Outstanding pilot program identifying and nurturing exceptional cognitive talents 2015-2017.

 

The mission of the program was to support exceptional cognitive talents whose work can bring benefits to human civilization.

Hungarian Templeton Program, this outstanding pilot talent program lasting from March, 2015 until February, 2017, was looking for the Hungarian exceptional cognitive talents in the age group of 10 to 29 all around Hungary and abroad with the help of the Hungarian talent network and voluntary applications. As a result of the complex identification process, consisting of three rounds of online tests and personal interviews, from close to 20,000 applicants 314 young Hungarian talents were given the Junior Templeton Fellow title at the inauguration ceremony held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 12 March, 2016.

Exceptional cognitive talents, the Junior Templeton Fellows were given a one-year long personal support in order to nurture their talents in their individual fields of interest. They were co-operating in groups of ten Fellows with the help of Group Facilitators and could choose from approx. 500 different individual and group programs. Among the opportunities there were mentoring, coaching, personal development, building talents’ community, soft-skill courses like networking, communications, language and computer courses, research, innovation, financial, entrepreneurial abilities developing courses, career orientation and social responsibility programs completed with various media reporting options.

Beside providing significant experiences for the talents, the creative community, the strong network of the Junior Templeton Fellows may also help the Fellows become the scientists, researchers and decision makers of the next 10-20-30 years. According to the motto (’Free talent’) Fellows were given a strong identity and they learnt how to benefit responsibly from the various opportunities, while they were also prepared to be able to represent themselves and their topics effectively, and beyond reaching personal success, how to use their abilities and knowledge for the benefit of the humanity. The Fellows formed Templeton Alumni groups to continue co-operations after the end of the Hungarian Templeton Program.

 

2 years in numbers

  • 16 Excellences
  • 200 Mentors
  • 31 Group Facilitators
  • 15 experts
  • 29 colleagues
  • 1,400 Talent Points
  • 3 members’ International Advisory Board
  • 13 Advisory Partners
  • 15 sponsoring companies and media
  • 20,000 applicants
  • 6 online tests and 1 tender
  • 314 Junior Templeton Fellows
  • 217 10 to 19 years old talents
  • 97 20 to 29 years old talents
  • 14 countries
  • 144 fields of interest
  • 1 creative community: Junior Templeton Fellow Network
  • 12 months
  • 500 programs
  • 2,000 hours spent together
  • 187 Mentor-Fellow co-operations
  • 33 „Personal consultation with an Excellence”
  • 69 Junior Mentor-Fellow co-operations
  • 15 job shadowing programs
  • 142 individual scholarship supports
  • 3 summer camps with 150 programs
  • 20 international trips
  • 20 charity programs
  • 3 Templeton Talks and Networking Days
  • 20 Talks lectures with 500 participants
  • 1 Templeton Alumni starting 13 projects
  • 108,000 website users
  • 2,800 Facebook followers
  • 25 international and 3 Hungarian conferences
  • 75 video films
  • 1 outstanding talent program

The complete brochure can be downloaded here.

Two years in two minutes
Inauguration ceremony of Junior Templeton Fellows
Interview with Professor Joan Freeman
Interview with Fiona Gatty
Templeton Summer Excellence Camp
Closing Ceremony and Forming the Templeton Alumni

Two years in two minutes

Have a quick insight of the outstanding pilot talent identificating and nurturing program, the Hungarian Templeton Program.

Inauguration ceremony of Junior Templeton Fellows

As a result of the most intensive campaign ever in Hungarian talent support, close to 20,000 applicants participated in the complex identification process consisting of three rounds of online tests and personal interviews. Among them 314 young Hungarian talents were given the Junior Templeton Fellow title at the inauguration ceremony held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 12 March, 2016.

Interview with Professor Joan Freeman?

Professor Joan Freeman, PhD is a distinguished British psychologist working for the development of human abilities to their highest levels. Professor Freeman is Founding President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA) and contributed to the Hungarian Templeton Program as a member of the International Advisory Board. She visited the Summer Excellence Camp and met dozens of Junior Templeton Fellows personally. Professor Freeman shared her views and experiences about highly gifted children.

Interview with Fiona Gatty

Dr Fiona Gatty is an art historian at the University of Oxford and recently completed her doctoral studies on the topic of ideal beauty in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century French art and art criticism. Being the Program Adviser to the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Dr Gatty visited the Templeton Summer Excellence Camp and talked about the TWCF’s reasons of supporting exceptional cognitive talents.

Templeton Summer Excellence Camp

The Junior Templeton Fellows were given a one-year long personal support in order to nurture their talents in their individual fields of interest.

They could choose from approx. 500 different individual and group programs. One of the most popular programs was the Summer Excellence Camp organized in the picturesque village of Lovasberény, where in three shifts altogether 158 Fellows participated in the 150 various programs during 15 days.

Closing Ceremony and Forming the Templeton Alumni

At the Closing Event of the Hungarian Templeton Program the 314 Junior Templeton Fellows were given Certificates and the Templeton Alumni was formed on 4th February, 2017.

After the Program Fellows continue co-operations in the more than 10 Templeton Alumni groups working for socially important initiatives e.g. sustainability, informatics and scientific education, and helping disadvantaged groups of people.

The Templeton
Community

The Junior Templeton Fellow Network, growing after the program’s closing, is a supportive and creative community that was formed to support the 314 Junior Templeton Fellows, the core of the community, with its network, experiences and knowledge. Its membership includes our supporters, the Templeton mentors: prominent contemporary Hungarian thinkers, members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, researchers, scientists, university professors, distinguished members of the business community, the International Advisory Board, our advisory partners, our sponsors, our group facilitators, parents and our colleagues. After the end of the program the co-operations go on in the Templeton Alumni groups and the Templeton Parents’ Group.

Our supporters

Vilmos Benkő

Businessman, entrepreneur, coach, ex-president of the American Chamber of Commerce, executive board member of numerous international organizations and foundations such as Fulbright Hungary or the Csodalámpa Foundation, talent ambassador of the MATEHESZ and founder of the Toastmasters Hungary. His courage and determination derive from overcoming a serious childhood illness. So does his self-confidence. Therefore he already knows how it worth to live and also how to fight for a better world.

Vilmos Benkő
Gergely Bogányi

Hungarian pianist, recipient of both the Kossuth and the Ferenc Liszt prizes awarded by the Hungarian state for exceptional achievements.

Gergely Bogányi
Gábor Bojár

An entrepreneur and laureate of the Széchenyi Prize, he is the founder of Graphisoft, a global leader in architectural design software. After stepping down from his position as company leader in 2007, he founded an educational institution, the Aquincum Institute of Technology, where his entrepreneurial expertise serves to build the success of future generations.

Gábor Bojár
Péter Csermely

Network researcher and committed network organizer. Launched KutDiák in 1995, an initiative which involved over 10,000 high school students in top level research projects. He has been the president of the National Talent Support Council since 2006 and of the European Talent Support Council since 2012. Along with a group of his co-workers, he launched the European Talent Support Network in 2015. In recognition of his efforts to support talent, his name was entered into the Book of Hungarian Heritage in 2010.

Péter Csermely
Tamás Freund, Dr.

Hungarian neurobiologist, recipient of Hungary’s Széchenyi Prize. University professor, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, vice-president of the Academy’s Department of Life Sciences 2014. World-renowned expert on the functioning of the cerebral cortex. Hungarian Talent Ambassador, 2011.

Tamás Freund, Dr.
Father Alfréd György

Member of the Order of St. Camillus, Hungarian Talent Ambassador, 2011.

Father Alfréd György
Krisztina Horváth

With economy and MBA degrees, after an appointment in the Hungarian National Bank, from 1989 she worked at Raiffeisen Bank Hungary, where she became deputy-CEO from 1998. From 2014 she is the General Manager of Cisco Systems Hungary. She participates in the work of several professional organizations such as the Women Leader Forum of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum. Between 2004 and 2008 she was the president of the Hungarian Marketing Association.

Krisztina Horváth
György Jaksity

He participated in the establishment of the Budapest Stock Exchange, and was the president of the exchange from 2002 to 2004. Founder, chairman of the Board of Directors of Concorde Co. He is a member of the advisory board of the Association of Investment Service Providers, and has previously been a member of the board of directors of the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS). In 2008 Ernst & Young presented him with its “Entrepreneur of the Year 2007” award. He actively helps the Mosoly Otthon (Smile Home) Foundation helping children with developmental disorders and their family.

György Jaksity
Péter Küllői

Péter Küllői began working as an investment banker in Budapest, then in London. In his forties, he returned to his homeland, where he went on to serve as the head of various non-profit and business organizations. Among others, he is currently Chairman of the Bátor Tábor (a recreational program for children with life-threatening illnesses), board member of the Common Purpose Charitable Trust and member of the Tate Foundation's Russian and Eastern European Committee.

Péter Küllői
László Lovász, Dr.

Recipient of the Széchenyi Grand Prize and the Bolyai Grand Prize, also awarded the János Bolyai and Wolf prizes. Hungarian mathematician, university professor, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and full member of the American National Academy of Sciences.

László Lovász, Dr.
Barna Mezey, Dr.

Hungarian legal historian, professor at Eötvös Loránd University’s Faculty of Law and Chair of the Faculty’s Department of History of the Hungarian State and Law, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Barna Mezey, Dr.
Judit Polgár

The best woman chess player in the history of the game, international grandmaster, eight-time winner of the Chess Olympiad in the open category, two-time winner of the Women’s Chess Olympiad, two-time silver medalist in the open category of the Olympiad, Hungarian super-champion, world youth champion among the boys’ U14 and U12 age groups. Hungarian Talent Ambassador, 2014.

Judit Polgár
István Salgó

Beginning in the early 1990s, he worked in leadership positions at various financial institutions. He became the CEO of ING Investment Management Hungary in 1997, from whence he went on to serve as Deputy Secretary of State at Hungary's Ministry of Finance. He has been CEO of ING Bank since 2007 and is also the chairman of the Hungarian chapter of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

István Salgó
László Sólyom, Dr.

Hungarian jurist and professor, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Member of Hungary’s Constitutional Court between 1989 and 1998 and Chief Justice from 1990 until 1998. President of Hungary between 2005 and 2010. Hungarian Talent Ambassador, 2011.

László Sólyom, Dr.
Gábor Szabó, Dr.

Hungarian physicist, full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Rector of the University of Szeged.

Gábor Szabó, Dr.
Ágoston Szél, Dr.

Hungarian anatomist, Rector of Semmelweis University, university professor and institute director, Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Ágoston Szél, Dr.
Izabella Zwack

She was raised in a small village of an excellent Italian wine growing area. She moved to Hungary with her family in 1988, when his father, Péter Zwack re-started the production of the original Unicum in Hungary. From 2008 she is the Board member of Zwack Unicum Hungary. She is the international ambassador of the Unicum spreading the recognition of this 225 years old special herb liqueur. As the leader of the Izabella Zwack Wine Selection she discoveres and sells grand wines. Her own winery, Dobogó is a proud producer of several international award winning wines, such as dry furmint, 6 puttony aszú and a special, late-harvest wine called Mylitta after Izabella's aunt, who was the love of the famous Hungarian poet, Endre Ady.

Izabella Zwack

International Advisory Board

Prof. Joan Freeman, PhD

Professor Joan Freeman, PhD, FBPS, is a distinguished international expert on gifts and talents. She has Lifetime Achievement Awards from the British Psychological Society and Mensa. She is Founding President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA), Executive European Talent Support and Visiting Professor, Middlesex University, London.

www.JoanFreeman.com

Prof. Joan Freeman, PhD
Jonathan Plucker, PhD

Jonathan Plucker is Raymond Neag Endowed Professor of Education at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches in the educational psychology and educational leadership and policy programs. His research focuses on talent development, creativity and intelligence, and education policy.

http://jplucker.com/

Jonathan Plucker, PhD
Rena F. Subotnik, PhD

Rena F. Subotnik PhD is Director of the Center for Psychology in Schools and Education at the American Psychological Association. One of the Center’s missions is to generate public awareness, advocacy, clinical applications, and cutting-edge research ideas that enhance the achievement and performance of children and adolescents with gifts and talents in all domains.

Rena F. Subotnik, PhD

The main funder of the Hungarian Templeton Program was the Templeton World Charity Foundation. This organization was founded by outstanding thinker and businessman Sir John Templeton (1912-2008) with the purpose of supporting programs worldwide that seek answers to fundamental questions about life and the universe, and to support people with exceptional cognitive talents who are working to improve the lot of humanity. To read more about the Foundation, click here.

The program was co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Hungarian Ministry of Human Resources (under the direction of Zoltán Balog). The program was implemented by MATEHETSZ (Association of Hungarian Talent Support Organizations, under the direction of Chairman László Balogh and Managing Director Péter Bajor).

Contact

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