16-year-old graduates with diploma, degree in two years at Early College
A month past his 16th birthday, Adi Patel has 1) his driver’s license, 2) his high school diploma and 3) two associate degrees from Lenoir Community College. After just two years at Lenoir County Early College High School – that is, two years out of Woodington Middle School – Adi is heading to North Carolina State University with plans to secure a master’s degree in computer science by the time he’s 19.
“I wanted to get an early start on a career,” Adi said last week, a few days before his Early College High School graduation. “I think having the ability to start getting my credentials early will definitely help me down the road.”
His fast-track approach is all the more impressive because he didn’t conceive it until last October, when his ambitions shifted from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics to a four-year university. “I found some opportunities (at LCC) and took some classes I didn’t think I was going to be able to take,” Adi said. “At that point, I made the decision to just go for it, a straight shot, and graduate.”
To do so, he had to pile on the classes and the work load – a dozen classes in each of the past two semesters. “It was a bit of a burn out,” Adi said, “changing my entire plan a semester and a half before graduation. But I did it.”
He graduated summa cum laude from Early College and, academically, will enter NC State as a junior. “I had a few options, but NC State has a fantastic program and there are quite a few connections in Raleigh with different companies in computer science,” Adi said. “It will also give me the opportunity to receive credit for all the classes I’ve taken already. I can expedite my classes there because of those credits.”
On the Raleigh campus, he will find a familiar face. His older sister Pari enrolled last fall after graduating in three years from South Lenoir High School and also earning an associate degree from LCC. For parents Bharat and Mitixaben Patel of Kinston, their youngest child’s achievement is another proud moment.
“They’re excited. They’re definitely happy for me,” Adi said. “They really stressed that I made sure that I wasn’t missing anything important by graduating so early.”
His shortened stay at Early College wasn’t short on extracurricular activities – Science Olympiad and Quiz Bowl teams, about 250 volunteer hours at the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library and a research project in computer science through Duke University. “I made sure to be diverse,” Adi said.
Within limits, of course. Computer science is definitely his focus and a “jackpot job” at Amazon his aspiration. “I think the field is really about modernization,” Adi said. “With the impacts of AI right now and other technological advancements, I feel computers are going to be the future and I look forward to working within a field that allows me to be a part of the future.”
Short-term, though, he might have to talk about his past, about how a 16-year-old came to be seated in an NC State classroom with students that Adi calls “adults.”
“I definitely thought about that,” he said. “I know I’m going to be asked whose kid am I a few times.”0-
After earning his diploma from Lenoir County Early College High School and associate degrees from Lenoir Community College in a mere two years, 16-year-old Adi Patel is heading to N.C. State University with plans to graduate with a master’s degree in computer science by the time he’s 19.
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