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Tanishq Abraham poses for a graduation photo |
At eleven years old, most American kids are finishing 5th grade and nervously anticipating middle school.
Eleven-year-old
Tanishq Abraham just earned three associate degrees, an admirable
accomplishment for anyone, let alone a pre-teen.
A
native of Sacramento, California, Tanishq crossed the commencement
stage at American River College on Wednesday to accept degrees in math,
science, and language studies.
He told NBC affiliate KCRA that he wasn't very nervous when he started taking courses at ARC, so graduating college wasn't "much of a big thing." On his Twitter account, he tweeted "4 yrs later-3 college degrees-Vry HAPPY."
His
mother, who put her own PhD studies on hold to homeschool Tanishq said
that "even in Kindergarten, he was a few years ahead" and added "we just
went from there," as NBC Bay Area reported.
Tanishq has been a member of Mensa International, an association for people who have scored in the top two percent on an IQ test, since he was four.
When
he was seven he began taking classes at ARC, which enabled him to
finish his college degrees just one year after graduating from high
school.
In an NBC Bay Area report
from last year covering his high school graduation, his geology
teacher, Steve Sterling, said Tanishq "retains difficult concepts better
than any other student I've ever had."
However,
ultra-early graduation is not without its drawbacks. In the same 2014
NBC Bay Area report, an interview with Tanishq's parents reveals that
they made a three-hour round trip commute to San Francisco twice a week
so that he could participate in the San Francisco Boys Chorus. They were willing to make the drive because they knew the chorus provided much needed interaction with kids his own age.
Tanishq told a reporter with KCRA-TV: "I like to play video games with my sister." Not so far off from your average American kid.
In the KCRA video coverage,
he excitedly lists off all of the careers he would like to have:
medical researcher, doctor, and president of the United States. Tarnishq
hopes to go to the University of California-Davis Medical School,
according to multiple reports.
His graduation cap was decorated with the words, "to infinity and beyond" in reference to "Toy Story's" Buzz Lightyear.
Tarnishq told KCRA, "I followed my passion."
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