Black Teenage Teacher Makes History

While most teenagers spend their free time on video games and social media, 16-year-old Shania Muhammad is using her three college degrees to help mold young minds as a third grade teacher.

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The Oklahoma native says her parents began instilling the value of education in her at an early age.

“I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘Hey, Dad, sign me up for college.’ There were plenty of levels before I even got to this point, things we’ve been working on since I was 8, 9 years old,” she told KOCO Oklahoma.

Muhammad started taking college classes at age 13 and earned associate’s degrees from Langston University and Oklahoma City Community College – at the same time. But her higher level learning didn’t stop there. In May 2023, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Langston University with a 4.0 GPA at the same time as her older brother and sister. Just 15 years old at the time, she is the youngest person to graduate from an HBCU.

Now, at 16, Muhammad continues to make history teaching third graders in Oklahoma City. The talented teen is the youngest full-time salaried teacher in the United States. And she knows she has a unique opportunity to inspire the young students in her class.

“My students walk around saying, ‘My teacher is walking Black history.’ It touches me different.” she told Jennifer Hudson during an appearance on her show.

And while she has no plans to stop teaching any time soon, Muhammad says she wants to share her story far and wide and let others know that with hard work and dedication, the sky is the limit.

“Outside of college, my biggest thing is I’m a speaker. I’ve always wanted to do public speaking, national speaking, just spreading my story, spreading what we do here at the Muhammad house. Showing others ‘trust me, it’s possible.’ It just takes a team and hard work,” shesaid.