11-year-old excels as full-time college student
Twelve credits of trigonometry, art, information literacy, and music are no match for Catalina “Catty” Lemmon, an 11-year-old who not only takes college classes, but also excels in them.
Catty didn’t expect to enroll in classes at Dixie State University (DSU) this fall, but her mother, Asia Lemmon, knew she’d be able to handle it after they took an accelerated 8-week pre-calculus class over the summer that had 16 weeks worth of material in it.
“I told her if she can do this, school is going to be so easy,” Asia Lemmon said. “It’s been kind of crazy getting her needs met. We’re just trying to roll with it.”
Catty is the youngest student in DSU’s history, and she’s currently the youngest full-time college student in the state of Utah. The social aspect of school hasn’t always been easy, though.
Lemmon said Catty has anxiety, and it’s difficult for her to talk to people. She said her anxiety issues have “gone through the roof ” this year.
Despite her anxiety, though, Catty still got an A in pre-calculus, which was the highest grade in the class. Her mom finished with a B, with the help of “patient tutoring” from Catty.
“As her brain gets smarter, she realizes more places she can make a mistake,” Lemmon said. “The smarter she gets, the worse the anxiety gets.”
Catty became a Mensa member when she was 7, with an IQ score in the 99.9th percentile. Lemmon is also a member of Mensa, and she said the two are a unique motherdaughter duo on campus.
Starting kindergarten at age 4 and completing first through eighth grade in just four years, Catty attended private schools in the area and was tutored in the summers to advance her English and math skills. Lemmon said they had trouble finding a school that would accommodate Catty’s needs, so college was the only other option.
“There’s no rule book for a kid like Catty,” her mom said. “DSU has been so nice and flexible. They’ve gone out of their way to give her a scholarship, and all of her teachers are OK with having an 11-year-old in class.”
Catty earned a perfect score on her math placement test, so she could have taken trigonometry and calculus in the same semester, her mom said she didn’t want her to get burned out on math too quickly.
Math and art are two subjects Catty is particularly talented in, and she hopes to find a career that combines the two, such as motion picture computer-generated imagery.