A Community for the Curious: Gifted Summer Program Online in July 2025
A unique opportunity for gifted students from anywhere in the world to join us and learn in July!
Hi, this is the GenWise team- we bring out this newsletter to help parents and educators to complement the work of formal schools and associated systems. We are also a founder-member of Gifted World- if you are interested in issues related to gifted education and talent development, and are looking for resources for students, do become a member of the Gifted World Community (membership is free). This post is by Siddharth Bharath, co-lead of Gifted World.
Summary for Busy Readers
What: A set of advanced, online summer courses for gifted learners in Grades 5–9
When: July 7 – August 2, 2025
Who it’s for: Students in India and the UAE who need more challenge than school typically provides
Why it matters: Academically gifted children often coast easily through school, getting marks while not being challenged appropriately. This is a rare chance to stretch, engage, and connect with mentors and peers who think like them
How to help: If you’re an educator or parent who knows such a child, please share this with their family or teachers
A Note to Fellow Educators and Parents
Every year, I meet children who are bright, curious, bursting with questions, but also spend a lot of their life bored. Children who finish their classwork in ten minutes and spend the rest of the lesson waiting. Children who are intellectually years ahead of their peers, but emotionally still very much their age. Children who long for peers who think like they do.
And every year, I speak with teachers and parents who recognise this in their students and children, but aren’t quite sure where to send them. Opportunities for meaningful intellectual challenge – especially for gifted learners in India and the UAE – are still few and far between.
This summer, we’re offering one such opportunity.
The Gifted Summer Program, Online
From July 7 to August 2, we at GenWise are hosting a series of live, small-group online courses as part of the Gifted Summer Program on the Gifted World platform. These are designed specifically for gifted and high-potential learners in Grades 5–9.
The courses are inquiry-driven, interdisciplinary, and intellectually rigorous. Think:
Introductory Astrophysics taught at undergraduate level, by a physicist with a PhD from the University of Maryland
A GenAI Bootcamp, where students go behind the scenes of tools like ChatGPT and build portfolio-worthy projects
Experimental Science, where young students design and run real-world experiments from home
A course from an experienced Scientist and Journalist that uses biology and physics to analyse mythical creatures – dragons, trolls, and all
A playful, visual exploration of algebra as pattern and structure
And a course on money and decision-making that teaches financial thinking through real-life scenarios
You can see all the offerings here: giftedworld.org/summer-program
What Makes This Different
We build our courses around rich learning tasks – a framework developed in mathematics, but one we extend across subjects. These are open-ended tasks that demand reasoning, creativity, and flexible thinking. They are the opposite of rote learning or surface-level “enrichment.”
We also place deep emphasis on pedagogy. Our mentors are not only domain experts -they’re thoughtful educators who know how to work with students who move quickly, think laterally, and ask challenging questions.
We often use the metaphor of tennis:
“A gifted student is constantly serving fast balls to the other side of the court. They learn best when someone can return those serves, and build a rally. That’s what our mentors and community enable.”
We don’t believe in pushing children to cover more content. We believe in helping them go deeper, ask better questions, and discover joy in the process of thinking.
Why Now
Many international schools in India and the UAE break for summer in July. For most of these students, there are very few intellectually serious options available during that time. GenWise has run residential summer programs in Manipal, Karnataka, over the past few years, yet this year we are trying out an online format that is more widely accessible to students in the UAE.
And yet this age window – roughly 10 to 14 years – is critical. It’s when gifted students are most in need of challenge. When curiosity is still alive, but can easily fade if not met with engagement.
Without opportunities like this, many bright students either tune out, or learn to hide their interests. They coast through school, but lose the very spark that made them gifted in the first place.
We’ve written more about that here: Nurturing Potential: Key Insights from Our Parent Hour on Gifted Learners
Voices from the Field
I have learnt a lot more in these past five sessions compared to what I could’ve learnt in half a school year. I believe learning is one thing and understanding is different. I have no problem learning at school, I do the just fine on my own. But here I have understood stuff a lot better.
A grade 8 student reflects on learning from Dr. Sukanya Sinha in one of our recent online courses
If you’re wondering whether programs like this really matter, I’d encourage you to listen to a short video from Sharada Kenkare, Dean of Innovation and Enrichment at GEMS Education in the UAE, and a long-time supporter of our work.
She speaks about our gifted programs as a “learning vacation" – something that is intellectually refreshing, emotionally nourishing, and genuinely memorable.
How You Can Help
If you know a child who fits this description – bright, intense, curious, and craving challenge – please consider pointing their family to the program. Especially if they’re part of the ASSET Talent Search, or have been identified as high-performing in Math, Science, or English.
We’re building a community where such students can find their tribe. And where learning feels alive again.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Siddharth Bharath, PhD
GenWise | Gifted World
siddharth@genwise.in