Young, Gifted & Black Series
By Taki S. Raton
Brittney Exline
Under what would be described on their graduation site as gray, overcast skies, the graduates of the University of Pennsylvania’s 12 schools marched down Locust Walk and into Franklin Field for Penn’s 255 Commencement ceremony. Renowned actor and director Denzel Washington delivered the Commencement address. He additionally received from UPENN an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree.
Among the nearly 6,000 students receiving their degrees will be a 19-year-old Colorado Springs native who would on this day make history – again! She is young, gifted, and Black. Brittney Exline on this May 16 Monday Commencement occasion will earn a record entry as being the youngest engineer to graduate from UPENN and as the youngest African American engineer in the country.
In addition to graduating cum laude, Brittney’s 2011 spring achievement was predictably forecast by a lifeline stream of accelerated benchmarks dating back to her birth. Senior Writer Margena A. Christian in her January 10, 2012 Ebony writing reveals that Brittney was born on Valentine’s Day, two weeks after her due date. The daughter of Chyrese and Christopher Exline, it became obvious very early on that in mother Chyrese’s words, “her daughter was special.”
In an earlier June 11, 2007 article in Jet Magazine also prepared by Christian, Brittney was sitting up at 4-and-a half months, making pyramid designs with blocks at 6 months, walking at 8 months and completing 24 to 100 piece jigsaw puzzles at 15 months. “She kind of came out that way,” laughed Chyrese in the Jet account.
A former geriatric administrator and part-time pageant coach, Chyrese said that she and her husband of 14 years “didn’t do anything special for Brittney to become ‘gifted’.” Her IQ the last time it was done professionally, says her mother, was 185. “That was when she was almost 6-yearsold.” On the IQ scale in the Christian account, over 140 is considered “genius” or almost genius.
After she was born, says her mother, Brittney did not speak her first words until she was 22 months old. “We thought something was wrong. She didn’t ‘baby talk’ or anything. When she did talk, it was perfect speech. She already knew her colors, letters, and was reading. We just read regular bedtime stories to her. We didn’t know that she was learning and taking in all of this,” said Chyrese.
Her mother acknowledged that for Brittney and her brother Cameron, “we made sure they got everything they needed to succeed. We made sure that they remained committed to their work, even when they wanted to quit. They learned you can’t quit an activity just because it’s hard. Sometimes you need to stick with it. That’s the only way to learn how to persevere and overcome true obstacles. It then becomes a part of you,” she concludes.
Sue McMillin in The Gazette records that while in 6th grade at the age of 8, Brittney was doing high school math and was only 11 when she entered Palmer High School where she was admitted into Palmer’s International Baccalaureate program.
While at Palmer, according to published accounts, she would finish her high school requirements at 13, scored 1400 on her SAT exams, enjoyed modern dance in the styles of jazz, tap, and ballet, and with her talents and beauty, hold competitive pageant titles to include the 2004 Miss Colorado Pre-Teen and 2006 Miss Colorado Jr. National Teenager. She also, during the summer of 2006, studied anthropology at Harvard University.
In her senior year at Palmer, this record-setting teen, notes the Jet article, would be awarded a full scholarship to cover the $50,000 tuition at the University of Pennsylvania where she would enroll that fall in the school of engineering. And in September of 2007, young Brittney would make history for this first time at the age of 15 by becoming the youngest African American female ever to be accepted into an Ivy League school.
Reviewing a chronicle of her years at UPENN, the May 29, 2012 posting of the African American Empowerment Blog (AAEB) shares that Brittney doubled her load to graduate in four years with minors in math, psychology, and classical studies.
“I’ve never had less than five classes,” she says in AAEB. “But I’ve had as many as 6.5 classes. I just made sure I had time to study.” The then college freshman adds that she went into the engineering school “undeclared” but did not want to go into chemical engineering. “Computer science is a lot more theoretical and closer to math. I liked that part. It’s more abstract. That contributed to my strength.”
One reason she selected PENN, as cited in Associated Press Writer Kathy Matheson’s LADYRAYNE September 3, 2007 post, is that she can enroll in both the engineering and liberal arts school, thus allowing her to double her class load. And did we mention that Brittney also speaks five languages – Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and German.
At 16, during a summer internship, she worked with Sphrosyne Capital Hedge Funds, an investment analyst on the New York Stock Exchange. A year later, cites AAEB, she earned yet another distinction of becoming the youngest Information Technologist (IT) to travel to Cameroon with two other Penn students for One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit organization offering inexpensive laptops designed for children in developing countries.
In a CBS 3 Philadelphia report, Brittney in Cameroon helped her team teach children, ages 6 to 12, and their teachers how to get the most out of their computers.
Additionally during her college years, she would volunteer services with the Community School Student Partnership in Philadelphia and become a member of the senior staff and a site coordinator for West Philadelphia High School where she trained and mentored 30 tutors from PENN. “It was compelling for me. I’m interested in education,” said Brittney in AAEB. She also worked, as cited in the writing, as a kindergarten summer school teacher for Freedom Schools of Philadelphia. “There are a lot of things that need to be done. When I get a chance to do that, I will make a difference.”
Her plans after graduation is to return to school to earn a master’s degree, but has no thoughts, at this time, of pursuing a doctorate.
“I don’t have any burning research questions I want to study for six or seven years.”
An overview of Brittney’s fantastic accomplishments may be summed up in a much earlier quote upon her high school graduation from Palmer. As captured in the Jet writing noting her achievements: “It sounds like something I was born with,” she said of her “genius” status. “It’s not something you can teach someone.” But she would advise all in a Megan K. Scott “The Root” writing that “When an opportunity arises, just say, ‘yes’.”