By the time he started first grade, Shahab Gharib had read all of the Harry Potter books. He graduated from high school at age 12. The 13-year-old, who was born in Germany, is now studying at a New York university. He still thinks Lego and Playmobil are great.
Even in elementary school, Shahab Gharib always finished all tasks in front of his classmates. “That’s why I always read my way through all the libraries,” says the 13-year-old who was born in Bruchsal in Baden-Württemberg and moved to Florida with his parents as a toddler. “Every day I would come home and say, ‘Today I read three books, today I read four books.'” He was through all of the Harry Potter books in first grade.
“When he said he wanted to read my books, I said: ‘You can’t do that, you’re still much too young, that’s secret language,'” says Shahab’s father Bardia. “Of course he then taught himself to read. I showed him a few tricks on how to recognize letters, and a few weeks later he pulled the first books off the shelf. At that time he was maybe three. But I didn’t have any trained, forced, I would still have written it down as special, because if I were a footballer and if I had started kicking him early, he might have juggled the ball, so it was normal for me. “
The 13-year-old proudly presents his student ID.
(Photo: dpa)
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It was only when Gharib landed in the top thousandth in a nationwide test for children twice his age in fourth grade that the father realized: “That was the breakthrough for me, I thought something was wrong with the guy,” says he. “We were really a little proud of that.” Gharib switched to a gifted school in Florida, completed all his subjects with top marks, took additional online courses and finally graduated from high school last year – at just twelve years of age. An age when other kids haven’t even started high school.
He then applied to numerous universities, and since this spring Gharib, who turned 13 in February, has now been studying at New York’s renowned Pace University – as one of the youngest students in the history of the educational institution, albeit not the very youngest like the university notifies.
“I want that”
The age of his son made the applications much more complicated, says the father. Among other things, because if you are less than 13 years old you cannot even set up an Internet profile for the necessary admission tests. Several universities rejected Gharib’s application, but Pace University accepted the offer the day before Christmas. “We couldn’t stop grinning and go out to celebrate together,” says Bardia Gharib. “The director in charge said she had read through my application and said: ‘I want this one’ – and she hadn’t even seen my age,” remembers Shahab Gharib. His father adds, “I thought that was good because I want him to have a chance, not because he’s cute and because he’s younger, but because he’s good and because he’s ready for college.”
Thanks to numerous scholarships, studying for Gharib only costs several thousand dollars per semester. It has been agreed with the university that the father accompanies the son as a kind of supervision and assumes legal responsibilities. History is now Gharib’s main subject, and he is also taking courses in economics, psychology, Egyptology and poetry – partly in the building in south Manhattan, partly still at home on the computer because of the pandemic. “I have a lot of fun,” says Gharib. With his fellow students, some of whom are much older, everything is “completely normal”. “And my professors are all funny and they know everything.”
Praise comes from the university too: “It is a pleasure to teach Shahab,” says Pace University President Marvin Krislov, whose course on public education is Gharib. “He’s observant, intelligent, and engaging. He’s intellectually curious and actively participates in class discussions. He’s just a wonderful student.”
“Have a smart father and a smart mother”
He also cannot explain why he is academically so much faster than most other children, says Gharib. “I think a lot is genetics, I just have a smart father and a smart mother. But I don’t know, it has always been easy for me.” Was there something that he wasn’t so good at? “I can’t sing a note and I can’t play an instrument.”
His son is simply a “perfectly normal 13-year-old with a talent for learning,” says father Bardia Gharib, who used to run a successful boxing center in Bruchsal. “He has a talent for learning, he reads faster and can memorize things better than others. I don’t even know if I can say that he is ambitious. But what is definitely: If someone tells him that it won’t work – it’s over.” . “
Gharib was never drilled, emphasize father and son. “When I hear that, I laugh,” says the 13-year-old. “When I started a course, I didn’t stop. I sat on it and always said I would go on a little longer. And then he came and said: ‘Go out, have fun, don’t sit down all day inside. ‘ Well, it was the other way around. ” But his parents supported him and, among other things, moved from Florida to New York because of him, so that he could go to a good university and have an exciting environment. Gharib’s mother found a job as a nurse in the metropolis.
Playmobil is also a must
Gharib does not yet know exactly what he wants to become one day. “I can imagine anything. I can do anything. I can imagine law, but I think if I meet a professor who is a doctor and he takes me to a good medical school, then I can also imagine medicine, me really can’t say yet. ” First of all, he should actually do internships, says his father. “And his age is a problem again. Many companies will simply refuse because of his age, but he has to get a taste of professions.”
Gharib will probably have his bachelor’s degree in about two years – at 15. When he’s not studying, he likes to play with Lego or Playmobil, talk to his friends from Florida on the phone, watch films with his parents or go to the Metropolitan Museum with them . He wanted the annual pass when he graduated from high school. “We are very proud of him,” says Father Bardia. “But we also see him as the rascal he is.”
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