Raymond Zhang, 13, is winding up his freshman year at the University of Washington in Seattle. The former West Windsor resident is part of the Transition School, an early entrance program for young people to bypass traditional high school and enter college. Zhang attended Dutch Neck and Village schools, and then Scicore Academy.##M:[more]##
“After his first semester at Scicore, Raymond was still not satisfied,” says Mary, his mother. “I realized that the material in middle school and the learning pace could not provide the learning opportunities he needed.” She studied Johns Hopkins website for guidelines on how to provide for gifted children.
His mother, Mary, is a project manager for Northshore Long Island’s Jewish Health System. When living in West Windsor she commuted by car. Now she works from home and flies to New York several times a month. She holds a master’s degree in computer science.
His father, Cheng H. Zhang, has been a stay-at-home father for the last seven years. A former career IT person, he has bachelor’s degrees in biology and pharmaceutical from China.
“I did not want to push Raymond, yet I wanted the program to suit him,” says Mary. The family investigated many programs, including a combination high school and college program at Boston University. After Raymond visited, attended classes, and talked to other students, he chose the program in Washington and the family sold their home in West Windsor and relocated to the west coast. They keep in touch with news of West Windsor and Plainsboro through www.wwpinfo.com.
“Raymond feels much better in college than transition school,” Mary says. “He is happy and doesn’t feel so different.” Although 16 students were accepted into the transition school, only 13 remain. Raymond visits them for lunch, and to play cards and ball.
When the family lived in West Windsor, Raymond was involved in the Exceptionality Initiative at Village School and its Magazine Project (The News, June 24, 2005). The project raised $157.70 for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Zhang was Village School’s highest scorer and was recognized with a national award for achieving a perfect score in the Continental Math League. Also recognized by the Johns Hopkins Talented Youth competition, he was invited to attend the Inductive and Deductive Reasoning summer camp.
When he was 10 he took top prizes at the 2006 International Young Artist Piano Competition held at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He received first prize in his age group for his performance of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G Minor and the Best Performance Award for his performance of the required Chinese piece. Zhang, who had recently completed fifth grade at Village School, was about to enter SciCore Academy. A piano student since he was five years-old, he studied with Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, coordinator of the music department at Westminster Choir College (The News, July 21, 2006).
He also presented a piano concert during a talent show that raised more than $7,”000 to benefit Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts (The News, November 4, 2006).
Raymond still enjoys practicing, studying, and performing on the piano. He was the first place winner at the Baha festival in Seattle and the Chopin Festival winner, also in Seattle.
Raymond, then a student at Scicore Academy, was one of the gifted children honored by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth at Rider University (The News, June 22, 2007).
“I’d have to say my favorite class would be math 307-B, Introduction to Differential Equation,” he told ABC News in April. “I find that I like math and science quite a bit.” He also told them that he “unwinds” by writing complex computer programs.
Raymond, who maintains a GPA of 4.0, has been accepted as a computer science major. Math, economics, and physics departments also tried wooing him. “Physics is his passion but he’s still young and has time to gain a lot of knowledge,” says his mother.
