But he also sees such judgments, when made about him, as an opportunity “to prove them wrong,” he said.
He admitted that he is also bothered when people judge other people because of their age. It bothers him that children who like to learn are sometimes ostracized for exhibiting their intelligence. When talking to groups of children, he tries to refute a common stereotype that learning is “only for nerds and geeks,” he said. When overseas, he speaks through the use of local interpreters when necessary, although he tries to learn a few phrases in the native language of each place he visits, such as this quote from Kenya’s first president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta: Amani, upendo, na umoja idumu milele, which translates, Smith said, as “peace, love and unity - forever and ever.”ĭuring his talks, Smith advocates education for all children, as well as “peaceful parenting,” a term he has coined to connote “loving and caring parenting that instills moral values in children and that does not permit children to be exposed to overly violent situations,” including movies, television programs or computer games, he said. The founder of International Youth Advocates, an organization that promotes principles of peace and understanding among young people throughout the world, Smith has visited nine countries, and has traveled extensively throughout the United States. He tries to fit his public speaking engagements around his academic calendar, preferring to travel on weekends, during spring and winter breaks, and over the summer than miss any classes. When not voraciously learning, this young man travels the globe as a peace and children’s rights activist. He said he especially likes “the thinking and logic that comes with the study of math,” and sees how the ability to think logically through complex problems can directly benefit future political, business and social activities in which he might become involved.īut “genius” is only one half of the Greg Smith story. on June 9, 2003, his 14th birthday, to begin graduate work in mathematics. He then attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., where he earned a bachelor of science degree cum laude, with a major in mathematics and minors in history and biology. Smith began public high school at age 7 and two years later graduated with honors from Orange Park High School in Florida. It only took him one year, for example, to advance from second to eighth grade. Smith of Keswick, Va., graduates at age 16, he will be the youngest person ever to receive a master’s degree from the University of Virginia.Ī child prodigy whose IQ reportedly tests “off the bell curve,” Smith was memorizing and reciting books at 14 months, adding numbers at 18 months and taking in the information presented to him by his parents and earliest teachers like a super computer.
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