25 Years of Keeping Our Promises

Project Promise was originally developed in 1999 under the watchful eye of Dr. Susan Johnsen. In an effort to ensure that income was not a barrier to access for qualified gifted and talented students to participate in the University for Young People (UYP) program at the Baylor Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. It was initially funded out of a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and participants had to meet HUD scholarship qualifications to participate and must be from local schools. Project Promise participants were given full scholarships to attend summer programming and provided with mentoring to support their growth. Eligibility remained with the student so long as their HUD eligibility did not change. 

Over the course of many summers, Project Promise students often made up nearly half of summer participants. To date, it is estimated that more than 450 students have been served by Project Promise since 1999. Some of our Project Promise Scholars are working for us today as mentors and teaching assistants, and others are well into their careers. Today, we at Baylor TIP are actively working to obtain new grant funding to support this vital and long-standing part of our Center mission. If you would like to read more about the impact Project Promise has had, there are two published papers you can explore listed below. 

Kaul, C. R., Johnsen, S. K., Saxon, T. F., & Witte, M. (2016). Project Promise: A long-term follow-up of low-income gifted students who participated in a summer enrichment program. Journal for the Education of the Gifted. 39(2), 83 –102. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353216640938 

Kaul, C. R., Johnsen, S.K., Witte, M., & Saxon, T. F. (2015). Critical components of a summer enrichment program for urban low-income gifted students. Gifted Child Today, 38(1), 32-40. https://doi.org/10.1177/1076217514556533