She could read at the age of two. She knew how to multiply by four years old. Oforitsenere Bodunrin, at 14, has graduated from high school, following in her sister’s footsteps. Last week, the North Texas native graduated from Martin High School in Arlington. Arlington released a video of the 14-year-old coming across the stage at Globe Life Field and collecting her graduation.
“Oforitsenere Bodunrin was only 10 when she started her freshman year at Martin High School, but that didn’t stop her from making the most of her time and excelling,” the city tweeted, adding that she graduated at the top of her class.
“‘(It’s) very exciting because I guess I’ve kind of waited four years for this,” Bodunrin said in the video posted on Twitter. “I don’t really like to draw attention to myself but it was definitely fun.”
Bodunrin showed that she was an extremely intelligent kid growing up. “It was some traits that we saw that was really different,” her mother Bawo Bodunrin said to WAFB. “The way she works. Normally you would say the sky is the limit. For her, the sky is the beginning.”
Despite her accomplishments, Bodunrin did not have an easy start in high school. She struggled to open up in the presence of much older students until one of her teachers, Gerri Brown, supported and coached her, according to the Arlington Independent School District.
Bodunrin, now that she could fit in, became president of Key Club and editor of her school paper. According to her school district, she was also a historian for the Black Student Union (BSU), a Future Business Leaders of America state finalist, president of the Filmmaker’s Society, and historian for the National Art Honors Society. Elizabeth Osbourne, one of her AP professors, had no idea her age until one of her classmates told her. “I think she’s an outstanding example of what humility and hard work can earn you,” Osbourne said.
Surprisingly, Bodunrin is not the only member of her family to have received her diploma at such a young age. Her older sister, too, graduated from high school at the age of 14. “She resembled her sister. “She wanted to do everything her sister was doing,” her mother, Bawo Bodunrin, told WAFB.
The adolescent will now study computer science and aviation at the University of Texas in Arlington in the fall.
