11-year-old Indian-American genius graduates from college

Los Angeles, May 23

An Indian-American home- schooled boy 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 Abraham, a native of Sacramento, California, graduated from American River College in Sacramento (ARC), California, alongside 1,800 students. Abraham is the youngest person to graduate from American River College this year.

"The assumption is that he's the all-time youngest," American River College spokesman Scott Crow told NBC News.

Abraham last year became one of the youngest ever in the US to graduate 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 joined MENSA, the prominent high IQ society, when he was only four-years-old.

Abraham told a local TV station that the milestone of graduating from college was not "much of a big thing for me."

His mother, Taji Abraham, said he has always been ahead of the class.

"Even in kindergarten he was pretty ahead, a few years ahead — and then it just went from there," she told KCRA-TV.

Abraham said some of the students at the college "were intimidated" by him but a lot of others "were really happy" to have a kid in their classes. He graduated with three associate degrees from the college.

On his college graduation cap, Abraham wore his favourite "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 told Fox News. — PTI