Girl genius, 15, makes history as youngest Black female accepted into Ivy League School
She was sitting up at 4 1/2 months old, making pyramid designs with blocks at 6 months old, walking at 8 months old and completing 24- to 100-piece jigsaw puzzles at 15 months old.
So it should come as no surprise that Brittney Exline, 15, of Colorado Springs, CO, recently graduated from high school and then made history by becoming the youngest Black female ever accepted to an Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania.
"I'm not easily excitable, but I think it's cool and I'm proud of myself for holding that record," said Brittney, a graduate of Palmer High School's International Baccalaureate program in Colorado.
Her dad, Christopher Exline, who works in copier sales, said, "I feel really proud of her. I think it's wonderful."
A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania would not comment, telling JET, "We do not give out information about our students."
Brittney, who studied anthropology last year during summer school at Harvard University, received a full scholarship to cover the $50,000 tuition at the University of Pennsylvania.
"She's pretty much got a full ride," said Chyrese Exline, Brittney's mother.
A former geriatric administrator and part-time pageant coach, Chyrese said that she and her husband of 14 years didn't do anything special for Brittney to become "gifted."
"She kind of came out that way," laughed Chyrese. "Her IQ, the last time it was done professionally, was 185. That was when she was almost 6 years old." On the IQ scale, over 140 is considered genius or almost genius.
Her mother said that Brittney was a quiet baby, born two weeks late on Valentine's Day. So quiet, said Chyrese, that she didn't speak her first words until 22 months old!
"We thought something was wrong. She didn't baby talk," said Chyrese. "When she did talk, it was perfect speech. She already knew her colors, letters and was reading. We just read regular bedtime stories to her. We didn't know she was learning all of this."
Standing out in college won't bother her; Brittney has always been the youngest person in her class. At 6 she was in the fourth grade, at 8 she started an International Baccalaureate program and at 10 she took her first high school class in math.
"I'm pretty oblivious to what others think of me," Brittney said.
She has studied several languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian and Arabic. She learned German for five years.
When it comes to studying, Brittney said, "Usually I don't plan. I'm pretty scatterbrained. I procrastinate a lot. That's the motivation that gets me to really do something."
In her spare time, Brittney, who has a 10-year-old brother, Cameron, plays video games, browses the Internet, reads and hangs out with her friends, who are 17 and 18.
"She has a good head on her shoulders. I trust her judgment," said Christopher. "She's level-headed, responsible, meticulous and takes things very seriously. She's been self-motivated since a baby."
Also a gifted dancer, Brittney has studied jazz, tap and ballet. She's also held several pageant titles, including 2004 Miss Colorado Pre-Teen and 2006 Miss Colorado Jr. National Teenager.
Her mother said that Brittney's dance training and pageant competitions help her strike a balance as a regular teen.
"My approach is that she needed to be in a situation where she had to fail in order to learn. Dance didn't come easy, but it made her a better learner," said Chyrese. "If I kept her in a world where she's always successful, in math and science, she will never learn anything else. You learn more from your failures than your successes. She also had to learn how to deal with other people."
Brittney, who plans to study political science in college, hopes to go into politics when she gets older.
By Margena A. Christian
JET MAGAZINE
COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group
Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_23_111/ai_n19344815
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