A Pennsylvania boy has set a record after graduating from high school at the age of nine.
Nine-year-old David Balogun received his diploma from Reach Cyber Charter School in Bucks County’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, after taking classes remotely, KYW reported.
“He’s a 9-year-old with a brain that just has the capacity to understand and comprehend a lot of concepts that’s beyond his years and sometimes beyond my understanding,” Ronya Balogun, David’s mother, said.
He loves science and computer programming and credits several favorite teachers for his success. They said he taught them a few things, too, in the few years it took him to get through high school.
” I realized that I [was] able to graduate at the age of ten or nine as long as I put the effort in, and with the help of my mom, dad, and, of course, Reach Cyber Charter School, I was able to graduate. I wanted to do it because I had the ability to do it. So why not use those abilities for the greater good? I want to be an astrophysicist and study black holes and supernovas,” the 9-year-old child prodigy told Fox43.
While David’s parents have advanced degrees, they say raising a young son with extraordinary intellectual gifts is challenging.
The pre-teen’s passion has now made him one of the youngest ever high school graduates in the world, thanks to some accelerated online courses.
“I want to be an astrophysicist and study black holes and supernovas,” he said.
After completing a semester at Bucks County Community College, the family is now looking at colleges and universities across the country.
David said his favorite thing is learning. But he also likes to play sports and the piano. He said he is also working on his black belt in martial arts.
Michael Kearney is the only other person besides David who holds the Guinness world record for the youngest high school graduate. The record was set back in 1990 when Kearney was 6 years old.
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