9-year-old HS grad from Bensalem wants to reform U.S. school system
BENSALEM, Pa. (CBS) -- Think back to when you were 9 years old. What was your biggest accomplishment?
One little boy from Bucks County has already achieved more than some twice his age and he's proving what can happen when you believe the sky is the limit.
In many ways, David Balogun is a typical 9-year-old, playing with his little sister and cousin. But when once he's in front of his books and his laptop, you quickly realize this little boy from Bensalem is unique.
"Depending on the redshift, I would be able to measure the exact wave," David said. "I would be able to multiply it and find out what the distance would be."
How did he know that he was different?
"They gave me an IQ of 141," David said, "and they say I was profoundly gifted, which is even higher than gifted."
So at 6 years old, David skipped to the next grade and when the pandemic set in, his parents found an online school to help him flourish. And he exceeded everyone's expectations.
"I finished seventh grade in a month and so after finishing eighth grade, I went to high school and finished that in a year," David said, "I was self-motivated, my mom didn't yell at me, you have to graduate at the age of 9. I decided for myself that I would graduate at the age of 9."
His parents, who between them have two PhDs, say even as a toddler, David was advanced.
"Extremely curious," Henry Balogun said. "He would ask questions. He is incapable of writing things down at the age of 2, but if you ask him again two weeks later, three weeks later, even four, five weeks, he remembers."
"Fostering gifted kids, the parents have to go outside of the box," Ronya Balogun said. "But if I tell him the star is the limit, then he's going as far as his mind can take him."
"Mainly, I want to be an astrophysicist, a chemist, an engineer and a software developer," David said.
But David says he also wants to help reform the nation's school system.
The number of students who test as gifted drops significantly between elementary and high school.
"Because they're bored," David said. "So they don't use all of that brain power that they have."
As David prepares to start a new semester of college classes, his parents hope to cultivate his inventive, giving spirit.
"Helping other people," Ronya Balogun said.
"If we can have more innovators," David said, "more people that can help us build society, that's better than me being famous."
David is taking classes at a community college, but he has several offers from major universities. Right now, he and his parents are figuring out which university's curriculum is best suited for him.
