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Meet the 11-Year-Old College Grad
Prepare to feel like a total eejit, even if you’ve got a master’s degree and a pretty snazzy job. Because chances are, you weren’t eleven years old when you graduated from your first college.
Eleven-year-old Moshe Kai Cavalin will graduate with honors from a California community college this week with a liberal arts degree. The pre-teen boasts a 4.0 GPA, and a host of tutoring gigs under his belt – he helped a bunch of nineteen- and twenty-year-olds get where he is today.
Cavalin, an only child with a passion for astrophysics and martial arts, says he’s not a genius. “I consider myself a regular kid who works hard and does his best,” he told NBC Los Angeles.
Hate to break it to you kid, but you’re NOT a regular kid. And not just because you don’t play video games AT ALL (he considers them a waste because you’re not contributing to society . . . fair enough, but does martial arts contribute to society? Just saying . . . sometimes, it’s OK to just blow off steam). But most “regular kids” aren’t graduating from college at eleven. They’re finishing up the sixth grade. What Cavalin has is something extraordinary, and it’s worth celebrating.
Besides, who says you have to be a regular kid? My biggest concern for Cavalin and other child prodigies is that they have a family to help them through the social struggles they will face because of their “specialness.” Maybe teaching him that he’s “just like everyone else” is their way of keeping him on an even social keel, but it can just as easily put off his peers.
Right now, he can bask in the moment. Congrats to the graduate!
Image: NBC
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2 Comments
[...] college — pretty common. Graduating from community college — with honors — when you’re only eleven years old? That’s something to talk about. — [...]
Sleepovers, Sonogram Cufflinks and More - Links We Love « Relevant Editorial commented on Jun 08 09 at 8:18 pmDkgigjti commented on Jun 22 09 at 4:39 amC2miIl comment1 ,
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