Now studying for two online degrees at once, Adhara Pérez hopes to attend college in the U.S. soon
She may not have reached double digits in terms of age, but Adhara Pérez is well into the triple-digit IQ range.
The 8-year-old Mexico City native reportedly boasts an intelligence quotient of 162 — a score slightly higher than notable geniuses Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, who each had an estimated IQ of 160.
When she was 3, Pérez was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, according to the Yucatan Times. Included on the autism spectrum, the developmental disorder can cause difficulties with social interactions.
The girl told the outlet she was “made a mockery at school.” Other students would bully Pérez, calling her names like “weirdo” and “oddball.”
“I saw that Adhara was playing in a little house and they locked her up. And they started to chant: ‘Oddball, weirdo!’” her mother, Nallely Sanchez, told the outlet. “And then they started hitting the little house. So I said, I don’t want her to suffer.”
Pérez then fell into a “very deep” depression, according to Sanchez, with the bright young pupil not wanting to go to school anymore. Teachers said Pérez would sleep in class, showing an apparent lack of interest.
Sanchez, aware of her daughter’s unusual smartness at home, recognized the current education plan wasn’t the right fit for her daughter, and took Pérez to therapy, she told the outlet.
From there, the girl’s extremely high IQ was identified, and she was able to seek a learning environment that adapts to students’ unique skill sets.
In no time at all, Pérez finished elementary school by 5, middle school by 6 and high school by 8, according to the Yucatan Times. Now she’s reportedly in the process of earning two degrees online, one in industrial engineering in mathematics and one in systems engineering.
La pequeña Adhara Pérez es una niña prodigio orgullosamente mexicana que nos dejó impresionados a todos en @cddelasideas. A sus 8 años ya estudia una carrera en IngenierÃa Industrial y su más grande sueño es ser cientÃfica y convertirse en una astronauta para trabajar en la NASA.
The child genius — who wrote a book about her experiences with a title that roughly translates to Do Not Give Up — was even featured in Forbes México‘s 100 Most Powerful Women in Mexico list.
Vogue México reports that Pérez is developing a new smart bracelet that’s able to monitor the emotions of differently abled children, anticipating and preventing seizures and other outbursts.
Looking to the future, Sanchez plans to take Pérez to the United States in order to take entrance exams at the University of Arizona, the girl’s dream school. Pérez, now learning English to prepare for the opportunity, wants to explore astrophysics. Someday, she’d like to be an astronaut, the Yucatan Times reports.
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