Buffalo News, NY
Nov 30 2004
Doctoral candidate is 16
UB student has two degrees and is a teaching assistant
By PETER SIMON
News Staff Reporter
11/30/2004
Sharon Cantillon/Buffalo News
While other 16-year-olds are in high school, Rafael Davtian is
working on his doctorate in political science at the University at
Buffalo.
Rafael Davtian is a young man in a hurry.
A big hurry.
At age 16 – when students are normally still in high school – Rafael
is studying for his doctorate at the University at Buffalo. He has,
in effect, skipped eight grades of school.
Rafael doesn’t have his driver’s license yet, but he already has
earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Even though he won’t be old enough to vote for another two years, he
is a teaching assistant in UB’s political science department, helping
instruct students years older than he is.
“I like to learn and was motivated to advance,” said Rafael, a native
of Armenia who came to this country with his parents at age 8. “The
two main components were constant hard work and determination to keep
going.”
Academic acceleration hasn’t hurt the quality of his work one bit.
Rafael has never – not once, at any grade level – earned a grade
lower than A. He was valedictorian of Utah State University’s College
of Humanities with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
And in less than a semester, Rafael has earned a sterling reputation
at UB.
“He’s extremely mature and extremely bright,” said Franco Mattei,
director of graduate studies in political science. “He’s just at the
top of the class.”
Rafael hopes to teach at the college level, work for the State
Department or an international agency or get involved in electoral
politics.
His academic accomplishments are even more remarkable because he
arrived in the United States at age 8, knowing just a few words of
English.
In search of better opportunities and a Western lifestyle, his family
moved from Armenia to West Germany when Rafael was 3 and then to Salt
Lake City five years later.
Rafael’s progress was meteoric. For example:
– He skipped grades 4 and 5 and went directly from sixth grade to
ninth grade.
– He tackled the last three years of high school in two years and
still managed to accumulate 40 college credits.
– He earned an associate’s degree from Salt Lake Community College at
age 13, finished his undergraduate requirements in three semesters
instead of four and earned his master’s degree in one year rather
than two.
– Even though he studies from six to eight hours a day, Rafael finds
time to play tennis, soccer and chess and to read books for pleasure.
Most accelerated students skip just a year or two of school, and
Rafael’s academic career is highly unusual but not unique, said
Nicholas Colangelo, director of the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted
Education at the University of Iowa.
Colangelo, an advocate of acceleration for gifted students, said even
dramatic advancement can work with the support and planning of
parents and schools.
“The bottom line is, kids develop at different rates, and some very
much so,” he said. “The question you have to ask is: What would it
have been like for this young man if he stayed with his age group?”
Well-spoken, personable and impeccably polite, Rafael said he doesn’t
think about age and feels perfectly comfortable with his classmates.
“For me, it has become more or less normal,” he said. “I simply
accept the fact that here I am. It could be no other way.”
Armin Davtian, a manufacturing engineer while in Armenia, said he
advocated for Rafael’s acceleration based on his progress in the
early grades and his love of learning.
“I saw how quickly he grasped almost everything,” Davtian said. “He
was really fast, capable and brilliant.”
Neighbors, teachers and guidance counselors questioned that strategy
and raised concerns about the social and emotional pressures Rafael
would face. Some argued that we was being robbed of his childhood.
But the determination and confidence of both son and father never
wavered.
“I faced lots of blame and condemnation, but I knew I was doing the
right thing,” said Armin Davtian. “He proved he could overcome. He
produced excellent results. Whenever I was asked the question:
“Why?,’ the answer would be: “Why not?’ ”
Rafael agrees. “I was able to adapt well,” he said. “I get along with
everyone. I think it was stranger for the people around me than it
was for me, actually.”
Rafael’s academic success has been a family effort.
Armin and his wife, Gayene, moved with Rafael from Salt Lake City to
Logan, Utah, so their only child could attend Utah State, and then to
Amherst for Rafael’s doctoral program.
At Utah State, Armin Davtian enrolled in and graduated from the same
master’s program as his son.
“He was 14, I was 41, and we were sitting together and taking classes
together,” Davtian said.
UB provided Rafael not only a paid assistantship, but also a
Presidential Fellowship, the highest academic recognition accorded by
the College of Arts and Sciences.
“He’s one of the most outstanding students we’ve had in recent
years,” said Frank C. Zagare, chairman of UB’s political science
department and one of Rafael’s professors. “He more than competes
with older students in the class.”
Rafael loves UB, and college officials said his adjustment backs up
the confidence they showed in him.
“We made the right decision,” UB’s Mattei said. “I’m glad we did,
because otherwise it would have been our loss.”