14-year-old whiz kid about to graduate college, already hired at SpaceX

A precocious 14-year-old boy from the Bay Area will be the youngest ever graduate from Santa Clara University next week before starting his new job at SpaceX next month.

Kairan Quazi can’t drive, vote or even go see an R-rated movie, but on Saturday he will receive his degree in computer science and engineering that’s landed him a job at Elon Musk’s spacecraft manufacturing company.

Quazi, who is originally from Pleasanton in Alameda County, was already speaking in full sentences at just two years old, his parents told KGO.

Early on in his education career, he realized he was different from his peers.

“During third grade, it became very obvious to my teachers, my parents, and my pediatrician that mainstream education wasn’t the right path for my accelerated learning ability,” Quazi told the outlet.

His family learned he had an abnormally high IQ, as well as an emotional intelligence that makes him seem much more mature.

At just nine years old, he enrolled at Las Positas Community College before transferring to SCU when he was 11.

While most students don’t graduate from college until their 22 or so, Quazi did not find his college experience strange.

“There wasn’t anything to compare it to say oh this is different. But I really enjoyed it – I made a lot of close friends. I think after a few days the novelty of me being there wore off,” Quazi told the outlet.

He found college to be far more rewarding than his elementary school curriculum.

“I went from being a third grade mutineer to really feeling validated intellectually,” Quazi said.

Before transferring to SCU, Quazi had already begun working at Intel Labs. He was the only undergraduate intern on his team, he said.

The whiz-kid said he didn’t feel that he was “missing out on childhood” as some have suggested, but instead has appreciated the opportunity to have experiences beyond his years.

“I think again that mindset would have me graduating middle school now and I don’t think it makes sense for someone that’s able to take rigorous graduate electives work in a prestigious co-op – I am joining SpaceX as a software engineer,” Quazi said.

The teen still lives in an apartment with his mother, whom Quazi said was his biggest supporter.

They’re preparing to move to Washington state in July when Quazi joins SpaceX’s Starlink team, according to KGO.