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Malachi Samuel of Houston, Texas, delivered his first-grade living history presentation as Interim Dean and Computing Pioneer Mark Dean. From the looks of things, he went above and beyond the call. His mother, Katherine Samuel, wrote to Dean to share the story.

“My son Malachi is a 6-year-old in first grade and was tasked with creating a presentation (in first-person) for Black History Month. He chose his presentation to be about you, Dr. Mark Dean,” wrote Samuel. “This was an amazing experience for him as well as our whole family. With helping him, we learned so much about you and how your contributions to society have made a huge impact on the world. We enjoyed learning about you and your accomplishments. After he presented his speech in class, he was selected as one of 12 to present in the Live History Museum at his school. This took place yesterday, February 20, 2019. I have attached his speech and a few pictures for your review. He also had to dress as if he was you. I am not the most crafty mom, please feel free to laugh and my attempt to manifest you in my 6-year-old.”

Samuel went to to offer some background information on her son, and how he came to doing his school project about Dean.

“To give you a little background, shortly after Malachi was born, we noticed his love for sports,” she said. “At age 3 he started playing baseball and at age 4 started football. Halfway through his first season of football, he suffered a minor injury on the field and had to be taken to a children’s hospital. After multiple tests were done, we were given the news that he only had one kidney. No big deal, some people live with one kidney their whole life and never have any problems. Within a few weeks and multiple visits with specialists, we found out that he was born this way and that he would be unable to play any contact sports. He would have to continue seeing a specialist for the rest of his life.

“As you can imagine, this broke his heart. Instead of letting it get to him, Malachi (only 4 ½ years-old) decided that this would not define him. He said ‘Instead of playing the sports, I can be a commentator and work on computers or create educational video games.’ (proud mom and dad moment for sure). He quickly developed a love for computers and technology. This is the reason he chose to do a presentation about you.”

Samuel closed her letter saying, “Thank you again for your contributions to society and for proving that there are no limits. It was truly an honor learning about you.”