Please use the links below to look at various opportunities for talented and gifted students. Some of these are year-round (anytime) and some are summer. If you find any opportunities that are not on this list, please let me know so I can add them. If you need help with anything I am just a phone call or email away!
Year-Round Opportunities:
*This is the link to all the different offerings through the Belin-Blank center. A few are listed on this page, but there are many others that might be possible options as well.
*Offers year round programs for students interesting in honing drama skills.
Summer Opportunities:
Belin-Blank Center Summer Institute
*For students who are currently in grades 7 & 8. The Blank Summer Institute for the Arts & Sciences is a one-week residential summer program held at The University of Iowa for gifted students. The Institute provides exceptionally talented students with an intensive and advanced educational experience designed to enhance their intellectual and social growth. See Mrs. Halac if you would like to be considered for this as there are a limited number of nominations from each school.
*For students currently in grades 2-6. BLAST is an academic commuter program for members of the Belin-Blank Exceptional Student Talent Search (BESTS).
Belin-Blank Center Junior Scholars Institute
*For students currently in grades 6-8. Students may nominate themselves for the Junior Scholars Institute, a one-week residential summer academic program at The University of Iowa . Students take a single advanced level course for the entire week.
*For students entering grades 5-9. They have a huge variety of classes to choose from. KICK camps are designed around career exploration and provide fun, hands-on activities that promise to develop and build key skills for future success.
*For students in grades 6-8. Registration begins March 1, 2018 at 6 am. This is a summer program offering advanced level academic and fine arts courses in the college setting to eligible talented and gifted students who have completed 6th, 7th or 8th grade. Through the College for Kids experience, students are offered advanced or specialized curricula, and have the opportunity to further explore a hobby or a topic of interest not typically available in middle school general education.
*Adventures - For students entering grades 3-7. This program will give younger students the opportunity to explore the worlds of science, math, art, literature, reading, and engineering in the company of qualified instructors and fellow gifted students. OPPTAG strives to offer challenging academic experiences that incorporate hands-on experimentation and provide students with experiences not found in the traditional classroom.
*Explorations - For students entering grades 8-10. This will appeal to you if you are intrigued by discovering new and exciting areas of study not traditionally taught in the school curriculum. Each one-week voyage will offer you an enriched learning experience, introduce you to cutting-edge concepts within a topic area, be student focused, and immerse you in activities and laboratories designed to stimulate your thinking skills and encourage you to continue your personal adventure in learning.
*Multiple summer camps for elementary, middle and high school students. UNI and the College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences (CHAS) offers summer camps. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related camps help to make science fun and interesting. The topics of the hands on STEM camps range from building robots, to exploring the outdoors, to understanding how DNA evidence can be key to solving crimes. If art, music or theater is more of your student’s thing, UNI is also offering many camps in the Humanities and Arts as well.
Wartburg College Leadership Institute
*Students between their sophomore and junior year or junior and senior year of high school attend a week-long residential institute to study and practice leadership skills and service as a form of community and civic engagement. One week of hands-on learning.
*The University of South Dakota School of Education offers a week-long summer program for gifted students entering grades 6-9 in the fall who want to expand their strengths and make lifelong friends. The South Dakota Governor’s Camp is focused on STEAM education. In addition to their STEAM class offerings, they have many sessions that will match students’ unique interests and talents.