16 Yr Old Grad

They Were Told He Was Gifted. He'll Be Proving It This May

16-year-old Braxton Moral will be first to graduate from high school and Harvard at same time

By Jenn Gidman

Congrats in advance to Braxton.   (Getty Images/nirat)

Like many kids, Braxton Moral dreams of one day being president. Unlike many kids, the 16-year-old forged an unusual path in his quest to get there.
Per Time, Braxton will graduate on May 19 from Ulysses High School in his Kansas hometown, then don a cap and gown on May 30 as a graduate of Harvard University. The teen earned his BA degree—he's majoring in government, with a minor in English—by taking, in addition to his high school workload, courses through the Harvard Extension School since middle school, logging in online and attending summer classes on campus in Massachusetts once he got to high school. "It's a bit of a juggling act, but everybody works together to do it," Braxton's mom, Julie Moral, tells the New York Times of how the family manages her youngest child's unique situation.

Braxton's parents say that when their son was in the third grade, "They told us ... 'He's not just gifted; he's really, really gifted,'" dad Carlos Moral tells the Hutchinson News. Braxton started taking high school classes while in middle school, then Duke University's Talent Identification Program alerted his parents to the possibility of Harvard. Braxton's parents decided to keep him in high school so he could develop social skills, and he's taken advantage of that: The teen is active in Boy Scouts, plays tennis for his high school team, and has gone to the last two proms. Braxton is said to be the only student to ever go for a four-year high school degree at the same time as his Harvard undergrad degree. Next for Braxton, he hopes: Harvard Law School. "Politics is end game for me," he says.