Elijah Bryant is a quiet eighth-grade student at Hazelwood Central Middle School. He is in the SAIL program – Students’ Activities in Investigative Learning – for gifted students. He enjoys reading and communication arts, classes he says are “probably my easier classes because I’m good at what’s taught.” He doesn’t think math is his best subject, but says he can pass with an A. Last summer, he attended classes at Duke University as part of Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program).

This year, Bryant’s academic talent and interests led him to attend Amherst College in Amherst, Mass. for the Summer Institute for the Gifted, or SIG. The mission of SIG is to provide the highest quality educational and social opportunities for academically gifted and talented students through programs designed to meet their abilities and needs.

Bryant took courses that included physics, psychology, jurisprudence and writing. He studied existentialism, which he explained as the study of different philosophers and the “creation of explanations.”

Physics, however, presented the biggest challenge for Bryant. 

“I didn’t understand some of it and that presented a challenge, but in the end, I understood it,” he said.  

He said that he learned a good lesson from the class.

“It showed me that all work isn’t that simple.”

He “definitely” plans to take physics when he goes to college, but he isn’t ready to think about college just yet. He wants to “take it one step at a time and focus on school work.”

For example, in SAIL, he is focused on the challenge of learning about different terms associated with forensic science. “I’m not familiar with them and I want to learn more.”

About the experience at Amherst, his thoughts were simple and to the point.

“I was really interested in the different courses. I liked the chance to experience the different teachings. Overall, it was a good,” Bryant said.

He also mentioned the most important lesson he learned.

“Sometimes people have to have a little humility.”