Photo courtesy of 11alive.com
Thirteen-year-old Caleb Anderson had his first day of school at The Georgia Institute of Technology on Aug. 23, according to Alive11 News. Anderson is the youngest Black male ever to be accepted into the Mensa High IQ Society. He was only three years old at the time.
Anderson already has two years of community college under his belt. He went to Chattahoochee Technical College for two years before being accepted at The Georgia Institute of Technology, otherwise known as Georgia Tech. The private high school he was attending wasn’t challenging enough for Anderson. The young college student wants to be an aeronautical engineer and is majoring in aerospace engineering. He is also getting a minor degree in chemistry.
“Hopefully, I get my bachelor’s and masters here,” said Caleb. “I’m really hoping to learn a lot of things here, meet a lot of acquaintances for the schools I want to go to and the places I want to work.”
“There are really two things that I want to go into,” he added. “First, rocketry, you know space exploration, things like that. I think that’s a very interesting prospect and I’d really, really like to go into that and you know, I also want to do commercial aircraft.”
Because Anderson wasn’t old enough to qualify for scholarships or student loans, his parents struggled to send their son to college. Enter comedian Steve Harvey, who offered to help pay his tuition. Anderson said that he is very grateful for Harvey’s generosity and was even able to thank Harvey in person.
Anderson decided to stay in Georgia to go to school to be near his younger siblings, who did not want their brother lot leave the city of Atlanta. Anderson’s dad, Kobe, plans to drive his son the 30-minutes it takes to get to the school every day and work in space set aside on campus while his son attends his classes. His mother, Claire, also escorted her son to school on his first day.
The engineering student also hopes to get his master’s degree at Georgia Tech before moving on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for his Ph.D. Afterward, Anderson wants to
work at SpaceX or begin his own company, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The school has two older aerospace engineering students mentoring Anderson, who says he also wants to help kids like himself when one day.Congratulations, Caleb!