MUNCIE,Ind. -- Report cards with all A's don't describe every gifted student. In fact, helping academically talented students reach their full potential has unique challenges, says a Ball Sate University educator.

"Many of these students are underachievers; we need to respect and encourage them," said Tracy Cross, executive director of the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities.

"Our society does not know what to do with bright people," he said. "Internationally, the United States seems to have the most difficult time dealing with academically-oriented students. We often send gifted students, in particular gifted girls, mixed messages."

Created in 1990 on the Ball State campus, the Indiana Academy is one of only 13 state-funded residential high schools for academically gifted students in the nation.

The academy, which he describes as a "haven for gifted kids," enrolls about 250 juniors and seniors, of which more than 99 percent go on to attend college.

Cross finds that students who are surrounded by other academically-oriented young people often don't feel the social pressures that gifted students can experience in average high schools.

"Many kids come to the academy and say this is the first time in my life I can be myself,'" he said.

Cross can relate to the struggles of these students when recalling his own experiences. As a child, he often felt unchallenged and restless in school. He hopes that places like the academy offer a better-matched curriculum to students' abilities than he had growing up.

Cross's involvement with gifted students stretches outside the academy. He recently was named editor of Gifted Child Quarterly, considered one of the most prestigious journals in the field.

He also has been recognized for his work as the recipient of the National Association for Gifted Children Early Leader Award in 1996 and the Early Scholar Award in 1997. Cross is the only person to win two of the organization's four annual awards consecutively.

Although working with these students holds never-ending challenges, it is a job that he enjoys and finds satisfying.

"To make a living studying gifted people is quite a reward," he said.