FREELOADING IMMIGRANTS?

12-year-old med student at U. of C. (MARTHA IRVINE, August 25, 2003, Chicago Sun-Times)

Sho Yano's mother hands him his lunch for school in a brown paper bag--a turkey sandwich and cookies included.

''You don't need any bones today? No bones?'' Kyung Yano asks her quiet, spectacle-wearing 12-year-old, who shakes his head ''no'' as they head out their apartment door. She wants to make sure he isn't supposed to take his samples of spinal bones and a human skull to class, where he's learning about human anatomy.

That class isn't at the local junior high, but at the University of Chicago, where Sho is a first-year medical school student--and the youngest person ever to attend one of the university's professional schools. [...]

If he weren't also getting his Ph.D. along with his medical degree--thus, pushing his age at graduation to 19 or 20--he'd also be on course to become the youngest person to graduate from any medical school. According to Guinness World Records, a 17-year-old graduated from medical school in New York in 1995.

For his part, Sho is utterly uninterested in setting records. He also shuns the labels often used to describe him--''prodigy'' and ''little genius'' among them.

Yes, he has an IQ over 200. And yes, he graduated in three years from Chicago's Loyola University, summa cum laude. But for him, going to school is about learning as much as he can. [...]

Born in Portland, Ore., Sho spent most of his early years in California, where his father, Katsura, now runs the American subsidiary of a Japanese shipping company. Sho lives in the university's family housing with his mother, who originally came to this country from Korea to study art history, and his 7-year-old sister Sayuri, a talented student in her own right who wants to be a cardiologist.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2003 10:36 AM