Teenage siblings don't think they are geniuses
Michael Friederang, 16, graduates from Cal Baptist University, and sister Eliza, 13, will be a junior at Riverside school
Though he's 16years old and a new California Baptist University graduate, Michael Friederang won't call himself a genius.
“I'm a visual learner. I don't even know if I have an above average memory,” said the Corona teenager, who graduated from the private Riverside university Wednesday with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. “I'm good at connecting the dots, I would say.”
The teen's next stop is the Chemistry Department at UC Riverside, where he will pursue his doctorate — with a quarter-million-dollar scholarship — in the fall.
Michael isn't the only high achiever in his family. Following in his early graduation footsteps is his 13-yearold sister, Eliza, who will begin her junior year studying biology at California Baptist University in the fall.
As unusually young college students, the Friederang siblings juggle daily decisions such as schoolwork, social activities, career pursuits and learning to drive. The once-homeschooled siblings say it's a combination of family support and healthy competition that keeps them motivated.
“None of us like the term `genius.' It kind of infers that we were just born like this, when we've worked so hard our whole lives to get here,” Eliza Friederang said. “Our parents always gave us the freedom to learn about whatever we wanted to learn about. … Sometimes my brother and I felt like the guinea pigs, but we were always motivating each other like, `OK, let's try this.'”
She credited their parents, Steve and Michelle Friederang, for creating a “cool learning environment” in which the siblings could learn. They attended a hybrid of daily home schooling and charter school programs once a week.
Steve Friederang said the decision to home-school was about providing more individual attention for their children than they would have received in a traditional classroom environment of sometimes 30 students per teacher. Building a curriculum tailored to each child's interests, not just grades, helped the siblings accelerate and finish schooling so quickly, Steve Friederang said.
“Anyone who loves their children and is willing to spend some time with them can be successful with a
little coaching and a lot of inspiration,” he said. “Even if you just spend an extra 10 minutes with your kids a day, in any given subject, it wouldn’t be long until you’ve doubled their oneon-one learning.”
Michael Friederang agreed.
“Contrary to what people might think,” he said, class time for he and his sister was “less than the average kid.”
“We didn’t really have that much homework. We did our work during the day, but we would go places and do fun stuff, too — learning things that I wouldn’t consider school,” he said.
The teen credits his parents for “accelerating” his education — one he said was filled with a healthy balance of homeschooling and family field trips. He remembers regular visits to the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and the La Brea Tar Pits.
The young graduate recalled learning the periodic table by watching chemistry videos at age 9.
“I was always amazed that chemistry is the building block of the entire universe,” Michael Friederang said.
He hopes to become a materials research scientist and one day work for NASA, building space technology. He said he would go into space “in a heartbeat.”
Michelle Friederang said being a stay-at-home mom allowed her kids to try new things and find their interests. Her husband, who runs multiple businesses and is a parttime swim coach at Cal Baptist, also had a flexible schedule. She oversaw daily homeschooling lessons, while her husband had “all the crazy ideas” for experiments to try and field trips to take. The kids would spend Saturdays
California Baptist University graduate Michael Friederang, 16, and sister Eliza, 13, stand with their mother, Michelle, and their father, Steve, after Michael’s graduation ceremony Wednesday. Michael graduated with a degree in chemical engineering and is beginning to work on his Ph.D. in chemistry at UC Riverside. Eliza, a junior at California Baptist University, is studying biology and is aspiring to get a doctorate in paleontology.
speed-learning subjects for 10 minutes at a time.
“Our philosophy with homeschooling was always experience. We let them try a whole bunch of things, and if they grew tired of it, we let them quit,” Michelle Friederang said. “We don’t think they’re ‘kid geniuses;’ they are obviously bright. But we see the struggle they go through.”
When both kids started college, “their teachers would tell me, ‘I can’t treat them any differently,’ ” Michelle Friederang said. “And we didn’t expect them to.”
California Baptist spokesperson Vivian Quezada said Friday that officials don’t know if the university currently has had other young students such as the Friederangs.
Michael Friederang remembers his first day of college, at age 13, and how classmates were excited to meet him. But adjusting from years of homeschooling
to a crowded private university had its challenges — from navigating difficult chemical engineering classes and projects, to making friends and getting rides to and from school. After a while, he found a routine and a group of friends in the engineering department.
And the teen — who’s still learning how to drive — doesn’t mind getting dropped off for classes by his mom.
Mark Anklam, the department’s associate dean, was Friederang’s chemical engineering professor and academic mentor.
“I’d never seen someone that young come in, so I wasn’t sure if Michael would be able to handle (the program) academically; the maturity level of being able to socialize,” Anklam said. “But it was great to see him grow and interact with his classmates. Not only does he have that knowledge base, in one of the more challenging engineering majors
you can take, but he knows problem-solving. He has a passion to make a difference and improve peoples lives and I’m looking forward to seeing him grow and do some amazing things, to continue to kindle that passion.”
Friederang said he picked UCR to pursue his doctorate because of its proximity to home and decided to pursue his doctorate right after college because he’s “still a bit young to fully go into the workforce.”
Still, the teen is getting a taste of the field during rigorous lab internships he is taking with UCR chemistry professors.
In between his internship and projects, Michael Friederang helps his younger sister navigate her science and math classes, especially during online schooling during the pandemic‘s early days. He said the two “argue a bit sometimes. There’s a bit of a competitive streak,” he said. “(Eliza)
applied for college earlier than I did, so she’s always proud of that.”
The siblings — who commute to classes and activities from Corona — also have different interests beyond school.
When Michael Friederang started college and fell out of team sports such as soccer and basketball, Eliza pursued hobbies like gymnastics, swimming, photography and choir.
Eliza Friederang started studying for the ACT exam at 8 years old, following her brother’s example.
But having no interest in chemistry or engineering, she initially struggled to find “her thing” throughout school. Then she took an ancient marine reptile class as a child and was fascinated to learn about life “even further than human history.”
Wanting to be in a more social environment when the pandemic hit, Eliza Friederang was encouraged by her dad to apply to California Baptist. She was 11 when she started her biology program in 2020, when her older brother was a junior.
“I’m a very social person. People ask a lot about how weird it is that my peers are way older than me, but I don’t think it’s weird,” she said. “I’ve been surrounded by all these different ages and people, so I started to switch in between how I act with kids my age and around adults, while still being true to my own personality.”
The younger Friederang has set her career sights on marine biology and paleontology, combining her love of sea animals and ancient history.
Though a proud father, Steve Friederang agreed with his children that they “aren’t geniuses.”
“Our kids found what they love and were allowed to go as far and fast as they could,” he said. “They’ve taught us (parents) way more than we could ever teach them.”
Eliza Friederang emphasized that they are “normal kids” who were “abnormally schooled.”
“We’re still teenagers,” she said. “We have our moments, we’re weird, sometimes we want to be alone. But we’re always there for each other and support each other. We’re our own people, and we’re both different and interesting in our own ways.”
She said seeing her brother graduate and pursue his doctorate at 16 inspires her to do the same — possibly by pursuing a doctorate in paleontology.
“I won’t admit it very often, but I’ve always looked up to him,” she said.