CTY Explores Ways to Inspire Hard Work Among Advanced Learners

A foreign direct investment expert based in Singapore, Harvey Goldstein is a director of Business-Link Consultancy PTE LTD, and is the chairman of Harvest International in Indonesia. In addition to stimulating investment, Harvey Goldstein endorses educational opportunities for the most gifted young students worldwide by supporting the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY).

Center leader Elaine Hansen recently authored on article that discussed the relationship between intelligence and hard work in order to explore claims that academically advanced students have less “grit.” According to leading CTY faculty and staff, there are too many personal factors at work to make such a generalization, but the organization’s educators explain that they do employ strategies to help student sustain grit. CTY educators foster hard work by focusing on three main imperatives, which include combating boredom, emphasizing questions instead of answers, and rendering hard work contagious.

Hansen asserts that boredom is one of the main issues for advanced students, whose abilities may be untested by standard school curriculum. To overcome boredom, educators establish high academic goals, challenge students with difficult material, and maximize self-directed, interactive learning. CTY educators also state that students work harder when they are surrounded by motivated peers with whom they can collaborate to seek knowledge and tackle problems.

Family Academic Programs Offered Through John Hopkins CTY

Harvey Goldstein, the president and managing director of Business-Link Consultancy PTE LTD, has served in Indonesia, Singapore and other ASEAN countries for more than 46 years. Some of his contributions include serving as director and executive vice president of Resource Management International, Inc., an American company focused on high-level technology and management training in Asian countries, and co-founding Manchester Group, Ltd., a company that helps businesses grow in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia. A philanthropist, Harvey Goldstein supports Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.

Aimed at youth in grades K-12, the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) nurtures the minds and talents of advanced students. CTY functions as a component of John Hopkins University and aims to help realize the institution’s ultimate goal of grooming students to contribute in their chosen fields. One of the most successful initiatives offered through CTY is the block of Family Academic Programs. Program coordinators offer a range of programs to appeal to children of various ages, and all programs introduce children to subjects they might want to pursue when they enroll in higher education. The Creative Connection Series, for example, targets grades 2-4 and offers hands-on activities with visits to farms and forests. For grades 7-12, CTY provides the Science and Technology Series. Participants sit in on lectures by scientists, engage in hands-on workshops, and visit sites like the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.