5 Reasons Why Your Child Must Attend the Gifted Summer Program 2024
From the Gifted India Network (Gifted World)
If your child demonstrates unique capabilities or extraordinary talent in areas such as sciences, arts, languages, etc., consider enrolling them in the Gifted Summer Program (GSP) 2024. This three-week residential program, held annually in May and July, is designed to nurture the innate abilities of gifted children. Notable examples include Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and Sergey Brin, founder of Google, both of whom were identified as gifted, and attended nurturing programs by the Johns Hopkins University’s Centre for Talented Youth (CTY).
Reason 1: Advanced Curriculum, Beyond Regular Schools
Regular school curricula may not be designed to cater to gifted students. GSP offers a college-level curriculum for students in grades 8, 9, and 10, providing an environment where gifted children can thrive, academically and socially. The ages 11 to 15 are crucial for talent development, and GSP's intensive daily schedule ensures these students are appropriately challenged.
Reason 2: Social and Emotional Support
More often than not, gifted children are generally very introverted. They are very demanding in seeking answers to questions that will satisfy their curiosity. This can be a burden on both parents and teachers. It is also very common that gifted students tend to get bullied by their peers and, over time, start hiding their capabilities. Intellectually they are trending faster than their peers, but may lag emotionally. A quick fix some schools resort to, is a double promotion. This is not an optimal solution, because the child does not match up on the physical and emotional fronts.
GSP provides a supportive environment where students can interact with peers who are at similar intellectual, physical, and emotional levels. This nurturing setting helps students build lasting friendships and develop social skills in a way that regular schools cannot replicate. At GSP, the child learns fearlessly, at an accelerated pace. Activities such as dancing, singing, talent night, board games stimulate them on the social front. Over the 3 weeks they discover their “tribe”, make new friends, and build relationships that last a lifetime.
Reason 3: Exclusive Residential Program in India
Identifying and nurturing gifted students is fairly nascent in India. In the education systems of the U.S. and Europe, identifying and nurturing gifted students is a well-established process. There is recognition that, when these students are nurtured to their potential, their contribution to society is disproportionate - from founders of companies such as Facebook and Google, to Nobel prize winners, to inventions that have contributed to making the world a better place. We recently established the Gifted India Network (part of Gifted World) which is a consortium of organizations focused on identifying and nurturing gifted students. Identified students can attend GSP in India, or the CTD/ CTY programs in the U.S.
GSP thus stands out as India’s only residential program for gifted students, offering an opportunity to be part of a global movement that recognizes and nurtures exceptional talent. This program is a stepping stone for future leaders, innovators, and thinkers.
Reason 4: World-Class Learning and Living Environment
Since 2017, GSP has been hosted at Manipal University (Manipal Academy of Higher Education), offering top-notch infrastructure and a safe, stimulating environment for learning and personal growth. Manipal is a 60-minute drive from the port city of Mangaluru, with excellent air/ train connections. All children are within eyesight and earshot of Program Staff, at all times. Our Student: Staff ratio is fantastic at 4:1.
Our mentors bring global experience from academia and the corporate world to the program. We briefly profile a couple of mentors below:
Mentor Profile: Sukanya Sinha
Sukanya sees the world as an endless wonder, a world where children are excited and curious about learning science. She was the founder director of Curiouscity Science Education with the mission to enable children to look at science as a special way of viewing the world. Since 2004, she has been a visiting scientist at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.
Sukanya also writes (in English and Bengali) to share her passion for science with her readers. She was awarded the prestigious Rabindra Smriti Puraskar in 2010 for science writing in Bengali.
She has M.Sc., M.Phil. degrees from the University of Delhi and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Sukanya has facilitated numerous courses at the online and residential programs at GenWise, over the years, including those on Intelligent Estimation, and Scientific Enquiry.
Mentor Profile: Navin Kabra
Navin Kabra is CTO and Co-Founder at ReliScore, a company that provides skill and capability assessment solutions to the software industry. He also consults and advises multiple GoI initiatives, as well as fintech companies in the private sector (Innoviti - payments processing, and FinIQ - derivatives and other financial products).
Navin has several peer-reviewed articles in international conferences / journals and is also an inventor on 18 US Patents, 2 European Patents, and 1 Japanese Patent, filed as part of his work for 3 different companies (Symantec, Veritas, TeraData).
Navin has an undergrad degree (IIT Bombay) and a Ph.D (Univ of Wisconsin, Madison), both in Computer Science.
Navin has designed and delivered more than a dozen courses on Technology and related themes at previous Summer and Online programs.
These mentors are dedicated to providing an unparalleled educational experience, preparing students for university and beyond.
Reason 5: Unique Perspective on Child Development
GSP offers insights into a child’s development that parents and regular teachers cannot provide. Through a blend of academic rigor, social activities, and personal growth opportunities, students return home more confident, independent, and ready for lifelong learning.
We are pleased to share below, one of hundreds of testimonials the program has received from parents:
I, as a parent, think that Genwise has enabled something very interesting and valuable to a child's growth. Specifically, it is the only place I know where a kid: - Chooses a course i.e., nobody compels them to take it - Studies with other new kids with limited prior friendships, if at all - Is surrounded by kids who are presumably above a certain level of mental acuity - Has NO EXAMS! i.e., they are not doing it for the grades or to impress anyone - Is on it for a full 3 weeks, giving them enough time to assimilate the topic - Is learning with a teacher who is not doing this primarily for money - Knows they are not going to be judged for however they perform - Is not at home, meaning, parents have no chance to interfere This pristine set of circumstances reveals the kid in his/her element, showing what the kid really is at this time of their life. The teachers at Genwise have a front-row seat to this event, providing insights that are invaluable to parents like me.
Register Now for the May 2024 Program
We invite students with Gifted Talent Search scores and Asset Talent Search scores to apply for the Gifted Summer Program of 2024. To apply, please visit our website and submit your application by Mar 31, 2024. Seats on several courses are already nearly sold out, so please respond early.
Don’t miss this opportunity for your child to join a community of gifted learners, make lifelong friends, and explore their full potential.
If you’d like to speak to someone live, please call Eklavya @70464 66866 (Eklavya@genwise.in) or Shrikant @98600 33502 (Shrikant@genwise.in)
Join us at GSP 2024 and witness your child embark on a journey of discovery, learning, and personal growth.