William Maillis was a declared genius at age 5.
When William Maillis graduated from Florida's St. Petersburg College with a newly minted “associate in arts degree,” he made it to the local and national newspapers. The reason? William is only 11 years old. Kids his age are on the cusp of entering middle school while he is already a graduate. This makes for a notable achievement by any yardstick.
11 Year-Old Genius College Grad Aims To Prove God’s Existence[/tweetthis]
For William, such an achievement is nothing new. He was declared a genius when he was only five years old. The prodigy graduated from Pittsburgh's Penn Trafford High School at nine years, and his graduation speech was a mix of the Greek-language Bible and an appropriate quote from Rene Descartes, the noted French philosopher.
William Maillis was a rapid learner. He spoke in complete sentences when he was only seven months old. The toddler learned basic mathematics before turning two and knew the alphabet at three. He knew the alphabets of three languages by that age and learned basic algebra when he was four years old. According to William's parents, he learned quickly by turning everything into a game. His father recalled the time the family fridge door held magnetic numbers and letters. The prodigy would then arrange those into mathematics problems or words.
The arts graduate has some clear aims in his life. The first aim is to get a Ph.D. The 11 year-old’s aim is to prove the existence of God through science[/tweetit]. William's father Peter Maillis is an Orthodox priest.
Right now all of this is in the future. William is now happy to get an associate degree from USF. His temporary home at present is the Saints Raphael, Nicholas & Irene Hellenic Orthodox Church. Peter Maillis, his father, is a presiding priest of the same church. The 11-year-old has spent the autumn months of 2017 studying at University of South Florida. He took two courses prior to moving back to SPC in Tarpon Springs to study three more subjects. The Maillis family set up home in Tampa Bay in 2017 when Reverend Peter Mailis was transferred to Palm Harbor parish. The family changed addresses frequently, this being the third home from William's birth. The prodigy spent his first few years in Pittsburgh and then Columbus in Ohio before moving to Tampa Bay.
William Mailis was declared a genius by Joanne Ruthsatz, who once worked as a psychologist at Ohio State University. She said he was one in 10 million children. The psychologist said that there is a link between William and the Maillis family's autistic history.