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January 21, 2010
Eleven-year-old Alex Jaeger enrolls at PSU Mandy Toepfer Copy Editor
him in home school.” With the help of the A Beka homeschooling materials, Wesley glimpse of Alex helped Alex finish grades four Jaeger’s intellithrough 12 in three and a-half gence showed at 18 years. months of age. Alex’s success has a simple First, it was getanswer. ting out of the crib “i just try and do my best,” – only a regular Alex said. bed with bed rails day after day, he continues to would do. Next, it was test his intelligence and its speed. numbers. The clock face caught “For him, he wants to learn a his attention every time the concept quickly … He wanted to family went to the Tokyo train know it in the first five minutes station. and if he didn’t, it would be a It was in kindergarten that major crisis,” wesley said. “he Alex’s intelligence was valiwould sit there and push himself dated. He scored above the 98.2 until, ‘Hah, I got it!’ OK, then, percentile next conin reading cept.” and above his the 99.9 uniqueness hey say (gifted percentile in has caused math on the some flurry students) will miss stanfordof attention out on high school. Binet test. at Psu. the Alex Like smoking scores didn’t says he lie. tries to and drinking and “… ‘this keep foother perverted kid is differcused. ent. This kid “i try activities? When he is differto not let it could be finished ent,’” Alex’s bother me,” kindergarten he said. with college while teacher, Lori ideas his chronologicalNorth, kept of “a kid saying to the should be age counterparts school psya kid” and are experiencing chologist. socialAnd she teenage pregnancies ization was right. problems Now, at are likely and drinking and 11, Alex is to spring up the drama of high enrolled as when thinka freshman ing of an school?” at Pitt state 11-year-old – Wesley Jaeger, Alex’s father attending taking a full-course college. load that Alex includes biology and chemistry goes to activities like karate three lectures and labs, piano, choir nights a week or piano workand calculus. shops that include kids his own And it all started in kindergar- age. ten, where his outstanding test Therefore, Wesley doesn’t see results placed him in the gifted a problem, though he admits to program. being confused by the efforts of In third grade, Alex’s father, public educators who see fastWesley, saw a change that tracking bright students as risky. needed to be made. “... They say (gifted students) “I went to pick him up at will miss out on high school. school and while the rest of the Like smoking and drinking and class was running around, yelling other perverted activities? when and screaming, he was quietly he could be finished with college sitting at his desk reading,” he while his chronological-age said. “i made the decision then counterparts are experiencing he wasn’t getting what he needed teenage pregnancies and drinking in the public school system, so and the drama of high school,” we withdrew him and enrolled he said. “Drama in high school
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hunter peterson/Collegio
Alex Jaeger sings during choir practice in the auditorium of McCray Hall on Friday, Jan. 15. does nothing for you in life.” wesley says there is a balance, though, to raising a gifted child. he says a parent has to evaluate the child’s mental age and chronological age and raise him or her between the two, but still honor and respect the child’s mental capabilities and childhood. Wesley says it takes a certain type of giving energy to feed that type of intelligence. “Just like anything else, you
have to put the time and sacrifice into it; otherwise it withers away and who knows what happens after that,” he said. Alex’s intelligence certainly won’t disappear anytime soon. the undeclared freshman says he doesn’t know what he wants to take next semester yet, but he has his sights set on graduating with two degrees. One in piano and one that is science-related. When Alex isn’t doing homework, he plays with Legos,
watches videos on YouTube, plays video games or reads – Michael Crichton books being his favorite. “At first it was just a college reading list, and then I read ‘Jurassic Park,’ and I liked it,” he said. Wesley says a master’s and a doctorate degree are a possibility for Alex since he’ll be too young to work once he graduates. For the time being, Melinda Roelfs, director of admissions
and Alex’s adviser, says having Alex attend Pitt state is just as new for them as it is for him. “It’s interesting, certainly an experience I don’t think most of us have had yet, both in terms of Alex and his parents and also those of us here at Pittsburg State,” she said. “It’s just one of those things, that again, was new to us and we didn’t have a lot of experience to draw from, but I think things are going well.”
Students unfazed by construction industry woes BarTholoMew KlicK Collegio Reporter
Clint Walt, center, 2008 graduate in construction management, works for R.E. Smith Construction. Walt is the project manager for the residential housing project on campus.
The news media has recently focused on increased unemployment in the u.s. within those unemployment statistics, the construction sector has lost approximately half a million jobs since 2006. Pitt state students and faculty, however, have not let this alarm them. “It’s not as doom and gloom as the media makes it out,” William Strenth, assistant professor in construction management, said. “We still have students getting jobs. We have May grads getting jobs. We still have about 65 percent job placement.” At one time, PSU’s construction management program boasted 100 percent job placement. strenth says this percentage change means that PSU construction management gradu-
ates aren’t getting the jobs they want. “They’re not getting four and five offers,” strenth said. Strenth says the key for students to finding jobs after graduation is to network, even if they already have an employer in mind. “We had a student a year ago who had signed a contract with a company. Three weeks before graduation, they rescinded the contract,” strenth said. “But the student had gone to one of the presentations here, networked, and a company out of texas hired him a week before graduation.” Psu students do not seem to be worried by the bad news in the construction industry, either. “I’ve already had job offers starting at 60 grand a year,” Adam Compton, freshman in construction management, said. this tone of optimism has been
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present, even when students did express fears about finding employment. “If I were graduating today, I’d be afraid,” Bryce Probert, freshman in construction management, said. “But it’s going to bounce back.” Cory Howell, who graduated from the construction management program, did two internships with the same company, which later hired him. “I know a couple of guys who have had a pretty difficult time finding work because of how slow the construction industry is now and how tight the bidding market is,” Howell said. “There’s a hiring freeze.” But Howell says his internships taught him a valuable lesson. “Get your name out there,” Howell said. “Start building relationships, be it with one or multiple companies. Good grades by themselves aren’t enough to get you a job.”
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