9-Year-Old Bucks Boy Is A High School Graduate

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —David Balogun rattles off a list of occupations in a heartbeat, firing off professions most of us would never dream of as a career. Among his list is a rocket engineer.

Spend any time with this 9-year-old and it's easy to tell that David is already a rocket scientist.

He's also a high school graduate.

The Bensalem Township boy celebrated his high school graduation from the Reach Cyber Charter, a statewide, tuition-free online school based in Harrisburg, early this month.

In a 45-minute Zoom call with Patch Friday afternoon, David appeared with his mother Ronya, father Henry, and 6-year-old sister Eliana, a third-grader who said it's "pretty cool" to have a brother already through high school.

When David is first seen, he has a sticker on his forehead. Asked about it, he responds that it's the nucleus of an atom.

His parents said that David attended a private school in Philadelphia and was tested for being gifted at age 6.

"He was always asking questions about whatever," his father said.

When the pandemic hit, David's parents said they didn't like how the school was adapting to Covid 19 so they explored other educational opportunities, finding the Reach Cyber Charter School.

David started out at Reach Cyber in 2020 as a third grader. And with the help of the cyber school’s educators, counselors, gifted program, and flexible pacing options, he zipped through the 12th grade, taking 21 online classes.

He is expected to get his diploma sometime in June during a graduation ceremony at State College, school officials said.

David has a fondness for Black Holes. He lists astrophysicist, economist, and rocket engineer as job titles and engineering, software development, nuclear chemistry, and website developer as professions.

At one point, David wanted to be an astronaut, his mother said. But David crossed that off the list.

"Space is too dangerous," said David, who then calculates the micro-seconds the crew of Apollo 13 had left before splashing down in the ocean in 1970, sparing NASA of a tragedy. The mission was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks in 1995.

Next up for David are online courses at Bucks County Community College. Both those classes don't start until March.

So David occupies his time. He clowns around with his sister. And he builds robots out of Legos. He's also been doing martial arts for the past five years in hopes of becoming a Black Belt in the next few months.

Outside of school, David won the 2022 Distinguished Student Award from the Pennsylvania Association of Gifted Education and is a member of Mensa, the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world.

He's also certified in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Word.

David also serves as a dyamics software engineer for Primehangout.com, a social media company his father —who holds two doctorate degrees in psychology and divinity—created for him.

His parents hope to get David into an Ivy League university. But that is a challenge.

With David's age, most colleges do not have programs for child prodigies. His mother said Harvard does. But even with that, she said it's impossible to fill out a college application online because no one will accept David due to his age.

"I even had to drive in person to Bucks County Community College before he was accepted," she added.

But his mother said, despite David's genius, he's still a 9-year-old.

"He doesn't make his bed," his mother said.

"He leaves his clothes all over the floor," said his mother.

David understands the odds are stacked against him.

"I'm not the only one who can do this," he said. "Others though don't have the resources."

David throws out some statistics. He said 60 percent of gifted kids drop out of high school because they are bored. And that many gifted children like him just aren't challenged enough.

"You have to find places to improve and to help society improve with you," he said.

His mother knows the responsibility she and her husband have to get David down the right path to success.

"I have to lead him to where he's supposed to be," she said. "It takes a village to get to where David is."