An exceptional 12-year-old African-American girl named E’leese Shelton has made history as the youngest graduate of Talavana Christian School in the United States.
Shelton, from Tallahassee, Florida made the news when she achieved the impressive feat of graduating from high school at the young age of 12, an accomplishment that is not common in the United States.
Shelton’s mother, Danrell Shelton, told WCTV that her daughter showed exceptional skills from the age of 2 after they bought her a tablet where she learned how to identify letters on her own.
“I got her a LeapFrog tablet, and we didn’t know that she was self-taught until it was telling her to do the letters, uppercase, lowercase letters, and we didn’t realize that she knew all of it,” Danrell Shelton said.
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“I did not teach her any of it. She just had the LeapFrog and she knew it,” she added. Danrell said Shelton learned to read when she was 3 and started doing math when she was 4.
Shelton’s academic prowess helped her to be able to graduate high school early. She credits her success to her mother, friends, and her church community. “It’s just kind of surreal. I believe it’s mostly because of my support system, like my friends, my mom, my church community,” she said.
Shelton said academic success runs in their family as her older brother, E’ven graduated high school when he was 16. She said though he is about 10 years older than her, they have always been competitive.
“She told him that she was going to outdo him. So she stuck to her word,” their father, Fred Shelton said. E’ven Shelton said he was happy and proud to see his sister’s achievement surpass his.
“The best thing that you could hope for somebody that you love is for them to do something better than you,” he said. “That’s just what we hope for the next generation,” E’ven said.
Shelton mentioned that her plan is to proceed to Tallahassee Community College before transferring to Florida State University to pursue her dream of becoming a pediatrician.
Shelton said she wants to become a pediatrician and after college, she hopes to start medical school when she is 16 or 17. “I feel excited to go on and embrace that journey,” she said
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