Nine-year-old David Balogun has made history as one of the youngest to ever receive a High school diploma.
Balogun recently received a diploma from Reach Cyber Charter School in Bucks County’s Harrisburg after taking classes remotely.
David attributes some of his success to having teachers who encouraged him to keep progressing.
“They didn’t bog me down,” he said. “They … advocated for me, saying, ‘He can do this. He can do that’.”
In return, David taught his teachers a thing or two. “He was an inspirational kid, definitely one who changes the way you think about teaching,” science teacher Cody Derr said.
David’s mom, who has an advanced degree, says that raising a young son with intellectual gifts can be challenging.
“He’s a 9-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,” Balogun’s mother, Ronya, said.
David Balogun has already completed a semester at Bucks County Community College, and his family is looking at colleges and universities to try to find the right fit.
“Am I going to throw my 9-year-old into Harvard while I’m living in PA? No,” Balogun’s father, Henry, said.
A member of Mensa, Balogun loves science and computer programming and wants “to be an astrophysicist and I want to study black holes and supernovas,” he said.
In his spare time, the child prodigy plays sports and the piano; and he’s working on his black belt in the martial arts.
According to Oldest.org, the only person younger than David to graduate High School is Michael Kearney, who still holds the Guinness world record for the youngest high school graduate that he set when he was six in 1990.
By eight, Michael had an Associate of Science in Geology and he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama.
