Gifted Virginia student attends college at age 14

Jet, Sept 28, 1998

Like other 14-year-olds, D'Lorah Small gets up around 8:30 a.m. to get ready for school. But the difference between D'Lorah and her peers is that instead of going to class in junior high school, she heads off to college.

The gifted Virginia Beach, VA, teen graduated from Princess Anne High School with an Advanced Studies diploma in June and is enrolled at a local community college. D'Lorah wanted to stay close to home for now. She attended Hampton University this summer and obtained a Certificate of Merit in engineering. After she earns her associate's degree, she will attend a four-year school to earn a bachelor's. Majoring in pre-med and engineering, her goal is to be a neonatologist and architectural engineer.

While D'Lorah has never had a doubt about her academic ability, she admitted to JET that she was nervous about being in classes with older kids. "At first I was worried about how kids would react to a younger kid being in the same class, but they treated me like I was the same age.

"My goal was not to graduate at 14, but just to have my school fit me," she continued. "Before I was bored, but when I accelerated to different grades, I felt I fit in better."

D'Lorah's mother, Dafney Kennedy, noticed her daughter was academically gifted at 18 months when she spelled "cat" with magnetic letters.

"Being a premature baby at 2 pounds, I always bought a lot of toys and magnetic letters for her," Kennedy said. "And I continued to encourage her with toys and paper that would make learning fun for her. And she decided at age 4 she wanted to go to school."

Despite efforts by school officials to stop her, Kennedy was able to enroll D'Lorah in school at age 4. She excelled rapidly, skipping third, sixth and eleventh grades.

D'Lorah does not regret finishing grammar school so early and welcomes the benefits. "I can conquer many things at a young age and have my youth when I have other things to do as opposed to people who are 30 and 40 and still in college."

D'Lorah's mother makes sure she is still a typical 14-year-old. She is a talented pianist and plans to participate in the Miss America Teenage Pageant. "She makes sure there is a balance between school and play and makes sure I don't do too much of either one," D'Lorah said. "I am lucky to have her."