Matter of the minds

Students studying in Bahrain have an opportunity to become a part of an elite group of 12 youngsters chosen as members of a pioneering new gathering of young minds.

Drawn up as part of a UK university’s ambitious plans for a summer school for some of the world’s most brilliant youngsters, International Gateway for Gifted Youth (IGGY) is open to students aged 11 to 19.

The IGGY Junior Warwick Commission will tap into the voices and views of the chosen dozen who will be asked to offer creative ideas and solutions to a range of global issues first of which will be: Education and Skills as a Human Right.

A world-wide competition for their selection will be launched in November for which online registrations have already begun on the University of Warwick’s website. Entries will be judged by a panel of experts in early March 2008.

After the top 12 are in place, a further initiative to attract 1,000 youngsters from the top five per cent of the world’s pupils will be launched early next year.

This scheme will be expanded to 2,000 international participants in the autumn of 2008.  From amongst this gathering, 150 will be invited to attend a premier summer school in 2009, where leading academics will give them a “sideways” look at their chosen subjects via hands-on activities such as archaeological trips and building robots. Hong Kong is under consideration as one of the first countries to be involved alongside the UK.

“The diagnostic tools exist to identify them,” said Warwick vice-chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift. “We’re not looking for precocious, freak-show geniuses of the sort who sometimes appear on television shows, but at the one-in-20 children who are well above average intelligence,” he said.

In Bahrain, Nick Wilson, head teacher at St Christopher’s Senior School, said: “We have many gifted and talented students in our school. We also have the advantage of many bilingual and trilingual students. To nurture and cater to their talents our school provides an extensive music programme, an excellent sports facility and an arts department second to none.”

While expressing delight at the announcement made by the University of Warwick, he said it was too early to comment about how many students will register for the programme without knowing the cost and logistical implications.

Dr Ollis Miller, principal at Bahrain’s Bayan School, expects his school students to take advantage of this opportunity.

He said: “Two of our high school students are currently in the US in a youth exchange school programme. All our year 11 and 12 students are in the International Baccalaureate programme and last year 90 per cent of our students received their IB diplomas and we are very pleased with these results.”

Any school or individual can register an interest in the programme on https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/research/juniorcommission/register/

PERSONALITY

“A well-rounded personality with proficiency in a variety of areas and not just academic study alone is a key ingredient,” believes Aamir. “An ability to work well in teams, as well as independently, is also extremely important.”

His classmate Samuel said: “Success does not come easyly. It requires a lot of effort. You have to continuously try to work and perform to the best of your ability.”

TEACHERS

Isabelle who has the distinction of getting nine A*’s in all the nine subjects she took, said: “Don’t let go if you are unable to understand something,” to which Samuel added: “Make your teachers your friends. It’s a great relief to know that your teachers are always there to help you and are equally eager that you succeed.”

Ritvik said: “I have always been good at all the hard subjects. I also enjoy and do well in design technology. It’s important to identify what you are good at and what you have a passion for.”

PARENTS

Samuel said: “My family has never been good at sports. But I realised that I am good at strategy and worked on that to optimise my performance in sports. I also worked on music theory, which was easier for me to work on and thus I did reasonably well in the subjects I am not otherwise good at.” All the four teenagers agreed that their parents had an important role to play in their success. “Initially my parents gave me a lot of guidance. Later I began working individually. Hard work and excellent time management has been crucial to me performing well,” said Ritvik.

TEAMWORK

The students were thankful for the ample opportunities provided by the school to work in teams both within and outside school.  Aamir, who has also been short-listed to participate as a delegate in The Hague International Model United Nations in the Netherlands next year, said: “Our involvement in Bahrain has given us an opportunity to meet and interact with students from different schools, nationalities and backgrounds and helped us practise the ability to think on our feet and come up with original and creative ideas – a quality we should find useful.”