Ugh....Do I tell her or not?

[Dmmetler]

Apparently a Herptoculture conference this summer has a scholarship for young herpetologists. One of DD's breeder friends forwarded her the link. She's officially too young, but her friend suggested she try to apply anyway, given her resume and credentials. And since it includes getting to give a 15 minute talk on a focused species and conservation concerns, DD would be in heaven if she got to do it. 

 

Which is fine, except the application deadline is March 15. And this month is ridiculous. I don't think DD would have trouble writing the cover letter and essay, but I really, really hate the idea of going through the process of gathering a packet that may be rejected due to her age in the next few weeks. It's so tempting to delete the e-mail from DD's account before she sees it (DD's e-mail is forwarded to my outlook account).

 

 

[hornblower]

I wouldn't do that because odds are someone else will tell her about it too and/or this person will follow up with "so did you decide to apply" ?

[maize]

I think you'll regret not telling her, so you'd better let her try :)

 

Sounds like a super awesome opportunity!

[Cera]

How much younger is she than the cutoff?  If she is close I would tell her and let her apply.  If she is not within a couple years I would tell her and not let her apply but talk about how great it will be to apply in a few years.

[Ravin]

Let her try. It sounds like it's right up her alley and a great opportunity.

[hellojwolford]

If I were in your shoes, I would let her see it and talk about how to say no. She is going to have hundreds of similar opportunities, probably before she's old enough to vote. It seems to me that our gifted young ones, capable of so many things, will need to learn at an early age that they must choose wisely how to spend their time and focused attention. They must learn how to say, "thank you for asking, but I have to say no. Maybe next time?" And who knows, maybe for her it will be worth the risk to put together the paperwork although she might be rejected based on age alone. Maybe she will have an idea about how she could re-budget her time. Either way, it is a learning opportunity just to let her see the email and try to make a wise choice for herself.

[kiana]

I'd do it anyway, and I also agree with hornblower.

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, I would tell her about it and let her decide if she wants to try it. I would warn her that ther application can be rejected because of her age. I also would try to contact the "authorized body" to check the requirements and ask about the possibility for your daughter to be an exception. Age thing is very relavant. One can be a dumb at 15 but another is brilliant and capable at 10.

My daughter joined a FRC team where she is the youngest(12) among 16-18 years old boys and she is fine there. So, age is the milestone, nothing else. I hate when the child is restricted to participate in events in accordance with his/her age. It should be a fair game.  You can tell her that you would try to contact committee(judges) to check if she is allowed. If she is, start the process of preparation. The worse case if you spend all your/ her time getting everything ready and it will fall through at the last moment. My child takes rejections very hard. May be your daughter deals with it better.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

The youngest age group is 12-15, so she's less of an outlier than she was for the SSAR program, where she was 9 and the next youngest student was 16. Like the SSAR program, it includes undergraduate students, so I'm guessing they're expecting most applications to be from the older side of the age group, though.

 

Her mentor is going to contact some of the people mentioned who she knows to find out more (and to kind of feel them out as far as how disposed they are to younger students). She says she knows of the conference, but has never attended since it is more Herptoculture focused and she isn't involved with breeding programs.

 

[kiwik]

Do tell her. It is a small community and she will find out. The organisers may just not have thought of there being under twelves.

[IsabelC]

I would first try to find out whether there is any wriggle room regarding age of applicants. Hopefully your contacts can find something out for you.

 

If you can't find this information out, I would tell her. Explain that sometimes age requirements can be a bit elastic but other times they have to be stuck to. Let her decide whether it's worth applying given that they may not be willing to budge on the age issue.

[lewelma]

dmmetler, we know what it is to be swamped.  Sometimes the timing is just bad bad bad. Sometimes opportunities have to be let go.  She may as well know now that it will be a fact of life.  My niece was offered a Rhodes scholarship to study abroad the same year she was offered a full scholarship to Berkley that could not be delayed a year.  Given that she had to pay for university, she actually chose to turn down the Rhodes scholarship.  I mean wow! What a hard choice.

 

DS has chosen to complete his classes over the squad assignments, even knowing that this means he is throwing his chances at the team.  He has made this choice because he thinks the chances at the team were low to begin with and he is seeing the long term benefit from the classes.  Choices must be made, and it is hard. Good luck working it out.  :grouphug:

 

Ruth in NZ

[Dmmetler]

We've discussed it, and plan to table it until next week and see what her mentor says, since we'll see her herpetology mentor tomorrow. I've also sent out some feelers to other people in the herp community that she's met to see if anyone else knows anything about this program and the people running it, and how flexible they're likely to be. The day of the conference she'd most like to attend is also the day that, if her team makes state, they'd be competing in the finals. The fact is, they haven't made state in the last several years, so it's unlikely to happen this season, but I expect that will weigh into her decision.

 

I'm kind of hoping she decides to wait to apply until next year, when she'd be that much closer to the official age range, and when we'd be able to get on it earlier. Apparently the call to conference for abstracts, including those for their young herpetologists program, was back in Jan, but the person who suggested she apply just didn't find it on her desk until recently. If we'd gotten it in Jan, it would be much easier to get the application done and in by the deadline on our side (although the faculty recommendations and the like probably wouldn't be happening until now regardless because Jan is a horrible month for college professors).

[Donna]

I say give it a go. I would try talking with some of the people involved to feel them out on the possibility of a younger child.

 

My dd attended a camp this summer for kids/young adults from 15 to over 20 years old. She had just turned 12. I sent a message to those running the camp prior to her auditioning to see if they'd consider a younger child and they suggested she send in the audition. There were some logistical challenges, I didn't want her staying by herself on the campus overnight, but they were very willing to accommodate her once she auditioned and was chosen.