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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Since last week was Earth Week, I thought I鈥檇 share one of my favorite pictures with you:

In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainability as 鈥渄evelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.鈥�

Sometimes referred to as 鈥渢he three pillars of sustainability鈥�, the goal is to achieve a balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection.听 This is often referred to as the 3-E鈥檚 鈥� Environment, Economy and Equality.听 This has altered the way we do construction (i.e. LEED certified buildings,) the way we design goods and products, (Cradle-to-cradle vs. recycling or upcycling,) and the way corporations report on resources, including staff (examples include Northstar Initiatives, CSRs or Corporate Sustainability Reports, the Global Reporting Initiative鈥檚 (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines, etc.,) and various other reports, indices, philosophies, codes and agreements both in America and throughout the world.

The thought is that, in order to thrive and continue, a system must satisfy all three components.听 An environmental plan that is cost-prohibitive will not be feasible. A cost-effective solution that is detrimental to people is not acceptable, and a financially sound project that benefits humans at the expense of the planet will not allow for a continued reliance on that resource.

Oftentimes we look at a part of the equation out of context. As a species, we enjoy taking things apart to see how they work and then try to put them back together again. We look at a tree leaf and tree bark and tree roots. Those pieces taken separately, while helping us understand certain aspects of a tree, do not show how a tree works as a whole, living entity. It鈥檚 like the story of the three blind men and the elephant. (You know that one, right?) The point of that story is about communication, but it also serves as a reminder that a thing is greater than the sum of its parts.

So how does this relate to gifted education?

Many educational programs and services focus on only one aspect of an individual 鈥� usually intellect. But it is difficult for an individual to achieve their intellectual potential when their needs are not being met in other areas of their lives. For instance, it is difficult to do well on a test when you just found out that your best friend is moving 1,000 miles away. Many gifted children have expressed the desire to find a peer-group of like-minded individuals to share intellectual ideas with, in order to expand on that knowledge and insight. And who hasn鈥檛 experienced feeling sick and trying to do鈥nything but rest?

It is essential to remember that “A child is a total entity; a combination of many characteristics. Emotions cannot be treated separately from intellectual awareness or physical development; all intertwine and influence each other” (Roeper, 1982, p. 21).

Education must also cultivate in young people spirituality, reverence for the natural environment, and a sense of social justice. Education must inspire children鈥檚 creativity, imagination, compassion, self-knowledge, social skills, and emotional health. In this way, the term holistic education simply means cultivating the whole person and helping individuals live more consciously within their communities and natural ecosystems (J. Miller, 2005).

So, perhaps, like viewing the tree as a system, greater than the sum of its parts, it鈥檚 paramount that we view each child as a system, a synergy of mind, spirit, body, emotion and relationships, to nurture a sustainable view of both the world and our place in it as growing, learning, experiential humans.

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Zadra Rose Iba帽ez joined the 优蜜视频 team in 2005 after several years of office and finance administration in banking and pension administration. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from Colorado State University and holds a Certificate in Global Sustainability from UCLA. She remembers how frustrating it was to be an inquisitive child and appreciates that 优蜜视频 provides the solution for that frustration, giving joy and a feeling of belonging and satisfaction to otherwise thwarted children. In addition to managing the operational side of 优蜜视频, Ms. Iba帽ez helps support individuals in their health and wellness goals, collects fountain pens, and sings in a band.

Twenty-four kids from across the country joined us for Yunasa West 2013. This was the second year of Yunasa West, and it proved to be yet another memorable and magical year!

Campers explored all five aspects of Self 鈥� intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual 鈥� and learned how to work towards achieving balance across these five areas of their lives.

Every day contained at least one activity to help campers embrace each of the five aspects of Self. In just one day, a camper could go rock climbing (physical), talk with all of the other campers during activities and at meals (social), learn about the different aspects of emotional intelligence in a special workshop (emotional and intellectual), and do yoga (spiritual, emotional, physical, and intellectual).

Campers enjoyed the opportunities to try something new and conquer fears through activities like horseback riding, archery, a climbing wall, and ropes courses.

Many campers enjoyed becoming more aware of and developing their spiritual abilities. Through workshops and discussions, they learned to connect with each other and nature in unexpected ways and were able to find inner peace.

Relaxing activities like fishing, workshops on relaxation techniques, and guided meditation sessions were also big hits with campers who often have trouble turning off their minds in day-to-day life.

Campers developed meaningful relationships and found support and acceptance in each other. With this, they were able to gain more self-acceptance, which many felt was extremely valuable.

It was amazing to see these kids 鈥� so many of whom stand out in their schools for being so different 鈥� interacting with each other so seamlessly from day one. No one was excluded. No one felt left out. These kids became a family.

Click on the button below for more photos from Yunasa West.

What is your child鈥檚 favorite memory from Yunasa West? Please share in the comment section below.