The Leta Hollingworth Center for the Study and Education of the Gifted provides support services for schools and organizations that are concerned with the special needs of gifted and talented youngsters. The Center continues the work of Project Synergy with preschool children in public daycare centers in Central Harlem. Most of the Synergy work, which identifies and supports gifted youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds and their families, is co-directed by James Borland, Associate Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, and Lisa R. Wright, Director of the Hollingworth Center and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education. Faculty members and researchers are devoted to the idea that our research is not meant to be read only by a small audience of other researchers but by the wider audience of teachers, administrators and other professionals who will put the results of the research into practice. These students bring practice into the classroom, discussing with their professors the challenges they have faced on the job and keeping the classroom interchange grounded in the reality of practice.
Examples illustrate their involvement.
Robert E. Fullilove, Associate Dean for Minority Affairs at the Columbia University School of Public Health and a leading researcher on AIDS education, regularly teaches a course on community approaches to prevent HIV infections. A graduate of Teachers College, Dr. Fullilove discusses his own experiences as he works to disseminate information about the disease in minority communities in New York City. Based on his book Creative People at Work, Professor Gruber is interested in exploring how the creative work of individuals develops and how it relates to the work of others. His focus on the thinking process that underlies creative writing has been a recurring theme in his subsequent publications and teaching. Nanette A. Kramer, one of the leading experts on the psychological problems of the aging population, is an adjunct associate professor of psychology and education.