As a kid, he participated in gifted programs, moved up to the Alief Institute of Math and Science, finished high school a year and a half early and now attends one of the best universities in the state. And all this, Ulises Osorio said, started from taking speech classes.

“When I was very young, I had taken some speech classes since people can’t really understand you if you’ve been taught broken English,” Osorio said in a Facebook message to Kerronicle. “During my middle school years, I took Pre-AP classes and a few high school classes. I could’ve gotten a few more credits before entering Kerr if it weren’t for the Catholic school I attended during seventh grade.”

Although Osorio has worked hard to get where he is, he didn’t originally plan to graduate as early as he did. His decision to finish high school in January came from the realization that he wasn’t going to be  at the top of the class of 2012. Because of that, he decided to move to the class of 2011.

“I was ranked 21 in the class of 2012 and I figured I might as well graduate early if I wasn’t going to be in the top 10 percent,” Osorio said. “Needless to say, I burst a blood vessel when I found out I was ranked 13 in the class of 2011 after taking a large number of regular classes.”

Now graduated, Osorio attends the University of Texas in Austin. He currently plans to major in Electrical and Computer Engineering, but still doesn’t know which path to take.

“I honestly didn’t want to go to UT at first, but that was when I was going to graduate on time,” Osorio said. “UCLA had much more appeal to me as a freshman though it was probably due to the sandy beaches and babes (I blame the teenage hormones). However, due to my early graduation, I was set on going to UT Austin. I almost didn’t graduate in a year and a half though, since I thought UT Austin didn’t accept Spring applications.”

Science teacher Margaret Bancroft said Osorio stood out as a student because of his “risk-taking attitude.”

“I think if a kid is at a point where they are interested enough to ask questions of adults, they are ready to move on,” Bancroft said. “Got to be able to take risks or you won’t get anywhere, which is why he wasn’t a good student. He was a risk taker and knew how to get out of it.”

In high school, Osorio said, he was able to finish all the work he needed to get done, though he  procrastinated much of the time.

“The only reason I was able to procrastinate in high school and still graduate early is because of the motivation coming from people telling me I couldn’t do it,” Osorio said. “A good friend [Max Glaser] told me it wasn’t possible to graduate a year and a half early and then told me not to.”

But despite his comparatively short high school experience, Osorio feels as though high school took as much time as it needed to and he was ready for the major jump to college.

“I accomplished everything I wanted to while there (in high school),” he said. “I took off my shirt during homecoming game last year to support 2011 and during talent show. Ever since, it’s been a gag. I was able to place first in state for my FBLA [Future Business Leaders of America] competition and I was able to go through a good majority of my time there without having a shirt on.”

As a college student, Osorio has been able to wake up late to classes, but it’s still taking time for to get used to the differences between high school and college.

“I now have to read to do well in classes and I’m not used to not procrastinating,” he said. “The other bad thing is that I have very few people here that I talk to, so it gets kind of dull.

“Stop procrastinating your last month in class,” he advises seniors. “It’s really bad to have to make the transition while in college.”

Osorio is not gone to Austin forever. He’ll be back for the major senior event: prom.

“Trang [Nguyen] would murder me in my sleep if I don’t go to prom,” he said. “Kidding. She’s not violent. In all seriousness, I do want to go. Funny story though, prom is on the week before my finals, so that will be interesting. I can’t say anything for senior auction though since I don’t know the date. I won’t be walking at graduation, though.”

He has plans for the future  include continuing his education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after graduating from UT.

“While making a schedule for myself, I found out that I would be able to graduate college in three years,” he said. “If that’s the case, then I suppose I would go for a Masters and Ph.D at MIT or something.

“Time will tell, though. I need to get over my procrastination first.”