Earlier this week, Atlanta Black Star highlighted 20 Black Child Prodigies Mainstream Media Doesn’t Talk About, and today we learned of another talented young man in our community – courtesy of pop star Beyonce.
Beyonce uploaded video of a meeting with 18-year-old James Martin and his family to her #BeyInspired Video Series. The meet and greet took place backstage during her Aug. 31 performance in Philadelphia.
At 17 years old, Martin graduated with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in biology with a concentration in molecular biology from Florida Atlantic University.
The 32-year old performer told Martin and his family: “I wanted you to come here. I wanted to shake your hand because I’m so proud of you and it’s just incredible how brilliant you are. I just wanted your family to have a good night. That’s it.[…]How do you do what you do? Just born that way?[…] I just wanted to tell you, to look at you in your face, to tell you how proud I am.”
Martin said his mother instilled discipline in him from an early age: “My mom had to beat into me the concept of discipline, where you have to understand that if you have a test two weeks from now, you don’t start studying the day before. You start studying that two weeks before”
On the topic of his future plans, Martin added: “I was accepted into a Princeton undergraduate research program in molecular biology, so I’m going to be working there as a research technician and then hopefully move onto graduate school for my Ph.D.
“My hopes and dreams are to one day be a researcher, be a professor at a reputable university. And teach on one side, because I love to teach, and still on the other side still have my own research project.”
We are proud indeed!
