Albertini Adenuga, 2025 Minnesota Voyager Cohort

The Minnesota Vikings didn’t make the playoffs last season, but Albertini Adenuga didn’t mind. He still had a blast cheering on the team and spending time with his friends. However, finding kids to cheer with—kids who really understood him—didn’t always come so naturally. As any National Math Star will tell you, sometimes it’s hard being the smart kid.

Back in second grade in his former Texas hometown, a class bully took a special interest in Albertini because of his intelligence. Albertini wasn’t the only student to experience the bully’s behavior, but as the youngest—and demonstrably the smartest—student in his class, he was an obvious target.

The school and teachers helped resolve the situation, and those incidents have faded into distant memories since Albertini moved to Minnesota with his family: his father, Olusegun; his mother, Yetunde; and his sister, Anjola. Besides, those difficult days were far outweighed by Albertini’s remarkable early accomplishments.

Albertini was the youngest student in his class because his education had already been accelerated. His kindergarten teacher noticed his exceptional ability to absorb new concepts effortlessly and spoke with his parents and the school district about advancing his education.

To assess his readiness, Albertini completed more than four hours of testing. When the results came back, he had scored in the 92th percentile in Social Studies, the 96th percentile in English Language Arts and Science, and the 98th percentile in Math. The school decided to move him into first grade immediately, right in the middle of the school year. He began second grade the following fall.

While this series of events came as a surprise, it wasn’t particularly unexpected for his parents. Albertini had been demonstrating his extraordinary abilities from a very young age.

“We noticed that he could count very fast,” Olusegun recalls of Albertini’s preschool years. Soon, he and Yetunde discovered that their son had taught himself multiplication.

“I love multiplication,” Albertini explains. “I love when things come together, and you can always use different methods.”

“I just see patterns in my head,” he adds matter-of-factly, as though independently discovering multiplication is something everyone does.

Because of his exceptional abilities and the grade acceleration he received in Texas, Albertini is now an 8-year-old fifth grader in Minnesota. This unusual age difference—and the fact that his mathematical aptitude continues to outpace that of his classmates—would present challenges for any child. Fortunately, he has found support through National Math Stars.

More than anything, Albertini enjoys the mentorship and advanced instruction he receives through NMS. “Now I know things I didn’t know before, and I get to do it with other people,” he says. For him, it’s “really fun” to share his passion for math with other kids who are just as excited about it.

For his parents, NMS has opened the door to an entirely new world.“They’ve helped develop his passion. They’ve given us resources and opportunities,” Yetunde says.

Those opportunities have included attending Epsilon Camp and Minnesota ACE (Aviation Career Education) Camp, receiving a membership to the Museum of Science and Industry, and support for competitions such as Math Kangaroo and Math Masters.

For Math Masters, NMS also had to advocate on Albertini’s behalf. His school was initially reluctant to allow him to compete with the fifth-grade team because of his age and grade level, as fourth graders are not typically entered in the competition. With NMS’s support, however, he was granted permission to participate. The results validated that decision: he placed first in the Team Event, first in the Fact Drill, and first in the Individual Event. He also excelled at the Math Kangaroo competition, finishing seventh in Minnesota and 13th nationally.

More than anything, though, NMS has helped Albertini and his parents find the right balance between extraordinary learning opportunities and the everyday joys of childhood.

By most measures, Albertini is a typical kid. He spends time with friends, plays soccer, sings in his school choir, represents his classmates on the school’s Student Council, and enjoys the Sonic the Hedgehog movies and graphic novels.

His parents credit much of that balance to what they’ve learned through the NMS community.

“Welcome Weekend really opened our eyes to what is required of us,” Olusegun reflects. “Gifted kids need to be approached differently.”