We are thinking of applying for our daughter. How did you choose to nominate your child and why? What is on the form they have to fill out?
We chose our daughter's Gifted Education teacher at school, as he had the most insight into her performance. That seems a rather easy choice if available. Her normal class teacher would have been next.
Outside of those, I'm not sure who else non-family would be able to discuss a young child's intellectual capability.
Nominator questions
1. Describe your relationship with the applicant.
2. Describe an incident that speaks to his/her advanced abilities.
3. How does this applicant’s academic abilities compare to other young people with whom you interact?
4. The Davidson Young Scholars Program is designed to provide parents of profoundly gifted young people with individualized assistance in the areas of educational advocacy and planning, social/emotional, and talent development. Please tell us why this applicant could benefit from the Young Scholars Program
We used our child's occupational therapist, as they didn't have a great rapport with the classroom teacher. The OT was able to describe recommending to DC a book that was already pitched at an older child, and having DC come back a week later having read it, done the quizzes, and brought a list of questions about the therapy.
All of the questions and information needed were on their site, specifically in the Applicaton Checklist PDF linked on the page below. You can pre-type your answers and paste them in when filling it out. Same with the nominator, when you ask if they'd be willing, you can include the whole paragraph and questions, so they are prepared when the email arrives from DYS.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/Young-Scholars/How-to-Apply/Qualification-Criteria
Both DS and DD were nominated by their teachers. DS' teacher had taught him for over a year because he was subject accelerated into her classroom the previous year plus she had taught his 3rd grade GT classroom for decades. DD's teacher also taught for decades and would praise her to her other classes and teachers in the department and posted her work products in prominent places. The bottom line is find someone who thinks your child is exceptional and can reasonably be expected to know based on exposure to many students of the same age. At the same time, don't worry too much about finding the perfect Nominator as long as your DD has the numbers.