In the course of my fifteen years at the Institute for Educational Advancement at the helm of the Caroline D. Bradley (CDB) Scholarship program, 滨鈥檓 often asked, 鈥淲hat exactly do you do? What鈥檚 a typical workday?鈥� So 滨鈥檓 here to set the record straight and hopefully provide some answers. First of all, there is no 鈥渢ypical鈥� day which is precisely why I never get bored as the program director of CDB. In short, CDB runs year round with very little down time per se. The CDB team is comprised of myself and my extremely effective and efficient colleague, Mallory Aldrich. We are responsible for the approximately 150 CDB Scholars who are active within the program from 8th grade through high school, as well as maintaining contact with parents, CDB alumni, educators, organizing our CDB Selection Committees and the annual three day Bradley Seminar, collaborating with partner organizations who work with gifted students and assisting people interested in learning about and applying for the CDB Scholarship. Mallory and I are ably assisted by the 优蜜视频 team who help with our marketing, tuition payments, Finalist interviews, development, data collection and all manner of IT assistance.

We base our schedule around an academic calendar beginning anew for the year right after Labor Day in early September with the annual selection of new CDB Scholars. Roughly, the CDB year plays out as follows: the new class of Scholars is announced in early September which begins the cycle of 鈥渧irtually鈥� introducing the nationwide CDB rising 8th graders to each other and learning about them as the exceptional individuals they are. Then begins several months in the fall months of interactive research about high school programs and our follow up with each Scholar as they visit and apply to at least three high schools or programs that best suit their learning styles and academic goals. At the same time, we鈥檙e actively monitoring the transition from middle school to freshman year of high school for the entering 9th grade CDB class, making sure the returning high school Scholars are still well placed at their schools, working with the CDB high school seniors in their college application process, checking with the new class of CDB alumni as they enter college and begin work on the upcoming year鈥檚 CDB application and important program dates, organize our national selection committees who work with us to select that year鈥檚 CDB Finalists and begin sketching out the three day Bradley Seminar which encompasses travel, lodging, meals, activities, workshops and socializing for our entire CDB community of high school students, parents, guest speakers and educators with support from the entire 优蜜视频 team. All of the CDB Scholars are responsible for submitting their midterm and final term grades and teacher comments to the CDB team which is followed by individual feedback we proved to each Scholar. Within the new class, it鈥檚 rare that we are not in touch with them either by phone or email every two weeks to check in and get to know them and how their high school selection process is going.

Winter involves making sure all of the high school and college CDB applications have been completed and submitted within their deadlines, as well as personal recommendation letters and CDB information to all of the colleges being applied to by our college applicant Scholars. The new CDB application is online by now, so in addition to at least three webinars we conduct to provide information and answer questions, we are available to work with prospective applicants, recommenders and schools by phone or email. Plans for the Bradley Seminar are solidifying with the theme selected and agenda being meticulously planned out. Individual Scholars are inquiring about recommendations for summer internships that we will assist with. Winter term grades are coming in and holiday wishes extended back and forth. Scholars are hearing from their Early Decision and Early Action colleges, so that always brings a round of congratulations or calming messages about hanging in there and doing whatever we can to alleviate stress and anxiety on the part of our Scholars. This is also the time we work with any of our high school Scholars who are considering transferring for any number of reasons to a different high school program or looking for an alternate educational experience. One of the exceptional aspects of the CDB program is our flexibility to handle each individual鈥檚 ongoing academic requirements and to advocate for each Scholar should they seek to expand their horizons.

Spring is the Bradley Seminar, a highlight of the CDB program for all involved and in April the due date for that year鈥檚 CDB applications when Mallory and I go into lockdown mode to process and read the hundreds of eligible applications that we receive. By early May, we have divided the top tier applications into groups of approximately 55-60 each that will be sent to the members of our mulitple selection committees for their evaluations. The end of May- early June involves Mallory, our 优蜜视频 president and my travel to meet with the selection committees to select that year鈥檚 CDB Finalists who we will spend the summer traveling throughout the United States to interview them as the next phase of the CDB selection process. Spring is also when our Scholars hear the results of their high school and college applications, so it is a time filled with tremendous emotions and a lot of support extended to our Scholars as we support and work with them to finalize their high school and college decisions.

Summer brings extensive travel for the CDB team as well as support from our SoCal staff in conducting local CDB Finalist interviews and helping organize our schedule that extends from June- August when we have the heady experience of meeting a group of awesome and awe-inspiring CDB Finalists and parents from coast to coast. The end of the summer brings the selection of that year鈥檚 CDB class.

Mallory and I function as connectors throughout the work we do during the year. We help new Scholars connect with high school Scholars when they visit new schools that have current CDB Scholars in attendance; we connect CDB alumni and parents with current CDB Scholars looking for potential mentors or having questions to ask of fellow community members regarding their careers, current occupations or life out in the 鈥渞eal world.鈥� We connect organizations interested in the work we do with 优蜜视频 programs and initiatives as well as attend local and national conferences and conduct webinars and monthly gifted support group meetings on site to inform interested people in what CDB and 优蜜视频 are about.

It is impossible to fall through the cracks, so to speak, as a CDB Scholar. Mallory and I simply won鈥檛 let that happen. We work very hard to develop ongoing trust-based relationships with all of our Scholars and communicate regularly with them as additional support systems or advocates when it comes to any issue they might be facing at school鈥攚ith their classes, teachers, peers– or as they navigate finding balance in their often very fully scheduled lives. We work to impart life lessons to the CDB community about being proactive when it comes to their own educational paths, seeking guidance and assistance from teachers and mentors when/as needed and strive to help them develop strategies and skills to alleviate the stresses, anxieties and expectations inherent in being teenagers in general and being at competitive academic environments in particular.

So going back to the first paragraph of this attempt to de-mystify CDB, Mallory and my day always encompasses reading and responding to MANY emails from our Scholars, their parents, admissions officers at the high schools we work with as well as introducing new schools to the CDB program and Scholars. We attend regular weekly meetings that are part of 优蜜视频 as well as appointments outside the office or with visitors by people interested in learning more about CDB who are visiting SoCal and stop by our office in Pasadena, CA. We spend time daily checking in with each other as collaborators in working with an incredibly diverse population of students in how best to support and assist them in areas as varied as course selection to confidence building when it comes to trying new activities or accelerated classes outside familiar comfort zones. We are ever-present cheerleaders, confidence builders and at times deliverers of wakeup calls when needed to help motivate Scholars to get back on track should their grades slip. CDB is a merit-based scholarship program with contractual guidelines that are monitored and enforced. That said, our motivation as the officers of the CDB program is to always work with our Scholars to enable them to be the prime movers on their own academic journeys, accounting for ups and downs as they occur. With many of our students who always expect super-human results from every test and each class grade and teacher comment, we work to 鈥渉umanize鈥� sometimes unrealistic goals and perfectionistic tendencies that can trip up even the most accomplished, high achievers among our cohort.

It is a tremendous pleasure and privilege to get to know and work with the CDB Scholar community and watch these young people develop their full potentials from the 鈥渘ewbies鈥� we meet as middle schoolers, through high school, college and beyond. With nine classes of CDB college graduates since the program鈥檚 inception in 2002, we now have CDB alums who are married, have their own future CDB Scholars and are well into their adult lives. It鈥檚 not many jobs or careers that afford its staff the incredible opportunity to change someone鈥檚 life for the better and to experience tremendous appreciation and gratitude for the largesse of all that the CDB Scholarship offers and the work we do in support of this program and these fabulous young people . I feel truly blessed to experience these rewards on an almost daily basis through my colleagues at 优蜜视频 and the CDB community at large. Perhaps I don鈥檛 skip into work every day, but I am so grateful for the work I get to do and the people I do it with.

As the program manager for the , 滨鈥檓 asked this question more than any other, so 滨鈥檓 here to provide some inside information that you won鈥檛 find on High School Confidential or through the grapevine.

The Selection Process

Every eligible CDB application is read thoroughly by at least two members of the CDB staff and logged into our online data system, one folder for each CDB applicant. If any elements of the application are missing, we will e-mail the applicant well before the submission deadline. We also send a reminder e-mail to every applicant who has begun to fill out or worked on an application within three weeks of the deadline.

Staff members evaluate each application individually with written notes pertaining to each element of the application as well as an overall score and assign a numeric grade to the applicant. This score is then added to an evaluation grid comprised of all that year鈥檚 eligible CDB applications, which is what the CDB staff use to determine which applications will move forward to one of three national selection committees. The committees are comprised of deans and directors of admission at selective high schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States, heads of independent schools, educators who work with gifted students and CDB alumni. Our CDB Scholar alumni are outstanding ambassadors and having successfully gone through the application process themselves makes them quite capable of helping select the Finalists.

The Selection Committee meetings last two days and result in the selection of between 45-55 Finalists from across the country. These Finalists will be interviewed in person or via Skype throughout the summer with one or both of their parents or guardians. From the Finalist pool, each year鈥檚 CDB Scholars will be selected early in September to begin working with the CDB staff to help find their optimal high school fit.

Tips for Applicants

After reading and evaluating thousands of CDB applications I have come up with some tips for prospective applicants:

1. We offer choices in the essays to help you find areas that resonate with you academically and personally. We hope that you will use the 500 word count or a close approximation to elaborate on the topic and help us get to know what drives and motivates you as an individual. Based on my 12 years with the CDB program, it has rarely if ever been the case that a two or three sentence 鈥渆ssay鈥� has the ability to wow. If anything, it feels to the readers that you鈥檙e completing the application under duress and not of your own volition.
2. By all means use engaging, sophisticated vocabulary and concepts if you have a clear understanding of their correct usage. Few things stick out more to an experienced application reader than 鈥渂ig鈥� words or phrases put in for effect rather than to enhance a thought or statement. 鈥淐lunky鈥� is not a note you want next to one of your essays.
3. If you identify as a math or STEAM/STEM person, you are not alone in this applicant pool, so what can you write to set yourself apart from the pack? Well, you can be creative with your words and describe what it is about math that excites and engages you, and you don鈥檛 need to be a wordsmith to accomplish this. As readers, my team and I look forward to understanding what drives and motivates an applicant to complete this long and complex application, so help us better understand you. There are few more positive notes I write than, 鈥淚 want to meet this person and get to know him/her!鈥� It means that you鈥檝e successfully captured my attention through an aspect of your application that presents you as the unique individual you are.
4. Select your recommenders with care. I cannot emphasize this enough. Since the recommenders鈥攁cademic and professional鈥攁re required to submit their grids and comments directly to us at CDB, you won鈥檛 have the opportunity to see what鈥檚 been written about you. Few things can derail an otherwise solid application more than comments by someone who either does not have positive things to say about you or who just goes through cursory motions to complete a form without providing any real insight or approbation to heighten your application. Make sure your recommenders are people who know you well and who have shown themselves to be supportive, encouraging, helpful mentors or role models. Your recommendations should be written by people who you admire and respect and who feel the same about wanting to encourage and support your CDB application because they know you well enough to be a staunch supporter of your candidacy.
5. You are welcome to employ your parents or teachers as proofreaders, but the core ideas should be yours, as well as the writing of your essays, submission of your work sample and finalizing all aspect of the application components. The CDB application is meant to be a reflection of you as an applicant, not your parent. There is a one-page parent letter that should handle that aspect of the application. (See below for more on this.)
6. If you describe yourself in your CDB application as a dancer or a musician or an artist or singer or inventor or photographer, by all means show us, either as a work sample or in the additional information section. This is less about you impressing us as a superstar and more about sharing your passion(s) with our team. It鈥檚 frustrating to repeatedly read about a special skill or area of interest in your application and not see any visual or oral indication of this element of you.

It is up to you鈥攏ot your parent鈥攖o check in with your recommenders and school office to make sure that the materials they鈥檙e compiling for you 鈥攔ecommendations, standardized tests and transcripts鈥攁re submitted well before the CDB deadline. You don鈥檛 have to make a nuisance of yourself, but go about completing each element of the CDB application in a timely fashion, so you鈥檙e not driving everyone around you CRAZY with completing the application minutes or hours before it鈥檚 due.

Tips for Parents of Applicants

And now to the parent responsibilities:

1. While you are always welcome to call or email the CDB Scholarship team with questions or information about the application, please do not word your questions to us as, 鈥�滨鈥檓 completing the CDB application for my son or daughter.鈥� This is a huge red flag for us as to the efficacy of your child鈥檚 application and not at all what you should be doing in regards to his or her submission.
2. As parents or guardians, you are offered a page to let us know about your son or daughter鈥攚hat makes him or her unique, special talents, areas that perhaps only you as a parent see or know from having lived with this young person more than anyone else. Please don鈥檛 use this as a forum to reiterate what鈥檚 already been noted in other places of the application such as grades or awards received. This is meant to be your personal statement, and we always appreciate your staying within the one page limit without utilizing the smallest font and no margins top to bottom or side to side. We want to know, as parents, what you see, know, feel and value about your child that you want to pass along to us. If you want to tell us about particular vulnerabilities or issues that your son or daughter has had to contend with or overcome, we look upon this as informational and not judgmental. Strengths and weaknesses as well as other aspects of character only help us round out the reality and clarity of an applicant. Perfect superstars as described by parents are suspect to an experienced reader.

Managing the Outcome

Finally, when decisions are made鈥攚hether it鈥檚 in selecting the Finalists or ultimately the annual CDB Scholars鈥攑lease understand that in any competitive process, there will sometimes be results that are not to your liking or expectation. The decisions have less to do with what your child did 鈥渨rong鈥� on his or her application or wasn鈥檛 鈥渆nough鈥� in any given area and more with the reality that the CDB Scholarship draws an incredible, awe-inspiring applicant pool of truly stellar young people from all echelons of the seventh grade national gifted population. The selection process is one that the CDB team takes very, very seriously and meticulously as we evaluate and discuss hundreds of highly accomplished young people and always wish we had the resources to recognize many more of these students than we are able to do each year with the 25-30 CDB Scholarships we award.

I can鈥檛 reiterate this enough, but the CDB team always looks at the multiple aspects of an application, not the singularity of test scores or one鈥檚 GPA. is centered around the 鈥攈is or her academic, social, emotional and character-based aspects that all work together to comprise an exceptional individual who will find engagement and fulfillment as a Caroline D. Bradley Scholar within a cohort of peers, mentors and role models spanning selection since 2002.

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