Carroll University student graduates at age 18 despite health challenges
A Hartland student who enrolled in college at age 14 has now graduated at 18 — an age when most of his peers are graduating from high school.
Anthony Sikorski of Hartland graduated from Carroll University on May 13, with a bachelor's degree in biology along with minors in biochemistry and math.
His achievement comes despite numerous health challenges, including cystic fibrosis; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS); Ehlers-Danlos, a genetic disorder that affects a person's connective issues, primarily the skin, joints and blood vessel walls; adrenal insufficiency and, more recently, Crohn's disease.
He has been accepted into the Medical College of Wisconsin and is waiting to hear whether he's been accepted into Marquette University Law School. He plans to start either program this fall.
"Being 18 when everyone else who is graduating with me is 22ish or older gives me a hard-earned four year's time advantage over everyone else where I can do something that will give me an advanced degree that will let me keep learning, keep expanding my mind, but that I have a little more time to figure out what I may do in life," he said.
It's an achievement Anthony's mother, Jill, is proud of.
"There are not enough words for me to describe the happiness and excitement and joy for him that he was able to graduate from college at 18 years old —and even being hospitalized with Crohn's disease and wearing a spine brace, none of that stopped him from getting a 4.0 GPA since the eighth grade.
"As a parent, we're proud of our children for so, so many things. But for him, it's not just the pride of completing college summa cum laude, it's the pride of completing college through all the challenges that he went through. And that's phenomenal," she said.
Anthony's earlier years
Jill Sikorski knew her son was smart even when he was very young.
Already at age 2, Anthony was reading books and at age 4 was doing math, she said. By the time he was 5, the Sikorskis enlisted the help of world-renowned psychologist Sylvia Rimm.
"She (Rimm) only really expected to have to grade-skip him once, but he just outshined. Every time she tested him with his IQ and his achievement tests showing what he knew for each grade, he just maxed them out," Jill said.
Anthony skipped four full grades and six grades of math. When he was 9 and an eighth-grader at Swallow School in Merton, Anthony started taking a geometry class at Arrowhead High School. He started full time at Arrowhead at age 10.
During his senior year at Arrowhead, Anthony was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, one of 161 students recognized nationwide. The honor recognizes students for accomplishments in the academic, arts and career and technical education fields.
He graduated from Arrowhead in 2019 at 14 years old with a 4.0 GPA; he enrolled at Carroll University that fall.
Dealing with health issues while at Carroll
Anthony's intelligence and love of learning has been tested throughout his life.
He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age, as well as Ehlers-Danlos, POTS and adrenal insufficiency, all conditions that continue to affect him. His younger brother, William, deals with similar health challenges.
When at Carroll, Anthony said he made it through the first four semesters "without really being sick at all." Before that stretch, the last time he was in the hospital was October 2018 due to pneumonia.
"It was actually a miracle," Anthony said.
But in early 2021, Anthony was diagnosed with scoliosis, an abnormal curvature of the spine. From February to December 2021, he wore a spine brace, a hard plastic casing that covered his entire chest and back.
"It doesn't really fix the scoliosis. It just keeps it from getting worse until the growth plates close. Unless I was eating, going to the bathroom or showering or doing my vest treatments at night, I basically wore it all the times of the day," Anthony said. Vest treatments treat his cystic fibrosis, clearing his airway by breaking up mucus.
As the year went along, Anthony had horrible gut pains each night. In December 2021, he was hospitalized for two weeks and had a colonoscopy. The test revealed that he had Crohn's disease, which causes inflammation in the digestive tract.
"It certainly came out of left field," Anthony said of the diagnosis.
To treat it, Anthony receives an IV infusion of a monoclonal antibody every month that prevents the inflammation from returning. The downside is that since it's an immunosuppressive medication, he has to be careful when he leaves home about who he's around and for how long.
But he has settled into a routine with the treatments.
"It's not that bad once you get everything under control. We do these treatments, we take these pills because we know if we don't, my brother and I will run the really high risk of getting sick with something," said Anthony.
By the time he had to miss the last couple weeks of the fall 2021 semester due to his Crohn's diagnosis, he had built up a rapport with his professors that enabled him to have nonessential work waived at the end of the semester.
He also did a final exam as a phone interview with a Carroll University anatomy professor for a COVID-19 related project he had done as a biology capstone project.
Anthony said he has always put in as much hard work and dedication as he could to his classes.
"I've never entertained the thought of skipping class for any reason or even missing for, say, a medical appointment, unless absolutely necessary," said Anthony.
Music is also close to his heart
Anthony said he enjoyed "almost every class" he took at Carroll, though his favorites were preorganic chemistry and biochemistry classes.
He chose to major in biology for two reasons.
"I have a very vested personal interest in understanding human health and the human body, the way things work and the way that things sometimes don't work. Two, I don't really like physics," he said. "You do not need to know physics to do biology. You need to know physics to do chemistry and biochemistry."
Outside of the classes for his major, Anthony also enjoyed classes such as music history. That interest in music carries over to his free time, where he plays piano and enjoys listening to classical music.
"I have two entire bookshelves where their sole function is to hold the music I've accumulated over the past many years," said Anthony.
He noted that he doesn't usually talk about his conditions and age unless someone asks. "The age and the medical conditions rarely ever came up. I think that people were very willing to treat me in terms of how I presented myself, how I always strived to compose myself well, and in turn, I tried to reciprocate as best as I could," Anthony said.
Jill said Anthony "is an old soul," as well as a deep thinker, avid listener and learner.
"He has a heart of gold. He is sensitive. He is strong. He is resilient. He has a lot of grit. At the end of the day, he's just a wonderful, kind and loving person. Having a mind like his is amazing, but a heart like his is just as amazing," said Sikorski.
Advice for others
Anthony said he has gotten through his health battles by having a positive mental attitude and having academic goals to strive for, including earning a 4.0 GPA.
"I wanted to end out with a 4.0 not just for the number, but because it meant to me that I knew what I wanted, and I put in as much work as was necessary — in many cases more work than what was necessary. That I took everything that I learned from my courses and applied it not just to the coursework, but to life in general," said Anthony. "I knew what I was working for. I was working to show that all the grades I've skipped when I was younger, that that had a purpose; to dispel any doubts about my age being able to accomplish at a younger age what would be expected of people at an older age."
His message to others is that while things like genetics and age are out of one's control, there are things you can control, such as your goals and how you respond to challenges.
"Work hard. Know what you're working toward. Understand that life is challenging, and life can be cruel, but if you keep an optimistic, realistic attitude about things, taking everything good and bad in stride as it comes and always vowing to move forward, to reach that goal, to honor everybody who placed their trust in you, then ultimately you will succeed at what you want to do," he said.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Carroll University graduate is 18 years old; has battled health
