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Meet the team devoted to the success of your gifted and talented student.

Laureate School Leadership

Kayte Hamilton, PhD
Director of Laureate School

Kayte, a lifelong learner, views each day as a breathtaking adventure—one filled with wonder and abundant opportunities for exploration and discovery. Throughout her career as an educator, Kayte has taken a keen interest in the unique needs of gifted learners. Through independent research, hands-on experiences and studies with nationally renowned educators in the field of gifted education, Kayte possesses invaluable insight into the world of gifted learning. She firmly believes that if the educator is to truly meet a student's individual learning needs, it is crucial that the educator first really listen to the student and consider his or her personal goals, interests, hopes and dreams. Kayte encourages her students to pursue personal areas of interests, offers them motivating and individualized educational experiences, provides problem-solving opportunities which support higher-level thinking skills, encourages collaboration with peers and challenges each student to apply her or his unique skills in ways that will benefit today's world.

Kayte readily shares her can-do attitude, delightful sense of humor and never-ending enthusiasm for learning with her students, and in so doing, creates a dynamic learning atmosphere in which each of her students experience personal success. As a coach, she continually assesses progress, provides feedback and equips students with educational tools that will benefit them throughout life.

Kayte is a credentialed teacher with a Bachelor's degree in education and Master's and Doctoral degrees in ministry and counseling. During her 20-year career as an educator, Kayte has been a homeschool parent, private music teacher, K-12 distance learning administrator, classroom and online teacher. She is a published author, freelance writer, curriculum developer and artist. When asked what she is interested in, her response is "Everything!"

Laureate School Advisors

Katja Bruinink, BA

Katja was born and raised in The Netherlands. She holds a Bachelor's degree in international business and languages from The Netherlands and is currently studying in a Master's program in spiritual psychology. She has an extensive background working in a variety of private school settings, having held positions ranging from admissions director to graduation coordinator to alumni relations and development.

What excites her most about distance learning is getting the opportunity to be a part of a solution as an advisor to families seeking an alternative to the often-challenging experiences that students face in our traditional educational environments. As the mother of a high-school-aged gifted son, she deeply understands the intricacies, joys and challenges of living with and supporting the schooling of a gifted student. She brings much experience to her position of Laureate Advisor and is looking forward to supporting our gifted and talented families.

Maxi Kogoi, BA

Maxi comes from an international background; born in Germany and raised in Italy, he attended high school in England and college in the United States. After earning his Bachelor's degree in anthropology at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, he returned to Germany to work and study at the Sociology Department of Duisburg University, where he was able to pursue his varied interests in politics and economics, as well as human and social development.

Maxi joined the Enrollment Department of Laurel Springs School in 2005 and headed the department for one year before moving on to managing the introduction and operations of a number of new school programs and services. He enjoys the interaction with the Laurel Springs students and families a great deal and finds helping young people achieve their educational goals through distance learning very rewarding.

Maxi is excited to be part of the team for the new Laureate School for the Gifted and Talented. He looks forward to providing advice and support for students with exceptional gifts within a caring and encouraging school environment.

Laureate School Teachers

Teachers are carefully selected for their expertise in content, experience in distance learning and appreciation for the divergent thinker or differenced learner. We've selected the best teachers from Laurel Springs School to join Laureate School for the Gifted and Talented. They all hold advanced degrees, teaching credentials and/or significant professional experience in their fields.

Carole Iverson, JD

Carole is an experienced humanities teacher. She has taught Social Studies and English for over 10 years. Her teaching has brought her into contact with a diverse group of students and faculty. It has taken her from Cate School in Carpinteria to Seabury Hall in Maui. In addition to her undergraduate degrees in history and education, she has a juris doctorate from UC Berkeley.

Celia Milota, BFA

Celia is a recent college graduate, with a BFA in photography. She has received classical training in black-and-white studio photography and darkroom skills, along with the basics of color photography, and has worked primarily with film. Throughout college Celia supplemented her education with hands-on experience in both the fine art field of the medium and the commercial. Her photographs were shown 10 times over the four years, in both group and solo exhibits, nationally and abroad. As for her commercial experience, Celia freelanced for two companies in Fairfield, Iowa, Hawthorne Direct and Chappell Studio, in addition to shooting weddings privately. Hawthorne Direct is a large, nationwide infomercial company; Chappell Studio covers one third of all graduations in the United States. At present, Celia teaches her native language (French) at a private school in Champaign, Illinois, along with hands-on art classes at a cultural center. She loves teaching, and firmly believes that education is a fun and very self-referral process.

Jayne Selwa, BS

Jayne was born in New Jersey, grew up in Connecticut, and now makes her home near Santa Barbara, CA. She received her BS in Biological Science/Ecosystem Ecology from the University of Connecticut, and her teaching credential in Life Sciences from UC Santa Barbara. She passionately believes that the most authentic and meaningful learning is student-directed. She challenges her students to develop their independent problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities. When she's not working, you can usually find her in one of these places: in her art studio, where she paints, weaves beads, makes glass beads and designs jewelry; in her backyard organic garden; or outside somewhere, hiking, bird watching, botanizing, camping, backpacking or swimming. Jayne is an avid and lifelong student of natural history, and enjoys learning about the uses of native plants. She has been practicing yoga for 10 years, and wants to learn everything she can about holistic health. She recently began leading workshops for women centered around healing humans' relationship with the Earth.

Christian Tourenne, PhD

Christian received his BS, MS and Doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bordeaux, France. He taught biophysics, physical chemistry, physics and mathematics to college and high school students for more than 12 years. Besides being an outstanding teacher, he has also been product manager and director of business development for a very successful medical imaging and geophysical imaging software company. Christian lives in Iowa with his family. In addition to teaching and doing research in physics, he also enjoys studying ancient and medieval history, and he offers genealogical services over the Internet.

Faculty Advisors

Marilyn Mosley Gordanier
Founder and Executive Director, Laurel Springs School

Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, Founder and Executive Director of Laurel Springs School, has more than 35 years' experience in the field of alternative education. In her capacity as an educator, Marilyn has helped to found three schools: the New Morning School in Baltimore, Maryland; Laurel Springs Distance Learning Program; and Laurel Springs High School, both in Southern California. Since its founding, Laurel Springs Distance Learning Program has become the premier provider of customized curriculum for students pre-k through grade 12 and online education for students in grades 4-12. Under her directorship, Laurel Springs High School received the United Nations Global 500 Award and the President's Youth Environmental Award. Ms. Mosley Gordanier was nominated for a Nobel Earth Prize and has served as keynote speaker at numerous educational conferences in the U.S., Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, China, Australia, England, Beirut and Kenya. She currently serves as president of the United Nations Global 500 Environmental Forum. Marilyn has been devoted to children and families with the idea that within their homes is an endless source of inspiration, caring and learning. In developing Laurel Springs School she has created the mission, services and curriculum for families to succeed at distance learning. Laurel Springs School considers life and learning to be one and the same.

Nancy Polette
Professor of Education, Lindenwood University

Nancy Polette has been an educator for more than 30 years and is the author of over 150 professional and children's books, including Building Brain Power with Books, Reading Guidance in a Media Age, Three Rs for the Gifted, Exploring Books with Gifted Children, Fact & Fiction of the Famous, Gifted or Goof Off? - winner of the Legacy Award as the best book published for gifted children in 2005, and many more. Nancy Polette is a professor of education at Lindenwood University, Missouri. She is a national consultant and author specializing in reading, gifted education, library media, and children's literature. She has served as Director of Library/Media and Gifted Programs in St. Louis County schools, as the Director of the Laboratory School, Lindenwood University and as an instructor at St. Charles Community College. She is a regular presenter at national and state conferences as well as school districts on gifted children and education for the gifted. School Library Journal describes her as "an educator with imagination, creativity and an appreciation for the intelligence of children."