Hi Hall,
I have some suggestions. One is "be their advocate". Our gifted counselor seemed to side with teachers when there were surprise grades. I expected an attitude of "there must be some mistake--you do this, while I'll do that to come to the bottom of it" (presume innocence, in other words). Let them know about contests/competitions/essays for prizes/etc., clubs they might be interested in, encourage involvement in student council or sports or whatever fits their personality. Tell them about summer programs, scholarships, maybe even research to find them to fit their interests. Preferably early on, and say it might be something to work toward. There are so many opportunities for economically disadvantaged kids. I would make sure they know what's out there. Many of the kids at the JHU/CTY summer institutes my sons went to were there on scholarship (first generation college-bound type). These are expensive programs, so it's really cool that the kids found mentors to help them go. In fact, when I delivered my son, the woman in line with the boy behind us was his teacher.
Outward Bound also has lots of scholarship kids.
I also encourage you to look at the kid rather than prescribe the same thing for all freshmen, all sophomores, etc. If you're on this board, you must be aware of different levels of giftedness, and what's right for some, isn't right for all. I still remember my son's counselor saying he should take Chinese. While he loves econ, he doesn't have a natural language abiity and Wanted to take French. She also said he should play tennis, when he emphatically Wanted to golf. It was plain old wierd how much she didn't consider my son's preferences.
I guess Jr/sr really have to focus on college search, testing.
The other help we needed was on figuring out the "system"--who could authorize what and what electives were truly available. Navigating these would be very helpful.
