12-year-old Mesa boy with autism accepted into Arizona State University

By HOLLY BOCK

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    MESA, Arizona (KPHO, KTVK) — A Mesa 12-year-old isn’t in junior high like the other kids his age. He’s so smart, he’s already graduating high school and just got accepted into college! Monty Hernandez is making history at only 12 years old. He will be the youngest person to graduate from Skyline High School. He will be an Arizona State University Sun Devil in the fall, attending classes with his much older peers. “Did I mention I’m excited for college?” Monty said.

Monty started junior college when he was only 9 years old. Right now, he is a dual-enrolled student through Skyline High and Mesa Community College. “His junior college classes are physics and pre-calculus right now,” Monty’s mother, Danielle Hernandez, said.

At his age, he’s taking classes most high school seniors would be in. The young boy has big dreams and plans to chase them as a Sun Devil. “He got accepted as a biochem major,” Danielle said.

He even knows exactly what he wants to be when he is older. “I want to be a neurosurgeon,” Monty said. Danielle said Monty was diagnosed with autism and a heart condition at a young age. “He was in speech therapy and special education from 3 years old to 5 years old,” Hernandez said. “His IQ test came back gifted so that’s when they knew he was gifted at that point.”

Since he was little, Monty has loved learning. He always had his head in a book or was working on science and math projects. Growing up, Monty skipped many grades, and now, the future Sun Devil is even setting the bar high for those in his family. “He will be our first to go to college even though he’s our youngest, which is kind of weird,” Hernandez said.

Monty is, of course, too young to drive so his mom will be taking him to and from campus. Monty said he would also like to go to medical school.

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