On May 20th, 1800 students walked in the commencement ceremony for American River College’s class of 2015. Among them was Tanishq Abraham, beaming in his blue gown and mortarboard cap and a striped knit scarf. He would be taking home three associates degrees that day, in math and physical science, general science, and foreign language. He’s attended the Sacramento school for the past four years.
And he is eleven years old.
Let’s repeat that. Tanishq, college graduate with three new degrees under his belt, is eleven years old. He graduated high school at ten, and has been attending courses at ARC since he was seven. He and his younger sister, Tiara, are the youngest siblings to join Mensa International, the famous high-IQ society, each receiving their membership at only four years old. By the time he was eight, Tanishq became the youngest-ever member of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for high-scoring college students. At ten, PTK elected him to office as Vice-President of Communications. The mind boggles to imagine what his curriculum vitae will look like by the time he’s eighteen.
Is the secret to his driven achievement his home-school upbringing, taught by his parents, a software engineer and a doctor of veterinary medicine? It couldn’t hurt. But he simply says that he was ‘bored’ in ordinary school, and took first to online college courses, than classwork, in a drive to challenge himself.
He and his sister are the very definition of prodigies. And every picture on their public facebook page shows them both beaming, to all appearances as happy as they are successful. The About on that page reads that it is to “highlight their journey for knowledge, fun, adventure and being a child.” Sounds like good priorities, and all the best wishes that Tanishq and Tiara go as far as they want in life.
