鈥淲e make a living by what we get.  We make a life by what we give.鈥� Winston Churchill

At the Institute for Educational Advancement (优蜜视频), donors are important members of our community because their donations play a major role in making it possible for 优蜜视频 to transform the lives of hundreds of gifted children each year by helping them to reach for their full intellectual and personal potential. Donors are vital to the life of all non-profit organizations and most will agree that their giving is not just about making a donation, but about wanting to make positive difference in the life of an organization they care about.    

One of the most significant ways that a donor can support an organization is by becoming a recurring annual donor that an organization can count on each year for support. At 优蜜视频, our recurring donor group, the NAUTILUS SOCIETY was founded in 2000 by generous donors committed to the long-term success of 优蜜视频.  Members of the NAUTILUS SOCIETY pledge to donate annually to 优蜜视频 for three consecutive years and show their continued commitment to supporting gifted youth through our unique programs and services.  Annual pledge donations large and small are welcomed.  Every gift makes a meaningful difference. Sustained annual funding from these donors allows 优蜜视频 to focus directly on serving bright young people, many of which are overlooked and underserved. 

Annual donations to 优蜜视频 play a significant role by helping to:

• Provide gifted youth with scholarships and opportunities for support, growth and community to meet their intellectual, personal and financial aid needs.
• Keep tuition low to make programs and services for gifted youth more accessible.
• Fund high-quality teachers, mentors, and experts so they can be a resource for students and families.
• Provide supplies, technology and equipment needed for advanced teaching and learning experiences.
• Provide resources online and in-person for families and teachers of gifted children to help them meet the needs of these exceptional young people.

Experience the joy of giving by joining the Nautilus Society and helping to ensure that 优蜜视频 is able to continue providing its award-winning programming to all gifted youth who need our services.  Nautilus Members are recognized annually in our donor listings, annual report, and in the lobby of 优蜜视频鈥檚 headquarters in Pasadena, CA.

You can learn more about ways to support 优蜜视频 and become a member of the Nautilus Society by clicking here.

Are you looking for inspiration on how to get involved in 优蜜视频鈥檚 upcoming peer-to-peer STEAM-A-THON fundraiser? Look no further than Academy students! 

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math are infused in the work of Academy students, who show that learning can be both challenging and fun. Students in classes such as Math for Future Architects, Space Academy, Jurassic Life and smARTy Science turn problem-solving opportunities into innovative solutions and expressions of self. Thinking critically, trying new skills, and taking risks when collaborating with peers are lessons learned that go far beyond the classroom. What future professions do the talents seen in these projects by young bright students bring to mind? 

This fall, 优蜜视频 is excited to invite Academy students and other bright minds of all ages to participate in our STEAM-A-THON fundraising event by submitting a response to one of 3 challenges designed to promote innovation, community and play. Contestants will have the opportunity to win prizes determined by a panel of uniquely qualified judges. For more information on how to participate, including details on challenges,

What elements of STEAM would showcase YOUR interests and talents? 

If you would like to join us as a fundraiser without entering a submission for the STEAM-A-THON Challenge, .

优蜜视频鈥檚 STEAM-A-THON 2021 is a four-week virtual event set to kick-off on Saturday, September 18 and will feature engaging opening and closing presentations, an innovator STEAM Challenge with judges panel, multiple prize opportunities, and special Keynote Speaker, Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy at Caltech. Join us for this wonderful opportunity to inspire our young STEAM critical thinkers while raising vital funds to support 优蜜视频鈥檚 gifted programs, services and financial aid for students in need. With your help, we can reach our overall fundraising goal of $40,000!

As educators around the world explore new ways to instill students with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful innovators in an ever-evolving 21^st century, there has been a growing emphasis placed on STEAM 鈥� an educational discipline that engages students with the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics.  Many educators believe STEAM (and its forerunner STEM) is a critical component of 21^st education. 鈥淓ducation is under pressure to respond to a changing world,鈥� education writer Jeevan Vasagar asserts in a Financial Times article.  As repetitive tasks are eroded by technology and outsourcing, the ability to solve novel problems has become increasingly vital.鈥�

STEAM inspires teachers to utilize project-based learning that intersects each of the five fields and cultivates an inclusive learning environment in which all students are able to connect and contribute.  Unlike traditional methods of teaching, educators use the STEAM framework to bring the disciplines together and enable students to use both sides of their brain at the same time.  STEAM not only teaches students how to think critically, solve problems and use creativity, it prepares students to work in career areas that are predicted to experience significant growth.

Why add the 鈥淎鈥� in STEAM?  When it comes to equipping our youth with creative critical thinking skills, STEM is not enough. The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) was one of the early champions of adding the arts to the earlier STEM education framework to create STEAM which emphasizes the important 鈥渟ymbiosis between the arts and sciences.鈥�  According to RISD, 鈥漈he goal is to foster the true innovation that comes with combining the mind of a scientist or technologist with that of an artist or designer.鈥�  Former RISD President, John Maeda, an early advocate for STEAM, has emphasized the concept that design thinking and creativity are essential ingredients for innovation.

The 优蜜视频 team is excited to be planning the 优蜜视频 STEAM-a-thon, a peer-to-peer fundraising event set to kick off on Saturday, September 18.  This four-week virtual event will feature opening and closing presentations, STEAM challenges/experiments for competition, a judges panel, prizes and a keynote speaker.  This is a wonderful opportunity to inspire young STEAM innovators from across the country and raise vital funding for 优蜜视频鈥檚 programs and services.   优蜜视频 needs your support!  We invite you, your family or your business to become a SPONSOR of the STEAM-a-thon.  In August, be on the lookout for information on the 优蜜视频 website about joining the STEAM-a-thon.

This is a guest post from Caroline D. Bradley Scholar Calder Hansen.

Hi, I鈥檓 Calder. I had an unconventional high school education centered around an online school with an online community, so I have had a lot of experience failing and succeeding at online friendships. I used to be very bad at maintaining friendships online, but I learned and improved over time, and I have helped new friends navigate the online environment. In this process, I have put a lot of thought into better understanding online friendships. I hope my thoughts can be helpful to you, both in social distancing times and beyond.

Being friends online requires you to do more than just have a relationship. It requires an extra level of awareness: it helps to know the specific challenges and opportunities that exist in an online environment, and it is good to know how to navigate this environment. The intent of this guide is to help you develop this awareness, so you can be more successful in your online friendships.

Here are the basic principles I want to communicate:

• Online friendships are most rewarding when there is frequent, meaningful communication.
• There are many reasons why this goal can be hard to achieve. You may have experienced some of these difficulties without being able to articulate them.
• I believe it is easier to achieve this goal if you become aware of these difficulties and learn to think deliberately about your own habits and assumptions.

I hope this guide will provide you with a mental model that helps you better navigate these aspects of your online friendships.

As I said above, the main goal of online friendships is to have both of the following:

• Meaning: to have whatever kind of connection you are looking for in a friendship (whether that鈥檚 deep understanding of each other鈥檚 lives, creating interesting ideas together, or just enjoying each other鈥檚 company)
• Frequency: to get enough of the connection you are looking for in a friendship

This is the goal with in-person friendships too, but since those are usually easier to maintain, you don鈥檛 have to think as much about what you鈥檙e trying to do.

Let鈥檚 start with frequency. You may have felt it is hard to stay in touch with your online friends as often as you鈥檇 like. Why is it easier to stay in touch in person than online? Your response might be, 鈥渂ecause in-person communication is more natural.鈥� That is true, but we need to understand exactly what is more natural about in-person communication鈥娾�斺�奱nd what is unnatural about online communication. Knowing this will make it easier to deal with the challenges involved.

Imagine you are in your school, your workplace, your neighborhood, or whatever in-person social environment you are used to. You notice a friend, and you start talking to them. You might think of that moment as consisting of two steps:

1. Notice your friend
2. Start a conversation

But it is not that simple. A few more things happen between the moment you see them and the moment you start the conversation.

First, after noticing your friend, you gauge whether they seem available to talk. Are they alone or already with someone else? Do they seem occupied? If so, does it seem like it would be okay to interrupt them? What is their body language communicating? These questions (probably asked and answered unconsciously) help you determine whether to approach them for a conversation.

Once you have determined that your friend seems available to talk, you walk up to them. They notice you; you both recognize each other鈥檚 presence. You both communicate with body language that you are ready to interact with each other. Then, finally, you start a conversation.

So, the steps really look something like this:

1. Notice your friend
2. Assess whether they are available to have a conversation
3. Recognize each other and indicate that you would both like to have a conversation
4. Start a conversation

Even though the middle two steps might happen quickly and unconsciously, they are essential to social interaction. From years of in-person communication, we become attuned to whether interactions are welcome or not. These two steps tell us whether a conversation is welcome, and thus make us feel comfortable starting to talk.

Online, however, the middle two steps basically do not happen. Step 2 (assessing) is hard online because most services have no way to see whether someone is available to talk. Usually, the most you get is information about whether a person has been active recently, but knowing that a person talked to someone else ten minutes ago doesn鈥檛 tell you whether they鈥檇 like to talk to you now. And step 3 (approaching) is hard because there is no good way to approach someone before an online conversation. Before you start talking to someone online, they are not aware you are there, and they are not expecting you to start a conversation鈥娾�斺�妝ou are popping into their life with no context. Starting an online conversation without steps 2 and 3 can be awkward: it鈥檚 like walking up to someone鈥檚 door and starting to talk at it, without knowing what they are doing in there, whether you are bothering them, or if they are even there at all.

So, because it goes against our social instincts to start talking without any context or mutual awareness, you might hesitate to reach out online. A lot of normal conversation starters鈥娾�斺�奾i; how are you doing; here鈥檚 something interesting that happened to me鈥娾�斺�奵an feel weird to send online. You might feel like you need a good reason to initiate contact online, even when most in-person conversations happen just because people feel like talking.

Also, step 1鈥娾�斺�妌oticing your friend in the first place鈥娾�斺�奿s harder online. In the real world, we are all moving around in the same physical space, and so we sometimes end up coming near each other and noticing each other. In the virtual world, this does not really happen. Online, you only talk to your friends if you think to talk to them (or if they think to talk to you). If a friend is on your mind鈥娾�斺�奲ecause you talk to them a lot, or for any other reason鈥娾�斺�妝ou might think of them unprompted. Otherwise, though, you need something prompting you to think of your friends. And because there may not be many things in your environment that prompt you to think of your online friends, it is easy to forget to talk to them.

Let鈥檚 step back for a moment. All those difficulties we just talked about apply to direct conversations, which are only one of the two main forms of online communication. Social media, the other main form of communication, has its own challenges. First, to get the terms clear, here鈥檚 what I mean by 鈥渟ocial media鈥� and 鈥渄irect conversations鈥�:

• In social media, you share with many people what is going on in your life, and they can respond with publicly visible comments or reactions. (Facebook status updates, Instagram posts, Tweets, etc.)
• Direct conversations work like talking in real life: you communicate with one person or group, no one else can see what you are saying, and it is easy to talk for a long time. (Phone calls, video calls, messages, emails, etc. Anything of this form counts as a direct conversation, even if it is part of a social media platform鈥娾�斺�奻or example, direct messages on Instagram are still direct conversations.)

These are the two main tools at your disposal for achieving the goal of frequent, meaningful communication. Here鈥檚 the problem: social media makes it easy to communicate frequently, but it tends not to feel as meaningful. Direct conversations usually feel more meaningful, but as we鈥檝e seen, it can be harder to have them frequently. There may be no form of online communication that makes it easy to have both frequency and meaning鈥娾�斺�奲ut, if you try, you can use the tools you have to meet both goals. (Or, you might already be good at this, and you don鈥檛 have to try!)

Let鈥檚 look more closely at why the two forms of communication are better for different things.

If you want to stay in touch with all your friends directly, you have to start conversations with each of them separately. This is hard, as we saw earlier, and the more friends you have, the harder it gets to remember each of them regularly. So, if you are only staying in touch with someone through direct conversations, it can be easy to go a long time without talking to them. With social media, though, all you have to do is make posts and scroll through the posts you see, and that can keep you in touch with all your friends. Once you and a friend have connected on social media, you don鈥檛 actually have to think of them in particular to stay in touch with them鈥娾�斺�奲y doing your posting and scrolling, you鈥檒l just end up seeing what they decide to share, and vice versa. This makes it easy to stay in touch frequently without requiring as much thought.

When you are talking to one person, you can focus all your attention on the depth of one relationship, but when you are communicating with many people at once, it is harder to give that much attention to each relationship. So, because you might not be relating as deeply with each person, interactions with large groups may feel less meaningful. Also, when you are talking with many people, there might be fewer things in common that everyone can relate to, so there might be fewer topics that feel meaningful. The fewer people your words need to connect to, the more meaningful conversations tend to feel.

Social media follows this pattern. If you are sharing posts with a dozen close friends or family members, you can keep your relationships with them at heart and find real meaning in your interactions. On the other hand, if you are sharing a post with hundreds or thousands of people from diverse corners of your life, the relationships you have with each person can feel abstract and distant. The post becomes just about the content of your life, not the personal connection you have with everyone. When all sorts of people can see your post, you might not feel comfortable going into depth about your personal experience. And, because social media comments sections are public and not built for having long conversations, it is harder to have meaningful interactions there.

So, if social media is better for frequency, while direct conversations are better for meaning, how do you have both? There are a number of strategies. The most obvious strategy is just to use each form of communication for what it is naturally best at: you can use social media to get a regular overview of how people are doing, and when you feel like going into more depth, you can initiate a direct conversation. Another option is to focus on one of the two forms of communication and use it for both frequency and meaning. This means either making social media more meaningful than it usually is, or having direct conversations more frequently than you might naturally have them.

First, let鈥檚 look at the strategy of making social media more meaningful. It might still be impossible to make social media as meaningful as having regular one-on-one conversations with each of your friends, but you can make social media much closer to that by limiting whom you are connecting with. If only select people see your posts, you will share more in common with all of them, so it can feel appropriate to present your life in more depth and truth. You can use different groups or accounts for different communities of people, to give you finer control over which posts are associated with which relationships. For example, many people have two Instagram accounts, one that is public and one for closer friends.

Now, let鈥檚 look at the strategy of having direct conversations more frequently. This is the best strategy for having the most meaningful interactions, but for it to work, you need to be good at reaching out to your friends regularly and responding to them when they reach out to you. You may need to form new habits and change how you think about online communication. This strategy of focusing on direct conversations is the one I have the most experience with, so I will go into more depth about how to have direct conversations frequently. Even if you are using a different strategy with a greater focus on social media, this discussion will probably still be relevant to you, since you鈥檒l probably want to have some direct conversations.

Even if you are using an online communication strategy focused on direct conversations, social media can still play a useful role. Social media can be like the physical environment where you encounter your friends and see what they鈥檙e doing. If you are regularly seeing your friends鈥� posts, it is easy to keep them on your mind and remember to talk to them. A post can be a natural starting point for a direct conversation, since it gives you context: you have something to talk about, and you aren鈥檛 just starting a conversation out of the blue.

To get your friends regularly on your mind, you can set a specific goal for how often you will talk to them or check your messages. You can make reminders for yourself if it is helpful. You can also designate certain activities as things that will make you think of your friends: for example, you might try to think of them whenever you eat lunch, in the same way that you鈥檇 naturally think of them then if you often met for lunch in person.

A great way to ensure you talk with a friend frequently is to agree with them on a regular time to talk. It is easier to remember to talk to each other if you are both expecting each other to remember.

In a group chat with many people, it is easier to talk frequently because there are more people starting conversations. While it can be hard to initiate contact, you don鈥檛 have to do it as often yourself if a lot of people are doing it. Then, once someone does start a conversation, it is easy to feel connected by joining in or just watching other people talk.

However, you should keep in mind that conversations in larger groups tend to feel less meaningful. You might want to use group chats as jumping-off points for one-on-one conversations.

Step 2 in the process of starting a conversation鈥娾�斺�奱ssessing whether a friend is available to talk鈥娾�斺�奵an in fact happen online. There are ways of indicating that you are free to have conversations, which will make your friends more comfortable reaching out to you.

One good way to do this is to use things like  audio channels, Facebook , or the app . If regular messages and calls are like talking into someone鈥檚 door without knowing what they鈥檙e up to, these services are like social common rooms: you enter the room if you鈥檙e interested in talking, and your friends can see you鈥檙e in there and come start a conversation. This is a more natural way to interact.

Most online platforms do not have a built-in way to explicitly say that you鈥檙e interested in talking, but you can come up with creative ways to do this, such as by editing your profile.

It is good to become comfortable starting conversations out of context. Because you cannot always have the social context that tells you conversation is welcome, you will have to trust instead: trust that your friends want to talk to you, trust that they want to know about your life and your inconsequential thoughts, and trust that your notifications do not bother them even if they are unable to respond right now. This trust will help you start conversations online, and it might also help you become closer friends.

It can be hard to overcome the worry that people do not want to talk to you or that what you have to say is not significant enough. One thing that can help is to consider from the recipient鈥檚 perspective: if one of your good friends reached out to you unexpectedly, would you be happy to talk to them? Would you be happy even if their message were not a topical comment or necessary for some purpose? I expect you would, and I expect your friends would feel the same way about you. If you are hesitating to send a message, it can also help to consider whether you would hesitate to say the same thing in person.

Since you and your friends will all have to find ways to initiate contact, it might be helpful to recognize this challenge together. You can all accept: starting conversations with no context feels strange, but we are doing it anyway because we want to stay in contact as much as we can. If you know that your friends have accepted this weirdness, it will feel less weird to reach out to them. It can be especially nice if you all agree (1) to respond when you are able and interested in talking, and (2) to communicate clearly when you are unable to respond or not interested in talking. If everyone commits to taking responsibility for their communication, you can know that if you reach out to someone and they don鈥檛 respond right away, it may just be that they are busy or have a lot on their emotional plate.

We have covered the core social reasons why it can be hard to initiate and maintain direct conversations, but there are a number of other difficulties that might affect you. Some of these might feel obvious to you, or they might not feel particularly challenging, but remember that different people are dealing with different issues. Something that you find easy might be hard for one of your friends, and it can help them if you are keeping their challenges in mind too.

When you are with your friends in person, it is easy to be together without doing anything together. You can sit around a table and work quietly on your own projects or studies; you can eat a meal together without much conversation. This time is valuable for our social wellbeing: being with friends provides essential human contact no matter how much interaction there is. Depending on how you are feeling, silent togetherness can be the best thing.

Online, though, pretty much all contact involves doing something together: having a conversation, playing a game, etc. There are plenty of online platforms made for communicating with your friends, but I don鈥檛 know of any platform made just for being with them. However, you can still try to approximate this feeling. One way to do this is to have a video call without much talking. You and your friends can do your work or studying or meals or whatever else with a call going, and you will still have some sense of being together while going about your separate activities. It might feel weird, but it鈥檚 worth a try.

If you are having a hard time, you might be less likely to talk to your friends. There are a few possible reasons for this:

• If you are overwhelmed by your feelings or your situation, you might just not remember to talk to your friends.
• If you are ashamed of your emotional state, you might not want to talk to your friends because you do not want them to see that you are struggling.
• If you are dealing with low self-esteem, you might not contact your friends because you think they would not want to talk to you.
• You might also not contact your friends if you think your emotional state would make you a downer to talk to.

Being connected online makes all of this harder. When you are struggling, it already takes more emotional effort to reach out and maintain contact, and this difficulty is amplified by the challenges of online communication. There are a few reasons for this:

• Emotional struggles and online communication each create barriers to staying in touch. The barriers from both of these together could just be too hard to overcome.
• You might be less inclined to reach out for conversation and support if you expect it will feel less real and intimate online.
• If you are hesitant to interact with people because of your emotional state, you can avoid your friends much more easily when you are not seeing them in person.
• Because many social cues are not communicated well online, it is easy to misinterpret people and think they do not want to talk to you when they actually do.
• Also, because many social cues are not communicated well online, your friends might not be able to see that you are struggling, so they might not know to reach out to you.
• Being together in person without saying much can be soothing and grounding, but it is harder to have that feeling of silent togetherness online.

So, if your friends are online, it is easy to become distanced from their care and support when you need it most. Keeping this fact in mind can be helpful: if you are aware that it is inherently hard to stay connected online through emotional struggles, you might approach this challenge with a better perspective. If you remember all the reasons why it can be hard, you might be able to understand your own experience better, and maybe change your approach. Always remember that, while online contact is not as good as in-person contact, it is way better than no contact at all. Even if you cannot be together physically, friends can still give you care and support and human connection that is essential to your mental health.

Given these challenges, you should be especially mindful to reach out to your friends if you suspect they are going through a hard time. Notice which of your friends are not talking much and consider why that might be: in some cases, people are just busy or not as interested in talking online, but it could be that they are having a hard time and might like to talk. They might hesitate to reach out, and they might doubt that people want to talk to them, so it can be a great comfort if you initiate contact and demonstrate that you do want to talk to them.

If you have not talked to someone in a while, you might be apprehensive about reconnecting with them. There are a few reasons you might feel this way:

• You might worry that, because they haven鈥檛 reached out to you in all this time, they might not want to talk to you anymore.
• You might feel ashamed that you were absent, or you might feel like you let them down by falling out of touch. This shame might make it harder to talk to them again.
• You might worry that you will have to explain why you were gone if you get back in touch, but 鈥淚 got trapped in an unconscious psychological loop about reconnecting with you鈥� doesn鈥檛 feel like an appropriate explanation.

All of these factors can feed back on themselves. The longer you have gone without talking to someone, the more you might worry they don鈥檛 want to talk to you, the more ashamed you might feel about not talking to them, and the more you might feel like you have no explanation for why you were gone. These concerns can build up over time to be a big obstacle, even when the original reason you fell out of touch was just that you were busy. You might worry that a friend hasn鈥檛 reached out because they don鈥檛 want to talk to you anymore, even when the only reason they haven鈥檛 reached out is that they worry you don鈥檛 want to talk to them anymore.

So, if there is a friend you want to talk to but haven鈥檛 in a while, think about whether you have fallen into this trap with them. Identify what feelings or assumptions might be holding you back. If you have been out of touch with someone for a while, you might not remember clearly what you are missing, and so you might focus too much on your worries while forgetting how nice it is to talk to them. Try your best to shift your focus away from the possible negatives and to the more likely positives of being with your friends.

If you notice that a friend has not been in touch for a while, it can be good to reach out to them in case they are being held back by these worries. If they know that you would like to see them, they might feel more comfortable getting back in touch. If a friend rejoins an online group after being absent for a while, they might be nervous about it, and they might wonder if anyone cares, so it can mean a lot if you express that you are happy to see them. If it seems appropriate, you might also invite them to talk about what was going on in their life that kept them away. However, be mindful about how you talk to them: you do not want it to feel like you are interrogating them about why they were gone. Make sure they feel welcome; they should know you are asking because you care about their wellbeing.

When you are with your friends in person, you experience a lot together: other people, things in your surroundings, the weather, shared activities, etc. This provides a lot of conversation material. When you are apart, you have fewer shared experiences, so you might have fewer things to talk about. You might also have fewer experiences prompting you to think of them in the first place.

However, while living apart from your friends takes away some shared experiences to talk about, it also adds new things to talk about: since you are in different environments, there are more unique things to share about what is going on in each of your lives. Of course, you can also talk about many of the things you would talk about in person: your shared interests, your ideas and opinions, etc. If you are having trouble thinking of things to talk about, you could do an activity that gives you something to talk about, like playing a game or watching a movie together. Social media is also helpful here: if you are seeing your friends鈥� posts and staying up to date with their lives, you have more to talk to them about.

We all know how to communicate in person, but we have to learn to use any form of online communication. Some people have an easier time learning new technologies than others. If you have trouble figuring out an online platform your friends are using, you might not be drawn to participate as much. If people do not consciously try to include you, you might be left out.

So, if you are familiar with the technology that you and your friends are using to communicate, it is good to make yourself available to help them learn it. If you are unfamiliar with the technology, you should feel comfortable asking your friends for help. It might be a good idea to designate one or a few people as contact points for anyone who needs help, so if anyone is ever confused, they know whom to ask. It is usually most effective to explain technology on a phone or video call, ideally with screen sharing.

Also, if someone is still getting comfortable with the technology, you can help them by making sure they are included in conversations. To help them keep up to date, you might want to contact them using another means of communication they are already familiar with (such as texting or phone calls).

Maintaining any relationship takes care and attention, and sometimes this can involve having uncomfortable conversations. These conversations can be hard to have no matter what, but it is a lot easier to avoid them online. This means that some issues can go unaddressed. So, you could have more challenges with your friendships online than in person.

Discussing these issues in depth would merit a whole other guide, which I am not really qualified to write. This guide is mainly about staying in touch online; it is not about the deeper issues of repairing and tending to friendships.

Some people might just not be as interested in staying in touch online, and this is fine. If someone has not wanted to participate much, and you know they are still doing okay, let them be. Or, consider how else you might communicate with them: even if they aren鈥檛 interested in certain forms of online communication, they might still like to have a phone call, or they might like to meet in person if that鈥檚 possible.

When you鈥檙e with friends in person, there is only one way to have a direct conversation: talking. Online, there are multiple forms of direct conversations, and it can be useful to consider how you want to use each of them.

The first main distinction is between synchronous communication, where conversations happen in real-time, and asynchronous communication, where you can take a while to collect your thoughts and respond. Phone calls and video calls are synchronous. Emails are asynchronous. Messages can be either, but usually people treat them as synchronous.

Among the forms of synchronous communication, there is a tradeoff: the ones that feel closest to in-person communication are also the least flexible. Consider video calls. When you are able to see and hear your friends, you can feel a sense of real connection with them and pick up on their expressions and social cues, and when you can talk, it is easier to express your ideas and feelings. However, if you want to have a video call, you need to be in a place where you can talk aloud without disturbing anyone, your internet speed needs to be fast enough, and you might need to have a block of time open for the conversation. While messages take more effort and feel more distant, you might be able to message practically anytime and anywhere.

So, as you go down this list鈥娾��

• Messaging
• Audio calls
• Video calls

鈥斺�奵onversations becomes more fluid and give a greater sense of personal connection, but there are also more limitations. If you want to maximize the feeling of meaning and connection, go with the farthest-down item on the list that everyone in the conversation is capable of using.

Asynchronous conversations (emails, as well as letters and sometimes messages) are different: we don鈥檛 expect them to feel like in-person conversations. We expect an email exchange to cover a longer period of time, and we expect emails to feel more like writing and less like talking. This allows us to use them for different things: emails are best when you have a lot to say or you want to give more focused thought to what you are saying. Compared to messages and calls, there is less interruption when you are writing an email, and there is less pressure to respond immediately, so you have more room to explore your thoughts and feelings. Dedicating your attention to another person for a long time can give a special feeling of connection to them. However, since you do not see or hear them, and you are not together at the same time, emails do not give the same feeling of presence that calls (or even messages) do.

To best maintain frequent, meaningful communication, you will probably want to use multiple鈥娾�斺�妋aybe even all鈥娾�斺�妎f these forms of communication. You can read the following sections for more details on some difficulties involved in calls and messages, and for some strategies for using calls and messages most effectively. (There is no section for email because I have less experience staying in touch with friends through email, but you will want to consider if you鈥檇 like to use emails, or even letters, to stay in touch too.)

Messaging can often feel less meaningful than the other types of synchronous conversations. This is mainly due to the differences between messaging and talking鈥娾�斺�奱nd so, most of the ways to make messaging feel more meaningful involve making it more like talking. Let鈥檚 look at some specifics.

In messages, you cannot hear each other鈥檚 tone of voice or see each other鈥檚 facial expressions and body language. A lot of the nuance of in-person communication is lost in text. However, you can still communicate some expression in your messages. When you鈥檙e talking, you can say the same words in many different ways to express different feelings, and the same is true for writing: to express different feelings, you can vary formatting, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, emojis, line breaks, and more. Ideally, the same personality you have in real life will come through; people should feel like they are talking to you.

You might be used to sticking to a particular style when writing messages, but this can limit your expressive ability. Consider whether you usually try to make your messages follow certain rules, and evaluate whether any of these rules might be unnecessary or restricting what you鈥檙e able to get across. For example, if you always try to use proper capitalization and punctuation, you might have a harder time communicating a more casual or emotive tone. Just like when you鈥檙e talking in person, the words themselves don鈥檛 have to do all the work of communication.

Calls and in-person conversations give a sense of presence: you feel together with your friends as you鈥檙e talking to them. Messages can feel more distant and disconnected. Of course, this is partly just because you can鈥檛 see or hear each other, and there鈥檚 nothing you can do about that. However, you might also feel a disconnect because people express themselves differently in writing than in speech. We are often accustomed to writing in a more formal tone than we use when talking, and we can sometimes use this writing voice in our messages. When messages are more formally written, they feel less like talking, and they may feel less present and less emotionally connected.

So, it is good to be aware of how you are writing your messages and how other people might interpret them. For example, you might want to consider where to include punctuation, since your friends might feel that messages with all the correct punctuation are less conversational and less present. Also, long messages can sometimes feel like prepared statements (even when they aren鈥檛), so if you鈥檙e writing a lot of text and you want it to feel conversational, it can be good to make sure you are still being as spontaneous as you might be in shorter messages. (Or you could split it into multiple messages, so it feels more like you are thinking aloud.)

You just can鈥檛 express yourself as easily when you have to use a keyboard, and this is especially true for small touchscreen keyboards. The extra effort involved in writing makes it harder to express yourself from a direct, intuitive, emotional place. It takes longer to figure out how to say things when you have to focus consciously on what words to use. This extra effort also means that people might be less likely to talk about deeper topics that require typing long, thoughtful messages.

This issue is one more reason why it can be nice not to include all the correct capitalization and punctuation: you can write faster when you don鈥檛 have to press as many keys, and it is easier to express yourself when you aren鈥檛 worrying about typographical correctness. You can also make messaging faster by using a physical keyboard whenever possible.

You can put as much time as you want into crafting a message. This can occasionally be useful if you are saying something sensitive and you want to make sure it is right. However, you might find yourself trying to perfect all your messages before you send them, making sure everything is well-written and free from mistakes. Focusing too much on the quality of your messages can distance you from the interactions you are having. So, try to treat messaging like talking: when you are talking, you say things imperfectly all the time, and it doesn鈥檛 matter. Typos and awkward phrasing are not big problems; as long as people can easily understand you, it鈥檚 fine. If you use a messaging platform that allows for editing messages, you can also fix something later if you really need to; this puts even less pressure on you to get it right the first time.

Messages are often preserved indefinitely. This can be nice, since it lets you revisit past conversations and save good memories. However, this fact might also change how you feel about writing messages: if you know that whatever you say might last for a long time, you might care more about what you say in messages than you do in person. This might make you self-conscious and cautious about the things you say. If this is an issue for you, you might want to use a service like Snapchat that deletes messages after they are read.

Compared to messages, calls are better at creating a feeling of presence and connection. When you can hear or see someone, it feels more like you are there with them. Calls let you focus your whole attention on someone for a while; this extended personal connection makes it easier to have more meaningful conversations.

Of course, calls have their own problems. When we were looking at problems with messaging, we saw that we could deal with most of them by treating messaging more like talking. But because calls are talking, some issues with calls are harder to solve, and the main solutions just involve switching to a different kind of talking鈥娾�斺�妚ideo vs. audio call, one-on-one vs. group conversation. There aren鈥檛 any clear-cut better options; there are just tradeoffs, and you can choose which option is best at each moment. Let鈥檚 look at the benefits and drawbacks of each choice.

The advantage of video calls is obvious: because you can see each other, you can pick up on many more social cues and emotional expressions, and because it can feel more like you are there with your friends, video calls can give a greater sense of presence and connection than audio calls can. Audio calls may give less of a sense of connection, because you can only hear each other. However, because video calls suffer from tech issues more, video is less reliable. While video calls can give you a greater sense of connection than audio calls, they are also more likely to stop working and interrupt that connection.

This tradeoff also applies to social cues. In physical conversations, we respond both consciously and unconsciously to minute details of each other鈥檚 voices and facial expressions. Video calls let us pick up on more of these social cues, which can help us feel emotionally closer to our friends. However, because of how much data it takes to transmit video, it is also more likely that these social cues will be disrupted: faces can become blocky and voices can become laggy. When you can see or hear someone without being able to sense fine social cues, there is a weird kind of emotional disconnect, and the interaction can feel less fulfilling.

One other drawback to video calls is that you have to look at a screen for a long time. In regular in-person conversations, we aren鈥檛 staring at each other 100% of the time鈥娾�斺�奿t is normal to look around and look away from the people you鈥檙e talking to. But in video calls, for some reason, we feel compelled to keep staring at the screen for the entire time: breaking our gaze away feels more like cutting the personal connection. So, if you are sensitive to looking at screens for a long time, video calls can feel more physically draining than audio calls.

So, if you really want to feel the closest connection to your friends, and you are willing to accept a potentially inconsistent connection along with a lot of screen time, go with a video call. If you prefer a more reliable, but possibly less deep, feeling of connection, and you prefer not to look at a screen as long, an audio call is better.

As we discussed before, one-on-one conversations may feel the most meaningful, since you can focus all your attention on one relationship. However, talking in a group can just feel meaningful in a different way, and there are some conversations that happen in groups that could never happen in person. Group calls can also be easier to manage: if you want to have a group call, you just need to make one plan for everyone, while if you want to talk to each of those friends individually, you have to make many different plans.

However, group calls don鈥檛 have many of the features that make group interaction work in person: you can鈥檛 orient your friends in 3D space; you can鈥檛 see and hear who is talking where; you can鈥檛 pick up on as much body language; you can鈥檛 sense who is trying to talk to whom. You have probably experienced all the awkwardness that results from this.

So, the main factor in choosing between one-on-one calls or group calls is just whether you want to interact one on one or in a group. You鈥檒l probably want to have some of each. However, if you really want to avoid awkwardness, one-on-one calls are better. And if you want to stay in touch with a lot of friends without keeping track of a lot of plans, then group calls are probably better.

If you and your friends do want to have regular group calls, it can help to decide together on a schedule or system. The simplest solution is to set a regular schedule and follow it for every call. However, it can be hard or impossible to find a time that works for everyone, and people鈥檚 schedules change, so always calling at the same time tends not to be the best strategy. It works better to call regularly but have a range of time to choose from: for example, you might plan to call once a week, but determine the day and time for each week depending on people鈥檚 availability.

To find out when your friends are available, you could just ask everyone, but it is usually easier to use a timing poll like  or . When you are deciding on a time, take into account not only the number of people available at a given time but also which people are available: if someone has not been able to talk for a while, it is good to prioritize times when they are available. The goal is for each individual to be able to come to calls regularly, not for each call to have the maximum number of people.

Once you decide on a time, make sure to announce it somewhere that everyone will see. You might want to designate one person to be in charge of scheduling calls and making announcements, since that makes it more certain that someone will always remember to do it. You could also rotate this responsibility.

Make sure you are aware when your friends are communicating. This means seeing the messages they send: check your messages regularly or keep your notifications on. If you need to turn your notifications off so you can focus or sleep, remember to turn them back on when you are done. If you want to have group calls, make sure you see when your friends are making plans for calls, and make sure you get call notifications if you want them.

Being aware when your friends are talking is important not only because it helps you stay connected but also because your friends will be more inclined to reach out if they know someone is there to respond. You don鈥檛 want sending a message to feel like shouting into the void.

You might have to take multiple time zones into account when scheduling things. For mentioning the times of events, it is easiest if you agree on a single standard time zone to use for everything, since then everyone only needs to learn one conversion (their time zone 锔� standard time zone) instead of many. For example, my online high school community scheduled everything in US Pacific Time, even though we lived all across the world.

 is a helpful website for visualizing and converting time zones.

If you have trouble maintaining your friendships online, you might feel bad about yourself and worry that you are not being a good friend. This feeling is understandable, but it is an unhelpful thought pattern to get into. Online friendships take practice, and practice involves failure. As you would with any other thing you are learning to do, make an honest assessment of what aspects of online friendships you are good at and what aspects you need to improve upon. Stay kind to yourself if you have not done everything you hoped you would. Then, figure out how to move on: how will you change your approach?

Probably, you care about your friends as much as ever鈥娾�斺�奲ut the ways you are used to expressing this care do not work online. You have some habits that are useful for maintaining friendships in person, but these habits did not develop to work in an environment where it is easy to forget your friends and you have no indication that they want to talk to you. You will have to develop new habits online. And if it takes time, that is okay. It is never too late to get back in touch with your friends.

While you might find this guide useful on your own, every point will be much more effective if you talk about it with your friends. If you talk openly about online friendships, you can support each other as you all manage the difficulties involved. If everyone agrees to follow certain strategies, the strategies will be more powerful, and if you assess together how well the strategies are working, you will be able to evolve better ones over time.

I hope this guide can help you in some way, even if all it does is give words to experiences you are familiar with. While online friendships may never replace in-person contact, it really is possible for them to be long-lasting and fulfilling. You just need to get used to a new way of thinking about human connection. 

How we use technology is more important than ever these days 鈥� our education, advocacy, work and social lives are primarily limited to online settings. In light of youth鈥檚 increased reliance on technology as well as current racial and social justice movements, 优蜜视频 offered a complimentary Spyglass online workshop series this month called Digital Civics: Changemakers of Tomorrow.

Bethany Ellerbrook, whose graduate research explored tween and teen media engagement, led students through four workshops. In 鈥淔act or Fiction,鈥� students learned how to identify misinformation and craft persuasive pitches in support of a cause they care about. The student-selected topics included global climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, unequal access to food and clean water, education disparities and marine pollution. It was inspiring to hear directly from our stellar students about the changes they want to make for the betterment of the future!

In 鈥淩aising Awareness鈥� and 鈥淭elling the Story,鈥� students explored the fundamentals of visual design and video production, then created powerful Instagram posts to advocate for their causes. Finally, in 鈥淐ontent and Conversations,鈥� they discussed online echo chambers and the differences between debate and dialogue, plus shared their final designs with one another.

In the last meetings of each of the two class sections, students shared their final thoughts and takeaways: they were proud of themselves for what they were able to create in under two weeks and excited to continue acting in support of their causes. Several students were also inspired to share their creations on their own social media! See below for some of their final creations, and see the rest on the .

Although we are looking forward to learning together in person again, it has been incredible to meet students from all over the country. This summer, the Spyglass program has served students from almost 20 states. In the Digital Civics series alone, brought together students from California, Washington, DC, Florida, Arkansas and more. We can鈥檛 wait to see how these students continue to make a difference and advocate for their causes!

The final Digital Civics workshop ended with a quote from the late civil rights activist and US Representative John Lewis: 鈥淲hen you see something that is not right, you must say something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part鈥︹��

We鈥檇 love to hear from our community: what causes are you passionate about? What online resources help you and others advocate for positive change?

The holidays are upon us and with that comes school closures. Gifted children tend to have a strong desire and need for intellectual stimulation, and that need doesn鈥檛 go away when schools are closed. Below are three ways parents can help foster positive social and academic growth during the holiday break:

1. Cultural Excursions

Take a trip to a local museum, science center, aquarium, theatre, planetarium or garden to provide your child with a learning experience. If time and budget allow, consider planning a day trip or vacation to a historical site. Local libraries often offer free activities and events, so be sure to check your local library鈥檚 calendar. Remember to be flexible, as some children require time to process and adjust to new environments.

2. Home Improvement

Take advantage of an extra set of hands, and a curious mind, by implementing a home improvement project while your gifted child is home. Children interested in technology and science could help figure out the best ways to save energy in your household. Other project ideas include furniture assembly, closet or garage organization, cleaning, composting or yard work.

3. Volunteer

Volunteering provides many benefits to both mental and physical health, which are not just perks for gifted students but for everyone. There are many ways one can volunteer during the holidays, which include hosting a toy or canned food drive, serving meals at a soup kitchen, adopting a family or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.

You can also research additional ideas on 优蜜视频鈥檚 , which includes and for gifted learners.

Lastly, it鈥檚 the most wonderful time of the year, and for many gift giving is part of the season. Please support 优蜜视频 by making Amazon purchases through . A portion of your purchase will be donated directly to 优蜜视频 so we can continue providing high-quality programs and services to gifted youth nationwide.

Happy holidays!

1. Write a poem or story about science.

Get writing! Tell a story about your favorite scientist as dramatically as you can, write poetry about a cool science fact, or describe a feat of engineering using your most vivid vocabulary.

2. Teach your family about something you love.

The best way to learn something deeply is to teach it. Turn your family members into your students and tell them all about something you鈥檝e learned recently whether it鈥檚 how to build the best paper airplane or how a chemical reaction works.

3. Create nature art.

Make a leaf rubbing, stick sculpture, or tower of balanced pebbles to integrate both sides of your brain.

4. Invent something to solve a problem.

What鈥檚 something you wish were easier? Design something to meet a need, starting with a blueprint and working toward a prototype.

5. Test your brain with riddles.

Find challenging riddles on or elsewhere, then attempt to solve them with your family.

6. Head to the library.

Ask a librarian to help you find books about STEAM at your reading level. Reading is a wonderful way to find a new interest!

7. Ask questions.

STEAM is all about asking creative questions and trying to find answers. Observe the world around you and keep a list of questions you come up with throughout the day: How do stoplights work? Why do some trees lose their leaves and not others? Then work with an adult to find the answers.

8. Build something using recycled materials.

Gather items you normally would have thrown away 鈥� packaging, receipts, dried-out pen, etc. 鈥� and see what you can build out of the items!

9. Interview a scientist.

If you were a scientist, what kind of scientist would you be? Research to find someone who has your dream job, then write them a letter or email asking them about their work and how they got to be where they are.

10. See what 优蜜视频 offerings are coming up!

If you鈥檙e local to the Pasadena area, check out our upcoming workshops (7^th-10^th grade), check back for the Spring schedule of classes (K-8^th grade) in a couple of weeks or mark your calendars for when the (10^th-12^th grade) externship program application goes live!

Celebrating a different way? Comment below!

Summer is here and you may be wondering what programs or activities are available for your child to attend. We have done some research for you and compiled a list of fantastic Summer programs that serve gifted youth. All these programs come from the , Institute for Educational Advancement鈥檚 database. The GRC is a free public tool which serves as an online database of resources appropriate for the gifted learner from Preschool through High School. The GRC contains an abundance of resources and information regarding advocacy, gifted programs and organizations, schools, scholarships, supplemental learning opportunities, testing and counseling professionals, and the twice-exceptional (2e) learner.

Below is a sample of some of the resources that offer and provide activities during the summer. More information about these programs, as well as many more that are not listed here, is available on the .

9-12

Girls Who Code offers a free 7-week summer program for current 10th-11th-grade girls to learn to code and get exposure to tech jobs. Each week the program covers projects related to computer science, such as art, storytelling, robotics, video games, web sites, and apps. Participants will also hear from guest speakers, participate in workshops, connect with female engineers and entrepreneurs, and go on field trips. The program culminates in a final project where students build their own product and share it with the class.

6-8 路 9-12

Digital Media Academy is a nationally recognized organization that provides hands-on summer resi颅dential and day computer camps for teens as well as youth (ages 9-13).

6-8 路 9-12

Summer Discovery is a pre-college academic enrichment program offering middle school and high school students a meaningful summer experience with lifelong value. Choose from over 300 interactive courses at 14 different university locations in the United States and abroad. Their summer programs combine academics with social activities, travel, recreation, and sports.

K-5 路 6-8 路 9-12

CodeREV Kids provides classes and curriculum for students ages 6 to 18, focused on explor颅ing STEM by learning coding, technology, and robotics. Classes are project-based, allowing stu颅dents to engage in deep learning through unique creations and hands-on projects. CodeREV offers classes and summer tech camps in a variety of locations throughout Southern California: Santa Monica, Solana Beach, Encino, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Fountain Valley/Huntington Beach, and Mali颅bu/Palisades.

K-5 路 6-8 路 9-12

Girls Garage is a one-of-a-kind design and building program and a dedicated workspace for girls ages 9 to 17. Located in Berkeley, California, it offers after-school programs, summer camps, and workshops.

优蜜视频 ACADEMY K-5 路 6-8

优蜜视频 Academy is a program of the Institute for Educational Advancement which provides students in Kin颅dergarten through 8th grade with advanced learning opportunities that promote exploration and ap颅plication of knowledge. Classes are taught by content-area specialists and taught at a flexible pace to accommodate the learning needs of gifted and 2e students. Classes are small and grouped by ability rather than chronological age. 优蜜视频 Academy sessions take place in Pasadena, California and are held seasonally: fall, spring and summer (three sessions hosted each summer).

9-12

Stanford High School Summer College offers academically outstanding high school students the oppor颅tunity to take Stanford College courses and earn university credit. Program participants enroll as visiting undergraduates in Stanford鈥檚 Summer Quarter and take the same courses, taught by the same Stanford faculty, as matriculated Stanford students.

6-8 路 9-12

Summer@HPA offers students entering grades 6 through 12 a unique four-week day and boarding expe颅rience structured for academic enrichment and designed to make the most of summer and take advan颅tage of our wondrous island-home to 80 percent of the world鈥檚 ecosystems. The diverse class offerings integrate environmental stewardship and awareness, and sustainability education and practices.

K-5 路 6-8 路 9-12

From early childhood through elementary, middle and high school, Center for Talent Development (CTD) gifted summer programs encourage gifted kids to explore academic areas of interest and con颅nect with a community of peers. CTD offers life-changing residential and commuter programs provid颅ing challenging enrichment, honors and Advanced Placement courses taught in a highly supportive environment.

9-12

Summer Academy is a two-week academic program designed to provide US and international rising 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders the opportunity to have a glimpse of college life for two weeks during the summer. During their stay on campus, students take one of the different classes offered such as Exam Preparation, Debate, Engineering, Arts, or Literature and earn a 陆 Carnegie high school credit for this classwork.

PRE-K 路 K-5 路 6-8
The Quad Manhattan is an inclusive meeting place for Twice-Exceptional kids 鈥� a place where social and executive functioning 鈥渓ife鈥� skills are developed through FUN! Twice Exceptional or 2e children have intellectual or creative gifts, and also have lagging social or executive functioning skills. Developed by experts in medicine, child psychology and gifted special education, the Quad uses kids鈥� strengths and passions to hide skill development in creative and engaging afterschool classes and activities during our summer camp.

9-12

Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 Pre-College programs will show you what college life is all about鈥攆rom the class颅room to what鈥檚 happening on weekends. Carnegie Mellon offers Pre-College summer programs in a variety of subject areas, such as math, science, architecture, drama, music, art, and gaming. There are no tuition, housing or dining fees for students selected to attend the Summer Programs for Diversity.

PRE-K 路 K-5 路 6-8 路 9-12

Summer Wonders is a nonresidential, full or half-day program that allows students to explore diverse subjects in a challenging, creative environment through an integrative, hands-on, non-traditional ap颅proach. Summer Wonders is a specialty program for gifted children entering Pre-K through 6th grade and is held during three different two-week sessions at ACE Academy in Austin, Texas.

K-5

Gifted student Cassidy Kao published her first book at 8 years old and founded iPoetTree at 12 years old. The nonprofit organization seeks to inspire a passion for writing in kids kindergarten to 6th grade. Cassidy provides a fun and free curriculum, supportive environment for sharing poems, and assis颅tance with becoming a published author like her.

听In addition to searching the hundreds of resources in the GRC, you can also download our and with opportunities for K-12 students. and check out our curated Guides.

听Like this post?听听to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

Hi. My name is Gabriel. I鈥檓 13 and I like science, technology, engineering, analyzing art and board/video games. I have been attending 优蜜视频’s program for a few years and had my first summer as a camper last year.

This year I created a science project about trying to fix one of autism鈥檚 most pernicious side effects: spacing out.

As any 2E or autistic and ADD person can tell you, 鈥渟pacing out鈥� cripples their studies and hours and hours are lost and time becomes nebulous until they are aroused by a sound or perhaps a pat on the back. This causes workloads to seemingly multiply like tribbles!

My goal was to fix this problem by using tech 鈥� namely, artificial intelligence (AI) 鈥� that already existed to fix a conundrum that had seemingly been around forever. 鈥淭herefore, spacing out could be fixed by a device to treat and prevent the problem of losing focus in class via artificial intelligence augmented shock therapy from intelligent analysis of electroencephalography,鈥� as I stated in my research paper.

Translated, this means that it is possible to fix this problem by observing the excess static electricity from a gifted and/or autistic brain using a headset and running it through an AI, which attempts to find patterns between the live data and the examples. If it resembles the spaced out datasets, it stimulates the user via either the originally planned method of zapping them on the wrist 鈥� or, the more 鈥渟cience-fair-friendly鈥� method of intense vibration on the wrist.

After spending vast quantities of time researching and contacting many other experts, I attempted to assemble the software and headset from scratch by hacking a toy I own that uses electroencephalography.

First, I attempted to bore the user with pressing the space bar when they see a symbol, but the code was too complex for a Python newbie (or noob). The headset was tricky to solder, and things just did not work out. I have attempted to use many programs, including Github to organize files, Arduino to create the hacked headset, OSCulator to connect systems, Wekinator and WekiInputHelper to run the AI, Python to program with, and many more programs I have spent 200+ hours arranging in every way I can think of to try to get my theoretical system and ambitious dream running. However, I was unable to connect my rig, so I was unable to gather data.

When I started my project, I was notified that my project would not follow school convention, so I could expect to be shamed by the judges. What happened was radically different and a completely unexpected turn of events. After receiving 3rd place at my school, I was unexpectedly entered into the county fair as the only homeschooler, yet received 1st place and entry to state. I am currently preparing to attend the state fair.

Gabe currently volunteers his time to work with youth at his church club, AWANA, and he loves to ski, boogie board, and get completely trounced by waves and ocean. He actively participates in Boy Scouts, has never met a book that he doesn鈥檛 like, loves any and all things put on by 优蜜视频, and loves making animated movies and inventions.

Robert Frost鈥檚 1923 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has spoken to me more times than I could even begin to count 鈥� on both personal and professional levels. Whenever deadlines loom, I reflect on Frost鈥檚 yearning for the peaceful, serene power of nature 鈥� how it unassumingly wields a force larger than life, almost as if to say that nothing else matters, even though we know, resignedly, that is not the case. The quiet, yet almost jarring, juxtaposition of freshly-fallen snow and jingling horse bells so perfectly evokes December鈥檚 ability to make the world stand still for a moment, take in the smell of a wood-burning stove, and embrace the silent, though recognizable, sound of nature peacefully existing.

In the last stanza, Frost laments:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Though the woods I traversed the other night were light, (June, here, replacing December鈥檚 winter solstice with its summer counterpart), my mind kept circling back to Frost鈥檚 pining. Oh, were we to have the endless freedom to escape into the woods until we鈥檇 exhausted its mysteries; oh, the satisfying snap of twigs and crunch of leaves underfoot.

Oh, to be a camper!

For they are afforded such luxuries. For seven days, 42 campers, ages 10-15, did what Frost wanted to do, but ultimately couldn鈥檛, on that evening: simply be. Unencumbered by the tethers of technology, deadlines, homework and competition, they were catapulted into a Colorado wonderland of campfires and kayaking, starry nights and sing-offs, dancing and digging. They bunked with peers and trekked up and down the hills of Camp Shady Brook, alternatingly dusty, wet from paddle boarding or smelling of campfire smoke. They had no connection to the outside world 鈥� and were all the happier for it.

On more than one occasion, a few 鈥渂arbaric yawps鈥� (to quote ) were released in the face of water balloon fights and gaga tournaments, card games and puzzles, the last piece of cheese pizza and the last glass of sparkling cider at the camp social. On Friday, campers sported red, yellow, green and blue bandanas for the mini-Olympics, the ball field a rainbow swirl of friendly competition and team spirit. Most of the time, the four corners of camp echoed with raucous laughter, impromptu guitar solos and thunderous applause.

But there was also a beautiful serenity that blew through camp each day before lunch: psychosynthesis. Campers grounded themselves as they listened to Fellows describe situations meant to engage the heart, mind and all five senses. Through a quiet lilt, as read aloud by Fellows, campers were transported to settings that stretched their imaginations far more than simple geography (beach, mountains, spring) would have one believe.

Like Frost, Yunasa campers also had promises to keep, though theirs revolved around broadening horizons, trying new things, facing challenges, being brave, discovering new truths and, most importantly, embracing themselves for who they are. Many tried the climbing wall or Giant鈥檚 Ladder for the first time; others found their voice during Heart of the Matter and shared previously-unspoken truths about themselves with others. There is no safer space anywhere; Yunasa allows one to share as much or as little as they鈥檇 like to 鈥� all the while being encouraged to share more than they had before. Nowhere else exists a place with more open hearts, minds, spirits, perspectives or intentions.

During the Closing Ceremony, fifth-year campers and a bevy of their compatriots shared what 鈥� and who 鈥� they were most grateful for. Though varied in their responses, one underlying theme stood out: Yunasa West is a place like no other and, even though it only exists for a week, its spirit and the friendships formed sometimes carry more weight than anything else in the campers鈥� lives throughout the rest of the year. There is a spirit here 鈥� a trust that forms through intentional reflection, building the new labyrinth from scratch, trekking up to the fire pit for an amazing view and an even more amazing variety show, tie-dying fresh white t-shirts and dancing to Toto鈥檚 Africa surrounded by glow sticks and string lights.

There is beauty in the intricate, organic support systems that evolve from the moment one steps foot on Yunasa West鈥檚 ochre soil. Homesickness is overcome by a high-five or an invitation to join one in a game of ninja; the challenge course doesn鈥檛 seem quite as daunting when you have five friends cheering, 鈥淵ou got this! Keep going!鈥�; it doesn鈥檛 matter that no fish were caught over a span of four days. (Talking about Harry Potter during the futile hour-long fishing excursion was far more interesting than any snagged trout would have been, anyway.)

Oh, to be a Yunasa camper! And to stop by woods 鈥� lovely, [light] and deep 鈥� for a week on end. Deadlines or not, I need to walk through the woods more often. This shall be my promise to keep.

If you鈥檝e been to a Yunasa camp, what is your favorite memory?

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