The tireless efforts of educator Riquette Bonne-Smith have paid off with the announcement this week that the board of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Centre for Talented Youth (JHUCTY) will hold a meeting on the Island next month.

Riquette Bonne-Smith, a recently appointed board member and Executive Director of the Centre for Talented Youth, Bermuda, was responsible for prizing the Board away from the US on November 3 and 4.

The board is made up of prominent US business people, entrepreneurs and educators ? all members of the 26 year-old organisation.

?I just know the occasion will match the expectations I have raised,? said Mrs. Bonne-Smith. ?The facilities offered by Elbow Beach Hotel are first class and this time of year is just right for boosting occupancy rates. ?The island will surely benefit when forty or more Board members, many accompanied by friends and family, come to our shores. Delegates are expected from USA, Ireland, UK, and Thailand.?

Bemuda first affiliated with Johns Hopkins CTY when its Institute for Talented Students was created in 2002, and officially joined the CTY community ? including the UK, Ireland, Spain and Hawaii ? this year.

The first of its kind, JHUCTY attracts more than 80,000 students to its talent search each year ? for which Bermudians are also tested, and the top qualifiers invited to CTY highly challenging and varied summer programmes across the US.

Students can attend CTY programmes locally as well, at an after-school programme at Saltus Grammar School, where they can take courses ranging from math, creative writing and the fine arts. CTY Bermuda stressed the relevance of Bermuda?s reinsurance business as an example of how CTY can develop people with the skills to thrive in such an environment ? bringing with it personal and national success.

The United Kingdom adopted the CTY model to assure a supply of such people.

Research on gifted students who participated in CTY?s programmes recorded higher test scores and increased enrolment in advanced placement courses compared to similarly qualified CTY non-participants.

Ms Lea Ybarra, Executive Director of JHUCTY, summed up the mission of the Centre: ?To identify, encourage, and nurture top academic talent in young people wherever they may be.

?Academic talents benefit from the focused and specialised academic programmes found at CTY. Without national programmes to help these children, they run the risk of having their intellectual talents lost to their communities.?

Bright children too often confront a culture in which being smart is overlooked, ridiculed, or dismissed. CTY has, since 1979, found these students ? tens of thousands each year ? and connected them with other world-class young minds. Testimony we receive from CTY students and their parents points to CTY as a haven for bright children ? one that encourages their personal best in an environment of strong peer and community support.

Our investment in these children now will return great benefits later ? for them and for the world they will inherit.?

CTY Bermuda benefits principally from the financial backing of The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, Renaissance Re, Allied World Assurance Company, The Christian Human Foundation and The Ministry of Education and Development.