Andre Almazán is only 18 years old and is about to receive his master's degree in education, specializing in cognitive development. He finished the program in half the time than it usually takes. This is only one in a long list of achievements this "boy wonder" has had in his short, but impressive, academic career.
Life wasn't always easy for the Mexico City native that has been dubbed a genius. At age four he was wrongfully diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But thanks to observant parents and strong determination, he was able to abandon a school system that was unfit for him at age nine to pursue and develop his amazing abilities.
Andrew's IQ has been rated higher than that of Albert Einstein's and it showed when he finished high school at his own pace when he was only 12 years of age. He immediately enrolled in college pursuing a fascination with how the human mind works. He graduated college when he was only 16, and soon after, finished a master's degree in a year-and-a-half---a feat that takes most students three years to accomplish. The young prodigy has also been tackling medical school all this time and will complete all requirements in a year.
Despite his impressive credentials, Almazán is not only looking to advance himself, but to put his gift to good use helping others. He always thought how tragic it was that so many gifted children go unnoticed by traditional education systems and how their talents are never realized. That is why, with his parents' help, he founded the Center For Talent Attention, which seeks to help gifted children around the world by placing them on the right track.
The Center has already helped children in Andrew's native Mexico as well as in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Denmark, South Africa and Australia.
"I know the work to diagnose and treat gifted children properly is something that will take generations to perfect, but that is why I want to keep studying because there is still a lot of investigation that needs to be done and I want to find what exactly can help kids keep move forward and not let them fall through the system's cracks," Andrew said.
Andrew will present his findings and the work his organization has been doing at the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children in Louisville, Ky. in August of this year.