Just 14, he’s ready to head to college

Scott Thuong isn’t old enough to get a driver’s license, but he’ll attend college next fall.

The 14-year-old from Joplin received his high school diploma Saturday at a ceremony honoring graduates from MU High School.

The school offers all of its courses online and has national and international students. The school’s online format appeals to students who want to graduate early or have careers in athletics or performing arts.

By attending MU High School, Thuong is able to study at Missouri Southern State University four years earlier than he would if he had attended a traditional high school. Thuong plans to focus on his passion for mathematics and computer information science on a full scholarship.

“I feel that computer science is the thing of the future,” Thuong said. “A lot of processes today are becoming automated; it will allow me to become more successful in the work force.”

Thuong’s love for math was inspired by his father, who is a mathematics professor at MSSU.

“He advised me not to go into math, but of course I always secretly loved it,” he said. “And I feel that those two subjects (mathematics and computer information science) are very interrelated.”

After completing his undergraduate degree, Thuong plans to attend a top graduate school and then become a mathematics professor like his dad.

“I advised him to be an M.D. or a lawyer. He did not listen to me,” said his father, Tran Thuong. “Nobody can ask their son what they want them to do today. He has his own freedom; he completely has his own freedom.”

Thuong’s decision to complete high school four years early was his own, too, Tran Thuong said.

“I almost feel afraid to lose him. He’s only 14 and he’s ready to go to college,” Thuong said. “But that’s what he wanted, so I had to honor his wish.”

Of the high school’s 96 graduates, only 17 attended the afternoon ceremony in Memorial Union. One girl traveled from Pakistan to Columbia. For most of the students, the ceremony was the first time they met MU High School’s principal and counselor face-to-face, but that wasn’t the case for Thuong. Principal Kristi Smalley and counselor Alicia Bixby traveled to Joplin in May to watch Thuong be inducted into the Honors College at MSSU, where he will attend next fall.

“He’s a very mature, polite and self-possessed young man,” Bixby said. “He’s a great kid and he is extremely bright. He’s just really confident and well-spoken for a teenager.”

So bright, Bixby said, that he’s received the Bright Flight Scholarship, which is offered to Missouri students who receive a 30 or above on their ACT. When Bixby mentioned Thuong’s accomplishment at the ceremony and then added that he was only 14 years old, the audience gasped.

“He’s just a super-achiever, and that’s the kind of thing our admissions people are always looking for, the kind of student who’s not only an achiever but articulate,” said Von Pittman, director of the Center for Distance and Independent Study at MU. MU High School is a division of the center.

“He’s going to go a long way,” Pittman said, adding that he would love for Thuong to attend MU. “I talked to his dad about that, and his dad said, ‘Well 14 may be a little young for that’. We’ll take him for graduate school when he’s 18 or 17. We’ll be ready for him then.”

After the ceremony, Thuong shook his son’s hand firmly and smiled.

“He can teach himself, and that makes me very proud,” Thuong said, adding that his son often writes computer programs that he struggles to understand.

“It’s just the fact that he could do it. That he had it in him, the self-discipline and the motivation,” said Susan Thuong, his mother.

MU High School requires a lot of discipline, especially with having to manage classes at a traditional private school in Joplin, Scott Thuong said.

“I worked hard to get here, so I’d like to enjoy this day,” Thuong said. “It’s a lot of honor.”

The youngest graduate from MU High School was a 13-year-old boy from Australia who graduated in 2002. Smalley said about 600 students are working toward their high school diploma from the online school.