When Alisa Perales was a year old she began learning her ABC’s and 123’s. By the time she was 4, she could name the capitals of the world and the bones in a human body.
Now at 11 years old, she’s solving advanced mathematical proofs as a computer science major at UC Riverside. Alisa, who started this fall, appears to be the youngest student to enroll at UC Riverside, according to alumni records.
She transferred to UC Riverside after completing two associate degrees at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, where she became a student at the age of 8.
After more than a month as a Highlander, Alisa is getting to know the campus while staying on top of her studies.
“I liked the icebreakers on the first day of class where I got to meet new people and we sometimes talked about different things and we got to know each other better and make new friends,” Alisa said.
She’s already gone to a UC Riverside soccer game, sampled campus-grown tangerines, and signed up for a student club.
Her father, Rafael Perales, brings her to campus five days a week from their home in San Bernardino, walking her to her classes. He waits nearby on campus, working on his laptop while she’s in class. They stay in touch with a two-way radio.
Rafael noticed that Alisa was special starting from when she was a small toddler. He remembers taking her to a playground ball pit when she was 1, where she immediately began separating plastic and Nerf-style balls into different areas. “She was a sharp kid,” Perales said.
A self-employed attorney and single father, Perales began homeschooling her, helped in part by a small inheritance that allowed him to concentrate on teaching Alisa.
“My whole philosophy was to make everything fun because if it's not fun then the mind wanders and interest is lost, and there's no moving forward on that point,” he said. “So keeping it fun by singing songs, singing ABCs, singing different things, just progressed to putting the words together from the letters and the sounds.”
From the time Alisa was 1 to 4, they studied six days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. When she turned 4, they went down to five days a week. Perales bought them a season pass to Disneyland and took her on weekends as a reward for her hard work.
Math and science were her favorite subjects.
“They’re kind of fun and they help explain the world,” Alisa said.
When she turned 8, Alisa had finished all the California requirements to graduate from high school. She began attending Crafton in spring 2023 after a counselor suggested community college as a transition from homeschooling.
“As soon as I showed up, I liked it,” Alisa said. “I’d be talking to different classmates and meeting new people. I was just fitting in with people.”
Perales accompanied her to campus and waited for her outside her classes as he does now at UC Riverside.
“I thought it would be fun for her and she would enjoy her time because she’d never been around other students and sitting in an actual classroom setting before,” he said.
After two years she graduated with associate degrees in multiple sciences and mathematics with a 3.8 grade point average.
She and her dad explored a few options before settling on UC Riverside, in part due to its convenience of being close to their home in San Bernardino. They also liked the engineering program that allowed her to pick her first choice, computer science, as her major. She was able to receive financial aid to cover much of her studies.
After she applied, they visited UC Riverside and walked the whole campus by themselves, wandering into random buildings and exploring the grounds. The size of the campus, especially compared to Crafton Hills, stuck out for them as did its many amenities from the soccer stadium to the food options at the Highlander Union Building.
Alisa already has a favorite lunch spot at Subway and is looking forward to sampling the Scoops Ice Cream shop at the HUB. In between classes, she studies at the Career Center.
Tofigh Heidarzadeh, a lecturer in the electrical and computer engineering department, has Alisa as a student in his “Technology in the Premodern World” class. He said she’s already performing at the top of his class.
“She’s always on time, following the lectures seriously, and taking notes,” Heidarzadeh said.
Alisa said she hopes to complete her bachelor’s degree in two years and possibly a master’s degree after that. She’s interested in studying artificial intelligence and space exploration, hoping to someday travel to space.
When she’s not studying, Alisa enjoys playing soccer with her AYSO team, the Fuschia Fireballs, where as a center forward, she’s one of the top scorers. For Halloween, she dressed up as Hermione from the Harry Potter books.
Alisa said she doesn’t give much thought to her young age compared to her classmates. Still, she’s already received a fair amount of media attention and has done several interviews, including with People magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and local television news.
Other students haven’t made a big deal of her age, Alisa said.
“They don’t seem to have too much of a reaction and they seem nice,” she said. “I’m meeting more and more people here. Hopefully, all goes well.”
