At just nine-years-old, David Balogun has reached a historic achievement.
WGAL reports that the Pennsylvania native received a diploma from Reach Cyber Charter School. The milestone marks Balogun as one of the youngest children known to graduate high school, according to a list made up by oldest.org, per The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, the person younger than Balogun is Michael Kearney, “who still holds the Guinness world record for youngest high school graduate that he set when he was six in 1990.”
While the high school is located in Harrisburg, Balogun took remote classes in Bensalem.
“They didn’t bog me down. They also advocated for me, saying, ‘He can do this. He can do that,'” Balogun told the outlet.
As he’s passionate about science and computer programming, he has a vision for his future.
“I want to be an astrophysicist, and I want to study black holes and supernovas,” he said.
Although the nine-year-old comes from a household of parents with higher education, it has been a challenge for his parents to keep up with raising a young genius.
“I had to get outside of the box,” Balogun’s mother, Ronya, said to the outlet. “Playing pillow fights when you’re not supposed to, throwing the balls in the house. He’s a nine-year-old with the brain that has the capacity to understand and comprehend a lot of concepts beyond his years and sometimes beyond my understanding.”
Along with Balogun’s parents, his teachers were also fascinated by his intellectual gifts.
“David was an inspirational kid, definitely one who changes the way you think about teaching,” said his science teacher, Cody Derr.
In addition to graduating from high school, Balogun has completed a semester at Bucks County Community College, the outlet notes.
Currently, as of this writing, his parents Henry and Ronya are on the search for where to enroll him in college.
