12-year-old child prodigy to become Canada's youngest uni graduate ever

12-year-old child prodigy to become Canada's youngest university graduate ever

University of Ottawa

A 12-year-old girl from Ottawa is becoming Canada’s youngest university graduate in the country’s history.

Child prodigy Anthaea-Grace Patricia Dennis is set to walk into her graduation ceremony on Saturday wearing a black gown and hat. She might be much younger than her classmates, but Anthaea-Grace has the smarts few others can match.

The young student studied biomedical science at the University of Ottawa and has loved learning since early childhood.

“I worked so hard from when I was eight. I have earned these accomplishments,” she told the University of Ottawa in an interview. “Age has not stopped me from being where I belong, where I deserve to be.”

The intelligence tendency to work hard runs in the family. Anthaea-Grace started reading at two years old, studied for kindergarten and grade one together, was in public school by age four, and had an eighth-grade learning level by age six, thanks to her mother, Johanna Dennis, who has a Ph.D.

And that was not the end of it.

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“She came home and had all that energy and said, ‘Can I do more school?’ the young scientist’s mother recalled.

So they found a way to spend that energy learning some more. While completing her homework on time, the child prodigy also learned dancing, swimming, musical theatre, and even ice skating.

“Everybody goes to school. They go into a building. They learn the content, and they go back home. This was just what school was for me. Everybody’s school is different. I wasn’t really thinking, ‘Oh, I’m eight, and that’s different,'” Anthea-Grace told the University of Ottawa.

“She is very resourceful. Many of the techniques she used in her project were not techniques that I knew, so she had to research and implement them,” said Tuan Bui, a professor at the university who supervised Anthea-Grace’s Honour’s thesis.

The future is limitless for the young grad, who is already planning for her Master’s degree and Ph.D.

“I don’t think I missed out on anything,” Anthea-Grace said of her childhood. “If I was older, I could have more social interaction; I don’t really believe in that philosophy. I think that because of my age, I work harder because I feel sometimes, I must prove myself because otherwise, people won’t feel I’m capable of anything,” she concluded.

Watch her interview here: