Tasked with the mission of writing a blog post, I pondered ������Ƶ’s 2016 theme, “Finding and Cultivating Your Voice.” Turning to Thomas Merton, to whom I often turn whilst seeking inspiration, I found this: “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.” While we all should strive to develop our intuitions, seek self-understanding, and learn to trust and respect ourselves, how do we help our loved ones – friends, family members, children, and students – cultivate their voices?

By loving them.

One of my best friends is incredibly adept at asking profound questions – the kinds of questions that force you to delve into your mind and unravel swirling thoughts that haven’t yet been formed into words. She listens deeply. Her questions are meant to elicit answers that help her get to know bits of you that might be unwittingly hidden or unobvious. She loves by listening, by paying attention, and by finding ways to personalize her encouragement. She is a gifted person, and her intuition is powerful. She uses her intuition to discern needs in her friends, and she meets those needs creatively, often by appealing to specific senses of humor. As her friend, I have found her questions and personalized moments of encouragement, helpful in my own quest for self-understanding. She draws me out of myself, and as she is learning about bits of me, I learn just as much.

As a new mother, I hope to use these tactics as I get to know my daughter while she grows. At six months, her personality is already beginning to emerge – she approaches the world with a certain whimsy, her face alights when she connects with people, and she loves to sing and twist her hands in the air in front of her face. And this is only the beginning. I hope to love her by listening, watching, and seeking to understand her, then finding ways to help her cultivate her strengths and understand her weaknesses as they are, not as I wish them to appear.

Giftedness, while acting as a common bond between those who share it, also manifests in different and intricate ways. As we work to help gifted young people find their voices, we remember that the giftedness of each child is unique, and we do not expect anyone to fit perfectly into a gifted framework that aligns with a particular expectation or understanding of how giftedness should appear. I think of the children at Yunasa – some of them experience deep reverence for nature, their imaginations and spirits alight during guided visualizations, and they have stunning intuitions.  Others hesitate to connect with psychosynthesis, but they are able to decipher, without struggle, the foreign language of coding or advanced mathematics.  Some arrive at camp and immediately engage in captivating conversations about politics, physics, and literature. Others feel trapped inside themselves, longing to connect but confused as to how. To love these children, we honor their uniqueness and meet them where they are.  We engage them in ways that help them to learn about themselves, and we listen.

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Jennifer de la Haye obtained a B.A. in English with a creative writing emphasis from California State University, Long Beach. She spent time as a freelance writer and customer service representative before arriving at ������Ƶ. Jennifer is thrilled to contribute to an organization that nurtures and provides guidance for gifted youth, whose earnest curiosity and relationship with the world around them she finds inspiring and delightful. She especially enjoys working at ������Ƶ because she is constantly learning, likes and respects her colleagues, and finds value in contributing to an organization she admires.

Spring Academy classes ran for eight weeks from April 1 to May 25. Classes included two new offerings: Explorations in Literature and Chemistry Lab. Some Academy classics were also held: Organic Chemistry, Primary Advanced Math, Neuro-Energy I and II, Molecular Biology, and Astronomy. Our student attendance was the fullest it’s been and included ten new students from local public and private schools.

Chemistry Lab, taught by Dr. Rosemary Rohde and Ronnie Bryan, was a hit with its hands-on curriculum. Dr. Rose took concepts from Chemistry I and II and expanded on them by conducting correlating experiments for each of the eight weeks. Some lab topics were rates of reaction, electrochemistry and chemical equilibrium. Proper safety precautions were taught with the use of chemicals—information most students don’t usually cover until they take a high school chemistry course.

Susana de la Peña, adjunct professor at UCLA, taught a humanities class called “Explorations in Literature and Meaning Making.” The students read three novels and a variety of short stories and wrote poems for their culminating activity. Literary analysis was emphasized as the class dug deep into gothic themes. The class came up with challenging questions and conjectures about some of the more obscure aspects of life but also had fun putting themselves in the shoes of the main characters.

Astronomy students took a field trip to the Griffith Observatory with Tony Travoullion, astronomer at work on the thirty-meter telescope through California Institute of Technology. Tony walked through each exhibit with his class and related museum information to concepts studied in Academy class. The field trip was also an opportunity for astronomy students to demonstrate mastery by explaining the exhibits to their fellow classmates and family members in attendance.

Just as spring term was brought to a close, Genius Day, a day of deep exploration into the life of genius Charles Darwin, commenced. The inaugural Genius Day was held at the Huntington Library last Saturday. Chief curator, Dr. Daniel Lewis, led students through a dynamic portrayal of Charles Darwin and a few of his contemporaries. The objective of the day was to gather evidence, showcase mastery and, in the end, define genius. Students fully immersed themselves in the scope of Darwin’s many contributions while having access to Dr. Lewis, an expert on the subject. Uninhibited by barriers of time or content, it was a joy to watch Academy kids thrive during an unforgettable day of deep learning.

Summer Academy sessions begin June 17! Sign up today!