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Add this guy to the list of people to watch! Moshe Kai Cavalin, the only son of an Israeli father and a Taiwanese mother, is graduating from East L.A. College with an Astrophysics degree, and 4.0 GPA (naturally!). That’s not all. Aside from all his academic achievements, Moshe is an award-winning martial artist, and he plays the piano, too.
Although it would seem like he fits the Model Minority stereotype to a T, I’d argue that it’s still very rare to find someone so accomplished at such a young age, with such a great personality and outlook on life. (Also, he says he’s not into video games, which is the opposite of 95% of all the Asian guys I know.)
I’m glad I’m not 11 years old anymore, because I’m sure my Mom would be comparing me to him and I would be feeling like a loser for only being in the sixth grade.
Congratulations and happy graduation, Moshe!
(Photo Courtesy: MSNBC)
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4 Comments to “Asian American Whiz Kid: Moshe Kai Cavalin, 11-year-old college grad”
Efren Bose wrote:
Actually, Joz, his degree was in liberal arts and now he wants to do another AA in math, eventually going into astrophysics.
When I was in college, I actually knew two girls who went to my school (UC Riverside) at ages 15 and 14, and while I didn't doubt that they were extremely intelligent and did very well academically, they were both pretty immature socially and made very few friends when I was there. I wonder about parents who decide to let their kids go to college at such a young age since many kids who are that young don't have the street smarts to navigate the social minefields that are junior high or high school, much less college. Academically smart and socially smart are two totally separate things, unfortunately.
Posted on 10-Jun-09 at 11:55 am | Permalink
william wrote:
When I saw the video, I was really impressed by how articulate and cool he is!
Posted on 10-Jun-09 at 9:25 pm | Permalink
nemogbr wrote:
Good Lord, some kid. How many parents will now be so jealous??..lol
Posted on 11-Jun-09 at 3:34 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Asian American Whiz Kid and Activist: Sejal Hathi wrote:
[...] and arranged for her to give a talk at Sejal’s high school. While we have done posts on Asian American whiz kids who excel academically, it is refreshing to do one on a girl who breaks stereotypes of the [...]
Posted on 14-Jun-09 at 7:50 pm | Permalink
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