Providing academic support for gifted students is often something schools do not think of. These students are outperforming their peers academically, but are they thriving in other areas?
Do they put such stress on themselves that they have developed an unhealthy expectation? Do they have healthy peer relationships? Are they engaged in extracurricular activities? Perhaps they are over involved and are not managing to get in enough downtime. All of these challenges and more come with being a gifted student and it can be easy to forget that these students need support and enrichment as well. Though these students know what it takes to achieve, they may lack some vital resiliency that could challenge them when things go wrong. We work to instill a healthy balance that allow for these high-performing students to pivot when change is necessary.
In the Thrive program, our highly trained coaches will work to bring more self-awareness to these top performers, laying out a plan to achieve their goals, and enrich their experience. Steps to getting into the college of their choice, achieving non-academic goals, helping them deal with change, stress reduction techniques, and overcoming anxieties are among what is covered with students. They will dissect how they learn best and use this realization to help optimize and enrich their future experiences with academia, as they prepare for college and beyond. This is a great tool to help them maximize their test scores and prepare for the SAT/ACTs. The coach will be there as a mentor and resource, reminding them that even though they can achieve great things on their own, they don’t have to do it alone!
We will cover expectations of college as compared to high school, how to prepare for college (more than just the courses), and share thoughts and advice from a mentor who has gone before them with similar traits. The coaches who work with this group have extensive training in working with gifted students, many of whom were gifted students themselves. This creates a unique bond that students appreciate. Having a mentor who really can relate to their situations and openly share feelings or challenges can provide immeasurable benefits.