Elijah Bryant, an eighth-grader at Hazelwood Central Middle School, can add student panelist to his list of experiences. Bryant was selected by the Gifted Association of Missouri to serve as a speaker at a conference at Lindenwood University. Conference attendees included teachers, teachers of gifted students, professors and parents.
Bryant, along with an elementary and a high school student, shared experiences about being gifted and expressing creativity in a panel discussion format.
“It was kind of scary at first with all the teachers and parents,” Bryant said of the opening moments of the panel. “I felt more comfortable after the moderator started asking questions.”
During the discussion, audience members were encouraged to ask questions. Bryant recalled some of the questions that stood out for him, such as “What advice do you have for teachers and parents to help children learn and grow more?” “Are you treated differently by teachers for being a gifted student?” “How did going to different camps help you with your social skills?”
Chandria Howard, who teaches gifted students at Hazelwood Central Middle School, helped Bryant prepare for the conference. She recalled some of the questions from the audience, as well as his responses.
“Do you like going to a gifted classroom, and how much time do you spend in the gifted program?”
“I attend every other day with my gifted instructor for about an hour and a half. I enjoy going there. I like being around my gifted friends because we get a chance to talk about things that we have in common,” said Bryant.
“What happens when your grade is dropped in a subject? How do your parents react?”
“My mom might get excited and express her disappointment. I tell her I’ll do better next time. Adults need to understand that we are kids first and students second. Gifted kids have problems just like everyone else. We cannot make A’s all of the time,” he said.
In response to questions about social skills and fitting in among the student body, Bryant describes himself as easy-going with all of his classmates, yet he is focused on his studies when he’s in the classroom.
“It’s serious business in class, but outside of the classroom, I’m more relaxed,” he said.
His strong academic skills are taking him to Yale University as a participant in the Summer Institute for the Gifted program. He hopes to take classes in physics, trigonometry, writing and fencing. Last year, he attended the SIG program at Amherst College in Massachusetts.
“Last year was really fun at Amherst. Some people I met there are going to Yale this summer, too.”
The experience as a panelist was “really different. I hadn’t done anything like it. It was an honor to be there,” said Bryant.
“I would do it again to see if I could do a little bit better now that I know what takes place,” he said.
Howard said that after the panel, he was approached by several people who commented on “how wonderful he was and how much they liked his answers to the questions.” His parents and his grandmother were there and Howard said they were “very pleased.”
“This experience will be great for him in high school because he will be able to handle rigorous classes and college prep classes. He is experiencing a variety of courses that expose him to new interests, both cultural and social,” she said.