My hurried, crooked, parking alignment, three feet from the curb confirms the rush of my excitement when I arrive to a Thanksgiving party last November hosted by old school friends and their parents. They were outside waiting for me to arrive with wide waves of welcome and a beautiful gift related to a forty-year-old inside joke born from an adolescent incident occurring one summer night when we were much younger.  

Although I will not share historical specifics of our youthful merriment, I can tell you we use the phrase: O Tannenbaum! to memorialize the joke as both salutation and touchstone in many of our current day communications, and at all of our special event interactions. I am fortunate in this world to rely on a steady anchor of an inside joke fitted many summers ago, grounded in friendship, high spirits, and remembrance.  

Last summer, after accepting an invitation from IEA to visit camp Yunasa West, I drove on gorgeous Colorado-in-July twisty creekside roads to tour campgrounds, hang out by the lake with Fellows, break bread with staff, and facilitate an art workshop with campers. 

Several of the remarkable experiences I had at camp include: circles of children and camp counselors and Fellows together in conversation, activity, or easeful silence; children seeking out Fellows to share progress on a project or a thought process; camp counselors welcoming me with an inheritance of being former campers themselves; dialogue with a young camp counselor who made excellent suggestions to help me best serve children in my art workshop; witnessing the simultaneous kindness, precision, and flexibility of Nicole and her IEA team in developing and supporting both the structure and flow of the camp day; being let in on a camp inside joke cryptically called Peach Juice!, which is where I wish to focus for the rest of my writing today. 

Although I do not have permission to share details of Peach Juice! with you, I can tell you it is a mighty, mighty inside camp joke, hatched during an ordinary moment, post Pandemic, from the same muse I suspect served me and my friends well in our O Tannenbaum! youth. Celebrity enough of an inside joke to have its own polished Peach Juice! board game, complete with a Michael Piechowski game character, unveiled this past summer by a bright and industrious camper. I hope the legacy of Peach Juice! has the fortitude and legs to thread through the Yunasa West community for the next forty years and beyond.  

Human happiness within the circumstances of time, space, memory, and shared experience is perhaps one of the best ways to find some meaning in this life. O Tannenbaum! has happened. Peach Juice! has happened. I was there. You were there. I hope everyone has something like Peach Juice! in their lives to hold and carry as a personal and community talisman and (also) amulet in bright times and in dark (as I write, IEA’s Pasadena and nearby areas are on fire). I also wish I could somehow see out ahead to witness these camp friends in adulthood, reuniting for a few birthdays and holidays, arriving and parking in crooked haste in order not to miss a minute together nor the toast to the well-being and bestowal of Peach Juice! 

Thank you, IEA and community of camp Yunasa West 2024, for the wonderful visit this past summer. Keep up your good and virtuous work. Stay safe and take good care. Until we meet again…Peach Juice! 

Catherine Zakoian is a licensed and national board certified counselor based in Boulder, CO. For close to 25 years she has specialized in counseling gifted, profoundly gifted, and twice exceptional (2e) children, adolescents, teens, adults, families, and organizations.

Learn more about her and her practice at: https://catherinezakoian.com/

How we use technology is more important than ever these days – our education, advocacy, work and social lives are primarily limited to online settings. In light of youth’s increased reliance on technology as well as current racial and social justice movements, IEA offered a complimentary Spyglass online workshop series this month called Digital Civics: Changemakers of Tomorrow.

Bethany Ellerbrook, whose graduate research explored tween and teen media engagement, led students through four workshops. In “Fact or Fiction,” students learned how to identify misinformation and craft persuasive pitches in support of a cause they care about. The student-selected topics included global climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, unequal access to food and clean water, education disparities and marine pollution. It was inspiring to hear directly from our stellar students about the changes they want to make for the betterment of the future!

In “Raising Awareness” and “Telling the Story,” students explored the fundamentals of visual design and video production, then created powerful Instagram posts to advocate for their causes. Finally, in “Content and Conversations,” they discussed online echo chambers and the differences between debate and dialogue, plus shared their final designs with one another.

In the last meetings of each of the two class sections, students shared their final thoughts and takeaways: they were proud of themselves for what they were able to create in under two weeks and excited to continue acting in support of their causes. Several students were also inspired to share their creations on their own social media! See below for some of their final creations, and see the rest on the class Instagram Page.

Although we are looking forward to learning together in person again, it has been incredible to meet students from all over the country. This summer, the Spyglass program has served students from almost 20 states. In the Digital Civics series alone, brought together students from California, Washington, DC, Florida, Arkansas and more. We can’t wait to see how these students continue to make a difference and advocate for their causes!

The final Digital Civics workshop ended with a quote from the late civil rights activist and US Representative John Lewis: “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part…”

We’d love to hear from our community: what causes are you passionate about? What online resources help you and others advocate for positive change?

This week, I had an opportunity to observe a session of Spyglass, IEA’s new distance learning program that brings professionals and students together via Zoom for specialized workshops. This particular session was the 4th class in a 6-part series for children ages 9-12. The first three classes were about public speaking, and this one was entitled Speech and Debate, taught by master’s candidate Reece Aguilar, Assistant Debate Coach for the University of Southern California. In an hour and a half (which flew by), I personally learned more than I expected to.  

This was a beginner’s class, so the instructor started from scratch – he taught us what debate actually is: the act of persuading a skeptical audience to align with your view. He led us through the components of an effective debate, including how to remain unemotional and free of fallacies.  

By the end of class, each student was charged with the task of writing a complete argument that might be used in an actual debate. They were given an array of topics to choose from, including whether or not schools should extend recess, whether or not cafeterias should offer free lunch, or whether or not schools should require uniforms. Students were given no more than five minutes to create their arguments, and each one was able to write and deliver their 30-second arguments with articulate confidence.  

I am not sure what I expected, but I was riveted the whole time! This was far from a droll lecture; this was an interactive discussion, truly a hands-on workshop. Reece did a fantastic job engaging the children; every student participated in the conversation and the final presentation. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic rendered in-person learning unsafe, I was skeptical about the quality of distance learning. I could not picture IEA’s dynamic, interactive programs translating into an online format. After sitting in on both Spyglass and Yunasa, I am convinced that IEA’s teachers and staff have mastered distance learning. And while we would all rather be together, this is the next best thing.  

Click here to learn more about IEA’s Online Spyglass program.  

This workshop is recommended for 1st to 6th graders.

Required Materials: Graph paper, markers or color pencils, a piece of yarn, scissors and glue.

About Cassidy: Cassidy is a published author of poetry books and the founder of a nonprofit organization, iPoetTree. Her mission is to inspire young children to love writing through poetry. She offers free poetry workshops to children from kindergarten to sixth grade in the community and wherever she travels to. Cassidy has many varied interests, from writing poetry to playing the piano to learning about rocks and minerals. But when you ask her what her favorite subject is, she says it’s math! In her spare time, Cassidy is an avid reader and enjoys hanging out with her friends to shoot silly homemade movies. She is excited to share her love of poetry with others and hopes to inspire more kids to create their own poetic masterpieces.

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When I summarize IEA’s work to people outside our network: “…we are an educational nonprofit that works with gifted kids,” I am often met with skepticism and confusion. The most common response I have received is, “I believe all kids are gifted.” I do too! All kids have special giftings. As a mother of a four-year-old and one-year-old, I exist in a state of perpetual awe as I watch the personalities of my own children and the children in my community unfold. My preschooler has a remarkable propensity for language; she has been holding elaborate conversations since before turning two, and through language, she has been able to reveal a deep understanding of her own emotion and the emotions of others. One of her best friends, who wasn’t interested in speaking as early, has LEGO architecture skills that could land him a job designing hoverboards and intricate skyscrapers and giant ships right now, at age four. A three-year-old I know can draw a Mr. Potato Head picture that he could easily slip into a book of 1920s surrealist art and no one would know the difference. And every child I meet astounds me with either a wild and creative imagination, a surprisingly sharp sense of humor, a well of empathy, or all of the above.

Yes, of course all kids are gifted, in that all kids have creativity, beauty, love, special talents, and unique modes of intelligence comprising their very being.

But this is not what we mean by “gifted.” As a society, we needed a word to describe people whose experience of life is measurably different than their peers. I like the definition created by the Columbus Group in 1991: “Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm.” When we dismiss the term “gifted” because we have disdain for labeling children, or because all children are gifted, we are denying the existence of an entire body of people, whose inner workings are remarkably different than most.

A few years ago, Dr. Patty Gatto Walden, Yunasa Senior Fellow and psychologist, presented at the Beyond Giftedness Conference in Colorado. I had the privilege of listening to her speak. One idea from her discussion especially stood out to me: she talked about the incoming “channels” that each person experiences. In a classroom, a child might take in several channels at once – the message of her teacher, the mutterings of her classmates, the sound of the shifting leaves on the pavement outside, the feeling that her desk-mate is melancholy, the way the new piece of art on the left wall of the classroom makes her want to paint. A person whom we have deemed “gifted,” whose “inner experience and awareness is qualitatively different from the norm,” takes in hundreds of channels. Hundreds. Not several. She might be absorbing the message of the teacher while feeling that something is happening in the teacher’s life that is new and exciting; she feels her desk-mate’s melancholy, and her skin starts to tingle and her tummy begins to sink; she listens to the mutterings of her classmates and feels their emotions, too; she hears every sound in the classroom and outside, and each sound makes her body feel something different. For the sake of time, I won’t describe all 200 or 400 channels that our gifted child might be taking in. Dr. Patty took it further and said that a highly gifted person takes in thousands of channels.  That is a lot for anyone. It is a lot for a child who is still learning who she is.

When we say someone is “gifted,” we are not inferring that he is “better” or “more special” than other children. We need a label, though. We need a label because we need special programs. We need different types of classes, camps, workshops, counseling sessions, support groups, books, retreats, scholarship options, learning centers, and more, so we can help these children understand themselves and flourish. And at IEA, we want to provide gifted kids and their families with a community of people who deeply connect with them, so they don’t feel alone.

Click here to learn more about IEA’s definition of “giftedness”. You can also learn more about how to understand, spot and address Underachievement in Gifted Children

IEA’s annual Yunasa camp concluded powerfully at Camp Copneconic in Fenton, Michigan! Throughout the week, we watched all 79 campers – including 23 leadership campers – get to know themselves and each other in gentle yet profound ways. As ever, our leadership campers demonstrated incredible talents to connect with younger campers, support one another and be positive role models to all. All campers were empathetic, compassionate, sensitive and full of personality. It was an honor for the entire staff to watch the growth that transpired in each child.

Yunasa’s theme this year is passion. In a Fellow’s Workshop named Found Poetry, campers created a poem using reading materials focused on passion. It was a collaborative effort that culminated in a beautiful and powerful passage:

“This close relationship, it felt very natural,

An absolute thunderbolt merged with part of your being

My life had changed

Practice; how to play anew

Grand devotion, imported in my life

Such a devastating event, a slow burn, a sensitivity that resonates

Obsessively thought about

Devoted to this love story.

Fire, that’s me!”

In addition to Fellows Workshops, campers also spent time each day practicing psychosynthesis – a guided imagery meditation followed by in-depth discussion. Psychosynthesis helps one to focus, concentrate, be in tune with their senses, and be more aware of the present moment.

Yunasa also integrates specialized learning with traditional camp activities, so campers get a full experience of a weeklong sleep-away camp. Throughout the week, campers balance their day by participating in waterfront activities such as kayaking, sailing, tubing, fishing and riding in pontoons. Some land-based activities are also hugely popular such as archery, horseback riding, zip-lining and other rope courses.

Yunasa was a fun-filled week packed with exploration, friendships, growth and passion. Thank you to all campers, counselors, Fellows and staff for making it yet another amazing and memorable week. Have a great year ahead! We look forward to more summer fun in 2020!

Click here to view the entire Yunasa Michigan photo album. Sign up for e-newsletter to be the first to know when Yunasa 2020 dates and application information.

This past July, 12-year-old educator and GOVLEARN founder (and now 2018 Caroline D. Bradley Scholar!), Luke Gialanella, presented Academy‘s fourth student-lead workshop. Votes and Voices: The Electoral College invited students ages 9-14 to participate in an informative and fun introduction to the U.S. presidential election process, including a hands-on electoral simulation and vocabulary challenge, culminating in a baseball cap raffle prize.

Previously, published young author and veteran Academy student Cassidy Kao lead three poetry workshops, including Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Sonnets. Her mission, to help young reluctant writers learn to love writing through poetry, inspired her to offer similar poetry workshops at the Pasadena Public Library and to create her website, iPoetTree.

Luke and Cassidy’s success is a testament not only to their passion and talent, but also to their dedication and hard work. And it goes without saying that it takes plenty of planning and prep! Students who are compelled to volunteer their time and energy to offer a workshop must prepare in much the same way as Academy instructors do. Determining content, researching materials, developing age-appropriate activities, and reworking curriculum in collaboration with the Program Coordinator are expectations of all prospective workshop leaders. In addition to budgeting time for collaboration and planning, students are responsible for composing their own workshop description and bio for approval by the marketing team. Sound like fun? It is!

As Academy looks forward to our next student-run workshop this November 2, Votes and Voices: Mid-Term Elections and Why They Matter, we reflect on the ways that this opportunity, created for and by students, resonates with IEA’s mission of serving the intellectual, creative and personal growth of our nation’s gifted and high-potential youth. Whether leading their own workshop or engaging as an active participant, students at Academy are creating a unique space for themselves where they can:

• Engage in educational experiences that promote optimal challenge, mentorship, exploration of ideas and recognition of personal potential;
• Connect with like-minded peers to support a diverse community that creates a sense of belonging and affirmation;
• Foster intellectual curiosity, the acquisition of knowledge, confidence, creativity, responsibility, and moral decisiveness.

Interested in attending future student-led Academy workshops? Sign up for our mailing list to receive details and registration information as soon as it’s released!

Hi everyone! My name is Cassidy and I am eleven years old. I’m also the author of Constellation Exploration: Greek Mythical Stories Retold with Simple Facts and Fun and Mysterious Riddles, Roller Coaster: Kid’s Guide on How to Write Poetry, and another fiction book coming soon! I have many varied interests, from writing poetry to playing the piano to dancing ballet.  But when you ask me what my favorite subject is, I would say ‘No idea.’ Just kidding! I really enjoy doing math and grammar. (You read that right). In my spare time, I love to read, and enjoy hanging out with my friends to play Minecraft and shoot silly homemade movies.

I am going to lead a free workshop called Poetic, Mythological Constellation Mysteries for an audience of kids from age 5-8 at the IEA Academy. This will be the sequel to my previous poetry workshop at IEA called the Wonderful World of Poems. The goal of this brand new workshop is to teach my students the mythical stories and science of constellations. I want to encourage them to share any mythological stories they know and to write their own riddles. I’m also planning a fun activity: making marshmallow constellations!

The reason I want to lead this workshop is that I really like poetry, riddles, and Greek mythology. I like how anybody can write riddles quite easily as long as they know the rules. I enjoyed writing my book and doing this workshop is taking it a step further because I get to teach the kids in person.  I love seeing their expressions when they get the meaning of the poem.

One big lesson I learned from leading my previous poetry workshop is that teaching is not easy. It takes a lot of thinking to put together the slides and I was exhausted after the workshop. I’m going to work extra hard this time to make sure that I’m a good teacher.  I hope that the kids learn something they find enjoyable and will be inspired to write poetry of their own.

This workshop will take place in April in honor the National Poetry Month. I’m really looking forward to doing the workshop and I hope the kids will enjoy what I’ve planned for them. I’ve put a lot of thought into the slides and the set up for the workshop. (I’m also very excited for the marshmallows). I hope that you can join me on this mysterious, poetic journey through the constellations.  See you there!

APRIL IS POETRY MONTH!
Join us for a one-day poetry workshop lead by our poet-in-resident Cassidy Kao

Poetic, Mythological Constellation Mysteries
April 11, 2017 at 11:00am-12:00pm

Register for this free workshop!

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I have a confession:  I love the holidays.  I’m one of those people who will try to incorporate some kind of festive craft or hands-on activity into every major holiday.  Believe me, I have an entire closet devoted to materials for such occasions.  So for those of you who are seeking fun, interactive, and affordable activities to jazz up your February 14th, here is a round-up of Valentine’s Day-themed games, crafts and experiments you can enjoy with your child:

Crystal Hearts

With just a handful of household products, learn how crystals form by creating decorative crystal hearts!

Circuitry

These two activities are great for engineers and tinkerers.  Help your child learn about electricity and circuits by creating interactive valentines.

Build Marshmallow Structures

Challenge your child to build structures using only marshmallows and toothpicks.

Heart-Shaped Puzzle

In this puzzle, challenge your child to move, rotate and flip 20 pieces of paper triangles to create a heart.

Candy Heart Catapult

Challenge your child to build a catapult and testing out how far those extra candy hearts will fly!

Cupid’s Arrow Balloon Race

Learn about physics and Newton’s Third Law of Motion by setting up a balloon race!

Valentine’s Day Slime

What can be more fun than Valentine’s Day-themed slime? It’s ooey-gooey and your child will have fun learning about viscosity!

Still need ideas for Valentine’s Day?  Join us for our Exotic Pets Workshop on February 14th, 2-3:30PM!  Academy teacher, Grayson Kent, will teach you everything you need to know about exotic pet ownership: what to consider before purchasing, what animals are suitable pets, care tips, and more. Attendess will also get to meet some of Grayson’s favorite exotic pets! If you are interested in attending, please call (626) 403-8900.

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