Ani Adamian
Ani Adamian

The U.S. higher education system faces growing pressure to discover lawful, race-neutral ways to recognize and nurture strong academic talent in students. This challenge has become more pressing after President Donald Trump asked schools to provide more detailed admissions data and use fair criteria that leave out race or other protected traits, according to the White House. These requirements are pushing education leaders and policymakers to find legal, race-neutral ways to recognize academic ability much earlier than when students take standardized tests or present their GPAs and high school transcripts.

For Ani Adamian, the founder and CEO of Adamian Family Child Care, a licensed childcare program in California, the strongest signs of future academic success come from early childhood cognitive growth, not at the moment students apply to college. Adamian emphasizes that making real progress will require creating better developmental systems rather than trying to fix fairness during the admissions process. With skilled staff, her home-based daycare program nurtures early cognitive skills, academic growth, and diversity in children by offering language, chess, and arts lessons across structured schedules throughout the day. With a bachelor's degree in linguistics and international communication and a master's degree in pedagogy and psychology, she speaks Armenian, Russian, and English fluently, connecting language science, child growth, and operational leadership. Her efforts support a key idea gaining recognition within U.S. institutions: the best merit-based pathway starts with boosting cognitive growth well before college is even a consideration.

A big issue with university admissions is the lack of lawful, race-neutral ways to show an applicant's strong thinking skills. Abilities like being adaptable, thinking, and solving tough problems—formed during early childhood and key for thriving in rigorous university settings—are not often reflected in standard assessments. Adamian aims to fix this problem through a strong focus on high-quality, multilingual education for young children during the crucial brain development years between birth and age six. "Learning different languages helps sharpen executive function by pushing the brain to handle different rules, ignore distractions, and switch focus," she says. "These same brain abilities are crucial later for mastering things like advanced math, science, and abstract thinking." Through her certified home-based program, Adamian provides children with well-organized multilingual settings combined with learning activities suited to their age. Instead of viewing language teaching as an extra subject, her method sees it as a central tool for mental training. It blends Armenian with English in ways designed to improve memory skills, adaptability, focus control, and handling different rules. This approach lays down a proven, fair groundwork of mental readiness that colleges and universities value.

Again, a lot of students reach advanced academic levels without having the executive skills they need to handle complex tasks, even though they may meet standard academic criteria. "Problems like staying focused, switching between tasks, planning ahead, and organizing ideas often do not start in high school," Adamian believes. "Instead, they stem from a lack of focused mental skill development when children are younger." To address this developmental gap directly, Adamian uses her daycare to let children explore complex systems through well-organized, age-suited chess lessons paired with usual school subjects, including basic math, reading, and guided problem-solving. In her program, chess is key, not to create young champions, but as a tool to build better thinking habits. It helps children learn to plan ahead, resist impulsive choices, spot patterns, and think through the results of their actions before deciding. These skills help students succeed later in math, scientific reasoning, and reading comprehension, where they need to remember details, predict results, and change plans when things get tricky. By blending chess with subjects like math and logic-focused storytelling, her program helps students practice complex thinking in ways that match both their development and the skills colleges look for. This combined approach builds thinking, creativity, language, and social abilities together rather than in isolation.

In addition, many capable students today find it harder to stick with tasks, manage their emotions, and stay focused on learning for long periods. These challenges often lead to issues with staying in college and completing their education. Adamian's program tackles this challenge by focusing on how cognitive readiness connects with physical and emotional balance. It uses creative activities like singing, art, and pottery, not just as fun extras but as tools to build vital skills like auditory memory, sequencing, fine motor coordination, and staying focused on tasks. These abilities help with important skills like early writing, understanding math concepts, and focusing on longer tasks. Dance and other physical activities play a big role, too. They help children handle stress better, stay calm, and keep their attention steady, which lets them stay active for longer periods without losing focus. "Playing chess and learning multiple languages help children handle complex ideas," she adds. "This creates students who are ready for school and also builds confidence, adaptability, and resilience." These skills help them stick with their studies later in life, which tackles a key problem faced by colleges today.

Yet, immigrant families often struggle to find good early education due to language differences and cultural gaps. This issue goes beyond just being about inclusion. Children's inability to use their home language in school can hurt how they read, think, and feel confident in class settings. Over time, these hidden problems can show up in test scores and class performance. Offering multilingual education helps by building children's understanding of how language works, which ties to better reading, stronger reasoning, and improved learning habits later on. Adamian's daycare tackles this issue with teaching methods that respect children's cultural and language roots while helping them get better at English. Her program teaches Armenian and English, helping children build strong reading and writing skills while keeping their cognitive development steady. This method turns having multiple languages from being seen as a challenge into a clear mental strength. It connects embracing culture with being ready for school based on ability. Parents, in turn, stay involved in their children's learning, letting children stick with school.

Furthermore, teaching methods for challenging topics like logic-focused play, early math, and structured reasoning games such as chess remain a significant problem. Many programs touch on these areas just on the surface without putting enough teaching effort into them to boost children's brain skills. Adamian uses her knowledge of education and psychology to fix this problem. In her program, chess, math, and literature are deliberately sequenced to teach important skills like organizing thoughts, being patient, fixing mistakes, and staying focused—skills that help children stick with tough academic tasks. Instead of rushing to teach advanced content, too, her program focuses on how children think, plan, and learn from failures. This difference matters a lot because colleges and universities now care more about things like persistence, analytical focus, and flexibility instead of just test scores or grades.

As the U.S. adapts to changes in higher education after the end of affirmative action, merit is created through deep learning rather than being revealed during admissions. Skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, strong language abilities, and sharp analytical focus grow through early studies in languages, chess, math, arts, literature, and physical activity. Ani Adamian's program focuses on these areas as key tools to prepare students in a fair, race-neutral way for academic success. "This approach shows that fostering cognitive abilities can support both merit and diversity," she concludes. "It develops more prepared students and improves overall outcomes for schools and colleges." In this context, the future of higher education will depend less on which students colleges accept and more on how the nation starts identifying and deliberately nurturing human potential.