At the age of 12, Sawsan Ahmed made history this month by graduating from South Florida’s Broward College as the youngest graduate in the school’s 61-year history.
“It was awesome. I’m so happy,” Sawsan said after the ceremony on Wednesday, News 4 JAX reported.
Her achievement was recognized by Broward College President Gregory Adam Haile on stage saying, “Thank you, Sawsan, you have helped us demonstrate that Broward College can support the dreams, regardless of age or academic pursuits.”
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Same as her peers, Sawsan, a 172-cm student, loves Minecraft, Disney movies, and wears ponytails.
Yet, the inspirational young Muslim girl has now earned an associate’s degree with a concentration in biological science and a 4.0 GPA.
In January, she will go on to the University of Florida, where she will study microbiology and cell science.
Sawsan Ahmed with her mom, Jeena Santos Ahmed, and dad, Wesam Ahmed, in a biology lab at Broward College on Dec. 13, 2021. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald)
High IQ
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, her dad, Dr. Wesam Ahmed recognized her high IQ from very young age.
At the age of 15 months, she was able to form complete sentences. At the age of two, she was capable of reading and writing.
Wondering if she should attend regular school or no, the parents eventually settled on her mother, Jeena, who earned a Ph.D. from Brown University, to home-school her.
Later on, and at the age of 9, her parents encouraged their young girl to take the post-secondary education readiness test to determine if she could handle college-level work.
“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.”
Graduating from Broward College, Sawsan is ready to take another challenge. She will take part in University of Florida’s online program and travel in the summers to Gainesville for her labs. She picked UF because she heard it offers a class called python programming for biologists.
“That’s basically everything that I’m interested in combined in one course,” she said.
Asked if she regrets anything, Sawsan said no.
“There’s definitely nothing I’m missing out on,” she said.
“I still get to do a lot of things people my age do. Going to college has just been something additional; it hasn’t been replacing my childhood in any way.”