June 2008

In this issue:

• SIG Still Accepting Applications
• From the President’s Desk
• SIG Alumni Survey
• What’s New with You?
• Got Funds?
• Puzzle Corner
• Renzulli Learning System
• Confratute 2008
• SENG Conference to be Held in July
• Gifted Teacher and Administrator of the Year Contest
• Free Issue of Gifted Education Press Quarterly Online
• Spread the News
• SIG Quick Links

It’s not too late to apply to SIG for Summer 2008 programs. We are still accepting applications on a space available basis. Please call Tara Sergo at (866)303-4744 ext. 5159 if you are interested in attending any of our programs.

Learn more about SIG programs: http://www.giftedstudy.com

A letter from Barbara Swicord, President of SIG:

It’s SIG season again – our favorite time of year! Our three-week day and residential programs begin on June 21 and run through August 16. We are very excited that the work we do all year long will soon transform into living, breathing programs on our host campuses. For the next couple of months we will be focusing our full attention on our students, so we will be taking a newsletter break until September.

This issue focuses on our former students. We hear from one student in particular, Chloe Johnson, who is sharing her thoughts from the last two years. Elsewhere in this newsletter you will get to read some of the preliminary results from a survey we mailed to 5,000 of our alumni. Their thoughts and lives are very interesting to us many years later, and I think you will find what they have to say interesting as well.

Have a great summer! I hope to see many of you when I visit our programs over the next couple of months.

Barbara Swicord
President, Summer Institute for the Gifted

SIG recently mailed a survey to 5,000 of its alumni. Here is a sampling of the preliminary results from the first 579 respondents. A more complete publication of results will be available in the fall. The results were very interesting and quite positive, verifying the excitement we have for our programs.

If you attended a SIG session in the past or if you know someone who attended a SIG session and hasn’t completed the survey, please go to http://www.giftedstudy.com/alumnisurvey/. We would love to hear from you too.

Here’s a sampling of what our former students shared:

The top three reasons our alumni selected for attending a summer program were to have a fun experience, have an academic challenge, and make new friends. The top three reasons they selected for choosing a SIG program were our course selection, the location of the program, and our reputation.

We learned that SIG students benefitted from the program in many ways:

• 75% believed that their SIG program helped prepare them for their college experience
• 24% said SIG helped influence their choice of profession or career
• 81% maintained contact with people from SIG after camp ended
• 63% maintain contact with people from SIG even today

The benefits are long lasting – 92% would recommend the SIG program to a student even today. Our respondents believe that attending SIG made them more independent (84%), enriched them academically (76%), provided friendships (67%), and offered learning beyond the classroom (65%).

There were many personal comments as well. Here are a few:

Question: Did any aspect of the academic program at SIG influence your choice of profession or career?

• Gave me the confidence to know that I could compete in college, and the intellectual freedom allowed me to explore my current double major – computer science and music.
• I loved being surrounded by other intellectual people who actually thought it was cool and fun and interesting to spend afternoons talking about philosophy and math and telling jokes in Latin and just generally challenging ourselves and each other. SIG definitely built up my desire to be a professor/researcher in an academic field.

Question: What else would you like us to know about your SIG experience?

• Being involved in the SIG program has benefited me in so many ways. Not only did I learn new things in fields that interested me, but I experienced living on my own and taking care of myself. I also met some of the greatest people I have met in my life – some of my best friends today are ones that I met at SIG. The faculty, curriculum, facilities – all were phenomenal.
• Best 5 summers of my life. I can’t wait to send my kids (once they're born and old enough, mind you).

We love hearing about the lives and interests of our students after they leave us. It is always gratifying to hear that students not only enjoyed the program while they attended, but that they continue to reap the benefits of this wonderful program. We hope that you will be an alumnus after this summer and that you will be able to share your wonderful stories with us as well.

Read more Survey Results: http://www.giftedstudy.com/alumnisurvey/results.asp

Take the SIG Alumni Survey: http://www.giftedstudy.com/alumnisurvey/

A Fond Farewell to Drew = Eagerly Anticipating Bryn Mawr
By Chloe Johnson

For the past two summers, I've been delighted to attend the SIG program. I heard about the program from my cousin's friend, and I was so glad that she told me about it. The summer of 2006, I got to attend Drew University for my first summer at SIG, and it was no less than amazing. My roommate was from South Korea, and I got a chance to make so many new friends. I got the chance to take Broadway Beckons, Speaking of Writing, Going to Court, Creative Math Paths, and The Proof is in the Logic, and they were all so much fun. It was my first time attending sleep-away camp, and SIG was a great choice.

Last summer was crazy. I got a chance to attend Drew University again, and I took The Writer's Palette, Broadway Beckons, Thinking Outside and Beyond the Box, Algebraic Expressions, and Bonding with Chemistry. I had such a fun time at Drew and met so many amazing friends and got to reconnect with ones from last year that I wanted to go to another SIG program that same summer. We contacted SIG and they were able to squeeze me into another program, and I was so excited and thrilled that I would be getting the chance to attend SIG again that summer. I got a chance to take Writer's Palette once again along with Word Power, Journey into Jurisprudence, Singing Sensations, and Roots of Human Behavior. By the end of the summer, I had new friends from seven different states and four different countries.

Although I'm extremely sad to see Drew end because it was so small and all of the campers really got to know each other, I'm thrilled to be attending Bryn Mawr this summer. I can't wait to meet new people, make new friends, learn some more interesting things, and have another amazing, life-changing summer at SIG.

As a third year veteran of SIG, Ms. Johnson will receive an Achievement Plaque and recognition for her participation at the Closing Ceremony this summer at Bryn Mawr.

Are you a SIG Alum? Do you have something unique to share? Send it to ssuperson@giftedstudy.com and we may put it in our Newsletter.

Learn more about SIG Day Programs: www.giftedstudy.com/day/

Learn more about SIG Residential Programs: www.giftedstudy.com/residential/

Many students are being resourceful in their efforts to fund their attendance at a SIG program. Here are some fund-raising suggestions that might be helpful to you too.

Letter Writing
Letter-writing campaigns are one of the easiest and most direct fundraising methods that you can use. Simply send letters to friends, family members, employers, co-workers, clubs, churches, gifted associations, or your state association and other organizations that you feel would be interested in assisting you.

School Funds
If you are a student, one major source of funding is your own school. Many school clubs allocate a certain amount of funds for student activities.

Local Businesses
Local businesses might be willing to make a contribution to your summer experience. You may want to approach the business with a letter first, enclosing all relevant materials and a pledge form. Then, follow up the proposal with a phone call or personal meeting. Keep in mind that local businesses appreciate publicity for supporting local talent.

For additional fundraising ideas, visit http://www.giftedstudy.com/fundraising.asp

June Puzzle

Replace the blanks in the following sentence with two nine-letter words. The same nine letters must be used for both words.

The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ have confirmed that payments will be made to all of the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

Send your answer online at http://www.giftedstudy.com/newsletter/puzzlecorner.asp. First correct answer receives recognition in the next issue of The Gifted Student!

Last Month’s Puzzle

A car and a coach set off from the same point, at the same time, to travel the same journey. The car travels at 48 mph and the coach travels at 38 mph. If the car stops after 190 miles, how long will it take the coach to catch up?

Answer: 1 hour, 2 minutes and 30 seconds

Congratulations to Laura from Deer Park, NY, for being the first to respond with the correct answer to last month’s puzzle!

Renzulli Learning is offering access to their online learning tool at a discount if you sign up through SIG. Renzulli Learning is a challenging, exciting, engaging online learning tool that is individualized and differentiated for each child. Call us at 866-303-4744 ext. 5519 for more information or log on to www.giftedstudy.com/renzulli to get started!

The Summer Institute on Enrichment Learning and Teaching at the University of Connecticut will be held July 7 – July 18. The Confratute features presentations on differentiated instruction and enrichment learning and teaching.For more information visit
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/confratute/.

SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) is holding its 25th "Silver Anniversary" Conference from July 18-20, 2008, in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information about SENG’s Reaching Attitudes & Altitudes conference, click on the following link: http://www.sengifted.org/images/Conference%202008/Flyer.pdf

Nominate your favorite teacher or administrator today through hoagiesgifted.org. For additional information and details, visit:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/gifted_teacher_year.htm

Gifted Education Press Quarterly, a publication that focuses on identifying and educating gifted students, is offering complimentary copies of its Twentieth Anniversary SUMMER 2008 Online issue. To request your copy, send an email to gifted@giftededpress.com.

If you are excited about what you have seen in The Gifted Student newsletter, please share it with your friends. Or send us their names and e-mail addresses, and we'll put them on our e-mail list. Write to Tara Sergo at tsergo@giftedstudy.com with “The Gifted Student” in the subject line to subscribe.

Apply Online https://remote.aifs.com/sigapp/
Online Newsletter http://www.giftedstudy.com/newsletter/index.asp
Accepted Students Login http://www.giftedstudy.com/login.asp
Contact SIG http://www.giftedstudy.com/contact_us.asp
Request a Catalog http://www.giftedstudy.com/brochure.asp

Other AIFS Programs:

The Summer Institute for the Gifted is a unique and prestigious three-week residential or day, co-educational, summer program for academically talented students in grades kindergarten through eleven. SIG is a program of the American Institute For Foreign Study. AIFS offers premier college and high school study abroad programs, Au Pair in America childcare, as well foreign work programs. Visit us at http://www.aifs.com.

High school students from many countries study in the U.S. with Academic Year in America. Our College Division organizes study abroad for U.S. students at 18 campuses abroad including Richmond, the American International University in London. The Au Pair in America program enables American families to host international young people, who assist with childcare and share their culture. Study/travel programs for high school students are offered through the Summer Advantage program. Camp America and Resort America bring young international visitors to the U.S. to serve as camp counselors and support staff during the summer.