Aakash Chowkase, 2020 Gifted Education Fellowship winner

Aakash Chowkase has taught gifted youth for 13 years and is passionate about advocating for gifted education.

After completing a master’s in education at the Azim Premji University in Bangalore, India, he joined the faculty at the Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology, where he founded India’s first post-graduate diploma in gifted education.

He is currently a Dean’s Doctoral Research Fellow at Purdue University, where he plans to conduct a longitudinal research and mentoring project with rural and tribal Mensa students in India. Some of his accomplishments include helping draft recommendations for India’s new national education policy and developing India’s first online teacher training course for identifying gifted children.

Aakash is an active member of the National Association for Gifted Children; the American Educational Research Association’s Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent Special Interest Group; and the Mensa Foundation’s Awards for Excellence in Research Committee.

The Foundation’s Gifted Education Fellowship was created to assist outstanding educators in acquiring a graduate degree in gifted education or a closely related field from an accredited institution of higher education.