Video Stories of Acceleration
Submit Your Story
As a complement to our featured Written Stories of Acceleration, we invite you to share your story of acceleration through a video! Here's how:
1. Create a video of your story according to our Guidelines for Submission:
- Videos should be between three and five minutes in length.
- Videos may not mention teachers, school administrators, or other school personnel by name.
- Videos may not mention schools or school districts by name.
- Participants are asked to make general references, when necessary, to personnel involved in a student’s acceleration story. For example, reference can be made to “our school’s principal” or “my son’s/daughter’s teacher” in the telling of an acceleration story.
2. Upload your video to YouTube. You will need to create a YouTube account; follow the directions posted on YouTube.
3. Read our Talent Release Form & Terms of Use and submit your story!
4. Your video may be featured on IRPA's YouTube page and/or this website and serve to inform others about the experience of acceleration.
Watch Stories
The following videos are interviews with current and former students at The University of Iowa who have experienced one or more forms of acceleration throughout their K-16 education. In the videos, the students discuss their experiences with acceleration.
The videos are arranged by the program in which the student participated at The University of Iowa, but every interview covers each student's broader educational opportunities.
- The National Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (NAASE)
- NAASE is an opportunity for high achieving students to enroll at The University of Iowa after their junior year in high school. Through the NAASE program, The University of Iowa and the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education strive to provide:
- Opportunity for students who are academically ready to begin their college studies;
- Community for bright and motivated young scholars; and
- Support and guidance from the professional staff of the Belin-Blank Center.
Fernando Delgado
Types of acceleration: early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Hannah Kane
Types of acceleration: early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Ben Mescher
Types of acceleration: subject-matter acceleration (elementary school), extracurricular programs, dual enrollment, early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Kayla Olson
Types of acceleration: subject-matter acceleration, online AP classes, early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Andrea Rice
Types of acceleration: subject acceleration, early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Cody Shafer
Types of acceleration: subject-matter acceleration in math, science, and social studies (elementary school), early high school graduation/early entrance to college
Julia Zalenski
Types of acceleration: early high school graduation/early entrance to college
- The Iowa Talent Project (ITP)
- The Belin-Blank Center and the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids school districts collaborate through the Iowa Talent Project (ITP) to identify underrepresented talented and gifted students who are taking upper-level or advanced courses as they progress through secondary school. The project's goal is to help students recognize their potential and take advantage of rigorous courses of study that challenge them.
Justin Hayes
Types of acceleration: AP classes, subject-matter acceleration
Sharaine Conner
Types of acceleration: AP classes
- Iowa Online Advanced Placement Academy (IOAPA)
- The Iowa Online Advanced Placement Academy (IOAPA) has been established to deliver Advanced Placement (AP®) courses to high school students across the State of Iowa utilizing Apex Learning on-line technology and the Iowa Communications Network (ICN). AP gives students an opportunity to take college-level courses and exams while still in high school. The focus of IOAPA is on accredited rural and small schools in Iowa.
Clay Baker
Types of acceleration: online AP classes