WJXT: He's 7 years old and starting college

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He's 7 years old and starting college
Florida State College at Jacksonville's youngest student is math genius

By Melanie Lawson - The Morning Show anchor

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Most 7-year-old boys are focused on playing sports and hanging out with friends. This boy is doing all that while getting ready to take pre-calculus at Florida State College of Jacksonville.

Cameron is kind of like a math superhero. He attends River City Science Academy during the day but by afternoon he turns into the youngest student at FSCJ. Charles Aybar, a professor of mathematics at FSCJ, says Cameron is inspirational.

"I was glad to teach him he picked up on things. I think he elevated the other students. Once they realized that a 7-year-old was taking the class and doing well, I think I got a lot more As in that particular class than I would have normally gotten," says Aybar.

Cameron's parents knew he was special at the young age of 3.

"In preschool he was doing times tables. He had his times tables memorized, he was doing math," his mom, Sandy Robinson, said.

For Cameron, math comes naturally.

"I wasn't exactly born knowing math, I was just taught math for a long period of time," he said.

Cameron's "long period of time" could take some a lifetime. This little guy turns a soccer game into an equation.

"All I know, you can use calculus with it," Cameron said.

He might get some of his affinity for math from his dad. Greg Robinson has a PhD in quantitative analysis. These two work together and challenge each other.

When asking Greg if he excelled in school when he was younger, Cameron answered.

"No, I saw a report card when you were 5 and it said Greg's not applying himself, especially in reading," Cameron said.

The Robinsons' challenge is making sure Cameron's education matches his ability.

"When Greg signed him (Cameron) up for intermediate algebra, I was like, 'Maybe we should start with the first algebra class, and Greg was like, "No, he's already got that." He (Cameron) just dove right in," Sandy said.

Cameron studies for hours a day.

"On weekends, I do like five to six hours a day. On weekdays, I probably do like like an hour or two hours," says Cameron.

"He also rides his bike, loves building with Legos and plays video games, but he clearly has a gift, that this family is determined to see develop into greatness.

"He had already shown that he could do the work so I wanted to get him in that environment. Really there is no goal to get him to want to be in NASA by the time he's 16. It’s really just hoping to develop his brain in the best way that he possibly can and not stagnant," Greg said.

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