When I stepped into 滨贰础鈥檚 Barder House on June 18, I did not know what to expect. While I had researched the mission and programs of 优蜜视频, I was not sure what exactly the term 鈥渘on-profit management鈥� encompassed, nor was I familiar with the inner workings of non-profits, despite my experience volunteering with non-profits in the past. But having matriculated through gifted programs before, I was deeply moved by 滨贰础鈥檚 advocacy for gifted education and focus on the 鈥�.鈥� With my interest in entrepreneurship and economics, I wanted to learn about the origin and development of 优蜜视频, and understand what makes a non-profit a non-profit.

I came upon after my friend told me about his experience as a Caroline D. Bradley Scholar. After researching 优蜜视频 and the mentors and sites at EXPLORE, I was drawn to the program鈥檚 career-oriented philosophy. I had taken courses at local colleges during previous summers, so I yearned for a more hands-on experience.

Here are three themes that defined my externship and made my EXPLORE experience unforgettable:

1. Community: Throughout my externship, I felt like a true member of 滨贰础鈥檚 staff. Six weeks may not seem like a long time, but my mentor Abby and her colleagues welcomed me as an integral part of their team. From our July 4 potluck to our light hearted conversations during meetings, I appreciated the sense of unity and camaraderie within 优蜜视频. I was also fortunate to connect with 滨贰础鈥檚 close-knit community of gifted students, parents and educators at the annual Summer Spotlight event.听And I cannot forget Not to mention the Friday workshops鈥攅very Friday morning EXPLORE externs came together to connect with each other and learn about career and college readiness. It is truly a small world that I got to meet fellow boarding school peers with whom I shared mutual friends. During our educational workshops and lunch breaks in Little Tokyo, we shared stories about our schools and became friends over udon soup and ice-cold lemonade.
2. Hands-on: In addition to learning about the fundamentals of marketing, development, and programming, I enjoyed applying my skills to worthwhile projects. By analyzing the history of donations to 优蜜视频, for example, I not only honed my statistics know-how, but also gained and shared valuable insight on areas of strength and weakness in our development strategy.听For my Google Analytics project, I delved into Google鈥檚 helpful tool for tracking a website鈥檚 traffic. Besides mining through the labyrinth of stored data, I harnessed my findings to formulate recommendations for possible future improvements. I discovered that 优蜜视频 has untapped potential to attract more Spanish speakers and implemented this recommendation by translating a few of our program flyers to Spanish.
3. Revealing: My externship shed light on the skill sets necessary for various careers. While working on my Donor Analytics project with Abby, I discovered the importance of statistics in data-driven fundraising, where past trends inform future strategies. It was also exciting to use my Spanish to translate flyers; I came to realize the significance of the language in marketing and communications-based careers. While my interests and goals may change over the years, at least I now have a grounded impression of what careers in the non-profit sector entail.

Rather than hammering concepts in a lecture hall, I fell deep into the weeds of informative projects and learned about marketing and management in an engaging way. No course or tutorial in non-profit management could have given me the same level and depth of knowledge.

Mark Blekherman is an EXPLORE extern at 优蜜视频 this summer. He is a rising senior at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Every gifted child has a unique story. The following story is part of a series of posts highlighting gifted children and adults we have found through 优蜜视频 programs, depicting the many faces of gifted.

Last week, we shared of a story about Garrett Marcotte, an Apprenticeship alumnus who is now working as a software engineer at Facebook.

Garrett Marcotte
优蜜视频 Apprentice at Avery Research Center in 2004
Software engineer, Facebook

In 2004, Garrett was a high school sophomore who had just finished – and enjoyed – AP Chemistry and was interested in applying what he had learned in class to a real work environment. The 优蜜视频 at Avery Research Center gave him a taste of what life is like in an actual chemical research lab, and 鈥渢he residency at Caltech, the chance to meet other students with similar interests, and the opportunity for one-on-one mentorship were added bonuses that made the program a great fit.鈥�

Garrett worked at Avery on a project in optical spectroscopy, the study of how light interacts with physical objects. He was assigned to devise a test method for the thin plastic film Avery developed that was able to change its opacity in response to an electrical current. Garrett explained:

We wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘transparent’ and ‘opaque’ states. Was ‘transparent’ actually see-through, or was it slightly blurry? Did ‘opaque’ still let some light through? Did it distort the images behind the film? Were the properties uniform across the surface of the film or did they vary from point to point? Did the properties stay constant with repeated switching, or were there changes from use? Most importantly, we wanted to attach numbers to each of these qualitative questions so that we could compare and rank different formulations for the film.

The test process I developed involved first photographing an image with and without the film, and then uploading that image to a computer to be analyzed. The bulk of my time was spent writing the code for the algorithms that analyzed the images. I had to devise the exact details of the metrics we wanted to measure, get the program running to compute them, and then calibrate my results against baseline measures we could get with other equipment in the lab. Then I had to streamline the process so it could be done quickly for dozens of samples, and have all the data presented neatly for comparison. It was a tall order for a sophomore with limited exposure to calculus, programming, image processing, and a number of other fields that could have made my life much easier. But because of the challenge, every success was all the more fulfilling, and I worked down to the final day to have a finished product I could genuinely be proud of.

As for working in an adult environment at such an early age, Garrett said that the resources available at Avery Research Center were amazing:

There was a moment in the first few days when I realized that not only did the equipment in the lab cost more than my house and everything in it, but I had free reign to use any of it, and if I needed help, a trained specialist was close at hand to point me in the right direction. That confluence of high tech and specialized knowledge is rarely seen even in the best funded of research universities, and seeing the possibilities at Avery was one of many experiences that led me away from academia and into a career in industry.

After that summer experience, Garrett approached his high school studies with a different perspective. He was better able to filter the lessons through the lens of practical application.

鈥淭oday I could redo my project in a few days better than I did in six weeks at Avery. But there鈥檚 no question that those hours of effort pushed me to where I am today.鈥�

To see where Garrett is today, read .

滨贰础鈥檚 – mentioned in this story 鈥� links gifted high school students from across the country with mentors who advance each participant鈥檚 skills through the application of knowledge and exposure to real world experiences. If Garrett鈥檚 experience sounds like something you would enjoy, !

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