence that just days before the conference, Pasadena experienced a near record-breaking heatwave followed by plunging temperatures that brought on a flash hailstorm with pea-size ice pellets and gusty winds. At Academy, students in the Kitchen Chemistry 2 class excitedly put their gummy bear experiment on pause to step out onto the front porch and take in the wintery scene.

Students take a break to  investigate ice falling from the sky during Kitchen Chemistry 2.

The ECSTEM conference offered similar opportunities to learn from nature’s wonders, including keynote speakers and children’s book authors Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple, who read from their book, I Am The Storm.

“A tornado, a blizzard, a forest fire, and a hurricane are met, in turn, with resilience and awe in this depiction of nature’s power and our own. In the face of our shifting climate, young children everywhere are finding themselves subject to unfamiliar and often frightening extreme weather (Yolen, 2019).”

This richly illustrated book told from the perspective of four children who find themselves adapting to extreme weather events thoughtfully depicts the call to shelter, swirl of emotions, and eventual passing of danger that leaves each child feeling as strong as nature itself.

If you haven’t read the book for yourself or in the company of a child, I recommend it. The final pages will have you chanting,

“I am loud like the tornado.

I am wild like the blizzard.

I am hot like the fire.

I am fierce like the hurricane.

I am the storm.

And when the storm passes,

as it always does,

I am the calm, too.”

Below you will find a list of resources from ECSTEM and other STEM-field experts that provide our young people of today with developmentally appropriate, culturally inclusive, real-world learning opportunities that are on the cutting edge of tomorrow.

ECSTEM

• STEM Library
• 2021 ECSTEM Conference Highlights

JPL/NASA

• Earth Science-STEM activities for kids
• NASA Climate Kids- What Is Climate Change?

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Science Education.

• 2022 Report on Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades (free downloadable pdf available)

And if you happened to miss Pasadena’s recent ice shower, here is how you can make your own hailstorm in a cup!

Parents play an irreplaceable role in the lives of their children. This relationship has a profound impact on a child’s mental, physical, social and emotional development as well as their overall well-being and happiness. Parents help us in every step of our life. “Even when young children spend most of their waking hours in child-care, parents remain the most influential adults in their lives,” writes Jack Shonkoff, a board-certified pediatrician who sits on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “The hallmark of the parental relationship is the readily observable fact that this special adult is not interchangeable with others,“ he notes. “A child may not care about who cuts his hair or takes money at the store, but he cares a great deal about who is holding him when he is unsure, comforts him when he is hurt, and shares special moments in his life.”  The relationship between parents and their children impacts children not just in childhood but throughout their entire lifetime. It affects all areas of a child’s life, including health and development, educational progress and professional opportunities as well as life choices.

One of the main roles of parents is providing encouragement, support and access to activities that enable a child to master key developmental tasks.  A child’s learning and socialization are most influenced by their family since the family is the child’s primary social group. Providing and supporting a child with education is one of the landmarks in a child’s development.  A good education will help provide a rewarding career to the person and thereby they will positively contribute to society.  Parents are also their children’s biggest cheerleaders and give them unconditional love.  

Some of the facts about the importance of parent involvement are:

• Children who have parental support are likely to have better health as adults
• Students with involved parents tend to earn higher grades, have better social skills, and are more likely to graduate and go on to post-secondary education
• Children are more likely to be socially competent and have better communication skills when they have parents who are sensitive to their needs and emotions
• Teens who are monitored by their parents are less likely than teens with “hands-off” parents to smoke, drink and use drugs.

Maintaining a good parent-child relationship is crucial to wise parenting.  Starting right from the birth of a child, parents should always be aware of the enormous impact they have on their children’s lives.  Their impact sets the stage for raising a confident, educated and secure young adult who is ready to face the challenges of life.

THE INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT ANNOUNCES 29 RECIPIENTS FOR NATIONWIDE HIGH SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP

The announcement of the latest class of Caroline D. Bradley (CDB) scholars is always a big deal here at IEA, and 2021 was no different. Last year, we announced 29 selections across the United States.

WHAT GOES INTO SELECTING A CAROLINE D. BRADLEY SCHOLAR?

Of course, interest at the very beginning of the CDB process is very high. Almost one full year ago, Bonnie Raskin gave applicants some additional insight about how a scholar is selected. It is sure to be helpful even to 2022 applicants!

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

Our bite-sized alumni interviews proved to be very popular. In 2021, you especially liked our features on Valerie Ding, Caitlin Andrews, Sophia Barron and Scott Greenberg!

CDB CLASS OF ’21 – COLLEGE PLANS

When it came to college application season, our CDB Class of 2021 was incredibly successful. Here’s an accounting of where our talented scholars were headed!

BREATHING TECHNIQUES TO HELP CALM THE OVERACTIVE MIND

For those that needed a little help dealing with the year, our very own Nancy Kane used her professional yoga expertise to give some insight on breathing exercises. 

RESOURCE ROUND-UP: 7 RESOURCES FOR GIFTED GIRLS

We kicked off Women’s History Month last year with this handy post detailing links parents of gifted girls can check out. It’s got everything from essay contests to summer programs and more!

UNDERSTANDING SCREEN TIME AND GAMING FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

A lot of families are, understandably, interested in how video games and screen time can best be fit into their child’s schedule. In this post, we try to add some insight and provide resources for making these decisions.

COMICS FOR LITERACY

Comics are a fun, engaging and deep genre of literature. They’re also ideal for children at all reading levels! Here are some reading recommendations we made last year.

HOW TO FRAME PRAISE FOR CREATIVE YOUTH

There’s a lot of nuance in how you can give a child praise. In this post, we try to convey and expand upon a lesson learned in How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Adele King.

SOCIAL, EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL WELL BEING AMIDST THE PANDEMIC

The pandemic remains top of mind for many of us, and we want the community to know we’re here for support. In this post, we’ve curated a list of resources that might help with coping with the various stresses and uncertainties: podcasts, blogs, books and more. They’re strong resources for all kinds of heightened and tense feelings.

Thanks to everyone for reading our blog in 2021. We’re certain you’ll love what we have in store for the coming year.

A recent trend is certain corners of the internet is young adults who were called “gifted” as children sharing how that label affected them, and the effects they share are usually negative. This Buzzfeed article (note: contains language) gathers quotes from other “former gifted kids,” so I’ll choose a few to frame my explanation of how IEA programs are actually an antidote to these negative effects, rather than part of the problem. 

Here are 3 quotes from former gifted kids and how IEA’s work is helping to break the cycle of negativity: 

“I had the experience I think a lot of ‘gifted’ kids have when they enter a world no longer ruled by classes and grades and discover they are no more well equipped to face the world than anyone else. All we have is a false superiority complex and massive disappointment in ourselves every time we don’t immediately excel at something.” 

Many gifted kids are underachievers or gifted in a way that doesn’t result in high grades. For those who are used to easily excelling in school, IEA creates an environment to be challenged, often for the first time, in a safe and supportive environment.  

“I entered a culture where everyone, teachers, parents, relatives, etc. valued me for my smarts, and so I used that as my yardstick to value other people for a long time. Nowadays I’m more interested in who shows compassion, loyalty, dedication, generosity, humor, etc.” 

IEA programs, in addition to helping our students grow intellectually, also helps them develop emotionally, socially, and spiritually. We place a high value on empathy and how to be the kind of friend to others that you would want to have yourself. 

 “I got into a lot of trouble. Even though I was a full academic year ahead, I was still not very intellectually stimulated, so I started trying to find ways to keep myself amused. These ended up not being very well thought of by authority figures.” 

It’s true that boredom can lead to negative behaviors. I’ve heard from several Academy parents that their children behave much better in Academy classes than they do at school because they are continually engaged in the material rather than waiting for the next assignment. IEA programs also teach students how to self-regulate to keep frustration to a minimum even when they are in over- or under-stimulating environments. 

 These former gifted kids may feel negatively impacted by their experience bearing that label, but our hope at IEA is that our students are empowered to keep growing in all aspects of self, even after they leave our programs. I believe IEA programs push students to feel challenged to strive toward their full potential as intelligent, compassionate, and creative young people!  

Q: Our family is new to Academy. How does enrollment work? 

A: Welcome! Enrollment begins with the submission of a New Academy Student Application. The portfolio-style format provides opportunity for you to share information about your child’s interests, abilities and learning needs. While Academy does not require assessments or a formal gifted identification, we encourage you to share as much detail as is informative and relevant to your child. Especially helpful are responses to sections “Tell Us About Your Child” and “Student Quick Takes”. We also love to see student work samples, whether a snapshot of your child’s artwork or Lego build, or video of their best tap dance routine! If submitted during office hours, you should receive a response within a few short hours, after which time, Part II (Medical/Emergency) will need to be submitted prior to making your course selections in Part III (Enrollment).

To begin a New Student Application, you must first create an account through our IEA Community Portal by clicking here. Please be sure to use your parent information (not your child’s). Once logged in, you may create a Student Contact for your child and begin the application. If you have already created an account and wish to return to your application in progress, click here.

Q: Do I have to fill out a full-length application again if my child is a returning student? 

A: No. If you have taken classes with us before, you may submit a Returning Student Enrollment Form here.

Q: My child is academically advanced for their age. How do I determine which classes are the best fit? 

A: Academy classes are grouped by suggested age range and are designed for bright inquisitive minds. Your child’s application should provide information that will help us in determining an optimal match, however, we encourage you to reach out to a team member for advisement as each class is unique in both content and instructional approach. Depending on the individual needs of your child, age range may be flexible.

Q: How are Academy classes structured? 

A: Academy classes provide a safe space for positive interactions with peers, deep-dives into topics that students are passionate about, and project-based mastery. While each individual class is different, classes are designed to be engaging, stimulating, hands-on, interdisciplinary, and fun. Classes are taught by skilled educators and content area professionals who embrace the continual pursuit of knowledge and exploration of ideas. While homework assignments are optional, teachers may ask students to complete some work outside of class to enhance their learning experience.

Q: Where can I find the schedule of classes and tuition fees? 

A: Please visit our Academy page here to find a calendar view of our in person and online course offerings. You may read the full course description by clicking on the course block, then scroll a bit further down the page to see our Spring 2022 tuition fees listed.

Q: Is financial aid available to families in need? 

A: Yes! Please click here to submit an inquiry and an Academy team member will reply to you directly to assist.

Q: What if my child is interested in a class, but there are no more spots available? 

A: Placement in requested classes is first come, first serve. However, we do maintain a waitlist for classes in case a student withdraws from a class. We will contact families on the waitlist via email or phone if any spaces become available. We also encourage you to let us know if your child would be interested in an alternative placement should their first choice be unavailable.

Q: What are our options if a class is not a good fit? 

A: Every effort is made to ensure that students have a rewarding first day of Academy and our team would be happy to speak with you about any questions or concerns you may have. No payment is due until your child’s placement is confirmed with the minimum enrollment, at which time, a non-refundable $50 deposit is required per confirmed class. The tuition less paid deposits is due after the first class meeting. We work closely with families and instructors to ensure each child’s needs are met, however, should your child withdraw before the second class meeting, you are responsible for the deposit amount only. No refunds are given for withdrawals after the second class meeting.

Q: What are your COVID safety protocols? 

A: For information on IEA’s current COVID safety protocol, please see our landing page at https://ieastaging2.wpengine.com/about/ieas-statement-on-covid-19-coronavirus/. Updates to the Academy section will be shared as we adjust to recommendations from the CDC, WHO, and state and local officials.

Q: Can I arrange a tour of your Learning Center and meet with a member of the Academy team? 

A: Absolutely! We would be happy to meet you. Please call us at (626)403-8900 or email academy@educationaladvancement.org to schedule a time to visit.