The District Chronicles

Issue date: 10/25/09 Section: Cover

Media Credit: Freddie Allen

It's Monday afternoon. For Ty Hobson Powell, it's time for his state and local government class. He's in the student uniform - T-shirt, baseball cap, jeans, and sneakers - when he walks out of his dorm and heads across campus to a lecture filled with students six years his senior.

Powell, a political science major, is 14 years, the youngest student at Howard University. Academic credits Powell earned at Montgomery College put him on schedule to finish Howard University with a Bachelor's degree in two years.

"I'm not a genius, I have simply capitalized on opportunities provided to me," said Powell. When he was three, Powell's parents enrolled him in a Chinese immersion program at his pre-school.

"He's always had strong language skills," said Powell's father, Dr. Edwin Powell, a professor at Howard University's College of Medicine and alumnus of Howard. His son's ability to converse with adults at a young age gave his parents the indication he was "gifted and blessed."

"We were having conversations that I would have had with an older child," said his mother, Liz Hobson Powell, a senior officer with the United States Public Health Service. "From about nine months, he was doing things that two-year-olds would do."

After one year in the immersion program, Powell's parents enrolled him in Shepherd Elementary, a DC public school. It was there that Powell's principal identified his strengths through the school's admission assessment exam. Ty scored at about the 3rd grade entrance exam.

"When I was younger, teachers tried to diagnose me with a behavioral disability because I would always get in trouble for playing during class," he said. "But I was really just finished with my work and bored."

His parents had taught him that it was ok to play as long as he got his work done. "And I've been playing ever since," he says with a smile.

Powell attended the Washington Latin Public Charter School, under then headmaster, T.R. Ahlstrom, during the 7th and 8th grades.

There he was immersed in challenging courses in reading, writing, mathematics, science, critical thinking, and Western democracy. By the end of 8th grade, he had completed two and a half years worth of high school credits. By the beginning of 9th grade, he had completed high school requirements and some college courses.

Continued...

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