Maynah Josephine Lourellen Borja Erece

Miss Maynah Josephine Lourellen Borja Erece, ballerina and contemporary dance choreographer

Background

Maynah Josephine Lourellen Borja Erece is a scholar, an academic, a writer , a ballerina, a contemporary dance choreographer and twice exceptional. She was the subject of the study titled- "Yes, Dad. I can hear you, I'm choosing to ignore you.", during the 2019 World Council for Gifted and Talented Children World Conference in an open conference peer review in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.The study highlighted the challenges of an exceptionally gifted student with moderate to severe hearing loss as she successfully navigated both the Australian and New Zealand mainstream school systems.

Early signs of giftedness

Maynah taught herself to read at 3 years old by observing, mimicking and lip reading those around her. Growing around a genius brother, Jozef Borja Erece, she showed early signs of extreme giftedness at a very young age. Her parents, Dr. Josephine Ana Borja-Erece, md and Dr. Maynard Victor Erece, hc gave the siblings a very supportive environment where their gifts and talents are nurtured and developed. Maynah started ballet classes at 3 years old, wrote and collected her stories at 4, took martial arts classes at 5. She showed extremely rapid learning capacity at an early age that made everyone miss out the possibility of her hearing loss. It was only when she started school when a very observant teacher posited to her parents to have Maynah checked out for hearing loss because she struggled to communicate in large group settings. After numerous hearing tests done, it was established that Maynah had moderate to severe hearing loss on both ears due to a genetic mutation in Connexin 26 . It was an enigma then to hearing experts around the world on how at an early age, despite missing out on some phonetic sounds, she was able to work it out herself and teach herself to read phonetically as much as it is now.

Plans were then put into place to ensure that Maynah continue to develop her unique gifts and talents. Through the cooperation her family, the school and the health sector, all possible technological and systemic support was exhausted. This allowed Maynah to further hone her unique gifts and talents. Maynah participated fully in her schools by getting involved in school productions, dance competitions, student organizations and school sports. She captained the school basketball varsity team, represented the region in athletics, and was the school's cultural captain in her final year.

Family Tradition of Excellence

Maynah grew up in an environment of scholars. Her father, Dr. Erece, is an educator with a keen interest in Gifted and Talented education and her mother, Dr. Borja-Erece, is a GP specialist who once worked in the field of Psychiatry. Her brother, Jozef, became a global phenomenon when he became a lawyer at 18 years old.Taking up this tradition of excellence, Maynah started taking university papers in Psychology at 14 years old. By the end of her senior year, she gathered numerous accolades highlighted by being selected for the Notable Achievement award from the State Electorate of Jordan, Queensland, Australia and a full ride Vice-Chancellor's academic scholarship from the University of Southern Queensland. She is currently taking up a double degree, a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing.

Choreographic works from Miss Maynah Borja Erece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzGVSKtFKM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn6AZDKGCx0

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