Foundation Voices Blog

2015 has been a superb year at the Mensa Foundation. Together we have sent 187 students back to school with a little extra money for tuition and books, we explored the inner reaches of the brain and how it works, and our gifted children resources were used by teachers throughout the world. And we were just getting started.

The Mensa Foundation serves to address key parts of Mensa's mission statement: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity and to encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence.

As we wrap up this year, 188 grateful students will receive scholarship money thanks to the donors and local groups who contributed funds to sustain and increase scholarship awards. The dedication of the 400 to 500 volunteers who serve as judges and chairs at the local, regional, national and international level are definitely the backbone of the program and make me very proud to be a Mensa member.

Every year, the bibliophilic faithful gather in Washington, D.C., for the Library of Congress' National Book Festival. Amid the thousands of people, hundreds of titles and dozens of authors, the Mensa Foundation plays an integral role in the success of the Festival.

Bottom line: The Mensa for Kids site is a great resource for gifted kids and their parents and teachers. There is definitely something for every personality; whether your passion is games, science, reading, history, or poetry, you will find it at Mensa For Kids.

Donations to the Foundation are used to increase the breadth and value of our scholarship programs and to develop outreach efforts to raise the Foundation's global visibility. In addition, these contributions advance Foundation projects like those focused on educating gifted youth, the Conversations with Mensa podcast series and work aimed at establishing international relationships allowing translation of Foundation materials into native languages.

Do you know how the brain works? Do you know how much (or how little) education matters? How much your genes have to do with it? Do you know what will happen as you get older, or if you suffer a stroke, or if you eat or drink a particular thing? And do you know how your life could have been completely different if you had had a different teacher in third grade? In its 40-year history, the Mensa Research Journal has published information on all of these subjects and many more.

Colloquiums return participants to an academic environment that simply can’t be replicated by online learning experiences. Advanced reading selections allow participants to have more than a casual knowledge of the topics. Speakers are usually aware of the others' professional work but often have not interacted on panel discussions, frequently leading to interesting exchanges. Small attendance size allows for intimate discussions between speakers and participants during and following the events.