For some kids, any mistake in life always seemed to invite a comparison to their apparently more accomplished sibling. For a kid, it seems that getting caught spray-painting mean things about the principal on a wall wasn’t bad enough without a reminder that their sister was valedictorian.
And even if this doesn’t happen within a family, a lot of kids discovered that their accomplishments were being compared to what other parents bragged about. And in some cases, it didn’t seem like those boasts could possibly be true.
But now, if one parent were to tell their child, “You know, Jack down the street already has four college degrees” when the youngster doesn’t feel like doing homework, we now have confirmation that it might actually be true.
Whether he realized it or not, 13-year-old Jack Rico has made it clear that he has an impressive mind since he was three-years-old.
As his mother Ru Andrade told CNN, Rico wanted to go to the White House for his fourth birthday.
As a joke, she said she’d take him if he could memorize all of the U.S. presidents in American history. A week later, he told her that he already knew all of the presidents so he memorized all of the vice presidents instead.
As Andrade said, “So that’s when I knew, ‘Oh, you’re already smarter than me.'”
And while he loves video games as much as the next kid, he’s shown an incredible passion for gathering knowledge.
As Rico said , “I just love learning new stuff. I love knowing more about the world and all the different things we could study.”
Although he was homeschooled for much of his life, that pursuit of education led him to Fullerton College in California where he pursued associate’s degrees in history, human expression, social behavior and social science.
And not only did he graduate with all four degrees under his belt, but he mainted a 4.0 GPA while doing so.
According to CNN , this makes him the youngest Fullerton graduate in the college’s entire 107-year history.
As the school’s president Greg Schulz said, “It is not typical to have such a young student take classes, so Jack is pretty well known on the Fullerton College campus. Jack is wise beyond his years, and I’m so pleased that he found a home and place to excel at Fullerton College.”
Now, he has his sights set on another history degree at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, where he has a full ride scholarship.
Although Rico was disappointed that public health concerns meant he couldn’t have an in-person graduation ceremony, his friends and family held a drive-by graduation parade to celebrate instead.
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As for how he accomplished all of this, he said it just boiled down to time management and listening to his professors.
As he said , “I’m 13 right now so I don’t really have the whole life thing figured out. I’m still trying to explore my interests and learn what I want to do in life.”
h/t: CNN
