One Penn mentor, Camille Charles, associate director of the Center for African Studies, worried the eager freshman had taken on too much.

"It's not going to come as easily as it did," Charles said of Steven's high school achievements. "I told him you can't work 20 hours and still get straight A's. But he had to figure that out for himself."

Weighted by academic, economic, and social pressures, Charles said that at Penn, African American students are twice as likely as white students to drop out.

"Students like him don't study any less. They make up for having to work more by sleeping less."

His science-laden first semester, Steven earned a GPA of 3.41.

"I could have done a lot better," he said, disappointed in himself. "I have to stay on top of my game, so I can compete. . . . Everyone wants to be the best, and so do I."

Barack Obama's historic election - the first vote Steven ever cast - became a call to action.

"Being a surgeon is definitely a noble goal. I want to be able to change the world on a much larger scale, instead of operating on one person at a time."

By second semester, he'd changed course: modern political thought, calculus, Chinese fiction/drama, and economics, his favorite class.

He got all A's except for calculus.

The kid who last year was uncertain he was Ivy League material now says, "The pressure is definitely gone. I feel comfortable at Penn. I feel like I belong here."

He yearns to go abroad, as many of his classmates have. "When I talk to a person who seems pretty smart, when I ask, 'Have you traveled outside the United States?,' the answer is always yes," he observed.

So Steven jumped when his new best friend, Jin Guan, a year ahead of him, invited him to China this winter for a cousin's wedding.

They compete with each other, push each other, support each other.

"Jin is going to be president of China one day," Steven said with a laugh of his friend's ambition. "We motivate each other to become better men."

Jin, 22, who arrived in the United States eight years ago not speaking English, called Steven "a very inspirational person."

"When he has an idea, he'll present it with passion, and say, 'Jin, let's do it,' and I feel empowered to do it as well."

The two fraternity brothers are leaders in Bridges for Integration, a group Jin founded to promote cultural understanding at Penn.

Steven will spend the summer working full time to save for his China trip and - if he passes his driving test - for a car.

Next semester, with a heavier load, including Chinese, he may give up his office job for work-study.