Middle school student learns Japanese at summer classes

After three weeks in an intense summer course at the University Nevada of Reno, a 12-year-old eighth-grader is speaking Japanese.

Bradley Neddenriep also has seven college credits in chemistry and in Japanese.

"I'm able to write fluently, I know several words and I've learned the sentence structure and grammar," he said.

Bradley and two other Douglas County students, Kirby Wigton, 14, and Jessica Cook, 13, were among 18 students in the nation who participated at the THINK summer institution at UNR.

The THINK institute was developed to create academic challenges for students.

"It was our big experiment," said Marie Capurro, director of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, based in Reno, which sponsored THINK in its first year. "It was overwhelmingly successful."

Capurro has worked with students for nearly 14 years.

"Young people, who are as bright as the people whom come to THINK, really do need to be challenged," she said.

"They really do think and learn differently. Socially speaking, from what research shows, they do better with intellectual peers than with age peers."

Students completed two college-level courses during the summer. Bradley took Japanese 111, a requirement for all students, and Special Topics in Chemistry 392.

Participants could chose chemistry or Journalism 101 as their second class.

Dr. Chuck Rose taught chemistry and Donica Mensing taught journalism.

"I chose chemistry, because although I like writing a bit, I mainly enjoy the sciences and chemistry," Bradley said.

The chemistry class has made him think about a future career in the field.

"Most people think we have some problems with pollution and they're not that major," he said, "But they are quite large. I had a small inkling of this, not a real grasp of it."

In his Japanese class, taught by Mimi Yu, Bradley learned three styles of speaking.

"The first type, the most basic is Hiragana. It's a simpler format that children use. Katakana, is mainly for foreign words like for pizza and stuff like that. The third is Kanji and its used for Japanese words only. It's more complicated."

THINK participants stayed at residential dorms at UNR. Students did laundry at the dorm and ate at the Down Under Cafe in the hall.

"The food was really good," he said. "I kind of liked everything."

This year's THINK courses ran from Sunday, July 11, to Saturday, July 31. Next year's THINK institute is scheduled from July 9 to 30. Capurro thinks the classes will be a humanities and a math or science.

"We're getting close to deciding what we'll offer," she said. "We have a lot of ideas that are coming up. We're hoping to know by the first part of October."

The institute cost $1,500 to attend, but no student was turned down because of lack of money. The Davidson Institute was formed in 1999 to offer a program in Nevada to young scholars.

More information on the Davidson Institute and the THINK program, can be found on the Internet at www.davidsoninstitute.org.

Bradley said above all the things he's done this summer, he's definitely glad he chose THINK.

"I learned a lot of what you have to do to survive in the real world," he said. "I also learned what other people that are gifted like me are like."



-- Maggie O'Neill can be reached at mo'neill@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 214.