11/07/2026
SUMMA AT 16🎓
She was only 11 when she entered the University of the Philippines Diliman.
At an age when most students were still preparing for high school, Mikaela Irene Fudolig was already taking college courses in one of the country’s most demanding universities through an experimental program for gifted learners.
Before UP, Mikaela had been studying at Quezon City Science High School. In 2002, she joined UP Diliman’s early college program, where she took 31 units of college courses despite having only one year of high school studies.
Her academic journey was not simply extraordinary because of her age. It was extraordinary because she proved that a young learner could enter a highly competitive university environment and still rise with discipline, maturity, and exceptional academic performance.
In 2007, Mikaela graduated from UP Diliman with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. She finished summa cm laude, became class valedictorian, and earned a general weighted average of 1.099. At barely 16 years old, she was also described as the youngest B.S. graduate in UP history.
Her story did not end with that historic graduation. Mikaela later continued her studies in Physics, worked as an instructor at UP Diliman, earned her master’s and doctorate, and became part of the research community, with work connected to physics, computational social science, and the study of human behavior through data.
From a young student who entered UP at 11 to a summa cm laude Physics graduate at 16, Mikaela Irene Fudolig’s story remains one of the most remarkable academic journeys ever recorded in Philippine education.
