Gifted Turkish boy eyes university entry at 15

Beyazıt Şenbük - ANKARA

A gifted boy from the western province of İzmir, Muhammed Hakan Nayiş, who learned to read and write at two and finished primary school at eight, is eyeing entering university at 15 next year, while chasing the Harvard dream.

Starting his high school life with the success of being able to be enrolled in ARGEM, the only official school for talented and gifted students with an IQ of 150 and above, located in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, Nayiş won many awards in the field of computers and mathematics by learning coding and software through his own efforts.

“I took a difficult exam to take classes at my school’s advanced placement center. The university-degree courses I take in the center allow me to be open to offers from international universities and to start university exempt from these core courses.”

“In this way, I plan to finish the university two years early,” said Nayiş, adding that he aims to be the youngest university graduate in Türkiye.

“My goal is to study software, electrical-electronics, artificial intelligence at Harvard University, Oxford University, Stanford University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” the young prodigy said, noting that he has been focused on working at NASA since the age of seven.

While his peers have taken the high school entrance exam (LGS) recently, this is his third year in high school.

Nayiş, who is living in the Aegean province of İzmir, stated that he is targeting Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University as well.

Nayiş developed some projects after participating in the camps of Scientific and Technical Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) and Roketsan, Turkish rocket producer.

“The social responsibility project related to children is one of the most important of these.”

“Within the scope of this project, I taught more than 100 online and face-to-face lessons to other children about what I have learned and experienced in the fields of mathematics and software,” he said.

Nayiş also pointed out that the project also enabled other students participating in the courses to earn degrees in some competitions.

The gifted boy has written 50 scientific articles and a storybook, which is in preparation for publication.

Nayiş, who has mastered a variety of instruments, including the guitar, piano, violin and bağlama, an indigenous Turkish lute-like instrument, also wrote a book of compositions.

The intelligence he has is genetic, according to Nayiş, the only child of a sociologist mother and a music teacher father.

The giftedness of Nayiş, who learned to read and write at the age of two and finished primary school at the age of eight, passed the classes by leaps, was recognized with an IQ test performed at the age of five.