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Talent development across the lifespan: an interview with Paula Olszewski-Kubilius.

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Paula Olszewski-Kubilius is currently the director of the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University and a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from St. Xavier University in Chicago and her master's and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University in educational psychology. Dr. Olszewski-Kubilius has worked at the Center for 25 years where she has designed and conducted educational programs for learners of all ages including summer programs, weekend programs, distance learning programs, programs for underrepresented gifted students, as well as workshops for parents and teachers. She is active in national- and state-level advocacy organizations for gifted children in the Midwest. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children and on the board of trustees of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She has conducted research and published over 80 articles or book chapters on issues of talent development, particularly the effects of accelerated educational programs and the needs of special populations of gifted children. She has served as the editor of Gifted Child Quarterly and as a coeditor of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education. She also has served on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal for the Education of the Gifted and Gifted Child International and was a consulting editor for the Roeper Review. She currently is a member of the editorial board of Gifted Child Today and Gifted Child Quarterly.

Henshon: Paula, how did you become interested in talent development?

Olszewsld-Kubilius: I was graduating from Northwestern in June of 1983. I had earned my doctorate in early childhood--with a focus on language and cognitive development in young children. I did my dissertation on inner speech and play--still a topic of great interest to me. Well, I was trying to get a postdoc but was unsuccessful. I really did not want to leave the Chicago area because I love it and my family is all here.

In the meantime, Joyce VanTassel-Baska had started the Midwest Talent Search and was running it here at Northwestern. Our dean at the time was a former graduate student of Julian Stanley. Joyce had secured a grant to work on helping teachers identify low-income gifted students. She needed someone to work with her on that and she asked me to join her. My first responsibilities included helping Joyce with the first residential summer program we ran and starting our Saturday Enrichment Program. I loved the field and loved working with Joyce. She was and is a great mentor. So I changed fields rather quickly--and really never looked back. I came into this field...

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