Michael Kearney

24 year-old Michael Kearney first gained fame as the world's youngest college graduate at the age of 10.ABC News: What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults? (November 12, 2005) Leading up to his famous graduation, Kearney was homeschooled by his parents, who enrolled him in college at age ten in an attempt to bring some "normalcy" into his life. The decision to enroll Michael was viewed as controversial in the public eye, but young Michael succeeded, and went on to earn undergraduate degrees in chemistry, anthropology, computer science, and geology, and a doctorate in chemistry.http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1303853

The Kearney family seemed eager to keep him in the spotlight as they moved to California and booked young Michael for a number of talk show appearances. Kearney also made some unsuccessful bids at becoming a game show host, which had originally been his dream. As a contestant though, Kearney proved somewhat more successful in 2008 when he earned $25,000 on the television game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?.

Recently, Kearney was the focus of a best-selling book, Michael Kearney, Accidental Genius by Robert N. Seitz.http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/Accidental_Genius.htm

Kearney is a prodigy that earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama at the age of ten. He began speaking in sentences at the age of six months and graduated from high school when he was six years of age.

"I was really worried that I would fail somehow, and be one of those sad ex-prodigies. I realized that I can't fail because I set my own standards and my standards are pretty low."

"You have to be focused on the things that make you a human and not a golden god. You have to focus on just living."