An African-American man who could not speak until he was age 11 has set a new record at Cambridge university for being the youngest black professor.
The seasoned Sociology professor, Jason Arday, narrated his ups and down while growing up as an autistic child and the important role his mother played in the journey to his success.
Arday said he was diagnosed with global development delay and autism spectrum disorder at three years old when he couldn’t speak as every normal child but could only communicate with sign language.
READ ALSO: Disability is not impossibility: Disabled Nigerian man converts wheelchair into provision store
He said at age 11 he was able to make his first sentence correctly after spending some of his childhood years with speech and language therapists.
Specialists told his family that he would likely need long life support, but amazingly, Arday was able to break free.
The young professor could not read or write until he was 18 years old
One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge: Arday
The young man, despite all his challenges, made writing on his mother’s wall after completing college, two Master’s programs, PGCE to become a teacher, and while studying for his Ph.D. at Liverpool John Moores University, which he funded himself with the money gotten from his part-time work at Sainsbury’s and Boots that he would one day become a worker at Oxford or Cambridge University.
Amazingly, Arday today is the youngest-ever Black professor at Cambridge University despite all the odds from his childhood. He is a professor of Sociology at the university.
Believe that everything is possible
Arday said the main point of his story is for other young people who are facing one challenge or the other to believe that everything is possible.
Arday’s story is sure testimony and words of encouragement to many physically, mentally, or emotionally challenged others. He said he knew what he wanted, and he worked for it.
READ MORE: Nigerian Mum Breaks 149-Year-old Record, Becomes First Black Woman to Bag PhD in Pure Mathematics
British-Nigerian boy Joshua Beckford listed as smartest kids on earth
Meanwhile, a British – Nigerian boy at age 6 broke a record by becoming the youngest student ever to be admitted to Oxford University, UK.
The child genius was granted admission to study Philosophy and History at the university. Noted to be a genius and one of the world’s most brilliant minds
Joshua’s father, Knox Daniel, witnessed Joshua master the computer keyboard just by sitting next to him and realized was no ordinary boy despite being an autistic child.
