April 29, 1998
							Contact:  Ida
Lee Wootten
								   (804)
924-6857


THE YOUNGEST TO GRADUATE THIS YEAR FROM U.VA, 
DARIA CARON WILL EARN TWO DEGREES

	Daria Katy Caron will graduate from the University of Virginia
with a bachelor's and master's degree in May at an age when most
students are just beginning college.
	Caron, who skipped high school and came to U.Va. at age 15, will
complete the University's teacher-preparation program in May, earning
both a bachelor's degree in psychology from the College of Arts and
Sciences and a master's degree in teaching from the Curry School of
Education.  She'll be 18.
	During her years at U.Va., she has found her classes interesting
and engaging.  "I seem to have a special rapport with children," said
Caron, the daughter of James and Karen Caron of Catlett, Va.  She plans
to pursue another advanced degree - in library and information science -
rather than go immediately into teaching, however she remembers her
classmates looking at her with interest during her first day of classes
at U.Va.  A professor asked all the students in class to introduce
themselves.  When it was Caron's turn, she said she had transferred from
Mary Baldwin College.  But the professor would not let her get off that
easily and asked her to reveal her age.
	"It was awful.  I wanted to be just another student in the class
and instead I was 'that 15 year-old-prodigy-girl,'" remembers Caron.
Fortunately, that experience was not repeated in other classes.
	She has seen only a few instances of "ageism".  "Every once in a
while, I have encountered someone who had a problem with my age, but for
the most part, people have been really accepting of me," said Caron. 	
	She notes, however, that dating has been a bit awkward.  "Not
many college guys wanted to date a 16-year-old!  That's gotten a lot
better as I've gotten older."
	After much deliberation about whether she wanted to miss high
school and move away from home, Caron decided to enter Mary Baldwin's
Program for the Exceptionally Gifted when 
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she was 13.  "I had always been a very hard worker in school and
although I enjoyed my extracurricular activities, I just wasn't feeling
academically challenged.  A lot of people think that my parents must
have pushed me to enter the program, but that is not the case.  I have
always pushed myself.  My parents gave me the love and support I needed
to excel.  They were not looking forward to my leaving home four years
early, but they supported my decision.  They wanted what was best for
me.  I am extremely lucky to have such wonderful, understanding
parents," Caron said.
	Her mother began to suspect that Caron was unusually gifted when
the two-week-old baby began to focus visually and mentally on tasks
usually attributed to babies nine or ten months older.  Caron spoke in
sentences significantly earlier than most children and taught herself to
read when she was three.
	"I've always loved books.  I read a book a day for pleasure all
through elementary school and junior high," Caron said.
	She has found a new pleasure associated with reading since being
at U.Va.  One of her two jobs has entailed processing rare books and
manuscripts in Alderman Library's Special Collections, which has spurred
her interest in library and information science.  She has also made a
database and taken digital images of all of Thomas Jefferson's original
manuscripts.
	"That has been really, really awesome!" Caron said.
###
	For more information, Caron can be reached at (804) 982-6165.
Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804)
924-7550.





















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