'For teens, by teens': How the Teen SIG bridges the age gap in Mensa

  • Dec 30, 2013
  • Gifted Youth, Annual Gathering, Teen SIG
  • Domestic
  • Phyllis Miller, Trustee

Imagine walking into an Annual Gathering in a strange city surrounded by more than a thousand people you don't know. You're too old for kids' programs and too young for grownups' programs, and there's nothing on the program for you to do. Now what? If you're a Mensa-eligible teenager, you round up some other teens, and before you know it, the Teen SIG is born. That's what happened when Taz Criss attended the AG in Dallas in 2001.

"There were no real events for teens," she says. "Once you aged out of Kids Trek, you were adrift. There was no way for us to associate with each other. So five of us met with Joan Hiller, who was the Gifted Youth Coordinator, and she found us a room we could use from 6 p.m. until the next morning, when the hotel needed the room for the regular AG program."

By the 2002 AG, the group was formally listed as a SIG, had a 24-hour teen room, and was listed in the AG program.

"Being intelligent people, we knew what we wanted, and we quickly evolved into needing our own events planned by teenagers," Criss says. "Our philosophy became 'for teens, by teens.'" Criss became SIG coordinator in 2003, serving until 2007. In those early days, they were very aware they were breaking new ground. "Some of the adults were terrified," she recalls. "We needed to gain their trust. We also knew that those teens who came after us would be affected by what we did."

Alexis Wise was one of those teens. She went to her first AG in Las Vegas with her mother, who had never gone to one before. As a 12-year-old, "I immediately clicked with the older teens," she says — so much so she attended every AG thereafter, save for when she was studying abroad. She became a member of Mensa herself at age 14.

"Teen SIG was a huge motivation to join," Wise says, who followed Criss as SIG coordinator in 2008, serving until 2010. "I really cared about the group, and it was an opportunity to give other teens as good an experience as I had."

Long a supporter of Kids Trek at the AG, the Mensa Foundation has been providing funding for Teen SIG activities since the Pittsburgh AG in 2009. "One of the things the Foundation did was sponsor T-shirts so we could be immediately identifiable to others," Wise says. "Another thing was to bring in a group called FIRST, which presented a robotics program. We're really thankful to the Foundation because it's easy to host social events but they allowed us to do academic events as well."

Over the past several years, the Foundation has also purchased games and supplies for Teen SIG use at the AG and enabled it to serve not only as a bridge between Kids Trek and adult programs, but as a meeting ground where lifelong friendships are formed. "I have friends from Teen SIG all over the country and all over the world," Wise says. "This is not an opportunity most teens have."

As Criss says, "Parents drag their teens to an AG, and the kids are not happy about it. Then they meet all these Mensa teens and next year it's them dragging their parents!"

Foundation funds for Teen SIG, as well as Kids Trek, come from donations made by people like you. Go to mensafoundation.org/donate to see how you can make a difference in young people's lives.