At just 10 years old, the Mexican Michelle Arellano, a girl from the Mexican southeast with an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 158, two points below Albert Einstein, will study medicine at the University of Massachusetts.
Michelle Arellano, a native of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital of the state of Chiapas, is considered a girl genius, a characteristic present in three out of every 100 children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and dreams of being a doctor, marine biologist and actress, she tells Efe this Monday in an interview.
“My dream is to become a great doctor and be able to cure cancer, autism, a marine biologist and an actress,” she says.
When she was a year and a half old she learned to speak English as well as Spanish, at the age of 4 she already knew how to read and write, and now she is fluent in French, Italian and German.
He passed the primary, secondary and recently the test of the National Center for the Evaluation of Higher Education (Ceneval) to certify his high school.
“I am happy because I have already accredited elementary, middle, and high school,” he says.
The little girl will start her university studies in August, the first two years will be virtual classes and then they will be face-to-face in the United States, details Karina Guillén Cruz, her mother.
Arellano is also considered an artist, she draws, paints, plays the piano, and has also been outstanding in swimming, basketball and is a black belt in taekwondo, among other disciplines.
Despite her talents, she is a girl like any other, she plays with dolls, is a lover of animals, of paper origami and is eager to start her classes on August 29.
BEING GENIUS, A PATH OF EFFORT
Guillén Cruz, who is a surgeon, recounts that finding the way and understanding her daughter was distressing and frustrating.
He had to consult specialists, searched the Internet for similar cases, but found little.
At the same time, she dealt with the system, because her girl was rejected from five primary schools in Chiapas, because they did not want to accept her because of her IQ, arguing that the teachers might not deal with her intelligence.
“It’s not easy either because you go to an institution, you run into excuses, it’s that this and that, it’s that age. The truth is, I exerted a lot of pressure,” says the mother.
As soon as a school accepted her, her parents asked the Secretary of Education in Chiapas to move her up a grade, because Arellano was bored in class, because in a couple of hours she learned everything, she added.
The Ministry of Education agreed: from fourth year, he went to sixth grade. Then, with a single evaluation, he accredited elementary school in November 2021, middle school in March 2022, and high school on July 4.
“Since I found out regarding the diagnosis, I have not let go of my daughter, we are walking step by step according to how she feels, because yes: we have tried to be very careful with her emotional and physical integrity,” says Karina Guillén Cruz .
Both now look to parents of gifted children to guide them and form a support network because the little girl wants everyone to have opportunities to learn.
“That they talk to their parents so that the teachers know regarding these children and can help them with special classes,” says the girl.
