Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Middle School Duke TIP Grand Recognition Ceremony?

Just wanted to say that we are officially going to Duke for the Grand Recognition Ceremony- mainly to make up for her not going to the summer camp (sigh>>>), but also just for a fun family vacation. She's exited about missing the day of school (a monday), but gets to make it up for full credit. Was this a good idea? I mean, does it end up being like graduation or something, just really long and not much fun? (even if the ceremony is horrible, we'll have fun going to Trader Joe's, if any of you guys know what that is!) Any personal experience/ advice on how to dress (they don't say)?

Hey, cool, sounds fun, hopefully it won't be too darn long! Congrats to your dd, no ideas on how to dress.
..Trader Joes is very fun, too.

Bassettlover -I sent you a PM

For our gala they always suggest sunday best - some of the kids are really fancy dressed, others not, but generaly no jeans is the rule.

Hi,
We went to the Duke State recognition ceremony yesterday so I'll report on what we experienced. DD was one of 13 5/6th Explore testers recognized and there were about 200? 7th graders. It was very much like a graduation ceremony, with a guest speaker and the kids being called by name to receive their award and shake hands. Our speaker was the NC teacher of the year and she was wonderful. She really spoke to the kids in a way that they could relate to. There were about 10 kids who were at the state ceremony who were recognized as also going to the grand ceremony. I know the TIP website mentions other activities going on for you that morning.
As far as dress, there was a wide range. Jeans, basketball shorts, t-shirts on a few and "casual Friday" pants and polos on many. A lot of the girls had on Sunday dresses and I think only one boy wore an actual suit.
I don't know how this compares to the grand ceremony (I hope to find out in 2 more years ;))but I would assume it would be similar. It was well worth the trip for DD to see all those smart kids together in one place.
Hope this helped.

I would just like to add that if anyone has the opportunity to go to one of these things, and if the finances work out, you should definitely try to go. We just got home last night and had a really good time. The college campus, (in our case, Duke), is very interesting, and at Duke they had some hiking trails and an amazing garden, which we all enjoyed. The ceremony was also good, and we had a great couple of speakers. But I thought the most amazing part was the night before the ceremony, in the hotel swimming pool/hot tub. DH took her down, and they started out alone, but more kids and their parents came as well. By the time they had to leave (2 hours later!), their were 7 girls from Duke TIP talking. They talked about books, boys, etc, and I think this was one of her few moments where she kind of just "fit in". So yeah, long post, but you REALLY should try to do this if you can (for any ceremony, for any talent search)

Yay! I'm glad you had a wonderful time.

Bassetlover,
Were you at Washington and Duke? If so, my DD was one of those girls and it really meant a LOT to her too :

Yep, thats where we were! Sorry, I was gone for a couple of weeks and missed the thread and PM.

Yep, thats where we were! Sorry, I was gone for a couple of weeks and missed the thread and PM.