The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations by Oprah Winfrey

鈥淒uring a time when I needed some inspiration in my life, this book, and the conversations Oprah shares, provided great insight into life lessons that some of the most brilliant leaders and visionaries have learned throughout their lifetime. I felt like a fly on the wall as I read through chapters about mindfulness, intention, fulfillment, love and connection.鈥� 鈥� Ni帽a Abonal, Senior Program Coordinator

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

鈥�The Great Alone explores a wild and sparsely populated Alaska in the 1970鈥檚, when a Vietnam War veteran moves his wife and 13-year-old daughter from Seattle to the very rugged frontier of Alaska to begin anew away from city life and war memories.聽 The book is an insider鈥檚 examination of the harsh realities and lush beauty of life in Alaska that I knew little about, set against a troubled family鈥檚 story of survival over the course of several decades. The book deals with adult themes but is well-plotted with engaging characters.鈥� 鈥� Bonnie Raskin, Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Manager

The Things They Carried by Tim O鈥橞rien

鈥淚 reread The Things They Carried every year. To me, no other work so perfectly captures the camaraderie that exists under the most trying, confusing and challenging circumstances. Though fiction, it is grounded in historical truth and humbling to imagine what these characters went through so far from home. O鈥橞rien doesn鈥檛 mince words, but his descriptions have a gripping gentleness that makes you feel more than think. I get lost in each vignette that eventually weaves together into a larger narrative.鈥� 鈥� Hillary Jade, Program Manager

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

鈥淎 unique coming-of-age story that follows Eva (and the food she loves) from birth through adulthood, told almost exclusively through the viewpoints of those she encounters along the way. It would be accurate to say I devoured this book. Not only was Eva鈥檚 journey compelling, but the vivid descriptions of the food that defines each stage of her life made me want to host my own elaborate, biographical feast. A great read for fiction lovers and foodies alike.鈥�-Nicole LaChance, Marketing & Communications Coordinator

In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

鈥淚 had read A Walk in the Woods but never thought to pick up another Bryson book until this one was recommended by another 优蜜视频 staff member. This travel book about Bryson鈥檚 journey through Australia is a delightful cross between a page-turning beach read and informative historical commentary. I found myself laughing even while learning about the ecology, anthropology, history, geography and culture of this fascinatingly unique continent. You may even end up moving Australia up on your list of travel destinations!鈥�-Nicole Endacott, Program Coordinator

The Revenge of Geography by Robert D. Kaplan

鈥淭hough dense in historical examples, this book shows how many of our current tensions鈥攆rom the Syrian Civil War to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions鈥攕tem from monolithic geographical features. I particularly enjoyed the last two chapters, where Kaplan points at America’s demographic transition and concludes that geography, more often than not, determines the fate of nations.聽鈥�-Mark Blekherman, 优蜜视频 EXPLORE Extern

Want more book recommendations? Check out what we were enjoying in ,听听补苍诲听.

What books have you been enjoying this summer? Let us know in the comments!

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Tasked with the mission of writing a blog post, I pondered 优蜜视频鈥檚 2016 theme, 鈥淔inding and Cultivating Your Voice.鈥� Turning to Thomas Merton, to whom I often turn whilst seeking inspiration, I found this: 鈥淭he 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.鈥� 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 鈥� friends, family members, children, and students – cultivate their voices?

By loving them.

One of my best friends is incredibly adept at asking profound questions 鈥� the kinds of questions that force you to delve into your mind and unravel swirling thoughts that haven鈥檛 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 鈥� 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 鈥� some of them experience deep reverence for nature, their imaginations and spirits alight during guided visualizations, and they have stunning intuitions.聽 Others hesitate to connect with psychosynthesis, but they are able to decipher, without struggle, the foreign language of coding or advanced mathematics. 聽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.聽 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 优蜜视频. 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 优蜜视频 because she is constantly learning, likes and respects her colleagues, and finds value in contributing to an organization she admires.

At a point in the past, in the middle of an unusually busy year of educational change as a high school teacher and administrator, I recall hearing (and being motivated by) this phrase: 鈥淲ithout teachers there are no other professions.鈥� Ah, I thought 鈥� that鈥檚 why I must keep doing what I鈥檓 doing. Teaching is, without a doubt, about improving life chances.

Now, as Program Manager at 优蜜视频, where聽I help shape the Academy program, I think similarly and differently. Today, as we mark National Teacher Appreciation Day, we honor our faculty of teachers who improve the life-chances of our students, but who also:

• Inspire our students, by creating incredible classes; classes not found in a traditional school environment. Moreover, Academy classes emerge from each teacher鈥檚 interests, expertise and current research. Where else would you get: Paleozoology? Marine Biodiversity? Logic Detectives? Brain Science? Microbial Ecology? Debating on a Global Stage: International Relations & Justice? Literary Ladies of Americana: A Paean to the Female Pen? Microbiology for Kindergartners? The Study of Star Wars: A Hero鈥檚 Journey? Mindfulness for Gifted Tweens & Teens?
• Mentor by sharing their stories, their journeys, by listening and being a friend. Academy classes are not just about the content or the process but about where these interests might take you and why and how.
• Lead by example: our teachers are patient, curious and share the thrill of learning, just as they enable Academy students to imagine a future self. Our teachers also acknowledge their younger selves in our students. They lead by example and they have the magical ability to connect with our youngsters
• LOVE what they do 鈥搒o much so, they find time as researchers, students, teachers, parents, computer scientists, consultants, N4P workers, actors, artists, film-makers, volunteers, animal curators, professors, administrators 鈥� to come to Academy and work with us 鈥� and then, THEY thank us!

And, so, a roll call to all of our Academy faculty, who teach, who teach and then sub, who offer mini-lectures, who sub some more, who provide expertise for Genius Days, who source and bring in extra learning resources to ignite their curriculum, who travel long distances each week, who accept all children with all of their needs (and always with a smile on their face), who return time after time with new classes and new reflections on how to improve and who work with 优蜜视频, with the resources we have, to offer your families the best service we can.

As Mark Twain said, “It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others.”

Today, we thank 优蜜视频鈥檚 Academy teachers and friends for engaging in the most noble of professions and for helping shape future professions 鈥� whatever they might be.

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A British import, Louise Hindle graduated from the University of Manchester with a B.A. Honors Degree in English Literature and Language, completed her post-graduate teacher training at The University of Cambridge, and has recently completed her dissertation in Educational Leadership and Innovation with the University of Warwick. Louise has 20 years of experience in education as a high school literature teacher, lead teacher, administrator, adviser, and consultant. She is also the parent of three fun and active school-aged children. She loves working at 优蜜视频 because she is constantly learning and reflecting in order to meet the varied and complex needs of these children, who she finds to be confident and vulnerable in equal measure but always ready to learn and thirsty for more. In her free time, she likes to read with her children, hike, walk, and jog with her badly behaved dog.