Meet Sean Andrade, the 15-year-old Sewanhaka High School salutatorian

At just 15 years old, Sean Andrade is not only set to graduate from Sewanhaka High School, but has been named the salutatorian of the Class of 2023. 

Sean will attend Stony Brook University in the fall, majoring in mathematics and participating in the Simon Scholars Program in STEM. 

At Sewanhaka, Sean was involved in the robotics club, mathletes and jazz band. With the support of his parents, he skipped fourth and eighth grades.

For Sean, however, it was never about graduating early — he just didn’t want to be bored in school. 

“It feels normal, because my friends are seniors, and I’ve been with them for so long that this just feels like the next step,” he said. “It’s, of course, surreal to suddenly be changing schools and to be moving away, but it feels like I’m on the normal path.”

He and his mother, Kelly, said they never faced any pushback when he wanted to skip grades.

They said the school was always supportive, and his parents helped Sean get through the meetings and interview process to move ahead. 

“We didn’t have to do much in terms of advocating,” his mother said. “(The district was) ready to help us right away and they spent a lot of time teaching Sean how to advocate for himself in the older years.”

Sean credits Sewanhaka High School principal Nichole Allen and school psychologist Jeannine Bergen-Cerabone for helping him to plan his school schedules and preparing him after skipping the eighth grade. 

He said his engineering teacher, Jack Chen, who works in the Career and Technical Education Department, was also a big help. 

“He helped me with a lot of the communication aspects, such as interviews, emails, even making friends — all of the communication aspects that I was a little bit behind in because I’m autistic,” Sean said.

His mother said Sean’s autism has only helped his academic career — and never hurt it.

“It has given him the ability to fixate on certain topics that they are doing, so if there is a topic in math or physics, he is able to just put his mind to that one thing and stay on that one track until it’s finished,” she said. “I think it definitely helps with (computer) programming.”

She added that her son always got along better with older children, so she never worried about his social development when he skipped grades.

She said since Sean was young, he has always been bored in school. His parents would ask the teachers for additional or accelerated work, but Sean would always do more research in subjects such as math and outer space.  

“We never really had any kind of second thoughts with him doing this,” his mother said about him skipping grades. 

She added that the school district allowed Sean to spend a month with the fourth-graders when he was still in third grade. This was especially helpful when he came back in September to start fifth grade because he already knew his fellow students in the classroom. 

The early move to high school was an easy decision for the Andrade family and ultimately the right choice for Sean. Once he skipped grades, he said he finally felt challenged at school. 

“(Skipping grades and the new curriculum) was difficult in a lot of ways — I still needed some challenge, especially in math, so I ended up self-studying in math,” Sean said of his favorite subject. “But I found plenty of challenge in high school. If I couldn’t find it in school, I always found it more in extracurriculars.”

Since he completed the high school level mathematics course, Sean did not have to take a math class his senior year. After taking exams for college placement, he placed out of second-year calculus at Stony Brook. 

“Math and science have really been a strong suit of his,” Chen said.

Sean also took occasional online courses over the summers through the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. But mostly, he spent his summers self-studying. 

“Sean put pressure on us, we never put pressure on Sean,” his mother said. “The pressure was just to make sure that the teachers were gonna let him go forward, rather than slow him down.”

She said the family was willing to move far away if Sean found a college he wanted to attend. 

However, Sean found two colleges on Long Island that he was excited about: Hofstra University and Stony Brook University. 

The Andrades said the Simon Scholars Program in STEM at Stony Brook has been very helpful in getting acquainted with Sean and preparing for his needs.

He said he is interested in physics, music and linguistics as well as undergraduate research, but is not sure about his second major or minors yet. He does not have concrete plans for his life after college, but he said he is considering becoming a professor so he can continue to focus on research. 

His mother said that besides his intelligence, Sean is incredibly helpful and caring towards others. 

“He’s meticulous in his work and very determined to do whatever it is that he sets his mind to doing,” she said. “And very helpful around the house, so we’re gonna miss that.”

Chen said it feels like the television show “Cheers” whenever Sean entered a room — he was always greeted with excitement and friendly faces. Chen added that as a teacher, he always made sure to be mindful of Sean’s “personality quirks.” 

He described Sean as a generous, kind and honest person who always strives to do the right thing.

Sean said the one lesson he remembers learning in his early childhood was honesty. 

“One of the only things I remember from childhood was, don’t lie, be as honest as you can, and that’s what has governed my whole life,” he said.