When Tanishq Abraham’s (born June 2003) younger sister, Tiara Thankam Abraham (born December 2005), became a member of Mensa at 4 years of age in 2010, the two became the youngest siblings to join the high-IQ society.
Today, Tanishq has surprised one and all by graduating from a US college at the age of 11 with three associate degrees in maths, science and foreign language studies.
Tanishq and Tiara, a native of Sacramento, California, are the youngest South Asians to join Mensa and among the youngest Americans in Mensa. To join Mensa, one needs to score in or above the 98 percentile on a Mensa-approved standardized IQ test. Tanishq scored 99.9 percentile and Tiara scored 99 percentile in the test.
In June 2014, he graduated high school.
Home-schooled since the age of 7, Abraham passed a state exam in March last year that certified he had met the appropriate academic standards to receive his high school diploma. His achievement last year had earned the attention of President Barack Obama — who had sent Tanishq a congratulatory letter
Abraham told a local TV station that the milestone of graduating from college was not “much of a big thing for me.”
His mother, Dr Taji Abraham, a doctor of veterinary sciences, said he has always been ahead of the class. His dad Bijou Abraham is a software engineer from Kerala. Both say Tanishq had shown signs of a high IQ at an early age.
“Even in kindergarten he was pretty ahead, a few years ahead — and then it just went from there,” she reportedly said.
On his college graduation cap, Abraham wore his favorite “Toy Story” quote: “2 Infinity and Beyond.”
As for what comes next for the child prodigy, Abraham said: “I want to become a doctor, but I also want to become a medical researcher, and also the President of the United States.”
“I like to learn. So I just followed my passion of learning, and that’s how I ended up here,” he added.
Trending on @facebook since last nite May21.Humbled by ❤ & support from all over d 🌎! Didn’t realize my passion wud b an inspiration to rest
— Tanishq Abraham (@iScienceLuvr) May 23, 2015
Way to go Kiddo!!!
