Los Angeles Times - May 9, 1984

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Cal State L.A.'s Special 'Head Start' - by Ursula Vils, Times Staff Writer

The joke going around is that some of Cal State L.A.'s precocious pupils may well have master's degrees before they're old enough for driver's licenses. The University's students, some as young as 11, are participants in three programs offered to bright and gifted youngsters.

• Early Entrance Program (EEP), which accepts seventh and eighth-graders into college courses on a trial basis that can lead to full-time enrollment.
• Pre-Accelerated College Enrollment (PACE), which permits those entering grades 9 and 10 to take two regular university classes in the summer quarter.
• Accelerated College Enrollment (ACE), in which high school juniors and seniors may enroll in up to two university classes (three in the summer).

Two Points of View

Estelle Gregory, associate professor of psychology and director of the Early Entrance Program, discussed it from two points of view: professorial, and as the mother of an EEP student, her daughter Althea, 12.

Gregory explained that she begins with "a talent search program" in which she sends letters to schools to invite seventh- and eighth-graders who score in the 97th percentile to take a college entrance test that is inappropriate -- too difficult -- for their age.

"It is totally voluntary," she said. "There is a $30 fee, and what they get for that is information about themselves that they wouldn't have otherwise. The test deals primarily with verbal and math skills, but it provides information on their abilities in eight areas.

"Most children are not great in both verbal and math skills, although some are very good in both. The test fives these bright children the chance to find out their capabilities. Some score so highly that it is clear they could do college work."

On the basis of the test results, Gregory invites high-scoring children and their parents to a meeting, then sees the EEP candidates individually, "to make sure the children really want to do it, that their parents aren't pushing them for the prestige or whatever."

Typically, a seventh=grader will take one college class after school in the area of the student's strength. If all goes well -- and if Gregory, the student and the parents all agree == the student continues on a one-course-a-semester basis for about a year.

They can try it out for a year, and they get college credits they can keep," she said. "The can continue on a part-time basis through ACE or PACE. Or they can decide to go to college on a full-time basis."

Thorough Counseling

Gregory and George Bachmann, coordinator of school relations for Cal State L.A., who guides the ACE and PACE programs, confer with students and parents about course offering and suggest professors. Gregory holds counseling sessions on a regular basis and starts the young students off on a probationary full-time course in the summer.

"They are not allowed all the freedoms of a regular student but they have all the responsibility," Gregory said. "They don't get any special concessions. Most of the professors don't even know that these kids are younger except, of course, in the case of the 11-year-olds.

"The key decision, really, is to skip high school. They already know what will be offered to them academically in high school. We try to have social things for them, but we can't replace what they would have in high school or junior high school. Every child deals with the social adjustment differently. They have to be ready for college -- emotionally, socially and academically. It has to be an acceptable thing in their value structure, such as giving up high school football games or watching them as a non-student. It is a very individual thing."

At 16, Michael Chupa of San Gabriel has been in college full time for three quarters. He has a 3.7 grade-point average, made the dean's list, was elected vice-president of an honors group and has enough units to be a sophomore (although technically he is still a freshman). He attended St. Francis High School in ninth grade, then chose to skip the rest of high school. He has kept his friendships at St. Francis, goes to its football games and dances, and invited his St. Francis friends to his 16th birthday party. He also has made friends at Cal State L.A.

He is a talented artist (he and his sister Danielle had an exhibit of their work at the Alhambra library when he was 11 and she 10), and he sang with the Pasadena Boys Choir at 11, including a three-week concert tour of England. He is teaching himself to play the piano.

The main reason Mike's parents, Maria (a real estate agent) and Daniel Chupa (an industrial engineer) decided to let him state college was his repeated complains of boredom in high school -- and he was taking advanced math and 11th grade English as a ninth-grader (Danielle, 15, also is in the PACE program at Cal State L.A.).

Making His Own Decision

"He wasn't getting enough out of school," Daniel Chupa said. "We let him make his own decision. If he was willing to try going to college full-time, we were going to let him. We brought these kids into the world, and I don't want to deprive them of any opportunity for education; we owe them that."

Maria Chupa admitted to some misgivings when Mike first started the PACE program. "I was scared to death," she said. "To me, here was this little eighth-grader going to start college. We couldn't decide for a long time. We talked to Dr. Gregory and the other parents, and of course we were constantly talking to him about what he wanted to do. One day he said, 'School is so boring.' So we had him start full-time last summer."

Mike has not declared a major but "there are a lot of areas I like -- computer courses and political science classes. Right now I like a biology class; I might opt for the medical field."

Irene Kim, 14, started part-time at Cal State L.A. just a year ago and moved into the full-time Early Entrance Program in the fall. At first she carried two loads, one at the university and the other in the eighth grade at Rincon Intermediate School in West Covina. "I had to change schools for the ninth grade anyway," she said. "I have chosen to skip high school and go to college."

She is taking German, chemistry, art and a physical education class. She thinks she may major in biochemistry. Her grade-point average is a perfect 4.0.

Her mother, Koojah, an artist, said she learned that Irene was outstanding when she was in kindergarten and "was promoted to first grade and went half-time to kindergarten and the other half to first grade. Then she was promoted to second grade." Koojah Kim said she was somewhat reluctant to let Irene start college but agreed at the urging of her husband, Yoon Kim, an electronics engineer, to give it a try. Irene shrugs at the mention of a lost childhood.

Friends at College

"Some of my friends say I am missing out on a dance or a party, but I don't feel I am," she said. "It's good enough having friends at college. I go to the student union and play Ping-Pong. They have a special room and only the EEP kids have a key. Most people don't notice my age. Some people do ask me how old I am =-- when they find out, they think it's great. Some say they wish they could have skipped high school."

Irene commutes five days a week from her home in Walnut to Cal State L.A. by bus, a trip that takes from 50 to 70 minutes. She has a active 5-year-old sister, so her mother takes Irene to the Cal Poly library to study before examinations. She plays the piano and likes crossword puzzles and family outings to Disneyland. Does she ever feel that she's in over her head? "Yeahhh. Right before a test."

Jeremy March looks like your average 13-year-old: baseball cap planted on his head and riding his bicycle in the cul-de-sac near his home in north Bel-Air. Jeremy March is not your average 13-year old. He started taking courses at Cal State L.A. at 10 -- "I became 11 early in the class." He also encountered something he had never had before: a C-minus on his first test in human geography.

Estelle Gregory, Jerry's mother Eileen March and the course instructor met and diagnosed the problem. The boy had not yet learned to take notes. So for several weeks his mother attended class with Jerry, and both took notes. When they compared them, the boy quickly learned the knack.

Jerry, who chose to have his mother out of the room during an interview, is in the eighth grade at Walter Reed Junior High School, which has a program for the gifted. He plays in the school band -- and takes math, English and intermediate swimming at Cal State L.A. -- nine units of college work. His favorite subject is history, which he has not taken on the college level yet, and he is interested in law and politics, the latter as a potential candidate. He speaks of "interests" rather than hobbies and uses "interests" to differentiate between gifted and non-gifted kids.

Tastes in Clothing, Music

"Some interests are the same, like playing video games," he said, "but it seems that tastes in clothing and music are different. Clothes . . . Well, if I pick a brown shirt, I'll pick brown pants to go with it. The other kids wear unbuttoned plaid shirts over black and silver T-shirts, and they wear mohawks or pink hair. The kids in EEP tend to more sensible and conventional ways."

"I like classical music, usually Baroque, but also the music from 'Star Wars.' The other kids like Duran Duran and punk rock." Jerry is a "Star Wars" buff, both as a fan "who waits two hours in line to see the show" and as an analyst of the films. He has parties at which "my friends and I do a variety of activities -- tennis, rent a movie, board games. Some of the kids like to work on my computer, and we talk or go biking."

Eileen March, who has a master's degree in psychology and a doctorate in chemistry, says that "my big job these days is as a chauffeur," spending an hour each way between home and Cal State L.A. She said that the decision to let Jerry start college "was not easy, (and) it is not easy," but "I see Jerry being excited where he was bored before." She is sensitive to criticism that "I am taking his childhood from him," but says that the EEP program has been a boon. "Why does he have to have these pieces of paper (diplomas) to go on to college?," she said. "What is he supposed to do? Toot his clarinet in the band for five years and not learn anything?"

George Bachmann prefaced an explanation of Cal State L.A.'s special programs for younger students with a few words on the scope of the university's interest. "These programs are something we are interested in that other campuses have not been that concerned about," he said. "To my knowledge, there is no other university program that enrolls over the course of the year the number of students that we do. We have an enrollment of between 400 and 500 over the 12-month year, and we are unique in PACE and EEP."

Bachmann elaborated on the Accelerated College Ent4rance and Pre-Accelerated College Entrance Programs. "To be in ACE, high school juniors and seniors must have a 3.0 grade point average -- that is, show academic achievement," Bachmann said. "PACE is somewhat unusual in that it deals with kids who are finishing the eighth and ninth grades and who are called 'GATE,' identified as gifted and talented. To be in PACE they must be identified as mentally gifted minors. If we were just looking at achievement, some would not get in. We offer them introductory classes in all disciplines except math and English. Their marks are better than average and they are graded on the same basis as other students -- they receive A, B, C or no credit. If they get a grade, they will get college credit that will apply later."

Bachmann mentioned two successful PACE alumni: Joy Aaron and Dilip Khalfi, both of whom graduated from cal State L. A. at 18. "Joy Aaron earned a 3.9 grade point average and is studying veterinary medicine at US Davis," Bachmann said. "Dilip was the youngest, a couple of months younger than Joy. He had a 3.7 average, very high for majoring in engineering. He got a job with Rockwell, and his goal was to go to Caltech for a doctorate. He was taking classes there. Rockwell discovered what they had and now Rockwell is sending him to Caltech."