<p>By age 12, Bambi Tsui was ready to skip eighth grade and head straight to high school. He had been acing classes and tests for years, exploring concepts that many adults never comprehend, and already was focused on college.</p>
<p>Nancy Bacciarini, Buchanan High School learning director, advised against the jump, but she said that was about the only time she had to steer Bambi in a different direction.</p>
<p>“He excelled in everything he attempted,” she said. “Bambi always sought the most rigorous course work that he possibly could.”</p>
<p>Bambi, now 17, heads to Princeton University in a few days, the cost of college mostly covered by scholarships. He graduated from Clovis Unified School District’s Buchanan High in June with a 4.64 grade-point average, the second-highest among the valedictorians, and had completed six college courses by the time he graduated.</p>
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<p>The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation recently highlighted Bambi as one of 35 high school students from across the country completing its Young Scholars Program. The organization taps high-achieving, financially needy students in the eighth grade and provides support and mentoring through high school. The students were selected through a scholarship competition.</p>
<p>The program provided Bambi with a high-end computer and Internet access, resources to help with his studies and steered him toward summer programs to round out his education. For example, the summer before 11th grade, Bambi was part of a complex project in New Mexico determining the orbit of an asteroid.</p>
<p>Bambi comes from a modest background — his parents sold gifts from a swap meet booth in the Fulton Mall until recently. They are looking for jobs now, he said. His parents immigrated to the United States from China when Bambi was a young boy.</p>
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