- At just 9 years old, David Balogun has graduated high school and is looking for his next step.
- He completed a semester of community college while he and his family look for full-time universities.
In between practicing piano, various sports and martial arts, David Balogun also loves to learn about science and computer programming.
The 9-year-old from Bucks County, Pennsylvania recently earned his high school diploma and is now on the hunt for colleges.
David started school shortly before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the country in early 2020 and finished with over a 4.0 GPA less than three years later.
"When we tested him for giftedness in first grade, he had already passed second-grade level in math and in English," Ronya Balogun, David's mother, told Insider in a video interview.
"So that's when I stepped in, and I said, 'He does not need to go to second grade. He needs to go to third grade.' Then Covid hit," she added. "Two and a half years later, he finished high school."
David Balogun, who lives in Bensalem with his family, completed his high school classes online at the Harrisburg-based Reach Cyber Charter School, where he got to focus on STEM subjects, his family told Insider. He wants to be an astrophysicist, studying black holes and supernovas.
WGAL, an NBC News TV affiliate in Pennsylvania, first reported this story. The outlet also noted that David is a member of the exclusive high-IQ society Mensa. Other child prodigies like David include Pulizer-winning journalist Ronan Farrow, who graduated high school at age 11 and college at 15, The Washington Post reported; and Guinness World Record holder Michael Kearney, who graduate from college at age 10, according to The Los Angeles Times — a world record.
Since high school, David has done some community college classes, and his parents told Insider they are now looking for the right college where David can continue his studies. However, which university he will attend is still up for debate in the Balogun household, especially since it would require some accommodations given his age.
The family told Insider that they are considering Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University, they told Insider in a video interview.
"We're still kind of grappling with all these things, if that makes any sense, to figure out what is the right fit. Again, he's 9 years old, I'm not dropping my kid off," Ronya Balogun told Insider. "It's going to take a lot."
Henry and Ronya Balogun, who own an outpatient psychiatric clinic together, have multiple advanced degrees between the two of them but told Insider they also do not want to rush to place him on a college campus.
"You can imagine a 9-year-old running around a campus by himself," Henry Balogun said. "It's difficult for him to focus on what adults usually like to focus on. And they might see him as 'OK, where is the parent? Where is your dad?' Or where is your mom?'"
Before he went to school online, David struggled to "really have friends" in public school, Ronya Balogun told Insider.
"Whatever classroom or wherever I stepped into, everybody would just stop talking. But when it comes to actually playing, we would go outside and nobody would say, 'David, do you want to play with me?'" David Balogun said. "But if we're inside the classroom and we're playing, I'm the god of the classroom."
"Not the god. The leader maybe," Ronya Balogun, who is religious, added. "Kids tend to go to him for direction or to ask for information or to ask for an explanation, so the social aspect had to be given from outside the school. The social aspect, for his abilities, is that you have to meet like-minded people, and most of the time, that's adults."
As Ronya Balogun discussed the "dichotomy of being that young and that smart," David played with his Legos. His favorite, he told Inisder with a demonstration, is the Mindstorms Robot Inventor, which he built and coded.
"He's playing with his Legos. He's just a normal 9-year-old," Ronya Balogun said. "He's a kid, you know what I'm saying? So just because his mind can comprehend and understand and fathom and have a really big discussion with you about big ideas or theories, does not mean he's not going to act like a 9-year-old."