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http://archives.thedaily.washington.edu/2001/012201/N7.Earlyentra.html (1 of 7) [1/13/2003 3:25:30 PM]

Stereotypes are omnipresent.

Cultivating UW's foundation of youth

Doogie Hauser, M.D. and Bobby Fischer are media
creations serving to reinforcing public notions about
how life would be for youth carrying intellectual
capacities far exceeding their peers. As America rolls
along with an over-inflated and debilitating sense of
what professional accomplishment means, the nation's
citizens are fascinated with stories of youngsters
progressing early into academic and intellectual realms.
Perhaps it is this tendency to stereotype and assume
understanding without ever finding truth that led
students enrolled in the University of Washington
Transition School and Early Entrance Program (EEP) to
be amused with the idea of being placed under yet
another spotlight.
"The semi-annual reporter just arrived," chided
students in the program's lounge as their friends trickled
in for lunch, surprised to see an imposter sitting with pen
and notebook in hand at a table usually shared among
these friends. Energy and smart remarks poured forth
from the university students ranging from 14 to 18 years
of age, as a constant flurry of conversation whirled from
Tolstoy to the New York Times, and back to questions
of how it felt for them to study at UW.
The Robinson Center for Young Scholars
The Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young
Scholars was created in 1977 by the late Halbert
Robinson, to enable highly capable youth to enter the
UW without attending high school. The most significant
element of the program, the Transition School, was
opened in 1981 to encapsulate high school while
developing knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for
the soon-to-be undergraduate students.
Developing a social network for students in the school
is as important as the academic goals of preparing for
UW classes, said Robinson Center director Kathleen
Noble. By experiencing a rigorous year of schooling sideby-
side, and sharing a comfortable lounge and meeting
choices

place in the school once they venture individually into
college classes, the students are allowed to develop
friendships elusive to young college students at other
universities.
"The transition school makes us unique among early
entrance programs around the world," Noble said.
Many of the 65 Transition School graduates now
taking college classes here were overwhelmed by
squeezing four years of high school education into nine
months of school. But the rewards proved worthwhile,
students agree, as they now are free to study classes for
more challenging than those offered at their high schools
back home.
Ariel Federow, 18, is presently in her fourth year of
study at the UW. Like many of the students in the
Robinson Center, she will graduate with several degrees
and more than a few connections under her belt. In
addition to pursuing three majors, she is involved in a
slew of extra-curricular activities as well.
"The ratio of busy work to actual meaningful work is
far lower here," Federow said. "It is also very easy here
to get in one track, where high-school was varied, and
less specialized."
Unlike many undergraduates, Federow was able to
narrow her academic interests down early and focus on a
streamlined course load within the broad spectrum of
classes offered at the UW. Other students in the EEP,
however, are aware of the effects of specializing at such
a young age.
"That's one thing I missed out on," said Elspeth
Suthers, 18, who is majoring in astronomy, physics and
Russian. "I had less time to float around and decide what
to focus on."
Apparently, finding a focus didn't prove to be
altogether elusive, however, for Suthers, clad in jeans
with white stars bleached down the sides of both legs,

works in the planetarium at Seattle Center. Suthers
visited the planetarium throughout her childhood, she
said, and accepted when they eventually offered her a
job teaching youngsters about the cosmos.
Some skeptics fear young college students are roped
into making decisions at a young age about what
direction to take their academic and professional careers.
The carefree demeanor dominating students in the
Robinson Center's lounge, however, hints more towards
sheer curiosity and eagerness to learn than it does of the
external pressure some might expect.
"We want parents to be supportive, but we don't want
them to make all the decisions for their children," Noble
said. In order to prevent parental pressure from being the
main motivation for students attending the school, all
applicants are interviewed alone by administrators to
ensure they are driven from the inside as well as out.
Skirting the "Kiss of Death"
By allowing participants to move from junior high to
a rigorous year of Transition School in the Robinson
Center, the program not only allows these students to
accelerate intellectually by circumventing high school
altogether, but it provides them a stable social setting as
well. In their EEP classes, and later in the center's
lounge, these students can act comfortably as kids while
still pursuing a college education.
Many researchers and parents are afraid of depriving
teenagers the pleasures of youth by whisking them
through school in rooms full of substantially older
classmates. But by accepting 16 students a year into the
Robinson Center, the program found a workable
combination for providing the region's brightest the best
of both worlds; academic and social.
"Boredom will really destroy a person, so it is
important to give every student the breadth and depth
they need," said Dr. Kathleen Noble, who started
working in the EEP in 1989 and now functions as its

director. Working as a psychologist as well as
administrator, Noble co-authored several studies that
analyze the effects of subjecting gifted pupils to slowpaced
schooling that moves far slower than the pupils'
minds.
One such study, titled "What About the Prom?"
suggests high-schoolers, when bogged down by
stupefying class loads, turn to other outlets. Noble labels
such an experience the Kiss of Death.
"Some [bright students] become emotionally isolated
and intellectually stagnant. Boredom, discouragement
and frustration can metamorphose into apathy, causing
some students to drop out or function far below their
actual level of ability; others, particularly gifted girls,
learn to hide their talents and skills in order to not be
rejected by their peers," Noble elaborated in the report.
Eccentric and wise
Many undergraduate students at the UW could spend
a dozen years or more working through the lists of
accomplishments racked-up by EEP students. Brian
Green, 19, is now finishing his fifth and final year.
When he graduates in June, his diploma will list majors
in political science as well as art. Devon Livingston, 18,
plans to graduate this spring after spending three years
accumulating degrees in biochemistry and Russian.
"I'll probably go to graduate school, maybe law
school," Livingston said. "Working at the Center for
Disease Control would be my dream job."
It is difficult to say how these students, who speak
eloquently and wise from beaming juvenile faces, would
have fared in public high schools. The free-nature of
thought encouraged at universities, however, almost
certainly allowed them to progress well beyond their
years.
"I like going to school here," said Alan Worsley, 15.
"I like the freedom it allows."

It is difficult to say what is lost by skipping over four
years of high school that many people relish for the goofoff
time and social functions provided within. The
consensus among EEP students, though, is that their
time at UW allowed them to freely act as themselves
without being subjected to complacent, pack mentalities.
"There is an awful lot of prejudice against this kind of
program," Noble said. "Some think it is dangerous to a
student's mental health to skip high school, but for kids
this bright it might be dangerous to not skip high school,
because of the push for conformity found there," she
said.
Robinson Center Student Receives Rhodes
Scholarship
Former UW student Emma Brunskill, a graduate of
the Early Entrance Program, recently received honors
when she was awarded a Rhodes scholarship. Brunskill,
a 21 year-old Ph.D. candidate now studying computer
science at MIT, will head to Oxford, England this spring
to study for two years under the scholarship program.
Brunskill, a double major in computer science and
physics at the UW, enrolled in the Robinson Center here
when she was 15. She pursued various projects,
including research in medical genetics, physical
chemistry, geophysics, atomic physics, distributed
operating systems and data mining. Brunskill also swam
and rowed competitively.
The gifted scholar is the first UW graduate to receive
the Rhodes Scholarship in 20 years. She was one of 32
Americans selected for the prestigious scholarship.
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