TORONTO, April 11, 2005 -- While most kids his age are just grasping the basic concepts of geometry, 14-year-old York University student Chen Kupperman is solving complex mathematical problems.

The first year mathematics major, whose dream is to become a professor – and who may well reach the doctoral level as a teen – was rejected by a university in his native Israel, because of his young age.

“York accepted me right away and I am very happy here – although I really miss my friends and my piano,” Chen says.

 

“I am very grateful to York for accepting me. If a person can benefit from a university education, regardless of his chronological age, and can prove himself capable, why wouldn’t you try to help him?” 

 

Chen began full-time studies at York last fall at the tender age of 13. After he scored 99 per cent on a matriculation exam, Chen’s family decided their son’s educational future was worth moving home, job and family to come to Canada and ensure that he could get the education he needed.  

Chen, who has wanted to make a career of math since he was six, spends some of his spare time trying to solve ‘Putnam Questions’ (named for the prestigious annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition) and volunteering to tutor 16-year-olds in math.

But Chen doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. “I like math because of the patterns and logic involved,” he says. “I am just learning harder -- that’s all.”

York University is the leading interdisciplinary teaching and research university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city.  The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries.  This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges.

 

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For further information, please contact:
George McNeillie, Assistant Director Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22091/gmcneil@yorku.ca