What happens to prodigies when they recede from the headlines and grow up in a world that has stayed normal? Check this out. Three years after the Times of India reported on Indian-American pre-teen Tanishq Abraham graduating from a California community college on Thursday at age 11, he has earned his degree in bio-medical engineering from UC Davis ¨C at age 14, just another milestone in his fabled academic journey.
In a story that still makes ripples in the United StatesĄ¯ scholastic world, where prodigies are frequent and fast-flowing, Tanishq Abraham received his degree on FatherĄ¯s Day, just a few days after he turned 15, wearing a graduation cap emblazoned with the words, "Started at 12, finished at 14. Trust me I am an engineer!"
"It was the best Father's Day gift for my husband and also my dad," says TanishqĄ¯s mother Taji Abraham, who is herself a doctor of veterinary sciences (her husband Bijou is a software engineer). "We are happy that his grandparents who are heart patients (both retired veterinary medical PhD doctors) were able to see him graduate with a biomedical engineering degree and start his PhD in the same field."
It took a while to get this story down because, as Taji Abraham explained, it has been a frantic few weeks for Tanishq and the family after graduation. The day after receiving his degree, Tanishq and his team presented their senior design project at the grand rounds at the UC Davis Medical Center. Couple days later, they drove down to Southern California for a biomedical engineering conference where Tanishq presented his engineering senior design project. After getting back, he attended a three-day crash course at UCD Entrepreneurship Academy with other 45 participants which included graduate students, post-doc & faculty.
ucdavis.edu
ItĄ¯s been like this ever since the Abrahams discovered that Tanishq was "a few years ahead even when he was in kindergarten and it just went from there." He was enrolled in the American River Community College after, at the age of five, he had cracked math courses offered by Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) in less than six months. At six, he took online high school and college level classes in subjects such as chemistry, paleontology, biology, and geology, and at seven, he enrolled at American, completing courses in Geology & Astronomy, emerging as the top student in both classes.
By the time he was accepted at UC Davis as a pre-teen, the precocious youngster was the talk of not just academic circles, but also parenting guides. Was he being pushed too hard? Was he going through all the normal experiences of childhood?
"We donĄ¯t feel they have missed out on 'normal' childhood. What is normal for some might not be normal for others!" insists Taji Abraham, reeling off the extracurricular activities of Tanishq and his sister Tiara , who is also a prodigy of sorts: They both have enjoyed being in San Francisco children's' choir, both went to swim school for four years and got Level 10 certificates, they took part in other sports like soccer lessons, tennis and ping-pong, both enjoy watching Bollywood & Hollywood movies and pretty much they know the entire imdb!"
If you wonder whether the day has more than 24 hours, put it down to extraordinary parenting on part of the Abrahams, who have also had to take care of ailing parents, TanishqĄ¯s grandparents, who also took great interest in his career despite their illness.
"This year has been very hard for him and us as we also have to be on campus late sometimes till 11pm when he is working on his senior design project or capstone project. Sometimes his 22-year-old classmates cannot understand why he cannot do an all-nighter! As parents, we are very particular that both our kids get enough rest & sleep, a minimum of 9 hours to 10 hours...but in the past few months - in his senior year, it has come down to 3 to 4 hours," said Taji Abraham, sounding the only note of regret in an otherwise fulfilling life.
So what happens next? Tanishq has already been accepted into the UC Davis graduate program where he plans to get his M.D. in the next four or five years. But his long term goal, the teenager says unabashedly, is public life ¨C to be the President of the United States, no less.