Our Program



Overview
Welcome! Project BLAST, created in the fall of 2007, is a program for students from three school districts in northeastern Illinois. Center for Talent Development works closely with representatives from each of these school districts to recruit eligible participants in grades 3, 4 and 5 and provide them with the opportunity to take Saturday Enrichment Program courses and participate in an annual series of cultural excursions – completely free of charge.



Eligibility
To begin participation in Project BLAST, students must be enrolled in grades 3, 4 or 5 within one of three school districts in northeastern Illinois – Antioch School District 34, Aurora District 129 and Evanston/Skokie District 65. Qualified applicants also must be from a low- to moderate-income family and prove academic eligibility through any one of the following criteria:

• a score in the “Exceeds” category on the Illinois Scholastic Achievement Test (ISAT) in the area of reading, mathematics or science;
• a score at or above the 95th percentile on an in-grade, nationally normed achievement test; or
• a score at the 85th percentile or above on a nationally normed ability test (e.g. the Cognitive Abilities Test, or CoGAT).

Funding
Project BLAST is tuition-free for selected participants. Thanks to the generosity of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, participants pay nothing but receive a world of opportunities.

By partnering with Center for Talent Development (CTD) on Project BLAST, the Foundation enables exceptionally promising lower-income students to benefit from Project BLAST’s cultural programming and CTD’s Saturday Enrichment Program (SEP), which offers engaging and challenging courses in a wide variety of subjects throughout the academic year.   

SEP offers financial aid to students out of its operating budget, but students typically receive only partial aid. The full funding provided by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation enables CTD to do the following:

• reach out to academically talented, low- to moderate-income students who might otherwise be overlooked or undersupported;
• foster positive interactions among participants varied in background but connected in eagerness and capacity to learn; and
• help close the achievement gap between students of means and those with financial need, ensuring that more gifted students will reach their full potential and emerge as academic and professional leaders.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation’s mission is to advance the education of exceptionally promising students who have financial need. The Foundation works to expand access to accelerated learning programs by supporting the efforts of innovative, university-based gifted and talented centers like Center for Talent Development to reach additional low-income students. Through these unique partnerships, the Foundation helps ensure that thousands of high-achieving youth with financial need receive challenging academic coursework and specialized training in their areas of interest. CTD and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation are committed to increasing opportunities for academically promising students, ensuring that a lack of financial resources does not deter their success at the highest levels.




Replication
Programs like Project BLAST can be replicated by partnerships that include the following elements:

• schools and school districts committed to providing supplementary academic enrichment activities to their underserved gifted students;
• schools and school districts in areas served by academic enrichment courses offered on weekends or during the summer; and
• the support of corporations, foundations or donors interested in "leveling the playing field" for all gifted learners.

next:  What to Expect