WATCH: 13-year-old tends to make history as youngest graduate from Oklahoma City Neighborhood College
Elijah Muhammad has accomplished one thing not a lot of 13 year olds can brag about: He’s a college graduate.
The young teen lately walked the stage at Oklahoma City Neighborhood College soon after earning an associate’s degree in computer system science and cybersecurity.
Elijah told ABC News affiliate KOCO that he also has ten IBM certifications, 1 Google IT certification and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma State University.
“My dad has a homeschool system known as Pro 1 Collegiate Academy and it fundamentally accelerates your finding out into issues that you happen to be interested in,” Elijah told “Great Morning America.” “So, due to the fact I was interested in cybersecurity, it accelerated me in that and I was in a position to go to college early.”
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Elijah mentioned he would generally catch the consideration of other students in his neighborhood college courses, with some pondering that yet another adult in the classroom was babysitting him.
Jay Wiggins
Elijah Muhammad receives his degree from Oklahoma City Neighborhood College.
“I told them that I was essentially in this class [at] my age — they had been shocked at initially,” he mentioned. “They believed I would just be quiet in class. But when I asked concerns and I was interacting with the class, they had been much more shocked.”
Elijah’s older sister Shania Muhammad told KOCO her brother is “the smartest individual I know.”
“And regardless of if you happen to be older or not, it really is like I’ve under no circumstances noticed [anything] like him,” she mentioned.
Shania, who spoke with KOCO about graduating from Langston University at just 15 years old, worked with Elijah and helped inspire him to graduate early.
“I got two associate’s degrees at 14 years old, and I type of did the very same approach,” mentioned Shania. “That is why I just went on to do my bachelor’s. I completed every thing in two and a half years. So I was just type of exploring and just obtaining enjoyable, but it turned out fairly incredible.”
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Elijah mentioned the siblings are “competitive,” but added, “When an individual else wants enable, we’re all there to enable each and every other out.”
Jay Wiggins
Elijah Muhammad standing at graduation with his peers.
As a great deal as Elijah research, he also tends to make time for other activities, which includes swimming and basketball. He is also a motivational speaker and hopes to enable other folks reach their targets.
“If you want to place your thoughts to generating a four., you can do it,” Elijah told KOCO. “If you want to place your thoughts to winning a state championship, you can do it. You just gotta place in the perform that it requires to achieve that.”