11-year-old to graduate from Southern California college, break record

Eleven-year-old Athena Elling will graduate from Irvine Valley College this week and become the youngest to do it, breaking her own brother’s record.

Athena, whose family is from San Juan Capistrano, is set to graduate with an associate degree in liberal arts on Thursday.

When she does, she will be about six months younger than her brother Tycho Elling was when he set the school’s record last year.

Athena said it was because of her brother that she began taking classes at the college.

“So I chased my brother, who I am very competitive with, all the way into calculus because he really liked math,” she said.

Math was not Athena’s favorite subject but she found plenty of other courses that captured her interest.

“I just started taking classes … There is so much variety and since I really liked acting I can take all the really fun classes to help me with that,” she said.

Athena’s father is a software engineer and her mother was a high school chemistry teacher who became a children’s author.

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“I am both proud and a little bit in awe of my own children. That they’ve already developed so well,” Christina Chow said. “I wish I could say what the secret sauce is and I feel like I don’t know … I feel very blessed to have these children.”

Tycho is now a junior at UC Irvine but Athena is planning to remain at Irvine Valley College and complete a second associate degree.

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