Tanishq Abraham (June 2003) is an American child genius and a child prodigy. He joined Mensa at 4 years old.
In 2010, when his younger sister, Tiara Thankam Abraham (December 2005), became a member of Mensa at 4 years old, they became the youngest siblings to join the high IQ society Mensa. Tanishq (2003) & Tiara (2005) are the youngest East Indians (by ethnicity) to join Mensa and among the youngest Americans in Mensa. To be members of Mensa, one has to score 98 percentile in a standardized IQ test. Tanishq scored 99.9 percentile and Tiara scored 99 percentile in the standardized IQ test.
Born in California, USA, to parents Bijou Abraham & Dr. Taji Abraham, both children showed signs of high IQ at an early age. Tanishq showed this during his early baby days, when at 4 months old he flipped pages of children story books, answered questions on the stories and events in the books. At 5 years old, he completed Stanford University's EPGY Math courses in 5 grades (KG to 4th grade) in less than 6 months. At 6 years old, he did on-line high school and college level classes ranging in subjects like chemistry, palaeontology, biology, geology. His prodigious talent was seen at 7 years old, when he joined American River College and completed courses in Geology & Astronomy. In both the courses, he scored an A grade and was the top student among his adult classmates. During Summer 2011, at 8 years old, he completed an intensive Biotechnology course and scored an A grade.
His other passions include music where he has been involved with formal training in piano since 3 years old, a chorister with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, chess, swimming, dancing and soccer. Due to problems by the school and the school district in meeting the educational needs of a child genius, left with no choice, Tanishq's parents have taken up the responsibility of educating a child prodigy. He is being home schooled where his curriculum involves college courses.
Tiara Abraham is the younger sister of Tanishq Abraham. She is a child genius, who at 4 years old joined the American Mensa. Her reading skills are close to a 5th grader. Like her older brother Tanishq, she enjoys learning geology, palaeontology and other sciences. So far Tiara is also home schooled by her parents. Tiara is a gifted child artist. Her art work done at 3 and 4 years old, titled, 'My Brother, My Friend' and 'Rainbow Over Lake' has been judged and awarded "Honorable Mention" at the California State Exposition. Her artwork done at 5 years old , titled 'My Unicorn' was judged and awarded "Third Place" for the acrylic painting category at the California State Exposition. Like her older brother, Tanishq, Tiara is involved in extra-curricular activities such as gymnastics, dancing, soccer and art classes..
Both children at a young age have taken up volunteering and raising funds for charity. They have actively participated for UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat. Tanishq has taken part in Science, Spelling and Vocabulary Bees that help raise scholarship money for the need-based gifted students in India.