Whizz-kid Wynter graduates UCC after starting degree programme at 13

Whizz-kid Malik Wynter is elated that at 19 years old, unlike the average youth his age, he has already conquered university life and is now the holder of a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC).

Wynter, who was the youngest graduate to cross the stage at the National Arena during the recent UCC’s Commencement Ceremony, said he was rejected by the University of Technology six years ago because he was not yet 16 years or older.

He joined the UCC at age 13 with the intention of pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, but after enrolling, he said, “Ha! No!” and changed it to an information technology major immediately.

“That was my first thing that I did when I went there, to actually fix up the documents,” he told The Gleaner during a recent interview.

Wynter is also elated that his entry to the UCC paved the way for the development of a new scholarship for youngsters like him.

“It’s actually very funny, the story behind that one. UCC does not give full scholarships as far as I know. I got a half scholarship. It was specifically created for me because Dr [Viviene] DeOkoro arranged with the university as a case to create that scholarship, and I believe some other people have gotten that scholarship. So in some indirect way, I’ve done some good in the world,” he said.

His studies at the UCC were meant to take place over four years as a full-time student but given that he was doing it part time, while still pursuing his secondary-level education at the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented, located in St Andrew, he took five years instead.

However, Wynter is happy that things worked out the way they did. To him, it was serendipity because it was more convenient for him to leave his home, attend DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented and the UCC.

After doubling his efforts and graduating with a bachelor’s at 19 years old, Wynter believes that there needs to be a shift in the general education culture in Jamaica to facilitate “bright students” like him so that they are not forced to endure the long process of going from grade to grade. To him, that can be harmful to them.

“Education culture in Jamaica is too focused on pieces of paper that don’t mean anything. After all, even though I’ve graduated with my bachelor’s degree, the only reason why that is noteworthy is because of the age I did it at. People need to stop seeing book learning as the only means by which people can derive real knowledge, and they should, instead, start to focus on more practical courses with practical industry-recognised certification in the relevant fields,” Wynter told The Gleaner in outlining his stance on academics.

“This way, people can spend less time in school, which is good because we’ll have more young people in the general economy producing value, paying taxes, and so forth, and they can spend more of their working life earning money so that when they retire [or] have their children, they are better able to take care of themselves, remain independent, [and] so on [and] so forth,” he said.

An easy feat

Unlike for the typical teenager, balancing academics at the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented and the UCC was an easy feat for Wynter.

“What I would do is I would finish up my high-school class work early, and then because the schools were close, my parents arranged for me to be taken from that school and be taken to my university classes whenever, usually day-to-day or early morning, sometimes six ‘til eight at night [after classes]. Whatever the time needed to be, it was arranged,” Wynter told The Gleaner.

Regarding studying and focusing for both institutions, he said “studying has never been a major part of education”.

“It’s more about taking the material and doing what I like to call ‘dehydrating it’. You know how you have condensed milk without the water content? So I would take the lesson, for example, say, is something to do with calculus, and then I would strip away all the English words and try to understand it as a continuous moving concept, visualise it, break it down, and then I would apply it somewhere and then apply it with a slightly different context until I fully understand the concept and then I apply that to the school work ... and in so doing, I minimise my need to study,” the whizz-kid explained.

For subjects that require memorisation and regurgitation, such as history, he crafts a story in his mind, and memorises important dates with “mnemonic tools or simply just remembering them by rote”.

Six years ago, Wynter sat and passed six subjects in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations before he reached the age of 13 years, which helped to secure his place at the UCC, and which was a trajectory the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented helped him to visualise achieving.

“Before I was enrolled in the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented, what ended up happening was I was moving from the primary school I was in, and my parents wanted me to get into Vaz [Preparatory School]. I was 12. We went to interview at the school ... . They asked me a few questions. I started going off in peculiar things like binary and coding, and that teacher who was interviewing me took me to the principal, and they said, ‘We can’t handle you, but we have contacts at the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented’, so they referred my parents to that school, and I started attending courses there,” Wynter said.

‘Don’t believe I’m a genius’

“I don’t actually believe I’m a genius. I had one of my fellow students at the university, during a programming class, he said it best to me: ‘We’re not smart. We’re smart enough to realise how stupid we are, though’,” he quipped said.

After enrolling in the DeOkoro Magnet School for the Gifted & Talented, he said its principal, DeOkoro, encouraged him to pursue CSEC. However, before pursuing CSEC, he did Caribbean Certificate Secondary Level Competence programme examinations at 12 years.

Given that he was already enrolled at UCC, he said he saw no need to pursue Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations studies.

Now that Wynter has achieved a life goal many others his age, globally, will never achieve, his parents, Kevin Wynter and Gillian Costley, are immensely proud of his performance.

“We’re proud of him. I knew from he was probably about two of three [years of age] that he was not like regular children because his method of playing was a bit different. His playing took the form of learning, so you could tell that he wasn’t just very care free. As he developed, we realised that based on how he spoke, even young, that he seemed to be wise in what he is saying,” Costley told The Gleaner.

She said her son’s grade-one teacher also identified his super skills when he could answer her questions without paying full attention to her.

As a whizz-kid, Costley said she had to allow her son to speak his mind and give him the space to feel comfortable to let her know what he felt.

Wynter has started pursuing a master’s in cybersecurity and data-privacy protection at the UCC. After completing this programme, he wants to be free from the education sector and open his own cybersecurity consulting company or become a software developer for security products, security application, and solutions.

“I don’t want to stay in education after I complete my master’s ... . That’s not particularly a high priority for myself right now, and being in school your entire life, I’m sick of school,” he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com