Moshe Kai Cavalin has a stunning resume.
By Raif Karerat
Moshe Kai Cavalin is a 17-year-old who already has two college degrees to his name. He graduated from community college at the ripe old age of 11 and had a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles four years later.
Earlier this year, he started online classes to get a master’s in cybersecurity through the Boston area’s Brandeis University, but put those plans on hold in order to work with NASA on the development of surveillance technology for airplanes and drones.
According to the Associated Press, he just published his second book, drawing on his and others’ experiences being bullied, and he plans to have his airplane pilot’s license by the year’s end. He’s also a trophy-laden martial artist.
Cavalin credits his parents for years of focused instruction coupled with the freedom to pick his after-school activities. His eclectic interests stem from his cultural heritage, he said, with a mother from Taiwan and a father from Brazil.
After he finishes his master’s from Brandeis, Cavalin hopes to get a master’s in business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later, he wants to start his own cybersecurity company.
Currently though, he’s counting down the days until his eighteenth birthday, when he’ll be able to get a full California driver’s license. While he lives away from home to work at NASA, his older colleagues have been giving him rides to work and his landlord helps him with rides to the grocery store.
“My case isn’t that special. It’s just a combination of parenting and motivation and inspiration,” he says after a recent shift at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. “I tend to not compare myself that often to other people. I just try to do the best I can.”