Every year, roughly two million high school seniors take the ACT test.
Of them, only about 2,200 — or just over one tenth of one percent — score a perfect 36. Steven Sharp, of Galt, is one of those one tenth of one percent.
Sharp runs cross country and plays golf, has a GPA of 4.4 and is involved in a number of honor and community service groups. He also just turned 16 years old.
At 12 years old, Sharp joined Galt High School's robotics and engineering club as a freshman after he just transferred over from homeschooling.
His parents decided to send him to Galt High School instead of college at the time.
"I'm not sure I would've been able to handle actually, you know, going to college, being that independent," Steven said.
"I want him to be able to enjoy his time as a teenager, before he has to grow up," Melanie Sharp, his mother, said.
She saw her son's talent at a young age.
"He knew his alphabet before age 1," Melanie explained. "His kindergarten year, I was told that there wasn't a school in California that could accommodate this academics, so I knew right off the bat that it was going to be a long challenge."
So this mother sacrificed for her son.
"I quit electronics engineering in order to homeschool, and so I ended up taking a night job," Melanie said.
Steven, a senior, got a perfect score on the ACT he took this summer.
"I was just shocked," Steven said. "I thought I was going to get around a 31, 32, low 30s. But when I saw that 36, it was amazing."
Brooke Beckett, Steven's teacher, said she watched Sharp blossom.
"I appreciate that he's humble," Beckett said. "Through it all, he knows that he is the top one, but he just smiles. He doesn't boast about it and brag. He doesn't get into competitions with the other students."
Now Steven looks to follow in his mother's former field.
"My top college currently is CalTech, but I've also been weighing other options like CalPoly, Texas A&M, Stanford, and I want to major in aerospace engineering," Steven said. "I'd love to work for NASA or SpaceX or some other space exploration frontier."
His ACT score will help him skyrocket to that dream.
"The college I want to go to has an average SAT of 35.5," Steven noted.
The sky is the limit for this teen.
"He's somebody that everybody needs to be watching," Melanie added.
"I see his name being in the news for something amazing that's going to blow our minds," Beckett said. "Probably something that doesn't exist yet. I see him pushing the limits."