For whiz kid, illness is just another problem to solve

Pair up, Julie Manthey told the students in her Old Dominion University writing class. Critique your partner's work and discuss it.

Manthey walked among the college students as they huddled. Spencer Lane, an engineering intended student in our Engineering Fundamentals Division, is in his gray ODU sweatshirt, shades perched on his head, blended in.
He's as tall as the rest and walks with the swagger of a college kid counting down to the semester's end. The only giveaway is his face - the rosy flush of a boy still going through puberty.

He's a 14-year-old freshman. He's smart as heck. But that isn't why he's here.

The near-constant vomiting started in September 2007, shortly after Spencer began eighth grade at Norfolk Academy. He shrugged it off as a stomach bug. After a week, it disappeared, but not for long….

Later that month, tests revealed the problem: Crohn's disease, a chronic disorder that causes inflammation of the digestive tract…

The Lanes turned to the Virginia Beach Higher Education Center, where ODU conducts classes five minutes away from the family's house. University officials granted Spencer early admission based on his condition and his SAT performance, which was high enough to waive him in without a high school diploma.

Spencer was nervous on his first day of college. Teachers in some classes did double-takes when they saw him sitting among older students.

Within the first week, he said to himself, "Hey, I'm doing this."

"He's a delight," said his writing teacher Julie Manthey. "He comes early, he always stays late. When he is in the hospital, he had his laptop and he would still e-mail, 'Can you clarify?' He has that kind of commitment to his education."