Child prodigy from Baton Rouge earns full ride to Southern University

BATON ROUGE - An 11-year-old boy from Baton Rouge is being awarded a full scholarship at Southern University.

On Thursday, the university announced plans to sign Elijah Preccieley, a home-schooled resident of the capital city. Elijah has been taking classes at the university and has recently been selected for a full-ride scholarship. He will also be admitted into the Honors College.

He officially signed with the school at a meeting of the Southern University Board of Supervisors Friday. His full-time student status commences in spring 2019.

Preccieley says his path to Southern began when a professor encouraged him to try to take classes there.

"He starts talking to me and he says, 'We need you in classes now,'" Preccieley said. "Then I go over to take some classes and through the months, through the semesters and through the years, that kind of had a snowball effect."

Elijah's mother said she knew he would be special from a very young age.

"I knew at a certain point that I did not understand some of the vernacular he was talking about. And I said, 'I gotta get him some help,'" Pamela Precciely said.

The young man's father, Stephen, said Elijah had the same potential as every other child, he was simply encouraged from a young age.

"Find that child's genius... What they like and nurture that," he said. "If you have to seek outside help, then that's what you do, and that's what we did."