The Centre for Talented Youth Ireland explained

The Centre for Talented Youth Ireland is giving young bright sparks the opportunity to shine by offering them advanced courses in DCU every weekend.

CTYI runs fast-paced courses at first year university level for selected children between the ages of six and 16 with the goal of nurturing their talents.

Every Saturday morning, these children learn about subjects as diverse as medicine to rocket science in various campuses such as DCU.

Over 1600 children attend their courses in universities in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Further to the Saturday courses, they run a sister programme on Wednesday afternoons in conjunction with DCU’s Access office.

These courses are designed to give children from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to study scientific and engineering subjects like sports science, chemistry and forensics.

The Centre for Academic Achievement, the name of the programme organised by CTYI and Access in DCU, won the overall award at The Irish Times Living Dublin Awards in December 2007.

The programme is funded by Discover Science and Engineering. One of the highlights of the courses is the graduation ceremony where students invite family members and teachers to come and witness them receiving their certifi cate.

Aoife Titley is a teacher with the CTYI programme for six and seven year olds. “A lot of the time, students who have exceptional academic ability tend to have a hard time in school as some may have special needs,” she says.

This feeling was echoed by Rhona McMenamy from Ballyfermot who has a daughter currently studying art in CTYI. She says: “A child with learning diffi culties receives all the help available but if a child is gifted, they are almost forgotten about. Eventually they start to rebel against the teachers.”

It has also been reported by school principals that some children often hide their talents and abilities from their peers. One of the primary goals of the courses is to provide a place for such children to celebrate their achievements with others of the same ability.

Secondary school students are included in the incentive also. After passing an exam, they can study a wide range of topics at an even higher level in DCU. While most students are living in Ireland, 20pc of the summer school participants are from the USA.