Center for Talented Youth
From Free net encyclopedia
The Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is a gifted education program originated by Johns Hopkins University. Today, CTY sites are located at many university campuses throughout the United States.
Contents |
History
Started by Dr. Julian Stanley (1918 - 2005) at Johns Hopkins University, CTY is the first program of its kind to identify academically talented youths and provide learning opportunites. Over the years, it has provided summer camps at college campuses where students benefit from an enriched learning environment that is difficult to attain in traditional schools. More recently, CTY has provided distance learning opportunites to students around the world.
CTY Sites
CTY operates in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York , Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
CTY programs for the 7th grades and above are held at the following sites:
- Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, Maryland
- Dickinson College - Carlisle, Pennsylvania
- Franklin & Marshall College - Lancaster, Pennsylvania
- Loyola Marymount University - Los Angeles, California
- Siena College - Loudonville, New York
- Skidmore College - Saratoga Springs, New York
- Hawaii Pacific University - Kaneohe, Hawaii
General description
CTY has three age levels for students wishing to enter their summer programs. Each one has its own sites, achievement tests, and classes.
Students in the 2nd to 4th grade must take the CTY-administered SCAT exam. If their scores are high enough, they may attend a day camp in Baltimore, Maryland, Silver Spring, Maryland, or West Los Angeles, California. Only students who live near these areas may attend these camps.
Students in grades 5 through 6 take the PLUS test and go to residential camps in various colleges around the country.
Students in 7th to 11th grade take the SAT. Those with qualifying scores may attend residential programs at different sites than the 5-6 age level. This oldest group often calls the two younger groups "baby CTY", although not always pejoratively. CTY has recently added another summer program called CAA (Center for Academic Advancement), for gifted students in the top 2% of their age group, which is similar to CTY in all aspects aside from a different or lower SAT score.
In addition, the Civic Leadership Institute (grades 10-12) hosts 80 students a year. A marriage between Northwestern's Civic Education Project and CTY with the same academic requirements as CAA, the CLI service-learning program was hosted last year at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD.
CTY has began to hold three week residential programs for students in 10th to 12th grade at Princeton University. Unlike the other CTY summer programs, only six courses are offered. These classes have the same entry requirements as the CTY classes for 7th to 11th graders. See this site for more information.
CTY was featured in a July 2004 magazine article in The New Yorker titled "Nerd Camp," and Session 1 of 2005 at Lancaster is the setting for the upcoming (2006) movie production, also entitled "Nerd Camp." This production is apparently being produced by Seann William Scott of American Pie Fame, who described the project in an Interview
Evaluation of Student Performance
Students are not given traditional letter grades. Instead, they are given page-long written evaluations composed by the instructor with input from the teaching assistant. The evaluations are signed by the instructor and sometimes by the teaching assistant and must be approved individually by the Site Director. The CTY Instructor's Handbook suggests writing three types of evaluations which correspond roughly to grades of "high pass," "pass," and "low pass." These specific terms are not used, since they suggest traditional grading, but instructors generally follow the suggestions of the Handbook and write three boilerplate evaluations. Students are ranked into three groups and receive a corresponding evaluation to which personalized remarks specific to the student are added, i.e. "Your story, Motel Saturday Night showed both biting satire and keen understanding of U.S. oil policy." The difference between the three types of evaluations may be subtle. Generally, the type of evaluation the student has received is indicated by the first line. For example, the first sentence in an evaluation may vary from "Congratulations on completing the CTY Etymologies course with flying colors," to "Congratulations on successfully completing..." to "Congratulations on completing..."
CTY culture
Image:CTY LMU Casino Night Auction.JPG
Many CTY sites are home to their own unique traditions; however, the one shared by all sites is the playing of "American Pie" at the end of each weekly dance. During the chorus of the song, the students shout "Die, die, die, die, live, live, live, live, sex, sex, sex, sex, more, more, more, more!" Students also scream and yell "Fists of rage!" during the song as tradition. Some sites, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, Siena College in Loudonville, NY, in Saratoga Springs, NY, and Hawaii Pacific University in Oahu, Hawaii, have a list of additional songs that are played at every dance. This list is known as the Canon. Other songs that are common at most sites include "Stairway to Heaven", "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)", "Forever Young",and "Time Warp".
Although culture varies widely from site to site, many, but not all CTY students have a general affection for Monty Python, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Frisbee (especially Ultimate), the board game Risk, Rubik's Cube and the card games Egyptian Rat Screw and Mao [1]. Most sites typically have a form of "Drag Day" when many boys can be seen in drag. Some sites recently have had both "Fairy Princess Day" and "Gender Bender Day." A Goth Day can also be found in some sites subsequent to Drag Day. At some sites, such as Lancaster, a whole Saturday is devoted to "Cross-dressing Day" with dress-ups, contests, and Rocky Horror show during the dance that night. Sometimes, the 'Cross-dressing Day' is synonymous with 'Second Saturday.' CTY Carlisle, in addition to Drag and Goth days, has added this year (Summer 2005) Emo Day. Similar to Goth day in costume, Emo Day also requires the adoption of a properly emo attitude (i.e. "Shut up, you don't understand me. I'm going to go write a song.") It remains to be seen whether Emo Day will continue. The Loyola Marymount site features a "Casino Night", complete with blackjack tables and a fake marriage chapel. Fake money won during this event could be used in an auction for certain privileges, from choosing to RAs to dance with one another to "mystery prizes". On the last day on the Loyola Marymount campus has another variant of "Casino Night" is held by the Probability and Game Theory class, when invite the others to try their luck against games like poker, blackjack, and some games of their own invention.
Interactions with outsiders
At some of the sites, there is animosity between CTY students and those attending other events at the site. For example, CTYers at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, as well as at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY have to contend with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Association ballerinas, known as "rinas" (female) or "rinos" (male) (pronounced 'rhinos').
Carlisle also shares the campus with the Dickinson athletes as they begin training in the summer. Saratoga often shares the campus with the Harlem Boys Choir, as well as an athletic summer camp consisting of "lacrosse boys." Siena CTYers, depending on the week, have to contend with either the "soccer boys" or the "basketball girls", both participants in summer programs. At the Lancaster site, a tennis camp takes place at the same time, although the two groups do not interact much due to not sharing the cafeteria. People who went to Loyola Marymount University Campus conflict with "guitar camp boys" described as mischievous or annoying "little kids".
"Nevermores"
CTY students in their final year of eligibility are referred to as "nevermores"; those who will be eligible the following year but don't plan to attend are known as "no-mores" at some sites, while at others the same names are applied in reverse. Students who are simultaneously first-years and nevermores/nomores are "one-shots" or "spores" or "sperm" or "squirrels". First-years, generally at the age of 12 or 13, are also referred to as "sperms" at some sites and "squirrels" at others. People at a new campus for the first time are referred to as "flying squirrels". Nevermores and no-mores are sent away with "Passionfruit", a ritual held the morning of the last day of camp that involves telling stories, sharing memories, and drinking passionfruit juice.
The Passionfruit
On Saturday mornings around 6:00 am, CTYers stagger out onto a common lawn after their weekend sleepover, drinks in hand and sit in a circle. Passionfruits happen on all Saturdays at certain sites (at the discretion of the Emperor and Empress) but the final Passionfruit after the last dance is the most popular, and occurs fairly universally. When it seems like everyone has arrived, the Emperor and Empress call things to order. Everyone opens their drinks and throws the caps into the center. Going around the circle, CTYers make toasts that finish with "I love CTY, and I love the Passionfruit." First-timers or "virgins" must identify themselves for devirginization, some public stunt created by the Royalty. As the passionfruit is typically RA-monitored, and the stunts are totally optional, they remain relatively tame. At the last Passionfruit, the new Royalty is chosen by the outgoing Emperor and Empress, respectively, who are always nevermores.
Life in the CTY program
Life during the three weeks at CTY is carefully structured. Students are required to be awake by a particular hour, though they have some flexibility in which time they go to breakfast before their first class of the day. The first class period lasts approximately three hours, usually with a short break; students then eat lunch and spend two more hours in a classroom before participating in a "daily" and "weekly" activity from a list presented the previous evening. In Lancaster, students participate in two different "daily" activities instead. Afterwards, they proceed to dinner. Some evenings include talent shows or dances, but most have a two-hour "study hall" followed by recreational time (sometimes called Meet Market, Quad Time, or Social 45). Lights go out at 10:30, although students rarely go to sleep then.
Classes move at a very rapid pace, sometimes covering as much as one year of high school in three weeks. There are no grades, very little of what students might call "busywork", and no homework. At the end of the program, the parents of each student receive a personalized academic report from the instructor.
- 8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast
- 9:00 - 12:00 Class
- 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
- 1:00 - 3:00 Class (for science courses, there is usually a lab)
- 3:30 - 5:30 Activities, sometimes referred to as "mandatory fun" by students (Activities are chosen the previous day, there are two blocks)
- 5:30 - 7:00 Dinner
- 7:00 - 9:00 Study Hall
- 9:00 - 10:30 Free Time (Or Meet Market at Carlisle)
- 10:30 Lights Out
CTY Alums and Students
CTY is home to many students of great academic ability. Some Academic Rewards for 2005 are:
- 6 of 32 American Recipients of the 2006 Rhodes Scholarship
- 3 of top 10 finishers in the Intel Science Talent Search, including the first-place winner
- 2 winners of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition
Since 2000, 26 CTY alums have been Rhodes Scholarship winners. See: "Press Release: Center for Talented Youth Alumni Net Top Academic Honors"
There are numerous alums attending MIT and Johns Hopkins University.
See: MIT CTY Alumni Association
See also
Centre for the Talented Youth of Ireland