Gifted middle and high school students from the Pacific Northwest and beyond now have more options for keeping their minds engaged this summer.

The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth (CTY) is now enrolling students in its first  summer residential program site in the region at Seattle University. Spots are available for about 400 qualified students who have completed grades 7-10 to attend one of two three-week residential summer sessions starting on June 24 and July 15.

To qualify for the CTY program, students must achieve high scores on the college SAT and similar tests they take as middle schoolers.

CTY’s new program complements existing options offered by the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University of Washington. While the Robinson center offers academic-year and summer commuter classes and an early college entrance program, CTY provides a three week live-in experience for students.

“The Pacific Northwest draws its vitality from its tremendous knowledge economy and so many centers of technology and industry,” said CTY Summer Programs senior director Liz Albert. “CTY hopes to contribute to this dynamic region by cultivating its advanced learners now, so they will someday make future significant contributions to our world.”

Steve Buckley, a CTY alumnus from Redmond, whose children have participated in CTY’s summer and online courses, was excited to hear the news of the new Seattle site.

“In our area, public schools’ gifted programs are bursting at the seams and there is a hunger for substantive, fast-paced academic programs for kids,” he said.

Since 1979, more than 185,000 students have enrolled in CTY’s Summer Programs, now at 25 locations in the United States and Hong Kong. To learn more about the program, visit www.cty.jhu.edu.