Date: Fri 16-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

school-Rhoda-Tamakloe-gifted

Full Text:

with photo... A Summer Vacation Of Self-Discovery

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Rhoda Tamakloe is gifted and she recently attended a camp made the most of

those gifts.

Last week, the 12-year-old Newtown resident returned from Vassar College in

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where she participated in the three-week Summer Institute

for the Gifted, a program designed to prepare high-achieving students for the

rigors of college and for further success in high school.

"It looked like fun, and I hadn't been away from home for any long period of

time," she explained. "I wanted to do something that was worth my while."

Rhoda, the daughter of Nelson and Sylvia Tamakloe of Russet Road, will be an

eighth grader at Wooster School in Danbury this fall. She recently finished in

the 99th percentile on her Mastery Test scores.

The overnight camp allowed the gifted students to take courses not normally

available to them. For example, Rhoda enrolled herself in an introduction to

veterinary medicine, plane geometry, mock trials in the justice system and

team sports, challenging courses for any 18-year-old, much less a girl who

won't turn 13 until December.

"The camp helped me learn to study on my own better. I didn't have any help

from my mom or dad. It was just me," she explained.

Each course was taught by a person who worked in that particular field.

In her veterinary course, Rhoda learned the many aspects of the profession and

even got to draw blood from a dog. She hopes to become a veterinarian some day

and feels she now has an advantage over other prospective vets.

Rhoda will be studying plane geometry in school this coming year and get a

head start by enrolling in a plane geometry course at camp.

As for the mock trial, the Wooster School student said she'd always wanted to

see what a trial was like, figuring the trials seen on TV and in the movies

were far from the real thing.

At camp, her mock trial class recreated the Salem Witch Trials and the trial

of Captain Henry Wirz, the ruthless Confederate leader of the Andersonville

Prison Camp during the Civil War.

In team sports, the gifted students participated in several games where

teammates had to depend on each other in order to win.

"It helped us learn how to work with other people," she explained.

An honors students at Wooster School, Rhoda said she is looking forward to

getting back into the academics this fall, but said she's especially excited

about going back to the camp for the gifted next summer.