Places & Faces
GOVERNOR’S PROGRAM FOR GIFTED CHILDREN by Angie Kay Dilmore
Graduation
Costume Dance
Giftie Olympics
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For 60 consecutive years, McNeese State University has hosted a unique summer educational program called the Governor’s Program for Gifted Children (GPGC). If you drive near McNeese between early June and mid-July, you may see them strolling around campus, always in groups, sporting their matching royal blue t-shirts . . . and having the time of their lives. GPGC offers seven weeks of academic enrichment, artistic expression, and friendship for gifted Louisiana students from grades rising 7-11. Dr. George Middleton established the program, then called the McNeese Summer Enrichment Program, in 1959 with 15 middle school students from Southwest Louisiana. Three years later, they opened the program to students from across the state. The name was changed to the Governor’s Program for Gifted Children in 1964, when Governor John McKeithen approved a petition for the state to fund the program. Dr. Middleton served as GPGC director until the time of his death in 2008. Joshua Brown has been the director since 2009. He was a GPGC student from 1983-1987. Brown lives in Mandeville, but for over two decades, he has spent his summers in Lake Charles in various GPGC leadership roles. “As a former student, I believe so strongly in the impact that the program can have on young people that I believe it’s worth every sacrifice I make to continue being the director of the program,” he says. GPGC was established because Middleton and others recognized the unique needs of gifted students. Often in educational settings, it is the underachievers, those who struggle academically, who get the most attention. Gifted students can feel left behind to fend for themselves. And they often do. But they can also become bored and disillusioned with the educational system.
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Often labeled as geeks or nerds, gifted students may also have difficulties socially. This program is dedicated to meeting the needs of these students, not only academically, but creatively and socially, as well. In addition to the academic program, there is also a musically-gifted track. Students in the music program are admitted through audition. Overall, the program emphasizes the importance of fostering thinking and problem-solving skills, good citizenship, and doing one’s best. They encourage this behavior with an innovative ‘token economy’ reward system that uses “brain bucks.” For many of the students, GPGC is their first experience being away from home for an extended period. But they quickly find themselves too busy to be homesick. The students, or “gifties,” as they call themselves, adhere to a regimented schedule that keeps them occupied from dawn till lights out. In the morning, they take classes in subjects like science, English composition, and the humanities. Afternoons are devoted to fine arts, performing arts, debate and PE. Prior to the beginning of each program, students choose which classes they want to take, depending on their interests and abilities. Meals are shared at the campus dining hall – the Old Ranch. They are given considerable responsibility for things like getting themselves up and to class on time, getting homework done, and keeping their dorm room clean, but there is also supervision by staff members and collegeage counselors, most of whom are former GPGC students. Down time and weekends are occupied by supervised off-campus trips, dances, and time-honored events like the Giftie Olympics and Bilbo Baggins Birthday Party, when they stay up all night reading The Hobbit. They may also go home on weekends.
May 2018