“Everything we do is in response to a need.” -- Dr. Julia Roberts, the director of The Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University.

For nearly thirty years, The Center has been concerned with the issues and needs of gifted students. With humble beginnings in a cubicle-like office to a current reputation of excellence throughout the nation, The Center for Gifted Studies at WKU realizes that many needs remain unaddressed. With the support of friends, The Center looks forward to the future and to meeting those needs.  That’s who we are and what we do.

Gifted Endorsement
The beginnings of The Center are in teacher education. Dr. Roberts incorporated gifted and talented classes into Western’s graduate curriculum, and the first group of classes was offered in 1982 – two years before Kentucky established an endorsement for gifted teachers. Western remains the only university to have  offered the four-course gifted endorsement cycle completely each year since its inception. The program allows teachers to become certified in one year; and, over the past two decades, hundreds of teachers have taken advantage of the program.

The Summer Camp for Academically Talented Middle School Students (SCATS)
Teachers working on their gifted endorsement needed a practicum working directly with gifted and talented young people. So in 1983, The Summer Camp for Academically Talented Middle School Students (SCATS) was formed.  That first summer, sixty students attended four of eight offered classes. Over the years SCATS has expanded to almost forty classes and well over two hundred students every summer.

The Kentucky Awards Ceremony for the Duke Talent Identification Program
The Center has hosted the Kentucky Recognition Ceremony for Duke’s Talent Identification Program since 1982. Each May, some of the most academically talented seventh graders in the Commonwealth are honored at Western Kentucky University. These students took the ACT or SAT and earned qualifying scores.

The Summer Program for Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth (VAMPY)
In 1983, Duke Talent Identification Program (TIP) contacted the Kentucky Department of Education wanting to offer its first cooperative program. Then-WKU President Dr. Donald Zacharias and Dr. Roberts visited Duke and realized that WKU and Duke were natural partners because of their shared commitment to education.  One year after the affiliation began, The Summer Program for Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth, VAMPY, was created. In its first summer, thirty-one campers took advantage of three classes. Today, VAMPY features over a dozen classes across the curriculum with two hundred annual participants. In the past, The Center has had VAMPY campers from 21 countries and 6 continents!

The Advanced Placement Institute
1984 also saw the creation of the Advanced Placement Institute. Kentucky had begun the Commonwealth Diploma, which was offered to students who had earned a certain number of Advanced Placement credits and taken exams. In cooperation with the College Board, the AP Institute took the form of a week-long course. Since that time, the program has serviced over 5000 teachers from almost every state and over a dozen foreign countries. Institute consultants are experienced Advanced Placement teachers and certified College Board consultants who have demonstrated their ability to help other teachers prepare to teach Advanced Placement classes. Many are table readers, table leaders, test writers, and even text authors. Today, seminars for both experienced and new AP teachers are offered, reinforcing the program’s goal to better train teachers to help students prepare for a challenging college experience.

Travel
The Center has offered travel experiences since 1980 when Drs. Julia and Dick Roberts took a group of teachers to England for a month. And, since 1986, educational tours have been taken once or twice a year. Groups of eighth grade and high school honors students, as well as interested adults, have accompanied the Roberts to China, Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium.

The Center has always sought to have a global perspective. A series of overlapping grants from 1993 to 1996 through the United States Information Agency Grants and the Citizen Exchange Council, The Center established a Russian/American educational partnership. Russian students have attended VAMPY and Americans have traveled to Rostov-on-Don with The Center.

In 2005, Dr. Roberts was invited to lead a People to People gifted education delegation to the People’s Republic of China.

Becoming The Center for Gifted Studies
In June of 1989, The Center for Gifted Studies became an official center at Western Kentucky University, with an enactment by the WKU Board of Regents.

Kentucky Association for Gifted Education
The very next year, the offices of the Kentucky Association for Gifted Education, KAGE, were housed at Western. Having grown tremendously throughout the 1980s, The Center could provide room, equipment, and materials to KAGE. Today, KAGE is one of the few state gifted organizations with a permanent home.

Super Saturdays
In 1992, then-Program Director Mary Evans recognized the need for challenging enrichment opportunities for elementary school students outside of the classroom. Out of this need arose Super Saturdays, the first of which had an attendance of over 300 students. Today, Super Saturdays has grown to include middle school students, forty-plus classes, and 600 children. With programs in both the fall and winter, students have the chance to experience a variety of hands-on, minds-on classes at times that suit their schedules. In fact, many people come from a one hundred and twenty mile radius to attend Super Saturdays.  The Center also provides Parent Seminars during Super Saturdays to help parents better meet the needs of their gifted children.

The Leadership Institute
At a symposium in 1996, educators commented on the real needs in leadership development. Some actually suggested that the topic be addressed at the following year’s symposium.  However, keeping with its philosophy of addressing needs when they arise, The Center held the first Leadership Institute only a few months later. This institute provided and continues to provide sessions for teachers, administrators, and counselors on developing leadership skills and potential in the youth in their schools and communities.

Vertical Team
Also in 1996, The Center for Gifted Studies began collaborating with the College Board to offer Vertical Team training. These institutes are designed to provide an opportunity for teams of teachers to explore ways to bridge the gap between middle and high school curricula with the goal of preparing young people to be successful with challenging coursework. While the program began as a pilot for the College Board’s English Vertical Team, the program has grown to include mathematics, science, social studies, and English.

The Challenge
Since 1998, The Challenge magazine has provided information about The Center and about young people who are gifted and talented twice a year. This award-winning publication has a circulation of 15,000.

Advisory Board
The Center for Gifted Studies is more than a university office. Much of our vision and reach is thanks to The Center’s Board of Advisors. These fine men and women donate their talents, expertise, and time to help The Center reach its goals. Several of them have had children in The Center’s programs, and all wholeheartedly invest in our mission. On March 9, 2001, Advisory Board members came together for the first time from Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana to share ideas and plan for the future. The Advisory Board meets twice a year to continue its work. With so many people willingly dedicated to our cause, The Center’s future hold unimaginable promise.

The Berta Series for Excellence in Education
In 2001 Vince and Kathleen Berta of Bowling Green, KY, generously donated $100,000 to create the Berta Fund for Excellence. Focusing on the social-emotional needs of gifted children. The Center hosts a speaker each fall, and the events are free and open to the public. Speakers have included Dr. Sylvia Rimm, Dr. Del Siegle, Mrs. Jill VonGruben, and Dr. Bonnie Crammond.

The Mahurin Professorship in Gifted Education
In 2002, The Center received an endowed professorship in Gifted Education—which very few universities have. Thanks to the generosity of Pete and Dixie Mahurin, Julia Roberts is the first Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies.

Administrators Institute
In 2006, The Center hosted the first Administrators Institute training school leaders to better meet the needs of children who are gifted and talented.  Held annually since then, the Institute has provided guidance to dozens of districts in Kentucky.  Dr. Julia Roberts and Tracy Inman have also presented similar sessions throughout the state of Indiana.

The Gatton Academy for Mathematics and Science
For over a decade, Dr. Roberts and The Center worked closely alongside WKU and members of the Kentucky General Assembly to create the Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky. In Fall 2007, Kentucky joined a list of only thirteen other states with specialty residential, statewide schools for gifted science and mathematics students funded by the state legislature. Each year a total of 120 high school juniors and seniors simultaneously complete their high school requirements while earning sixty hours of college credit at WKU in an intensive, community-based, learning environment. Through a leadership gift, C.M. “Bill” Gatton, a businessman from Bristol, TN, created an endowment that offers programming opportunities to the Academy. The Academy caters to gifted students in mathematics, technology, science, and engineering who have demonstrated excellence in these disciplines and who plan to pursue careers in math and science. 

Research Grants
As the recipient of three federal Jacob K. Javits grants, The Center has provided research to the field of gifted education. In 1990, The Center was one of only eight recipients in the nation of a Javits Act Grant. This three-year grant, Enhancing Educational Opportunities for Gifted Middle School Students, allowed The Center to examine the curriculum and other offered services in the middle school setting to determine what makes the gifted and talented thrive. The Center received its second three-year grant Javits grant, Restructuring Primary Education: Responding to Kentucky’s Educational Reform focused on the ungraded primary.  The grant compared the progress of ungraded primary students to graded primary students out of state. A Field-Initiated Research grant extended the Javits grant dealing with primary students another three years.  The Center has recently been awarded a third Javits grant to fund Project GEMS (Gifted Education in Math and Science).  Project GEMS will focus on creating opportunities to generate interest and develop talent in gifted young people in science and math and encourage careers in STEM disciplines.

Scholarships
Many years The Center absorbs tens of thousands of dollars for young people to participate in our programs when outside financial help is lacking. Generous donors have financed specific scholarships such as the Doctors Mody Minority Scholarship, the William Gladstone Begley II Scholarship, created to benefit students from Eastern Kentucky, and the Mahurin Scholarship, designed for Grayson County young people. The Center wants all children to participate regardless of financial situation.