For years Chase Abrams has lived a double life: By day a popular student at Sierra Canyon School who played football and enjoyed hanging out with friends, by night an intent student of film studies at Cal State Los Angeles who organized college film festivals and held his own intellectually and socially.
Today, the energetic 18-year-old can finally take a breath. On May 29, he received his high school diploma from Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth and on Saturday he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from Cal State L.A.
Other gifted students have dispensed with high school altogether and gone directly to college.
But as a member of Sierra Canyon's close-knit first graduating class, he wasn't willing to give up football, class trips, prom and the rest.
"I think it made me more normal," Abrams said while taking a break from college finals.
"In a way I had two different personas, in high school I was lovable Chase, just a jokester, and in college it was like 'Oh, look at Doogie Howser.' Even though I'm not that smart, I played that role."
Telaia Mehrban, who has known Abrams since ninth grade, said he has never acted superior or been too busy to offer support.
"Right now he helps me a lot with essays," said Telaia, 17, who is graduating from Agoura High. "He's ridiculously smart, but can be . . . so much fun."
Some of Abrams' family members and teachers worried that he would shortchange both his high school and college experiences.
"Sometimes he didn't have time to breathe and enjoy the moment," said Heidi Ellis, an English teacher at Sierra Canyon, a private school. "But he keeps himself very organized and has incredible determination."
He maintained a brutal schedule, especially during football season, when he was up at 5 a.m. to go to the gym. He would return to his Chatsworth home at 6:30 a.m. to drive his younger sister Jenna to school in Calabasas, dash to Sierra Canyon's Chatsworth campus to attend classes from 8 a.m to 3 p.m., hit football practice from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., navigate traffic to get to Cal State L.A.'s Eastside campus for classes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and return home about 11.
He devoted one weekend day to homework and the other to friends. They included classmates from high school and college.
Those who knew of his dual life marveled.
