Lina taught herself to read in kindergarten armed with the fairytale Cinderella. Boredom set in quickly at primary school, because she felt that her lessons were not getting her anywhere. “We’d learn one new letter a week. But I already knew how to read.” She stopped wanting to go to school, so she would fake stomach ache on some days and refused to say anything in class for weeks on end. Finally, a test identified Lina as exceptionally gifted.
What followed was not only being moved up several years but also, and in particular, a hunt for places to learn where she would be stretched and feel that she was being taken seriously—with no pressure but a lot of trust.
Dipping her toes into university with Math Club and like-minded company
One of these places was—and still is—the University of Bonn. She was eight when she first came to the Bonn Math Club, which is organized by the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics Cluster of Excellence. There she met Stefan Hartmann, who has been supporting gifted and talented children for over 25 years. “She wanted to go straight into the group of girls in their final years of secondary school,” he recalls. “It wasn’t easy at first, but you saw straight away how happy she was to actually be challenged for once.”
With educational math trips, communal puzzle-solving and debates among equals, learning in this environment meant a collective mental effort rather than simply checking things off a list. It is this that makes the difference, thinks Stefan Hartmann: “It’s about coming at the topic in a non-serious way. Mathematics can and is supposed to be fun.” These days, as well as being a learner in the Math Club, Lina is also passing her knowledge on to those even younger than herself. “Stefan and I are teaching primary school kids, which is really cool,” she says.
Youth University welcomes curious minds
The Math Club is just one of many activities that the University of Bonn offers schoolchildren. The Youth University, for instance, brings together a wide range of other formats and programs for various age groups, from the Children’s University and science rallies through to competitions and the early studies program. “Our activities are targeted at interested and motivated young people,” explains Youth University director Andrea Grugel. “They don’t need to have been identified as gifted and talented.” Rather, she says, the aim is to pique the curiosity of young people regardless of their background, schooling or family circumstances at an early stage “so that they never feel any psychological barriers to academia or to universities as institutions.”
Tackling complex interrelationships in a fun way
For Lina, activities like these were particularly important, because she wanted and needed a lot very early on. “Being exceptionally gifted isn’t always easy. It might sound harsh, but without input I feel as if I’m wasting away inside.” The MILeNa program, which takes place at the University of Bonn in partnership with several other universities and the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation, focuses on supporting STEM teachers who are at an early stage of their careers. It was here that Lina learned to unpick complex interrelationships with the aid of simple experiments. “I’m interested in what lies behind things,” she reveals. “I want to understand it, not just be able to parrot it back.” She also applied her unbridled curiosity to the topic for the essay that she wrote in her final years of secondary school, where she used models taken from game theory and the example of COVID-19 vaccinations to investigate individual and collective decision-making. This secured her third place in the Dr. Hans Riegel-Fachpreis for mathematics, which was presented to her at the University of Bonn. She was just 10 at the time, making her the youngest prizewinner ever in this competition.
The early studies program: learning like the “big kids”
Another major stepping stone on her journey was the “Fördern, Fordern, Forschen” (FFF) early studies program, where schoolchildren attend proper lectures and seminars. The program’s coordinator Dr. Thoralf Räsch describes it as genuine studying in a room where everyone is equal. “We open our actual courses up to schoolchildren, complete with exams and everything else,” he explains. “Lectures are often held during school time, meaning that the children will need to catch up on their own initiative on whatever they’ve missed. So you really have to want it.” Just like Lina, in other words. “You can tell that no one’s forcing her,” Räsch observes. “She’s learning because she wants to learn, and she’s unbelievably motivated and grounded as well.” Lina joined the early studies program when she was eight and in eighth grade, starting off with ancient history and philosophy before switching to economics.
Taking responsibility for your own learning
While her classmates were studying for their Abitur, the 11-year-old Lina was attending economics seminars at the University “out of boredom” between her written and oral Abitur exams, before going on to write her first term paper on incentive schemes and decision-making behavior in economic models—and score a pass. “That gave me a huge sense of achievement. Many people think I know and can do everything, but that’s not the case.” What Lina particularly enjoys about university life is taking responsibility for her own actions. “You need to do more of the organizing yourself,” she says, “and I really like doing that.” Whereas at school she suspected that she “merely” had to meet certain expectations on the part of her teachers in order to get good grades, at university she feels she is able to tackle topics together with people who share her interests and in an environment where thinking “outside the box” is not only tolerated but actively encouraged.
Finding her place—at university and on a personal level
Lina has also found her place outside the lecture hall. She has formed friendships with fellow students, including some on the Honors Program, which is designed for students who are especially gifted academically and which aims to give them targeted support through a range of extracurricular activities. Lina’s age has never been a problem in any of this. Given everything happening around her, however, how does she actually see herself? “Definitely not as a high-achiever,” she says. More like someone who wants to learn and has finally found the right place for herself.
Backed by her family
Her family has accompanied Lina on every step of her exceptional journey. “There’s been a lot of support from my parents, but never any pressure,” Lina explains. Her mother, Kaina Heider, always felt it important to take a relaxed approach to everything. “Lina is a child who needs slowing down more than motivating,” she explains.” “If she’d had her way, she’d now be trying out 15 degree programs all at once. But she’s got time on her side, of course. She can take it easy.” This is why the early studies program is such a good fit for a child like Lina, Kaina Heider thinks: “It lets her see and experience for herself what being a student means while having the freedom not to have to decide on a subject too early.”
An openness to new ideas
Despite already having done her Abitur, she is currently still taking economics in the early studies program thanks to an arrangement devised specifically for her. She is also learning French at her old school as well as occasionally going to the gym and taking walks across the Hofgarten to clear her head. She does not yet have any specific plans for the future. “I might spend a semester abroad, we’ll see,” she says. And what might she want to be when she grows up? “Most importantly something exciting, something with a lot of variety. A journalist maybe? Or a researcher? But I don’t need to decide yet.” For now, being able to learn without being held back is more important to her. And this is precisely the advice that she would like to pass on to other children in a similar situation to how she was back at school: “If you’re not happy because you’re not getting what you need, speak out. Try and change your situation. I promise you, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. For me at least, much of that light came from the University of Bonn.”
