“Again?” Phillip Pham (’15) laughs when being asked for an interview.

As a sixteen year old senior, he gets a lot of attention for being the youngest of the grade.

When he was younger, Pham skipped kindergarten because he went to a private school which let students skip a grade when they were too smart for their classes as opposed to being put in the gifted program. In the earlier years, it made more of a difference.

“When I turned 10 [in 7th grade] I was so excited. I turned a decade and everyone just looked at me weird,” Pham says. “In other grades it was a lot worse, everyone else was teenagers and they were all cool and stuff and I just wasn’t.”

Now, Pham is more comfortable with the attention. Teachers constantly comment on his age as a way to bond with him.

“[My teachers] make a lot of jokes. Mr. Brady, every time he sees me, he makes a joke,” chuckles Pham. “IB exams are coming up and Mr. Brady’s like ‘I know a lot of people won’t have rides or don’t know what to do after the exam. Don’t worry Phillip, we’ll set up a daycare for you’.”

Despite the age difference, Pham’s friends see him as their equal. His friends try to include him in their social outings, but sometimes his age gets in the way.

“All my friends went to watch Fifty Shades of Grey and I couldn’t watch it because I can’t get into a rated R movie,” said Pham. “And I’m kind of a wimp, I wouldn’t sneak into a movie.”

Pham does not plan to tell anyone in college that he just turned seventeen.

“I act the same way as everyone else, age is just a number. Usually you say that when you’re older but it’s cool when you can say it when you’re younger.”