Each of us are born with unique gifts. Some of them are creative, some intellectual. Others are physical.
All of Sawsan Ahmed’s gifts might not be clear as of yet, she’s still a teen.
But what we do know is that she is incredibly intelligent. She graduated college with an associate degree and a 4.0 GPA at the age of 12.
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Yup, you read that right… college! Sawsan graduated from Broward College in 2021 after enrolling in 2018. After graduation, she planned to attend the University of Florida.
She hoped to study computer programming, chemistry, and biology.
“Their courses with Python programming through biology really caught my interest. It’s an amazing place for really studying those topics so it’s really cool that I was accepted I get to go there next semester,” Sawsan told ABC News in early 2022.
Sawsan’s parents said they became aware of their daughter’s gifts when they homeschooled her.
She would fly through her lessons and became several years ahead of her grade level.
“All of her education has pretty much been child-led. Whenever she shows an interest in something, we sort of dive into it and try to follow her interest as best that we can,” Sawsan’s mother, Jeena Santos Ahmed, said. “We talked to her about new developments that we read about, we let her listen to NPR and learn about new scientific discoveries.”
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Sawsan got her high school diploma when she was just 9-years-old. She then passed her secondary education readiness test, which enabled her to enroll in college.
She started with just one class per semester.
The pandemic canceled many of her extracurricular activities, leaving her more time to enroll in several classes.
Sawsan said it was odd being so young among older classmates at first but that eventually changed. It helped that she was tall.
They asked her how old she was, and she got some very surprised looks when she told them she was 10.
Her fellow students in her college lab class would call her “honey” and “sweetie” and were eager to help her.
But by the end of the semester, they were coming to her for help and answers to questions they had about their studies.
Sawsan ended up being the youngest Broward College graduate in the school’s 61-year history. She says she was inspired to study science because of women in the STEM field.
Especially biomedical engineer Andrea Gellatly who is the team leader on the show “Battlebots.”
A perfect example of why media representation is so important. She is also inspired by her dad, Wesam Ahmed, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic’s cancer center.
Sawsan says she admires her dad for saving one life at a time.
But she dreams of inventing a technology in medicine that could help save multiple lives at once.
After she finishes her studies at the University of Florida to get her bachelor’s degree, Sawsan says she wants to get her M.D. or doctorate.
She hopes her story will inspire other kids to dream big.
“Shoot for the stars and don’t underestimate yourself,” Sawsan told ABC News. “That mentality is what brought me here.”
Her parents have always encouraged her to do the same.
“I always tell her: You can drive at 200 miles per hour. If you want to drive at 50, it’s OK, but you should try to do the 200,” her father said. “We never pushed her to sit and study; she does this because she wants to do it.”
Learn more about this incredible teen in the video below!
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