It all began with a prodigy who started college at age 9.

Katheryn Kearney, instructor of curriculum and instruction, had a close friend with a gifted 5-year-old child seeking an education.

After the youngster’s family visited all four kindergarten teachers in the district, the girl was quietly placed in first grade, but she didn’t stay in public school for long.

“The family visited all four teachers, and they all said, ‘Don’t put her with me,'” Kearney said.

While Kearney was teaching preschool in Maine, she began her endeavor to help the family find suitable schooling for the girl.

Kearney said the schools struggled to meet the child’s needs, and after searching for adequate schooling, the family chose to home school the girl.

“They chose to home school their daughter until she started college at age 9,” she said.

All the while, Kearney took classes in teaching gifted children.

“It’s amazing the things that can make your career turn when you are making career plans,” she said.

Her involvement with her friend’s daughter coupled with her passion in the field of psychology, which sparked at age 10 while her father was working on his doctorate degree in psychology, inspired Kearney to continue her interest in gifted education.

“After I took my first class, I was hooked. It put everything together for me,” she said.

Kearney further explored gifted education by forming a support group for the parents of gifted children. The Hollingsworth Center for Highly Gifted Children started as a family support group in Kearney’s living room.

“Five parents called me in one week in 1984 freaking out. They really needed to talk to mothers with children like theirs,” she said. “I had no idea what it would turn into.”

After a year and a half of meeting, the group expressed interest in expanding nationally.

“The families expressed that they wanted to expand. They didn’t want anyone else to feel as isolated as they did,” she said.

“Gifted children have very unique needs that aren’t met well in the schools and community, so this center and conference offer a place of support.”

In addition, the organization publishes a quarterly newsletter called “Highly Gifted Children.”

Kearney said all of this happened long before she thought of teaching at a university. Other people told her to try higher education.

“They thought I would enjoy it and enjoy the challenge. The timing was right, so I said ‘yes,'” Kearney said.

One of Kearney’s favorite aspects of her job is conducting research, which partially flowed from her love of the Nancy Drew series that she read in her formative years.

Kearney said the books gave her confidence and also spurred on her interest in research because she enjoyed how Nancy Drew was able to fit all the pieces of evidence in a case together to solve it.

“I know it sounds wild, but the books really did influence how I went about historical research,” she said. “Some of it was book research, but it also included investigative research where I used some Nancy Drew detective skills. It was an interesting mix.”

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Katheryn Kearney

Degrees:

• Bachelor’s degree of fine arts in ceramics from Brigham Young University in 1977.

• Master’s degree of arts and education from Johnson State University in 1983.

At ISU since: August 1997.

Courses taught at ISU: Elementary Education 245 (Strategies in Teaching), Elementary Education 268 (Strategies Practicum) and Psychology 437/537 (Characteristics of Giftedness).

Most challenging part of job: “The most challenging thing is balancing all of the many demands like teaching, research and outreach. You have to find something that fits your needs and the university’s while accomplishing something meaningful in the world. Sometimes it’s hard to make that call.”

Favorite children’s book: “One of my favorites is ‘A Wrinkle in Time.’ It deals with gifted children and moral issues in a science fiction way. It’s a stunning book.”