Caroline D Bradley Convention

I’ve been enjoying once again the company of the Caroline D Bradley Scholarship convention. It’s a funny feeling that these four years have gone by so fast.  It was great to see old friends again, and note the absence of families from previous years -  a sign that we too are about to finish this phase of the adventure.  For those of you who don’t know, the CDB scholarship is a nationwide competition from the Institute for Educational Advancement for seventh graders that seeks to identify gifted kids and provide them with financial and educational support in high school, and guidance through the college application process.  Besides sponsoring the kids’ private school education, it puts on these annual conventions where all the families meet, and provides individual consultation and support as well.  We learned about the scholarship by chance, and it was a mighty struggle for Ida to do the SAT, write the myriad essays and such. It was essentially a college application in seventh grade. When we got the word she had made the cut for the final round we were so excited, and boy we were all nervous driving to San Francisco for the interview. But she handled it with great coolness.  Like for everyone else it seemed almost a dream when she won.  That embarked us on a great journey, encountering the other CDB families, going to the conventions, picking a high school, the letters and talks with Bonnie Raskin, the famous television producer who started a second career as head of the CDB scholarship, the dedication of Betsy Jones in conceiving and running the program, the hard work of the IEA staff, and of course  the mind-blowing education Ida has received at Castilleja school.

So every year, we learn a little more about the donor and her amazing commitment to education; and our appreciation for all that the Institute for Educational Advancement has done grows ever deeper.   As one of the parents said, it must be part of God’s plan for all this to happen.

Anyhow, besides listening to serious talks on psychology and education, we’ve been having a lot of fun – had an architectural tour of Boston this afternoon by one of the parents who’s an architecture professor at Yale. We also discussed the merits of various Korean soap operas at dinner.  The kids have been bonding too — even though they don’t see each other that often, increasingly facebook ties them together. Obviously we have two big clumps – the andover/exeter faction, and the bay area folks, but it’s not cliquish at all and the group meshes well.  Listening to the seniors give their talks is so amazing – they’ve grown so much.  One of the great ideas this year is to really organize a parent alumni organization to keep the families in touch, and to provide ongoing support for the institute, and find ways of paying back some of this incredible debt we now owe.

So if you have a bright child in the sixth grade — you should think about having them apply for the scholarship next year.  It might change your child’s life, and yours too!