A 12-year-old Georgia boy is already pursuing his desired career as an aerospace engineer with college courses.
Caleb Anderson is currently a sophomore at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta where he’s taking calculus, U.S. history, humanities and microeconomics. He’s enrolled in a dual program that allows him to obtain high school credits as he works toward his associate degree.
According to his mother Claire Anderson, Caleb’s intelligence was recognized at just three weeks old when he started copying her motions. She decided to get certified in sign language because she believed “he wanted to communicate, but he didn’t have a [means] or a way to do that.” “Then he started picking up sign language really fast,” she told NPR. “When he was about six months old, he started reading. And by nine months old, he was already signing over 250 words.”
At two years old, Caleb was reportedly doing fractions. He completed the first grade when he was three. Though he could have skipped middle school, Claire put him into the seventh grade to “build social skills,” but it backfired.
“They looked down on me because I was younger than them,” Caleb said of his classmates. “And not only that, the curriculum was boring to me because I learn really, really fast. One day, I came to my mom, and she asked me, ‘Are you happy here?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m really bored. This isn’t challenging me.’”
Now, as a college student, Caleb admits he’s just working toward his dreams.
“It’s not my end goal to go to college,” he said. “My end goal is to become who I want to be. I want to be someone who helps people reach the stars.”
Caleb’s father, Kobi Anderson, believes his son’s story will help to break “negative stereotypes” associated with young Black men.
“As a teenager, I remember downplaying my intelligence,” he said. “Being a young Black male, there are these negative stereotypes that are reinforced quite frequently…The attention is an opportunity to bring another story to light, one that we hope will inspire others to foster the gifts that their kids have.”