Chiyaro Wedderburn jumps on a bus once his classes at the Bermuda College are done each day.

He’s one of a handful of teens who are full-time students — and still too young to drive.

Chiyaro was 14 when he started last September. He is technically a dual enrolment student, but has completed his academic requirements at the Berkeley Institute and will graduate this year.

“When I started, I didn’t worry that it would be too difficult, but I did worry it would be demanding,” the 15-year-old said.

Six months later, he’s not worried anymore. “I was coasting a bit at Berkeley,” Chiyaro said. “I liked to come home and relax. I’d wait until the last minute to finish a homework assignment. In class, sometimes I’d finish assignments early. I wasn’t bored in class. I’d use the time to talk to other students who had also finished early.”

At the Bermuda College he quickly found this approach didn’t work.

“Biology has probably been my most challenging class so far,” Chiyaro said. “It came as a bit of a shock to me.

“When I realised I was going to get a 76 in the class I dropped out. A 70 is a passing grade and I was doing better than some students. Still, it wasn’t good enough for me. My father tried to discourage me from dropping out, but I explained to him it wouldn’t be advantageous to keep going with that grade.”

He is now taking the class again.

“Now I am paying more attention to the text book,” he said. “I understand the teacher’s way of teaching and her way of testing much better this time.”

His father, Livingston, is an attorney. His mother Tawanna is chief executive officer for the Bermuda Health Council.

Chiyaro learnt to read at three. He passed the Cambridge IGCSE in English, at 12.

He was in a class of gifted students at Berkeley.

One of the challenges of being identified as “gifted” is that people have very high expectations, he said.

“It can be difficult to deal with failure. I don’t think it is because I have always done well, it is because people have high expectations. Based on what I have accomplished people automatically expect me to succeed at what I do.

“They don’t really realise I am just a regular kid.”

His dream is to become a medical doctor.

“I always found learning about people, and how our bodies work, interesting,” said Chiyaro. “Some people don’t like being around blood, but I never had a problem with anything along those lines. At first, I wanted to be a paediatrician but I am slowly moving away from that. I am not sure I like children so much.”

The teenager is headed to Harvard Medical School for the National Student Leadership Conference on Medicine this summer. His parents heard about the two-week intensive programme and contacted the school. Recommendation letters from Berkeley and the Bermuda College got him in.

The programme gives him the option to continue a full course online, for college credit.

He’s never been away on his own before, but is confident he can handle it.

“Hopefully, it will help me get into medical school,” he said.

He doesn’t see being 15 in college as any kind of hang up.

“I take each day as it comes and try not to think about things too much,” he said. “People are the same wherever they are. But I think in college students seem more motivated and respectful. There are also not as much distractions.”