It's Recruitment Time!

Fall is recruitment season and one of the busiest times of year in the ATYP office. ATYP staff are on the road for the next three weeks talking to students and their parents about Northwestern University's Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS), about qualifying for ATYP, and about what ATYP is all about. We meet many gifted children and families thinking about what it means to be gifted, to get challenging curriculum in the school day, and how to make the most of educational opportunities that might be outside of their regular school.

What would you tell your friends about ATYP - besides how much homework you have? Would you talk about how interesting you find the readings? How you're thinking about math in a whole new way? What about all the friends you've made from different schools? Is your instructor really cool? The work is challenging - does it push you to be a better student? What do you know about yourself now that you didn't know before you started? Respond below!

This is what we hear most from ATYP alumni, usually after they've had a couple of years to think about it - that ATYP introduces them to new ideas about themselves and their abilities.
We recently received a letter from a former student that said, "Every day I went to your class I felt that I was not nearly intelligent enough to belong there. Nevertheless, the year spent learning from you furthered my knowledge far more than any class I have ever taken... ." Many of our students think that somehow they have qualified for ATYP by mistake, and that they are not as intelligent as everyone thinks. When they stick it out they discover hidden strengths - and weaknesses. They learn to appreciate the former, and accept or address the latter. But they come to understand their gifts, which is an important step on the road to becoming the you that you were meant to be.