Just like most boys his age, 12-year old Caleb Anderson has always loved outer space. But the difference is that Caleb is already on his way to getting his aerospace engineering degree in as little as two years. An incredible feat for anyone to say the least, but more so for a boy that’s not even in his teens.
Caleb told NPR, “I’m fascinated that there’s another world beyond ours. There’s another place. There’s a better place.” Caleb, who happens to be a sophomore in college, and his family live in Marietta, Georgia. He goes to school at Chattahoochee Technical College and just a few of his subjects include macroeconomics, humanities, U.S. history, and calculus, of course. He’s in a dual program at the school that allows him to get his high school credits, while at the same time, work towards his associate degree.
His dream for the future is to work for Tesla owner Elon Musk, hoping that he’ll get an internship in Musk’s company, SpaceX. Caleb said, “When I was like one, I always wanted to go to space. I figured that aerospace engineering would be the best path.”
Caleb shares about his chosen career, “You have the heroes that go on the rockets and fly up to space. But the aerospace engineers, they have their life in their hands. And I really think it’s interesting and amazing that they do that.”
Fascinatingly, Caleb’s mom, Claire, had noticed at a very young age that he was definitely ahead of most baby milestones. At just 3-weeks old, Caleb would already copy a number of motions that she would do, which prompted her to become certified in sign language so that she could teach it to her infant son.
She shared, “Because I thought though that he wanted to communicate, but he didn’t have a [means] or a way to do that. Then he started picking up sign language really fast.”
She adds, “When he was about 6 months old, he started reading. And by 9 months old he was already signing over 250 words.”
While those were already incredible achievements, Caleb’s mom goes on to share that by 2-years old, he was already doing fractions. At 3, he had passed the first grade and could have very well skipped middle school if his parents allowed him to. But she explains, “But we still decided to put Caleb into the seventh grade to build social skills and just think about the well-rounded child.”
For Caleb though, school wasn’t always the easiest. In fact, he was picked on a lot in middle school and describes it as “awful.” He explains, “The kids there, they kind of looked down on me, they treated me like I was an anomaly. And I kind of am.”
He also shared with another publication, “They looked down on me because I was younger than them. And not only that, the curriculum was boring to me because I learn really, really fast. One day I came to my mom and she asked me, ‘Are you happy here?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m really bored. This isn’t challenging me’.”
However, since moving on to college, things have been different. The young boy told USA Today, “It’s really accepting. People might think something about it, but they don’t show it which is really nice.”
For Caleb’s mom, she shares that “We want him to be in an environment where he is accepted and not tolerated.”
Although for Caleb, while everyone considers him a genius, he doesn’t exactly feel the same way. He shares, “I’m not really smart. I just grasp information quickly. So, if I learn quicker, then I get ahead faster.”
Caleb’s story has since gone viral, and the boy and his parents have been interviewed by a number of media outlets. During Caleb’s interview with CBS News, his interviewer asked him, “Does it ever occur to you, you know, ‘I’m looking at college and I’m 12 years old!?”
His response was, “This is my life. This is how I am. And I’ve been living this way my whole life.”
For Caleb’s dad, Kobi, he believes it’s important to share the story of his gifted young African American son. He expounds, “As a teenager, I remember downplaying my intelligence. Being a young Black male, there are these negative stereotypes that are reinforced quite frequently. And so the attention is an opportunity to bring another story to light, one that we hope will inspire others to foster the gifts that their kids have.”
Meanwhile, Caleb goes on to say, “It’s not my end goal to go to college. My end goal is to become who I want to be. I want to be someone who helps people reach the stars.” And if he keeps achieving in the same way he’s been doing over the past 12 years, there’s no doubt that he will fulfill each and every one of his star-filled dreams.
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