STUDIO CITY, Calif. — They came from all over the world. Traveling from Mexico, India, Mozambique, Australia, Kuwait, and all the corners of this country, 20 doctoral students took up residency last month at Bridges Academy in Studio City, California, spending two weeks on their intensive post-graduate programs in curriculum, instructional strategies, or leadership. The online component was launched earlier this year by the Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity in Education, the first ever of its kind.
“We’re the only school to my knowledge offering degrees in cognitive diversity,” said Hank Nicols, the dean of graduate programs at Bridges Graduate School. “We’re attracting teachers, as well as school counselors, psychologists, attorneys — all of them want to have additional expertise in twice-exceptionality and cognitive diversity.”
In addition to the doctoral program, Bridges Graduate School, which last year was licensed to operate by California’s Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education, currently has students enrolled in its master’s and certificate programs.
“More and more people are aware of and want to help others become more aware of 2e,” Nicols said.
Nicols heads the program along with the school’s provost for academics, Dr. Susan Baum. The two share an office on the Bridges campus, decorated with international posters where Nicols and Baum have attended conferences on 2e awareness. In the office last week, Nicols made a virtual Venn diagram with his arms circling the air.
“You have the gifted and talented in one circle and the learning challenged in another,” he said. “The extent to which they overlap is 2e. Some people overlap a lot, some people overlap a little, some people have those two circles barely touching, and some people overlap completely.”
Nicols presses his hands together.
“Cognitive diversity lets us study all of that.”
The faculty of the graduate school features leading experts in the 2e field, including Baum, who also is director of the Bridges 2e Center for Research and Professional Development and author of To Be Gifted and Learning Disabled; Columbia professor Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, author of Ungifted and Wired to Create, and editor of Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright and Creative Students with Learning Difficulties; Dr. Lois Baldwin, president of the Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students; professor and consultant Dr. Sally Dobyns; and professor and experienced lead researcher Dr. Marcy Delcourt, among others.
One student came all the way from Mozambique to study in the program. Brooks Lusher has been an early childhood teacher there for the last 18 years.
“In the local population, there isn’t a lot of knowledge, awareness, or support for children who are cognitively diverse, gifted, and twice exceptional,” Lusher says during a break from a course on researching techniques. “Primary schools have 70 students with one teacher, so you’re trying to get by and there isn’t a lot of support for these areas.”
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]You have the gifted and talented in one circle and the learning challenged in another. The extent to which they overlap is 2e. Some people overlap a lot, some people overlap a little, some people have those two circles barely touching, and some people overlap completely. Cognitive diversity lets us study all of that.[/perfectpullquote]
Lusher says that she will be able to integrate what she’s learning at the Bridges Graduate School with her own teaching practices. There also will be benefit in discussions with other professionals and parents.
“Some parents struggle without some sort of identification and support,” she says. “I’m hoping that what I can bring back home will be inspirational for them.”
Inspiration is something that’s been missing for Ashleigh D’Aunoy, a doctoral candidate in the leadership track, and an enrichment facilitator back home in Lafayette, Louisiana.
“In my experience, most doctoral programs are less conducive to success or sparking innovative thinking,” she says. “These last couple of weeks have already given me major ideas and minor tweaks in the way I work in the classroom and with my colleagues.”
Although living in the dorms was not something she was sure about because, she says, “I’m a grown up,” she found that to be one of the most important parts of the experience. “We’re spread out all over the world,” she says of her class, “but living in these dorms, we’ve grown closer, faster, and it’s helping us create a community and that’s going to carry us through the online courses and beyond.”
The students also shared trips to the Hollywood Bowl and other local attractions.
Stacey Hilborn, herself a local as a teacher at the 2e-focused Bridges Academy during the school year, already has that sense of community. As a Bridges science teacher, she works among peers who are aware of 2e and supportive of the population.
“A lot of the incredible people who are here this summer have come because they see a need in an area and want to address that need,” says Hilborn, adding that her experience in the classroom with students who have various strengths and needs has given her a solid foundation in understanding cognitive diversity. “I’m here to find ways that I can build on what I know and what I do. When you’re in the trenches and see it all hands on, you ask that even if those needs are being met, how can we further enrich their learning? That’s where I’m coming into this, piecing it all together.”
The students matriculating through this program not only can apply their learnings in their respective schools or academic and professional settings, but they also become part of a growing global community focused on using strength-based, talent-focused theories and practice in the education of all students — not just those defined as twice-exceptional.
“This isn’t just about educating individuals, but rather promoting and furthering a movement,” said Carl Sabatino, director of the Bridges Education Group and head of school at Bridges Academy. “As the first graduate program in cognitive diversity, we have an important opportunity and responsibility to help improve the lives of every kind of student.
“Teachers, administrators, and the next generation of educators all can benefit from the strength-based, talent-focused approach. And to do that, more and more teachers must be equipped with the tools to help them better serve their students.”
There are other strong graduate programs that include curriculum related to twice-exceptional students and are performing leading research studies in the area — indeed, some of the Bridges Graduate School faculty hail from or have worked with such programs — but no others are exclusively dedicated to cognitive diversity and 2e.
“Bridges Graduate School has a mission, and that is to spread the philosophy of 2e and cognitive diversity, strength-based, talent-focused education,” Nicols says. “As we as a country, and as a world, are becoming more aware of just how diverse our learners are, we’re finding a real need to help teachers understand and enhance the school experience for this population of students.
“The reason this graduate school came into existence is because years ago when Carl Sabatino started as head of Bridges Academy, he realized that there was a problem in finding enough teachers to work with our 2e kids. The Bridges graduate program was born so that we can grow those teachers and send them out into the world.”
Editor’s note: The Bridges Graduate School operates in association with the Bridges Education Group, of which 2e News is a part.
