Some 120 male and 40 female gifted students are attending this year's resident summer program organized by the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz and His Companions Foundation for the Gifted (Mawhiba) in partnership with Saudi Aramco. The 10th and 11th Grade students from various parts of the Kingdom are staying for a month at the Saudi Aramco Training Facility in Dhahran. The summer camp which began on June 28 will continue till July 27. These gifted students are taking part in personality development programs that include workshops on science and technology, advanced mathematics, engineering and future urban planning and designing with titles like “Youth Leadership,” “My Talent,” “Intellectual Property Workshop,” “The Art of Scientific Discovery,” “The Lost Art of Reading,” “Community of Practices,” “Virtual Marketing,” “My Journey,” and “Arabic Wikipedia.” Saudi Aramco is providing the logistics required for conducting workshops and other personality enrichment programs that are running from 7 A.M. to 3.30 P.M. and 4.30 P.M. to 10 P.M. on a daily basis. Rubaian Al-Shahrani, Program Chairman, told the Saudi Gazette that so far more than 1,000 students have benefited from summer camps conducted at Saudi Aramco under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. “We are proud to have launched summer training camps for gifted students in partnership with Mawhiba for the past 12 years,” said Al-Shahrani. He said students are taught how to be creative by utilizing their leisure time. They are encouraged to choose any topic and write articles during their free time and submit them to Arabic Wikipedia, he said. __
