By Nguyen Pham—
On the heels of a roaring U.S. midterm election season, I and all those around me continue to ask ourselves: How am I feeling?
The answer: “A lot.”
Jocularity aside, the mental load required to contend with the realities of simply being alive is vast. We each must cope with countless daily triggers: financial pressures, health and medical concerns, social anxieties, and more.
These anxieties tend to hit harder in marginalized communities, such as the LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, and intellectually gifted populations. Those who identify intersectionally as all of the above can find themselves in some of the rarest, most excluded, and most underserved company. Too frequently in isolation, we are constantly having to navigate a world that was not built for us. This harms us. And we have the research to prove it.
A Study of Unmet Needs
In 2024, I was elected President of the Mensa Foundation, a 501c3 charitable nonprofit whose mission is to “unleash intelligence for the benefit of humanity.” Incidentally, this made me the first openly LGBTQ+ person to assume the leading role. That same year, my organization concluded a yearlong collaboration with the College of William & Mary’s Center for Gifted Education on a first-of-its-kind research project examining the gaps in support of gifted and neurodivergent people across the lifespan.
Entitled A Study of Unmet Needs Among Highly Intelligent Individuals, our research drew insights from more than 3,400 nationwide surveys and interviews by people of all ages and backgrounds and who identify as gifted and neurodivergent. What we found was staggering.
Chiefly, our research named the need to improve societal attitudes toward high intelligence. Prevailing wisdom often positions giftedness as an unequivocal advantage, one that ensures lifelong success resulting from accelerated learning, advanced reasoning, and neuroadaptability.
Our Study of Unmet Needs, however, revealed that intelligence alone does not guarantee access, opportunity, or belonging. Systemic constructs, such as the societal stereotypes and attitudes that lionize intelligence, actually contribute to feelings of isolation and misunderstanding among gifted people, countering the broader assumption of automatic lifelong success and resilience.
Respondents also consistently flagged several key challenges—time management, communication, emotional regulation, financial constraints—as significant barriers to achieving full potential. Gifted and neurodivergent people often face these challenges alone with little to no external assistance or mentorship, showing clear evidence of the need for more support and connection.
What’s more, LGBTQ+ participants were disproportionately more likely to report having higher unmet needs. While further research into the neural implications of sexual orientation and identity would be helpful and instructive, many of us know all too well how our LGBTQ+ identities can layer structural complexity onto our already-complex lives, impairing our individual mental acuity and wellness.
Understanding Human Intelligence for Mental Resilience
Following the publication of our Study of Unmet Needs, the Mensa Foundation has remained laser-focused on leveraging our research in the advancement of our mission, especially in service to the most marginalized communities. We continue to advocate for improved understanding of intelligence in pursuit of a more neuroinclusive and gifted-aware world, and we do so through sustained commitment to our key priorities:
– Discovery: Funding and platforming rigorous inquiry to strengthen the understanding of human intelligence;
– Engagement: Providing public education and learning experiences to foster intellectual awareness and growth;
– Opportunity: Curating inclusive spaces and events for people to apply their intelligence, develop their mental resilience, and realize their potential.
As with any social advocacy, our work is predicated on the idea that isolation is the thief of progress. We are better together in community. Resilience does not happen in a vacuum.
Join Our Community
Founded in 1971, the Mensa Foundation continues to offer a full suite of intelligence-supportive programming, including scholarships, awards, print and digital publications, and in-person and virtual events. All of our offerings are open to the public, and we pride ourselves on safeguarding this public access.
Our sibling organization, American Mensa, is the world’s largest high-IQ membership society and is open to those who score in the top 2% of the general population on an accepted standardized intelligence test. American Mensa’s programming and events are available exclusively to dues-paying members. Occasionally, the Mensa Foundation will partner with American Mensa to offer co-branded public programming.
For the first time ever, the Mensa Foundation and American Mensa have teamed up to co-produce Mensa’s upcoming Bay Area conference, also known as our Regional Gathering
(RG). This year’s San Francisco RG will take place at the Hilton San Francisco Airport Bayfront in mid-November, the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.
The Mensa Foundation is thrilled to serve as the Premier Sponsor of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Regional Gathering conference. As the world’s first and largest Mensa-affiliated charitable organization, the Mensa Foundation proudly advocates for underrepresented communities in the neurodivergent and intellectually gifted populations. And, as the first openly LGBTQ+ person and first person of color to serve as President of the Mensa Foundation, as well as a proud Castro resident, I personally am elated to uplift our neurodiverse and gifted communities at such a momentous event happening right in my backyard.
And you’re invited. We will officially hold a public testing session. That’s right: Members of the public will be able to sample a real Mensa event right here in the Bay.
The public test will be held Saturday, November 21, 2026, 9–11am and requires advance registration. Following the proctored examination, test-takers will be welcome to enjoy the conference through that day and night. For more details and to register, please visit https://bit.ly/4yY3Wox
If you’ve ever been curious to commune with others who are intellectually gifted, neurodivergent, and/or “differently wired,” now’s your chance. After all, mental resilience thrives only in community.
We look forward to meeting you.
Nguyen Pham is the President of the Mensa Foundation. https://www.mensafoundation.org/
Published on November 5, 202
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