Gifted students attend UNLV summer school

Considered by some the worst of all punishments, a group of area high school students actually volunteered for summer school this year. About 30 high school aged students participated in UNLV's Summer Advanced Gifted Education program, or SAGE.

Unlike other summer school programs, SAGE invites only the most gifted students to participate, which mostly consists of students with high test scores and GPAs. This was only the second year for the program, installed by UNLV professor Daniel Villanueva, who taught at similar summer programs at Duke University for several years. He was asked to create a summer school program for gifted students at UNLV.

"We have found that most gifted students enjoy learning during summer," Villanueva said.

During the year gifted students often are either bored in class, or treated like experts and therefore outcasts, he said. But when they come to SAGE, they meet with other students who are like they are.

They also get double credit. Each class counts for high school credit and college credit. This year they could take either creative writing, international relations or Shakespeare's stage. Classes lasted for three weeks, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every weekday.

To make the course worthy of college credit the instruction has to be at a college level.

"It's not dumbed down at all," Villanueva said. "It's a regular college course with regular college curriculum."

In light of the day-long class period, instructors tried to break up the time to keep it interesting.

On July 28 students in the Shakespeare's stage class were working through scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." They spent most of the mornings studying Shakespeare text and related topics and the afternoons acting, said instructor Jane Talley.

That week of class, the focus was on movement and the use of the body in acting. The class had two visits from one who has mastered movement -- former Cirque du Soleil performer Karl Baumann. Baumann, born in Austria and educated at Julliard, had the students act out entire scenes without saying their lines. They had to use their bodies to portray the drama of the moment.

"How would you move if you were scared?" Baumann asked the students as they portrayed a scene toward the end of the play.

Body movement is part of making the audience understand the action of the play, Baumann said. He said the movement of the body becomes even more important for a 21st century person trying to portray a 16th century character, giving the performer one more way to break through any language barriers by using their bodies.

That type of instruction is the emphasis of SAGE. Students do more than memorize dates and facts. They study topics in-depth in small classes where they can really get the benefit, Villanueva said.

Villanueva has been impressed by the number of gifted students in the area.

"The gifted population is as broad and as deep as anywhere I've been," he said.

SAGE students Vince Brouwers and Kelley Mulroy said they were glad they had gotten involved with the program, although they were questioned by a few of their friends about the idea of school during summer.

"They were like, 'That sucks you have to wake up early,' " Mulroy said.

But Mulroy said she enjoyed the chance to learn more about Shakespeare, a topic with which she had not had much experience.

Program planners hope to offer a fuller slate of classes next year. They had planned for more classes this year but a number of circumstances prevented them from offering more than three. The cost for SAGE is $750 and scholarships are available.

For more information, call Villanueva at 895-1688 or log on to edoutreach.unlv.edu/sage on the Internet.