Scott Van Thuong, a 17-year-old Vietnamese American student, received a certificate of honor from Missouri Southern State University on Saturday after taking home two applied mathematics bachelors degrees in May.

Thuong was granted a full scholarship to the university, where his father is a professor, after graduating with honors from Columbia High School, also in Missouri, at the age of 14.

He said it was his father’s words of tough love that drove him to succeed: “If I teach you like a baby, you’ll never get a Ph.D.”

In light of his achievements at such a young age, Thuong has been granted a US$25,000 five-year doctoral scholarship to the University of Oklahoma.

Reported by Truong Dien Thang