13-year-old prodigy to start classes at Alabama college
TANNER, Ala. (WHNT) — Many 13-year-old boys spend their time playing video games or sports, tackling the challenges of middle school. Not Van-Houston McMillion.
Instead, he is getting ready to start classes at Alabama’s Calhoun Community College.
On Tuesday afternoon, the 13-year-old toured the campus and met with school leaders. In the fall, he will begin his studies toward an Associate of Science in General Education with a focus on chemistry.
It’s a topic he’s studied since he was a young child.
“I definitely think it’s a blessing from God that I have this understanding,” Van-Houston said. “But I think that every kid everywhere has a gift and a calling that they’re better than anybody else in the world.”
Van-Houston is homeschooled and said he owes a lot of his success to how he was taught.
“The attitude around schooling in our house was so much different than the classic public school,” he said.
The teen prodigy says he also used a lot of online resources for learning, such as Khan Academy. However, nothing beats a “good old-fashioned textbook,” Van-Houston said with a laugh.
As he prepares to take the next step in his learning journey, he has some big dreams in mind.
“I feel like it’s every scientist’s dream to cure cancer, and I think that pharmaceuticals would be a great way to do that,” he told Nexstar’s WHNT.
Van-Houston is now Calhoun Community College’s youngest student to ever enroll. The school said he actually enrolled when he was 12.
