It鈥檚 hard to believe, but we鈥檙e already well into the new year: 2019. Despite heavy rains 鈥� much-needed and welcomed throughout Los Angeles County 鈥� in 优蜜视频鈥檚 home city of Pasadena, CA, the future looks bright! With the rainfall comes the opportunity to recalibrate, reflect, and reenergize for an exciting year ahead. We have some incredible new initiatives and programs on the horizon and are looking forward to continuing to serve and support our amazing students, families, educators, and community partners.

We hope you鈥檙e as excited about this list as we are!

1. Celebrating Heart, Fostering Hope: On February 9, 优蜜视频 will formally celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a gala fundraiser at the Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena. We鈥檙e so excited to share this incredible occasion with those that have helped shape 优蜜视频 for two decades. If you鈥檙e unable to join in person, please consider donating, sponsoring, or providing us with a silent auction item. All money raised will go towards continuing to help serve the nation鈥檚 brightest and most deserving students, who drive our mission on a daily basis. For more information, please click .
2. 18 years of Yunasa! Since 2002, and across 22 sessions, has been providing gifted youth with award-winning programming, embracing them for who they are and helping them understand and work with the unique joys and challenges they face. This summer, Camp Shady Brook in Colorado and Camp Copneconic in Michigan will host campers, counselors, Fellows, and 优蜜视频 staff for a unique, week-long experience like no other. Interested in applying? There鈥檚 still time!
3. Academy Additions: We鈥檙e introducing two new NAGC-award-winning Shelagh Gallagher curricula to our Academy offerings: Black Death and It鈥檚 Electrifying! 鈥� and that鈥檚 just in the spring session! Stay tuned for more additions in the summer and beyond, including a course for our youngest students, ages 6-9: The Penguin Predicament: A Problem about Animal Habitat and Survival.
4. Ready, set, make! On June 22, 优蜜视频 will host its first-ever Maker Faire. Details about this one-of-a-kind event with makers, tinkerers, and creative minds coming soon!
5. Community: Now entering its second year of providing an academic and social home for the gifted community, 优蜜视频鈥檚 Learning Center at 540 S. Marengo is excited to welcome 鈥� and welcome back 鈥� families, educators, Externs, Bradley scholars, and community partners through programming, free events, open houses, workshops, trainings, and tours. Check out our page to see what鈥檚 on the horizon!
6. Our third content guide: In June, 优蜜视频 will release its third content guide, which will focus on high schools throughout the United States that serve gifted students. We look forward to being able to provide our families with a well-researched, informative guide for their rising high schoolers. To view our two content guides released in 2018, please visit our .
7. Calling all volunteers! 优蜜视频 is launching its first-ever program! Volunteers are an integral part of 优蜜视频. We rely on our volunteers to help support a variety of services for our community. Whether you鈥檙e working with students, engaging with guests at events, or performing administrative tasks, our volunteers help our programs thrive! Join 优蜜视频鈥檚 mission to ensure that each gifted child鈥檚 specific needs are met so that they can reach their full potential.
8. Brilliant scientists, brilliant students: (Learning Among Brilliant Scientists) is in its second program year! Since its initial launch in March 2018, LABS has continued to build momentum with a great line-up of STEM professionals from Caltech, Cal State Los Angeles, and USC. They鈥檝e shared their innovative work and research on such topics as astrophysics, molecular biology, computer science, ecology and evolution, biology and mathematics! The new year kicks off with an exciting LABS on Cancer Cells in the Blood! There are still spots available for the February 16 LABS Series:
9. Streaming live, coast to coast! meetings have gone digital! 优蜜视频 is now livestreaming our meetings on Facebook and YouTube. We鈥檙e excited to be able to expand our outreach to non-local families and share gifted professionals鈥� amazing insight with our community. The next meeting, on January 31, will focus on social emotional imagination in gifted education.
10. EXPLORE-ing a new location: is launching a program in Northern California! The program continues to garner great interest from applicants in NorCal, so this summer we鈥檙e hoping to make the leap up north to host students at 1 or 2 mentor sites. We鈥檒l be able to expand our reach and serve more talented high schoolers!
11. Hot off the presses: 优蜜视频 now has a 3D printer! Thanks to a generous grant from the Ahmanson Foundation, which is providing us with funds to transform our Learning Center, our programs are now equipped to provide students with 3D printing technology, design, and coding. Check out our first test print from Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Coordinator, Mallory Aldrich:
12. Speaking of hearts: Academy is hosting it鈥檚 first-ever Valentine鈥檚 Day card-making event the week of February 4. Stop by during business hours to make cards for family, friends, teachers, and other special people in your life. Free of charge! Details located .
13. Beakers and Bunsen burners and bacteria, oh my! Within a few weeks, construction will be complete on 优蜜视频 Learning Center鈥檚 new wet lab! With three working stations, sinks, and a flat screen monitor, Academy and LABS programs will be able to provide an authentic science lab experience for students and educators. We look forward to seeing this amazing space transform into a space of hands-on inquiry that has been years in the making.
14. Student-led workshops: 2018 was a fantastic year for student-led workshops and there are already two planned for February: the third workshop in CDB Scholar Luke Gialanella鈥檚 Votes and Voices series 鈥� A Presidential History of the U.S. Two-Party System 鈥� and The Wonderful World of Poems with Cassidy Kao. We鈥檙e so grateful that our students love sharing their knowledge and experiences with each other!
15. Family and fun: When not working with and serving our incredible students, 优蜜视频 staff enjoys cultivating their hobbies and pursuing their interests. Marketing and Communications Coordinator Nicole LaChance is looking forward to joining her family for some rock and roll excitement this summer: 鈥淚 am going to see Aerosmith in June at their residency in Las Vegas with my family. Aerosmith is a special band for us and I have probably seen them at least 8 times already. It will be awesome to spend time with my family and see a great show we are all super excited about. Maybe I鈥檒l even get lucky at the casino!鈥�

What 优蜜视频 programs or events are you most looking forward to in 2019

Since I started working at 优蜜视频 three years ago, I鈥檝e witnessed the remarkable evolution of our program offerings and have had the opportunity to spearhead , a summer externship program that was piloted in 2016 for high school students. What started as an initiative to cultivate local high school talent, continued to build positive momentum and increase in the total number of gifted students served each year, both locally and internationally. 聽After a successful pilot-year of EXPLORE, we found there was a niche for opportunities focused on mentorship and real-world, professional experience. Most high schoolers who are ready for advanced research work were competing with a pool of college and graduate level students who already possessed the educational, and sometimes professional, qualifications. It was often difficult for them to convince organizations or university-level labs to take them on as interns. Despite this, students who participated in EXPLORE continue to prove that the next generation have so much to offer and are highly capable of working along-side professionals and college-level researchers. EXPLORE, as with other 优蜜视频 initiatives, developed as a result of our community鈥檚 need for access to optimally challenging learning opportunities, and 优蜜视频鈥檚 strong effort to find a way to serve these learners.

This year, I was entrusted once again to pilot a program, this time for 7^th through 12^th grade, called (LABS). The creation of the LABS Series was a direct result of numerous requests from students and parents who wanted a program that would engage learners in the 鈥榠n-between鈥�—they were too young to participate in advanced programs focused on college and career development and too old to avail of other enrichment opportunities. Additionally, for many of these students, there was a desire to not only become immersed in challenging and unique learning experiences, but to be surrounded by like-minded peers their age. In evaluating the need for such a program, 优蜜视频 also evaluated our current initiatives and noticed there were students aging out of that were not being served. We wanted to find a way to keep them engaged and involved with additional programming. As with other students who were 鈥榠n-between鈥�, these students want opportunities that foster their curiosity and passion for STEM and are content-rich, research-based and hands-on.

LABS Series emerged as a way for 优蜜视频 to nurture the needs of these bright, inquisitive learners and further serve them through Academy and beyond. We hoped to give students access to new knowledge and introduce them to the skills needed to be a successful scientific researcher through workshops facilitated by passionate professionals in the STEM field. We received an overwhelmingly great response from our community when we launched the first LABS Series in March 2018. With only 15 spots available for the first workshop, there was a waiting list after two weeks of opening the program. The first workshop was facilitated by Ivanna Escala, an NSF/Ford Graduate Research Fellow at the Caltech Department of Astronomy, who discussed the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies. Ivanna shared her research about galactic chemical evolution and guided students through a hands-on activity to investigate the basic properties of the visible light spectrum using various lamps and spectroscopes.

The proceeding line-up of LABS featured more incredible scientists and innovative research topics, including:

• Ecology and Water in Desert Biological Soil Crust Ecosystems with Dr. Kirsten Fisher, Associate Professor, Graduate Advisor Biological Sciences at Cal State Los Angeles
• Plant Ecology with Dr. Alexandra Wright, Assistant Professor of Ecology at Cal State Los Angeles
• Circadian Rhythms in Genetics with Dr. Susan E. Cohen, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Cal State Los Angeles
• The Neuromechanics of Sensory Systems with Bradley Dickerson, Ph.D., NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow and California Alliance AGEP Fellow at Caltech

In reflecting on the successful implementation of pilot programs, like LABS Series and EXPLORE, I can鈥檛 help but feel elated to see the growth of programs that were built from the ground up and organically formed as a result of a need from our community. It makes every bit of progress more meaningful and further inspires me to do the work I do with this population of learners. I am then reminded that whenever there is a need, 优蜜视频 finds a way! 优蜜视频 continually strives to meet gifted learners where they are in their educational journey and always has an open door to families in need of something more.

To learn more about LABS Series or to register for our September 22^nd workshop on 鈥淪imple Math Problems No One Knows How To Solve. Yet.鈥� with Professor Mike Krebs, visit the !