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Vanderpool prepares for college journey at 12 years of age
When you think of most 12-year-olds, we envision a youth on the verge of growing into their teen years but still young at heart with their thoughts.
Now meet Samuel Vanderpool.
While most 12-year-old are preparing for sixth or seventh grade of school, Vanderpool is preparing for his first semester at Blinn Junior College as a freshman studying biology.
“It feels really good,” Vanderpool said of his acceptance to Blinn Junior College. “I’m still a bit shocked by myself. I’m still trying to process that I have been accepted myself.
Vanderpool is a homeschooled student of Texas Online Preparatory and will be attending the Sealy campus of Blinn Junior College.
Being homeschooled, Vanderpool doesn’t believe he missed anything by not attending a public-school setting.
“I feel like I learned what I needed in online school because it’s not really that different from in person,” Vanderpool said.
For Vanderpool, this is a natural progression of his educational process. By two years of age, he was reading the words off a paper plastic bag to his parents.
“The words on the bag read ‘This is not a toy,’ and I was reading them when I was two,” Vanderpool said.
Vanderpool also was reading the words on television show “Family Feud” as well at the age of two, and when he was four years old, he dreamed of being a transplant surgeon and visiting the UT Medical Branch in Galveston.
He said the decision to apply and attend Blinn was an easy one. He will begin classes in August of this year.
“I felt like it was a good option,” Vanderpool said. “It’s closer than some other schools because it offers biology classes. I’m very excited to start classes there. I think that medicine, especially surgery, is very interesting to me.”
Vanderpool has a variety of hobbies outside of excelling in the classroom such as collecting fountain pens, reading, playing piano, cooking and right now he is learning Filipino.
And as he prepares to begin college, Vanderpool still has time to do some of the things that other 12-year-olds do such as play video games.
“I like to play video games with my siblings,” Vanderpool said.
And what do his friends think about him heading to college this year?
“They weren’t real ly shocked. They just expected this, too,” Vanderpool said.
Vanderpool plans to attend Bl inn and then transfer to University of Texas.
“I want to go to UT and then once I’m done, I’m going to get my degree,” Vanderpool said. “Then I’m going to go to medical school. And I’m once I get my medical degree; I want to be be a surgeon in Texas here or somewhere in the United States.”
And where does Vanderpool see himself five years from now?
“I’m seeing myself at a university,” Vanderpool said. “I see myself being on campus at a university.”
He said the support of his family and parents have spurred on this educational journey.
And what is his message of Colorado County youth?
“If you work hard, then you can do anything that you want and you can succeed,” Vanderpool said.
