You Made It! Let's Celebrate!
This month, we're taking a look back at 2025 and celebrating all your gifted guide work!
Hello Gifted Guides!
We’re so glad you’re here!
How are you doing?
We hope you’re doing well. We hope you’re finding some cozy moments to reflect on 2025 and bask in the glow of all you’ve done this year.
When we’re in the thick of advocacy work, it can be hard to recognize the progress we’re making or the successes we’re achieving. Often times, gifted guide work can feel like we’re just trying to keep up.
But as we draw closer to the end of 2025, and many schools here in the U.S. are getting ready for Winter Break, it is important to take time to reflect on and recognize all you’ve accomplished this year and all the ways you’ve grown—as both a gifted guide and a person. Look at all the ways your learner has grown and changed.
It may seem like there is no time to rest and reflect right now. The end of the year is often busy with holiday plans, end of semester hustle, and to-do lists galore. And just when you’ve caught your breath from all of that, you’ll start seeing messages about “New Year, New You.”
In all the busyness of the end of the year, when your inbox is full of emails with coupon codes from every store you’ve ever purchased something from, we want to encourage you to find some gentleness as we move into the winter season.
During winter, the world is often described as quieter and slower. Winter is a time of year when nature rests and regroups. Leaves have fallen. Trees are bare. Animals have moved to winter routines, to account for changes in food sources and temperatures.
On the eve of the Winter Solstice and start of the winter season, we want to encourage you to consider a slower pace of rest and restoration.
We know you might not be able to hibernate in a blanket fort until spring (doesn’t that sound nice though!), but there are probably some opportunities to enjoy a little quiet and a little slow in your day-to-day life.
Maybe instead of a rigorous study and work schedule, you and your learner can take a little time over the winter holidays to enjoy some cozy reading or craft time. Maybe you block out time to do a movie marathon or to play your favorite games.
Maybe instead of an intense workout, you can enjoy a family snowball fight or a stroll around the neighborhood to look at decorations and lights.
Help your learner listen to the rhythms of the season and their body to find what rest and reset can look like for them.
So much of gifted guide work is a practice of learning and tuning into your learner’s needs and rhythms. Use those skills now to find some comfort, gentleness, and joy here at the end of the year—for your learner and yourself.
Comfort, gentleness, and joy will look different for everyone. Maybe yours is more high energy. Go with what works for you, but please take time to marvel a little bit at all your extraordinary advocacy efforts this year—no matter how small they may seem. Because, some days, sending one more email or answering one more “but why?!” question is truly a Herculean task.
We are all well aware of that!
We see how hard you’ve worked this year. We hope you can find the celebration and reset that is meaningful and restorative to you.
And if you’re gearing up for holiday celebrations and feeling apprehensive about what advocacy and family dynamics might look like during that time, check out last month’s newsletter for some resources that may be helpful.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us in 2025—whether this is your first issue of Guiding Gifted with us or if you’ve been here from the beginning; whether you’re part of one of our programs or if this is your first interaction with us. We are grateful to be part of your advocacy community, and we’re here to support you how we can.
If you’re in one of our programs already, you know there are lots of resources for you to access via our private, member’s only website.
If you’re not currently participating in one of our programs, there is still a wealth of information and support available to you. Check out our Resource Library or our free resource guides or any of our other curated resources (like our Spotify and YouTube playlists or our Bookshop.org reading lists).
Finally, a fundamental part of advocacy is making sure basic needs—like food and shelter—are being met for both us and our learners. If you or someone you know might need extra support, findhelp.org may be a useful resource. It can also help you find organizations to support, if you’re in a position to help others.
We are honored to be part of your advocacy community, and we will see you in 2026!
What’s New at the Davidson Institute?
Apply to Young Scholars!
If you’re interested in joining the Young Scholars program, you can learn more and start your application today! Get started by visiting our How to Apply page!
2026 application dates are available now! Start your application today!
If you want to learn more about our program, explore our website, or register for our upcoming virtual Application Q&A. Our next Q&A is taking place on January 12, at 11 am (Pacific). Does that time not work for you? Don’t worry. If you register for the event, you’ll receive a recording of the Q&A.
Remember! Davidson summer programs and events are only open to Young Scholars. If you want your learner to join us for Summer 2026, be sure to apply to Young Scholars!
Testing Opportunities – Join the Spring Waitlist!
Through our partnership with Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, throughout the year, we are able to offer low cost, remote testing for students in grades 3-10.
This testing can be used to apply to the Davidson Institute’s Young Scholars program, along with the Davidson Academy, Reno and Davidson Academy Online.
To learn more and join the waitlist for Spring 2026 test dates, check out our Eligibility Assessment page today!
Please note: There will not be any new 2026 dates prior to Davidson Academy and Davidson Academy Online applications for the 2026-2027 school year closing.
More Ways to Connect with Davidson...
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We’ll see you next month. Stay well, Gifted Guides!