Community Corner

Agoura Teen Heads to Grad School

When Michelle Vaisman, 18, graduates from UC Berkeley this weekend, she will experience her very first graduation ceremony, according to her mother, Karen. 

"She skipped high school so she never had a high school graduation or received a diploma," said Karen.

Upon graduation from the College of Chemistry with honors, Michelle will be getting dual degrees, a bachelor of arts in applied mathematics from the College of Letters and Science and bachelor of science in chemistry from the College of Chemistry.  She has also won the Erich O. & Elly M. Saegebarth Prize in Chemistry award at UC Berkeley.

This fall, the Agoura Hills teen will attend Yale University for her PhD in electrical engineering.

In 2010, Patch wrote about Michelle (and older sister, Melanie) who left Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles at the age of 13 to attend the all-girls Mary Baldwin College in Virginia.

Though she missed high school completely, she said she doesn't feel she missed out on anything socially.

"Mary Baldwin really did a great job acclimating me to college life," Michelle said. "When I got there, I lived in a dorm with girls 13-17-year-old, so it didn't feel like a shock."

Each summer, instead of taking a break like most girls her age, Michelle attended summer research programs at such institutions as Caltech, Cornell and Harvard. This summer, however, she plans to take it easy.

"I've decided to take the summer off," she said.

She plans to spend part of the time with her parents, and part of the time with her boyfriend, who lives in Berkeley.

When asked if she was ever concerned about Michelle's social development with regards to her accelerated education, Karen said she did consider the issue.

"You always question if you made the right choice," said Karen. "But after our first visit to Mary Baldwin, we all sat in the car and said, 'Let's take a vote. Should Michelle do this?' And we all voted 'yes,' ... She's doing great. She's got lots of friends, so I feel we made the right decision ultimately." Karen said. 

At this time, Michelle plans to go into patent law with an emphasis on alternate energy technology.


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