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Pinnacle Model

A mentorship program to bring together talented high school students and masters in sciences, humanities and the arts.

The Pinnacle Model served as the blueprint for three projects conducted by APA's Center for Psychology in Schools and Education:

  • Pinnacle (funded by the American Psychological Foundation).
  • Apex (funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation).
  • Catalyst (funded by the Camille and Henri Dreyfus Foundation).

The Pinnacle Model has also generated iterations in countries around the world.

About the Project

CPSE organized the Pinnacle Project as a year-long mentorship program for high school juniors and seniors to work alongside masters in the sciences, humanities and the arts. The program focuses on providing top-notch research experience, guidance and peer support for talented students with a demonstrated interest in these fields. The core idea behind Catalyst is based on Benjamin S. Bloom's (1985) theory of talent development, which states that there are three stages in the developmental process:

  1. Romantic — falling in love with a particular subject or activity.
  2. "Getting Down to Business" — learning the techniques, rules, knowledge and values of a discipline.
  3. Mastery — the master-teacher/student-disciple mentoring relationship of conservatory or professional study with a focus on creativity and social skills.

Pinnacle focuses on the third stage by providing talented young scholars with an opportunity to take their study to the next level by providing mentorship by a top ranking master. Pinnacle also provides an opportunity to explore the creative processes involved in discovery in both science and the arts. By exposing young scholars to a broad spectrum of creativity, Pinnacle elicits their own curiosity and imagination in the completion of year-long projects. Further, the project allows for discussion in a safe forum the joys, psychological stresses, and expectations associated with talent development at the very highest levels.

Summit Participants

The Pinnacle Project brings together at a summit established masters in the arts and sciences, outstanding researchers and professionals beginning careers (for each discipline), and extraordinarily talented high school students (one to three in each of the disciplines).

Before the Summit
Application and Selection Process

APA speaks with each master individually to determine what qualifications, interests and abilities he/she would like their scholars to bring with them to the Pinnacle Project. This information is used to create a customized application that is distributed through our networks of talent searches. We make every effort to find students who live in close proximity to the master they are applying to work with. The masters read the applications and select the students whose application seem most suitable.

During the Summit

The summit is comprised of several components:

  • Team meetings: Masters meet with their team each morning for 2 1/2 hours for lectures/tutorials and also to help develop a project with each of the scholars to be conducted during the next academic year.
  • Master presentations: Each master presents a talk to all of the other participants on a topic of interest in her or his field, followed by a question-and-answer session.
  • Meal Q&A: Each master hosts a more informal conversation, where participants can continue discussing the ideas raised in the presentation. These important meal time discussions also include topics about career development and the stresses and joys of working in creative fields.
  • Cultural events: The summit incorporates visits to outstanding artistic venues in the region of the summit.
  • Talent show: A talent show in which scholars and associates participate at the end of the week.
  • Free time: Time is also set aside to socialize with other participants during dinners, recreation, hiking, a barbecue and more.
After the Summit
Project

Each scholar develops a research project with the help of the master that they will present at the reunion the following year. Masters and associates guide the students' work closely during the summit week, then follow up with their scholars over the course of the succeeding academic year as scholars develop their projects. Each scholar is expected to have regular contact with his or her master and/or associate(s) on campus or via email or phone. The scholar is expected to drive the process related to completing the project and should connect with the master or associate(s) once a month over email or phone.

Reunion

Masters, scholars and associates return during the following summer for a reunion weekend with all participants in order for scholars to present their projects and for everyone to meet and greet the next class of participants.

Date created: 2015