World Council for Gifted and Talented Children Moving Office to WKU
November 16, 2010 | Gifted Ed, News, People, WKU | No Comments
The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC) is relocating its international headquarters to WKU in Bowling Green, Ky., from the University of Winnipeg in Canada.
A generous gift from Dixie and Pete Mahurin of Bowling Green makes the move possible. Strong supporters of gifted children, the Mahurins endowed a gifted professorship in 2003.
Dr. Julia Link Roberts, Executive Director of The Center for Gifted Studies and the Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies, said: “Bringing together people interested in gifted and talented children has been a goal of The Center for Gifted Studies for almost 30 years. Locating the headquarters of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children at WKU extends the reach of The Center, and it is an honor to partner with the World Council. It is a pleasure to announce the relocation of the headquarters of the World Council to WKU.”
Founded in 1975, the World Council’s purpose is to focus world attention on gifted and talented children and ensure the realization of their valuable potential to the benefit of humankind. In addition to holding a biennial conference that facilitates worldwide communication of information, ideas, and experiences, the Council publishes the journal Gifted and Talented International and a newsletter World Gifted.
The next conference is scheduled for August 2011 in Incheon, Korea. Dr. Roberts is Treasurer and one of the seven members on the Executive Committee of the World Council.
The relocation kicks off The Center for Gifted Studies’ 30th year celebration of providing opportunities to children who are gifted and talented, their educators, and their parents. Participants in The Center’s programs have come from all 50 states and 33 countries representing six continents.
Almost 28,000 children and young people have attended summer and Saturday programming. The Center’s experience with gifted children and housing an advocacy organization (the Kentucky Association for Gifted Education has been housed at The Center for more than 20 years) made WKU a natural choice for the international headquarters.
“It is an honor for WKU to become the host institution for the World Council,” WKU President Gary Ransdell said. “We have long placed a high premium on gifted studies and have built a reputation as the center for the education of gifted and talented young minds. Locating the World Council headquarters here will further strengthen WKU’s commitment to this important priority and, we believe, enhance the Council’s work across the globe. It is one more important way in which our vision to be a leading American university with international reach is being realized.”
Noted guests at the press conference Nov. 16 from the WCGTC included Dr. Ken McCluskey, Dean and Professor of Education at the University of Winnipeg, WCGTC’s last home; Dr. Leonie Kronborg, Executive Committee member from Monash University in Victoria, Australia; and Dr. Edna McMillan, Vice President of World Council, from Ontario, Canada.
Fact sheet on World Council for Gifted and Talented Children
Fact sheet on The Center for Gifted Studies at WKU
Contact: Gifted Studies, (270) 745-6323.
