The proud parents of a 12-year-old college graduate with a 4.0 GPA credit their daughter’s success to tenacity, homeschooling, and a ban on social media.
Roderick Currie, 37, and his wife Blanca, 40, are parents to pre-teen Fiona and her 3-year-old sister, Abigail. They currently live in Palmdale, California. Both parents immigrated in their teens, Roderick from Scotland and Blanca from Mexico, in search of success for themselves and their future children.
“I think Fiona is a shining example of what can be accomplished with enough determination and perseverance,” Roderick told The Epoch Times.
On June 6, Fiona graduated from a three-year program at Los Angeles City College with an associate degree in Studio Arts at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
Roderick and Blanca had known their eldest was advanced for her age when she was a toddler.
“She learned to read and write very quickly, and she was especially talented when it came to music and art,” Roderick said. “She learned to play Mozart on the piano at the age of 4 without any lessons or any formal music instruction. She would watch piano tutorial videos on the iPad and be able to pick it up in no time. She also had an incredible ability, at a very young age, to look at a drawing or painting and replicate it on paper.”
Roderick, who works in cybersecurity, and Blanca, a caregiver for disabled and elderly patients, enrolled Fiona at public school when she turned 5, but were disappointed by the school’s inability to “handle gifted students like her.”
Fiona then joined a hybrid charter school program that allowed her to skip some grades. After attending fourth and fifth grade in a public elementary school, Fiona’s parents pulled her out and turned to homeschooling for answers.
“We looked for resources online, and that is when we learned that the L.A. Community College District has a dual-enrolment program,” Roderick said, adding that neither he nor Blanca had any plan for Fiona to complete a college degree at her age.
Fiona enrolled and started with a single college English class online in 2020, during the pandemic.
Sharing about Fiona’s first day in class, Roderick said: “She was seated in front of the computer, with the webcam turned on when the professor began to introduce herself and asked the students to do their introductions.
We were watching off-camera from the doorway to make sure Fiona would be okay. ... When it came to Fiona’s turn, the professor looked at her on the screen and said, ‘Little girl, is your mommy or daddy taking my class?’ and Fiona just giggled and said, ‘No, I’m the student!’”
Fiona proved to the professor and other students that age is just a number as she began to thrive in her English course. Before long, she was taking three to four college courses per semester besides her usual homeschool studies, completing 75 college credits and her Associate of Arts Degree in studio arts.
However, despite all her achievements, she’s still a child, and her parents have worked hard to find the right balance between study and recreation.
The keen 12-year-old spends around six hours daily on her schoolwork, college course, and breaks. She takes weekends off, and when she’s not studying she loves riding horses, hiking, video games, reading, building Lego sets, and drawing.
“We believe that a child should constantly be challenged just enough to keep them engaged and learning and moving forward, but not overly challenged so that they become discouraged and lose confidence,” Blanca said. “We are also not afraid to be firm when needed; we make use of parental controls on Fiona’s computer and cellphone to protect her from the dangers of the online world, but also to keep her from becoming bogged down with distractions, such as social media.”
Fiona’s parents set time limits and monitor her cellphone use to make sure her engagement is age-appropriate. Nobody in the family has a social media account.
“It is my opinion that social media ... exists to make us lazy and unproductive,” Roderick said. “When most other 12-year-olds are wasting countless hours on TikTok, Fiona is focusing on her studies and more productive hobbies, like enjoying the outdoors, or reading.”
Roderick and Blanca had hopes that their daughter would choose a more academic route but later decided that Fiona—who showed an interest in art from an early age—should be able to choose her major. They are now proud of her for thriving in the subject she loves, and her teachers are full of high praise.
Roderick said: “They say she is not afraid to participate in class and ask questions, she always completes her work on time, and she even helps other students when they are struggling. ... The students were so supportive and they treated her like a little sister.
“They really included her and made her feel like part of the college family.”
While studying at L.A. City College, Fiona received the President’s Award several times and made the Dean’s List every semester that she attended. She finished her degree as a straight-A student with a 4.0 GPA and is already on track to finish her second tertiary qualification, an Associate Degree in general arts by the end of 2023, and a third, in graphic design, by the end of 2024.
She will have completed three associate degrees by the time she turns 14.
At her graduation ceremony on June 6, Fiona was recognized by the college president in front of an audience of thousands for being the youngest-ever graduate in the school’s 94-year history, here she received a standing ovation.
“We believe that children can achieve anything when given the tools and the right support,” Blanca said. “As parents, it is our responsibility to recognize our children’s talents, and to nurture those talents so that our children can reach their full potential.”
After completing college in 2024, Fiona plans to transfer to a university to continue her studies. She is considering the art programs at the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Otis College of Art and Design.
“Fiona’s goal is to become a digital artist or an animator,” her dad said, adding that she has ambitions of working for one of the big animation studios.
