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CITY: A Bright Spot for Bright Kids


What's in a name? Quite a lot when you offer programming for more than 10,000 children each year. With this in mind, the Morgridge College of Education's Office of Academic Youth Programs—now in its 25th year—recently changed its name to the Center for Innovative and Talented Youth (CITY).

"We changed our name to better reflect our mission and our vision in servicing our seven-state region and identifying kids who are looking for a space in the world to call home," says CITY Director Amy Rushneck, PhD. "The CITY acronym help shapes our philosophy that students in our programs operate as a microcosm of society, contributing to the good of the whole as thoughtful, responsible individuals who strive to learn, excel, create and imagine."

Housed within the Morgridge College of Education, CITY provides enrichment and acceleration programs for K-12 students throughout the Rocky Mountain region who demonstrate high interest and high ability, both in academics and creative endeavors. 

"We strive to offer opportunities and experiences that enrich the whole
child—intellectual, social, emotional, personal and ethical," Rushneck says. While this may sound like a tall order, CITY has more than delivered on its promise to cultivate a generation of lifelong learners with multiple programs offered year-round. These include the Rocky Mountain Academic Talent Search, one of four regional academic talent searches in the country; CITY's summer programs, which are modeled after the Talent Search and offer six weeks of summer residential academic programming; the Early Experience Program, which enables accelerated youth in grades 10 to 12 to take DU courses on campus; the Early Childhood Enrichment Series, weekend programming designed for kids in grades K to 3; and the Young Scholars Program, which serves youth from underserved groups.

Like the children involved in its programming, CITY will continue to evolve and grow over the years, Rushneck explains.

"We hope to develop new ways to reach kids who are often missed in traditional identification measures for bright learners, and to seek new means of access to this type of programming for kids coming from underrepresented communities," she says. "We're excited about new outreach initiatives to begin this process, and we encourage community members interested in being involved to contact us."

For more information about the Center for Innovative and Talented Youth, call 303-871-3408 or visit www.du.edu/city.