Wonder Girl : Pierce College Graduate Is Wise Beyond Her 15 Years

When the Pierce College accounting professor asked which of his students would like to join him for a traditional end-of-semester cocktail a few weeks ago, they all raised their hands--all except Kissandra Cohen.

She wasn’t being a prude. She’s 15.

“I don’t think he even noticed,” said Kissandra, who graduates from Pierce today. “I try to keep a low profile about how old I am.”

Tall for her age, the perky, blonde prodigy with braces has been way ahead of her peers since she was a toddler.

Her parents and grandmother show visitors to their gated, west San Fernando Valley home a videotape of Kissandra at age 2 reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, answering questions in Spanish and learning to read. By the time she was 4, Kissandra was in first grade at the since-closed Egremont School in Encino, playing violin and acting in her first TV commercial.

At 10, still three years younger than most of her classmates, she began taking classes in calculus at UCLA. At 15, she is now ready to enter a four-year college as a junior.

Where do all the brains come from?

“Me!” chimes grandmother Edith Landan.

“Me!” says her mother, P.J.

Kissandra’s father, Michael Cohen, puts a hand to his forehead.

“We started reading to her when she was about 9 months old,” he says. “And we always talked to her a lot, as though she were an adult, without using baby talk.”

The Cohens have two other children-Kandy, 11, and Kory, 5--both also advanced for their ages. But it is Kissandra who has so far received most of the accolades, with parts in two TV programs, a singing performance at a Los Angeles Clippers game and acceptance to Cornell, Smith and UC Berkeley under her belt.

The hardest thing for Kissandra may be balancing her adult academic pursuits with her teen-age social life.

“I’ve had to deal with jealousy all my life,” Kissandra said. “There are people in the world who are used to everything conforming and are threatened by someone who does something different. But I don’t let it faze me.”

Hence the low profile in class.

“At school, she’s quiet and docile--a different person than elsewhere,” said Pierce statistics professor Dick Anderson, who has become friends with the Cohens. “I’ve seen her with her friends, and she’s like a young Goldie Hawn--quite an entertainer.”

Kissandra hopes to turn her entertainer side and her skills in math and logic into a career as a lawyer or, perhaps, a politician. “I could be the first woman President,” she said. “Sounds good, doesn’t it?”

First she has to finish school, and no decision has been made about where she will study next fall.

“The problem is,” Kissandra said, “I can’t drive.”