Teen Founder Who Became The First Black Valedictorian At His High School Finishes First Year At Stanford With A 4.05 GPA

Ahmed Muhammad continues to level up.

The Oakland teen who went viral after launching a science education business for kids has officially closed out his first year at Stanford with a 4.05 GPA.

Previously, Muhammad touched the world when he became the first Black valedictorian to graduate from the Oakland Technical High School.

What’s more, he credits his most recent success to the skills he learned throughout high school.

“My classes at Stanford in terms of how I approached them weren’t too much different from what my teachers required of me in high school,” said the 19-year-old in an interview with KTVU. “I didn’t understand why they were expecting so much in high school, why they were tough on me, but now, come to college, I’m directly applying what they taught me.”

Impacting The Next Generation

As previously reported by AfroTech, during his time at Oakland Technical, Muhammad launched Kits Cubed, an educational nonprofit designed to equip children with hands-on science experiences. The affordable and accessible kits can be used by the youth to make science an everyday part of their lives.

His inspiration for starting the organization stemmed from his niece and nephew who once told him that they were “bad” at science.

“Whenever I babysit them, we do things like play chess, play video games, read books or watch TV or whatever,” he previously explained. “When I tried to do science with them, they were like, ‘No, I hate science. I’m bad at it.’ I went into my room and I pulled out some science books. Then I went online and did some research and was able to design some science experiments for them to do at home. The materials consisted of just stuff we have around the house, and they loved it.”

A Brighter Future

Now, he is developing a pilot program to try to get Kits Cubed into public schools throughout the city of Oakland.

“So kids can actually take home the material and expand on the material that their teachers taught them,” Muhammad said, according to KTVU.

He continued: “It’s based on the same philosophy for kids to explore the things they know and are familiar with to show science is all around them.”