Never Too Young or Too Old to Be a Developer or a College Student: Meet 15-year old JUNIOR at Morehouse College – Stephen Stafford

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the great experiences of being an Developer Evangelist. Why? This story is a superb example:

On last week, during my XBOX Gaming applab session (XNA) at Atlanta University (Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University) , I asked one of the really astute, very bright, & sharp students how old he was & what year in school. ....Turns out that he (Stephen) is 15 YEARS old (yes 15) and is a JUNIOR at Morehouse College. He started taking College classes in Morehouse at the age of 11 years old, and was officially taking full coursework at 13 years as a Sophomore.

He was AMAZING...HE was figuring out and writing the code along with me and sometimes before I could even get out the coding task he had already inferred the next step. He was answering all of the coding questions, helping others with their code and quite frankly blowing the 18 - 21 year olds in the class away. I soon came to find that I wasn’t the only one amazed by his genius, as he had previously been interviewed by multiple Media Outlets as a Child Prodigy. Stephen Stafford was Home Schooled by his parents into what seems to be the Right Stuff!

Check out interviews with Stephen and his Mother when he was between 11 – 13 and just starting college.

Whiz Kid Stephen Stafford

Meet Stephen Stafford

          

Guys this kid INSPIRED ME to step up MY game and push harder to gain more knowledge on….umm I don’t know, I guess gain more knowledge on EVERYTHING! So my son (ironically named Stephen) should beware, he’s 12 and is going to have to step up his game too!

So, I say again for opportunity to gain these types of experiences being a Developer Evangelist; I am Thankful.

Technorati Tags: Child Prodigy,Microsoft,XNA,Development,Gaming,appLab,Academia,Student Developer,XBOX

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 29, 2011
  WOW! I feel so outdone, as should anyone watching this. Very proud of him. Good post, Tara. -Chevon