Indiana Alumni Magazine
Bringing Up The Average — and Well Above Average
IU's most accomplished students and their parents offer insights on rearing children who excel.
By Rita Colorito
GOALS ACHIEVED — Tiffany Kyser, BS’03, earned honors as IUPUI’s top female student for two straight years. She also became the only women’s basketball player ever to have her Jaguars jersey retired. After graduating, Kyser launched a professional basketball career. Photo Marc Hagemeir.
With their double or triple majors, stellar grade-point averages, and myriad academic accomplishments, IU's high achievers — those recognized by IU and other institutions with highly competitive scholarships and other awards — might simply be seen as born geniuses. But according to developmental psychologists, the abilities these students were born with may not be the sole, or even the main, factor in their success. How children are reared also plays a part, as the parents of IU's high-achieving students will tell you. In fact, these parents point to a basic truth they have understood from day one: Academic success begins at home.
For some parents, raising a high achiever starts with raising the bar. "Parental expectations" can play a large part in bringing up children who go on to excel in the classroom and beyond, says Linda Rooda, dean of the School of Nursing at IU Northwest. Rooda's son John, BA/MBA'03, was in the first class of Kelley Scholars at IU Bloomington, and son David, currently a first-year student at IUB, is a Wells Scholar.
"Both my husband and I are high achievers, and we just simply created that culture in our household," says Rooda, BS'71. "Slacking off was not an option."
Rooda also considers self-discipline one of the main factors in her sons' success. Once their sons learned to tell time, Linda and her husband, John William Rooda, BS'68, expected the boys to set their own alarm clocks and get themselves up for school.
Chrystal Campbell also instilled a strong work ethic in her three children. Her oldest daughter, Tiffany Kyser, BS'03, was named IUPUI's Top Female Student in 2002 and 2003 and honored as a 2002-03 first team Verizon Academic All-American for the University Division of women's basketball. Tiffany now plays professional basketball for a team in Springfield, Mass.
"I always told them they could do whatever they wanted to, they just had to work at it," says Campbell, who reared her children as a single mother after their father died in a car accident. "When all their friends were out playing, they had to come in to do their homework, do their housework, and then they could do what they wanted to do."
Other parents agree with Campbell that paying attention to how children are spending their time is another important factor in creating an environment for success - as is spending some of that time with the children.
INCREASED CREATIVITY — Sam, left, and Lanh Tran, parents of Rhodes Scholar Kathleen Tran, BA/BS’03,
encouraged creativity in their children, including teaching them origami, the Japanese paperfolding
art. Photo Kendall Reeves.
"Our principal philosophy was to give them a lot of our time," says Sam Tran, BS'79, the mother of Kathleen Tran, BA/BS'03, a former Wells Scholar and IU's most recent Rhodes Scholar. Even though Tran and her husband, Lanh Tran, a professor of mathematics at IU Bloomington, worked outside the home, they focused their off time on Kathleen and her older brother.
While studies differ on the amount of time parents should spend with their children, parental involvement positively affects a child's development at any age, say child-development experts. In fact, most of the parents interviewed had full-time jobs while their children were growing up.
NURTURING INTELLIGENCE
Theories on intelligence are among the most hotly debated in psychology, with no issue generating more heat than the question of nature vs. nurture, which focuses on the extent to which intelligence is genetic and the extent to which it is the product of environment. "Most experts now believe it's a combination of both working together," says Jonathan Plucker, associate professor of learning, cognition, and instruction at IU's School of Education, and an expert on gifted children. Though part of a child's intelligence and ability to succeed may be genetically predetermined, says Plucker, the way parents nurture their children can have a significant impact.
"It doesn't really matter that much what their parents have achieved. How talented you are is one thing. What you actually achieve, how well you perform, is a completely different thing," says Plucker. "The best you can do is to help your child become a really good problem solver and model good behavior. And if you can do that, you've put them in a good place to take advantage of what they've got."
During infancy, effective parental interaction means responding to a baby's efforts to communicate, whatever forms those communication take.
When a parent responds to a baby's coos or cries, "the infant gets the idea in mind that crying or other communication gets results. Babies get the idea that they are effective people and that other people are dependable," says Anne Dopkins Stright, associate professor of human development at IU's School of Education.
"The way parents treat the infant predicts academic achievement in elementary school," says Stright, who specializes in child development. She adds that children whose parents consistently respond promptly are much more likely to view their teachers as dependable and responsive, and are not afraid to ask questions when they need help.
By the time children outgrow infancy, parents can and should interact with them in ways that go beyond being responsive and dependable, say experts and parents alike. According to a study Plucker conducted on fifth- to ninth-graders, if children aren't academically stimulated early on, by the time they reach high school, they may stop trying to be intellectually engaged. To make sure their children aren't intellectually bored, Plucker says parents need to provide as stimulating an environment as possible.
INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION
For parents who think a museum trip qualifies as a stimulating experience, think again. "If you just walk around and leave and don't interact with things, if you don't throw questions at your children and encourage them to engage and talk about what they're seeing, then it's not all that useful," says Plucker. "Social interaction really helps."
Likewise, educational television programs, like Blues Clues, can be ineffectual to a child's development if he or she simply watches the program passively. Parents should make sure their child is interacting with the program, says Plucker. He encourages parents to foster creativity, even through outlets like imaginary friends — a classic childhood fantasy but one that may correspond with future intellectual accomplishment. Numerous studies of adults who are exceptional problem solvers found that, as young children, they almost always had imaginary friends.
The Trans emphasized creativity in their household, exposing their children to the arts, music, and creative writing. Sam Tran came up with creative ways to make learning fun. She used flashcards to teach Kathleen and her older brother numbers and musical notes. She even taught them to make their own mobiles out of origami, the Japanese paper-folding art. The Trans also focused on exposing their children to the larger world, taking them on trips and outings, an activity that parents of other IU high achievers interviewed also cited.
REINVENTING THE WHEEL — As a child, Amanda Serenevy, BA’99, often used her toys in unexpected ways.
Amanda grew up to be honored by USA Today as one of the nation’s top college students.
Courtesy photo.
"When we took a trip, we tried to connect things," says Gordon Schermer, whose daughter, Amanda Schermer Serenevy, BA'99, was selected as a member of USA Today's 1999 All-USA College Academic Team. The theme for a family trip out West when Amanda was 10 was "how the West was won." The Schermers stopped at historic sites they had read about previously and then discussed what they had seen. Along the drive, their mother, Bonnie, read to them from relevant books, such as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which chronicles U.S. history from an American Indian perspective.
"We loved getting read to," recalls Amanda, who is now a doctoral candidate in mathematics at Boston University. "It was never difficult to get my sister and me to be interested in that."
Not surprisingly, reading to children is a good predictor of how well they will do in school. "It shows parents really value learning," says Stright. Teaching children to read at a young age, however, doesn't necessarily mean they will be high achievers. They need to comprehend what they're reading, says Stright, adding that parents should continue to read to their children even after they can read for themselves.
EVERYDAY LEARNING
Understanding "how everything relates to everything else" is what really differentiates people who do well in junior high, high school and college," Stright says, adding that there are everyday things parents can do to help their children comprehend the world around them. To give their children a real advantage, parents should simply engage them in routine activities — baking cookies and washing dishes, for example — says Stright, making sure to explain what's going on.
"What is genuinely going to differentiate children is how rich are the experiences they have had when they are 18 months, 2 years, 3 years," says Stright. "You don't have to teach them a first- or second-grade curriculum. Parents sometimes get caught up in that."
Just as children can gain a breadth of knowledge from everyday activities, they also learn every day just by watching their parents.
"You are by far the most powerful role model your children have," says Plucker. "If you have some downtime and you pull out a book that you are really excited about reading, that sends a really powerful message."
"Even when you don't think they are watching you, they are taking it all in," says Plucker. His best advice to parents: let your actions set the example.
"We spent a lot of time reading newspapers and books," says Gordon Schermer, who is a high-school English teacher in Mishawaka, Ind., and is also certified through IU as an Advanced College Project instructor. "They quickly got the point."
WORLD OF IDEAS — Kathleen Tran added an international component to her studies, traveling to Costa
Rica and England as an IU undergraduate. Now she is back in England as a Rhodes Scholar. Photo Kendall
Reeves.
Kathleen Tran got the same point from her parents. "Even if I didn't understand it then, I definitely saw when I was 4 or 5 that education was of utmost importance to my parents, so I trusted them and tried hard to do well," she says. Tran is now at Oxford University pursuing a master's in biomedical research.
Serenevy credits her parents with teaching her the importance of finding something you really want to do in life. "My parents both take their work and whatever they do very seriously," she says. "They feel strongly about living a meaningful life that's more than just the day-today things."
Speaking from childhood experience and as a mentor to children, Serenevy recommends that parents expose their children to people of different ages. Since first grade, she interacted with many adults through Girl Scouts. Her mother was a troop leader and Serenevy says that having friends in a variety of age groups helped during the times when she felt ostracized by her peers.
The Roodas also made it a priority to teach their children how to interact with adults. By the time John and David Rooda were 6 years old, they accompanied their father, who now serves as township trustee, on his election campaign stops door to door. "It has made them very good public speakers," says Linda Rooda.
John says his parents' behavior also set examples that he follows to this day. "They were always searching for knowledge in the world around them, and I have a feeling it rubbed off on those around them," says John, who is a Java program developer at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich.
The elder Rooda son also says his mother and father taught him the importance of honesty, finishing something you start, and caring about those around you. Like parents of other IU high achievers, the Roodas stressed community involvement and service to their sons.
In fact, if you want your child to grow up to be a Rhodes or Wells Scholar, community service can be part of the package. Many studies have shown that intellectual development — what developmental psychologists call "service learning" — takes place during volunteer activities.
"That's when people start to make intellectual leaps," says Plucker. "When they have that social interaction. It can be anything, and it certainly applies to things like service."
But even volunteering isn't developmentally useful, cautions Plucker, if it's just a passive experience.
"Even something that's that straightforward can turn into a huge learning experience," he says. For example, he says, if your child volunteers in a community kitchen, encourage him or her to think about other ways to address the problems of homelessness or to find and read articles on the issue.
THE "GIFTED" LABEL
Academic achievement begins with a solid foundation for learning, but it's also important that children remain stimulated throughout their school years. Tiffany Kyser attended a private high school, while Tran, the Rooda brothers and Serenevy attended public schools, where they were placed in enrichment or gifted programs early on.
Psychologists and high achievers warn, though, that advanced programs don't guarantee your child's academic success.
"In high school and college, I didn't feel that any of my 'gifts' were terribly 'natural,'" says Kathleen Tran. "I had to work hard — very hard. And it was easy to get discouraged."
Carol Dweck, a developmental psychologist at Columbia University whose research specializes in motivation, has conducted numerous studies which show that labeling children as gifted and praising them for being smart or talented in a particular area can have negative effects on their motivation and will to succeed.
"Dweck's conclusions are that if parents constantly praise children for being smart, then the child will begin to put forth less effort," explains Stright. "They will not like doing difficult things because difficult things mean they will have trouble with it.
"And if they have trouble, that means they're not smart."
Instead, say many experts, parents should praise effort rather than ability. For example, rather than telling your child she's great at math or your son he's a natural artist, praise her effort in solving a difficult equation or the use of color in his drawing.
"Raising children to become confident is important," says Sam Tran. "Of course nobody's perfect. Sometimes they get upset because they can't do something, but you should always encourage them." She says she helped her children find things they were good at and took it from there.
LEARNING CAN BE FUN … and fun can be a learning experience, too. Like many high achievers, David,
left, and John Rooda, shown in their younger years, pursued a wide range of activities and interests when
they were growing up. Courtesy photo.
Plucker agrees with this approach. "The best way to beef up their self concept is by finding things they do well," he says.
"There is research that suggests people don't learn perseverance by learning how to persevere. They learn to persevere in an intellectual sense by finding things they really love to do," says Plucker, adding that although it may be frustrating, parents shouldn't worry if their child jumps from activity to activity.
"As long as they are giving it a real try, if it doesn't work, that's part of growing up. That's the only way they are going to find their real passion," says Plucker.
"The important thing is not whether you do well on something but that you are really trying," says Stright. "That is what produces somebody who is capable of going on to college and graduate school."
Though their parents encouraged them and paved the way for their academic success, the IU high achievers interviewed said their determination to succeed came from within.
"If I got a bad grade, I felt horrible about it; almost as if I'd done myself an injustice," says David Rooda. While Rooda's parents emphasized getting good grades, they didn't focus solely on that, a lesson Plucker says more parents should follow.
He says parents shouldn't consider their children's intelligence by how well they do on traditional and standardized tests. "People quite often equate testing well with intelligence and say that's achievement," says Plucker. "Just because your child isn't doing well in school doesn't mean he or she is not intelligent. "And just because children are doing well in school doesn't mean they are really intelligent."
"It's a huge mistake to focus on academics," agrees Linda Rooda. "That's not what colleges or the work world is looking for. They are looking for well-rounded individuals."
Growing up, both John and David played sports, participated in clubs, had part-time jobs in high school, and had busy social lives. Other IU high achievers led similar lives outside of school. While their parents stressed the importance of academic achievement, they also wanted their children to lead full and rewarding lives.
"The important thing is not that
the child be a high achiever but that
the child develops to be a well functioning
person, in all aspects of life,"
says Stright. "Achievement is just one
part of what we make of life." 
Rita Colorito, a freelance writer in Dayton, Ohio, predicts her 4-year old neighbor — who has several imaginary friends and asks lots of questions — will be academically successful.