Founded in 2005, the Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal States (CLEOS) utilizes a research-through-service model to provide guidance for high school students from all over the states of Kansas and Missouri and the Kansas City/Lawrence area. So far, over 500 students have visited the CLEOS lab, and the results have been overwhelmingly successful.

The program is supervised by Dr. Barbara Kerr, Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology at The University of Kansas. Dr. Kerr has conducted research on gifted students and optimal development for over 25 years and continues to contribute to the understanding of creativity and giftedness. CLEOS staff members are master's and doctoral-level graduate students in the APA-accredited Counseling Psychology program at KU who have received training in special needs of the highly creative and in interpreting the assessments used in the lab.

Imagine our surprise when we learned that our chosen acronym for this program had an ancient Greek meaning:

• - "Glory, fame"
• - "The poem or song that conveys glory, fame, that which is heard"
• - "Like a natural flower, Achilles will 'wilt.' But his kleos will never wilt because it is not a thing of nature: it is a thing of art, a song."