Kumon Los Alamitos celebrates first ‘dual completer’

Kumon’s Los Alamitos branch in the US patted one of its pupils on the back for becoming the branch’s first ‘dual completer’.

Katie Chen is the first student to finish both the maths and the reading course at the Kumon centre, which is based in Orange County, California.

She celebrated the achievement as an eighth grade (year nine, in the UK) pupil, although she’s now become a ‘ninth grader’ at Los Alamitos High School. Previously, she skipped a year after finishing the Kumon Calculus course. Now, Katie is continuing her studies with Kumon’s Algebra II / Trig curriculum, taught by one of the education franchise’s instructors, Naomi Rockenmacher.

Kumon isn’t the only institution to recognise Katie’s achievements; the Californian student has already gathered a host of accolades from a number of different places. She’s a delegate of the Model United Nations, where she attempts to find solutions to real-world problems with other children. Katie has been named ‘best delegate’ twice, for reducing food waste and eliminating cyber terrorism.

The ambitious pupil is also involved in Science Olympiad, which brings together students from across the US to compete in their knowledge of various scientific topics. So far, she’s ranked 17th in water quality and 21st for ornithology during a contest of 85 people. Now, she’s looking forward to finding out whether she’ll be going through to the regionals.

Not content to stand still, Katie is also in the process of working towards the American Mathematics Contest 10 (AMC 10), which will take place in February. She’ll be competing against other students in grade 10 and younger year groups to pick up the prize for the highest score.

Clearly Katie is a star pupil, and proves just how far children can go when given the academic ability and confidence nurtured by the Kumon franchise.