Alexander “AJ” Gilman, 15 years old, graduated this weekend from Paradise Valley Community College with four associate degrees.
Gilman, who was chosen to be the Arizona school’s commencement speaker, enrolled in the two-year college when he was 13. He is also a student at Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center charter school, where he will graduate with his high school diploma this week.
“I would say I’m lucky,” Gilman says. “I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, and a lot of people helped me, and I met a lot of amazing people.”
In 2012, Gilman met PVCC math professor Tony Craig, who worried Gilman wouldn’t fit in with the older students.
“Here is a little kid who will be sitting in a classroom with 20-something-year-old students,” Craig says. “AJ didn’t blink and told me, ‘I won’t let you down.”’
In two years, Gilman earned associate degrees in business administration, arts, science (with an emphasis in mathematics) and general studies. This fall, he will begin classes at Arizona State University as a junior and plans to double major in finance and business legal studies.