Talent Development
Talent Development and Gifted Education
Talent development is the systematic process of identifying, nurturing, and enhancing our 2e students' unique strengths, abilities, and potential across various domains.
As a foundational aspect of gifted and talented (g & t) education, talent development defines the pathways that our twice-exceptional students use to dive deeply into interests and passions and develop new passions and interests.
Talent development strategies encourage deeper understanding of topics affecting the world around us and allow for the exploration of questions without a single predetermined answer. Thus, a project can provide information or impact a target audience and uses methodology and material that are authentic to the discipline you are studying.
Talent development projects move the student from a receiver of knowledge to a knowledge analyzer, and ultimately, someone who applies knowledge and creatively adds to the discipline being studied.
Talent Development at Quad Prep
At Quad Prep, we embrace our students’ passions, encourage them to grow their strengths, and help them envision their bright futures. Talent development is a critical component of this experience. Our talent development programs in Lower School and Upper School create space for gifted students to explore interests, become leaders, connect with professionals across different fields, and look ahead to the many exciting opportunities awaiting them in college and in their careers.
Our Approach to Talent Development
Our students explore their interests and grow in their unique talents through our personalized curriculum and our elective and enrichment courses. Students of all ages have opportunities to select the electives and learning experiences that engage and challenge them in their own curiosities and talents.
Lower School
Upper School
Our Upper School students find dynamic opportunities to challenge themselves academically, cultivate deep and well-rounded perspectives, and develop their talents in a myriad of subjects, from advanced math to history, coding and technology to world languages, music to Makerspace, and more. They pursue advanced and rigorous academic study that prepares them for college and their future careers. Some examples of elective choices in our extensive Upper School Electives Catalogue include Neuroscience Research, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, American Sign Language and Deaf Culture, and Number Theory.
Quad Prep IDEAlab
For one hour every week in all divisions, every student participates in Quad Prep IDEAlab, our student-driven, project-based learning enrichment program that gives every student an opportunity to deeply explore an area of interest. Based on the groundbreaking work of Dr. Joseph Renzulli’s Schoolwide Enrichment Model™, IDEAlab serves as an opportunity for children to be exposed to many disciplines through project-based learning and as they mature, to conduct increasingly sophisticated inquiry-based projects asking a specific question with real world application, using authentic methodologies of real world experts in the field they are studying and creating novel solutions. They also present to authentic audiences and their peers. IDEAlab stands for Inquire, Discover, Explore, Activate: and these are truly the cornerstones of talent development.
A not-for-profit independent college preparatory school, Quad Prep’s rich and robust curriculum engages, challenges, and inspires students at all levels, K–12, through our Lower School and Upper School programs.