support groups – Institute for Educational Advancement

PRESS RELEASE: Institute for Educational Advancement’s President and Co-Founder to Retire Later This Year After 26 Years In Service to Gifted Children

Carmen Guan — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 23:21:32 +0000

Non-profit Seeking Dedicated Leader to Continue Founder’s Important Work Within Specialized Education Sector

PASADENA, CA – 02/20/2024 – The (��Ƶ), a national nonprofit dedicated to the intellectual, creative, and personal growth of our nation’s gifted and advanced learners, has announced the upcoming retirement of its president and co-founder, Elizabeth Jones. Jones will remain in her current position until a new president has been hired and will then transition to a senior advisor role to support leadership and the Board of Directors.

Since the nonprofit’s founding in 1998, ��Ƶ has become a pillar in the gifted education community as a place focused on the whole gifted child. Now recognized as one of the nation’s leading thought leadership organizations supporting the needs of gifted youth, ��Ƶ offers enrichment classes and learning opportunities, teacher trainings, consulting services, support groups, summer camps and scholarships for gifted learners. Over 12,000 students have benefited from the organization’s work.

“As we enter a new quarter century at ��Ƶ, the organization is strong and has tremendous promise for the future,” said Elizabeth Jones, president and co-founder, Institute for Educational Advancement. “Building this organization that is filled with heart and a commitment to excellence is what makes us special. I am proud of our accomplishments, am honored to have been a part of the lives of so many gifted students and am grateful for the support of our ever-growing community.”

Giftedness exists in every demographic of society and is often overlooked and underfunded in many education systems. Jones created ��Ƶ to fill that gap and be a resource for families and educators alike. Under her guidance, ��Ƶ advocated for gifted education locally and nationally and commissioned the first-ever national survey assessing the American public’s views on gifted education. This research continues to influence national policy and is used by organizations across the U.S. in advocating for gifted youth. ��Ƶ operates

With the support of ��Ƶ’s Board of Directors, Advisory board and staff, Morris & Berger, an executive search firm with a specialty practice that reaches across the nonprofit sector, will seek a new president to continue the nonprofit’s mission of meeting the unique needs of gifted children, their families and educators and overseeing the organization’s business needs and fiscally sound operating budget.

“Since Elizabeth founded ��Ƶ, we have stayed true to our mission of serving gifted youth, exponentially growing our flagship programs: our Academy enrichment classes, our Award-winning Yunasa Summer Camp, and our unique Caroline D. Bradley merit-based high school scholarship,” said Byron Lichtenstein, ��Ƶ Board Chair. “��Ƶ has served gifted children with passion and dedication. I know, because I am one of those young people. We on the board, our community, and the field of gifted education are indebted to Elizabeth for her engagement and the organization’s success.”

Qualified candidates are invited to online and apply here: .

For more information about ��Ƶ’s programs and services, visit .

About the Institute for Educational Advancement

The Institute for Educational Advancement (��Ƶ) is dedicated to the intellectual, creative, and personal growth of our nation’s gifted and high-potential youth. Central to the mission of ��Ƶ is a commitment to the development of the whole child through engaging educational experiences that promote optimal challenge, mentorship, exploration of ideas, and recognition of personal potential. ��Ƶ seeks to connect gifted individuals through dynamic and engaging year-round programming. Additionally, ��Ƶ supports a diverse community that creates a sense of belonging and affirmation. For more information, visit .

Contact

Kat Kirsch

Institute for Educational Advancement

(626) 403-8900 or kkirsch@educationaladvancement.org

Why We Need the Label

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 03:59:16 +0000

by Jennifer de la Haye

When I summarize ��Ƶ’s work to people outside our network: “…we are an educational nonprofit that works with gifted kids,” I am often met with skepticism and confusion. The most common response I have received is, “I believe all kids are gifted.” I do too! All kids have special giftings. As a mother of a four-year-old and one-year-old, I exist in a state of perpetual awe as I watch the personalities of my own children and the children in my community unfold. My preschooler has a remarkable propensity for language; she has been holding elaborate conversations since before turning two, and through language, she has been able to reveal a deep understanding of her own emotion and the emotions of others. One of her best friends, who wasn’t interested in speaking as early, has LEGO architecture skills that could land him a job designing hoverboards and intricate skyscrapers and giant ships right now, at age four. A three-year-old I know can draw a Mr. Potato Head picture that he could easily slip into a book of 1920s surrealist art and no one would know the difference. And every child I meet astounds me with either a wild and creative imagination, a surprisingly sharp sense of humor, a well of empathy, or all of the above.

Yes, of course all kids are gifted, in that all kids have creativity, beauty, love, special talents, and unique modes of intelligence comprising their very being.

But this is not what we mean by “gifted.” As a society, we needed a word to describe people whose experience of life is measurably different than their peers. I like the definition created by the Columbus Group in 1991: “Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm.” When we dismiss the term “gifted” because we have disdain for labeling children, or because all children are gifted, we are denying the existence of an entire body of people, whose inner workings are remarkably different than most.

A few years ago, Dr. Patty Gatto Walden, Yunasa Senior Fellow and psychologist, presented at the Beyond Giftedness Conference in Colorado. I had the privilege of listening to her speak. One idea from her discussion especially stood out to me: she talked about the incoming “channels” that each person experiences. In a classroom, a child might take in several channels at once – the message of her teacher, the mutterings of her classmates, the sound of the shifting leaves on the pavement outside, the feeling that her desk-mate is melancholy, the way the new piece of art on the left wall of the classroom makes her want to paint. A person whom we have deemed “gifted,” whose “inner experience and awareness is qualitatively different from the norm,” takes in hundreds of channels. Hundreds. Not several. She might be absorbing the message of the teacher while feeling that something is happening in the teacher’s life that is new and exciting; she feels her desk-mate’s melancholy, and her skin starts to tingle and her tummy begins to sink; she listens to the mutterings of her classmates and feels their emotions, too; she hears every sound in the classroom and outside, and each sound makes her body feel something different. For the sake of time, I won’t describe all 200 or 400 channels that our gifted child might be taking in. Dr. Patty took it further and said that a highly gifted person takes in thousands of channels. That is a lot for anyone. It is a lot for a child who is still learning who she is.

When we say someone is “gifted,” we are not inferring that he is “better” or “more special” than other children. We need a label, though. We need a label because we need special programs. We need different types of classes, camps, workshops, counseling sessions, support groups, books, retreats, scholarship options, learning centers, and more, so we can help these children understand themselves and flourish. And at ��Ƶ, we want to provide gifted kids and their families with a community of people who deeply connect with them, so they don’t feel alone.

about ��Ƶ’s definition of “giftedness”. You can also learn more about how to understand, spot and address

Gifted Child Parent Support Groups

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:12:10 +0000

Gifted children have a variety of unique gifts, as well as a variety of unique needs and challenges. Join the Institute for Educational Advancement as we explore ways to meet our gifted children’s particular needs and learn more about this extraordinary group of young people. These monthly meetings are intended for parents of gifted children to provide support and community in the midst of the joys and challenges of raising a gifted child.

2012-2013 Parent Meetings:

Speaker: Elizabeth D. Jones
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
6:30 pm—8:00 pm