Renaissance kid: 11-year-old author, philanthropist and cancer survivor just graduated high school

This kid can do anything.

A Long Island 11-year-old with Tourette’s Syndrome is graduating from high school seven years early.  

Joe Petraro, of East Rockaway, tossed his graduation cap in June after ripping through his middle and high school studies online in just two years’ time at the K12 Private Academy and Penn Foster private schools. 

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“My brain moves really fast. I could think easily, and things could sink in easily,” he explained to The Post, having spent his afternoon hawking copies of three children’s books he has written and published. 

The wunderkind’s fast-track education began in the third grade while he was attending the Holy Name of Mary Catholic school in Valley Stream.

At the time, Joe had undiagnosed Tourette’s, a neurological disorder, and was forced into a special education program due to his involuntary tics. 

“They put me in special ed until this one teacher was like, ‘This kid shouldn’t be in special ed,’ and that I was a genius,” Joe said.

He was diagnosed afterward for Tourette’s, but also had his IQ tested — and scored an astonishing 168. 

“If it weren’t for that one teacher, we wouldn’t be here,” he said.

The real-life Young Sheldon soon enrolled in online schooling and breezed through classes at his own rapid pace, such as mastering biology “in like three weeks,” his mother, therapist Anne Petraro, marveled. 

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At the same time, Joe has busied himself over the years with a slew of advocacy and activism.

He recently started a nonprofit, Joe’s Be Kind campaign, and raised at least $17,000 last year to purchase adaptive video game systems that could be fitted for children’s beds in the pediatric cancer ward at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

“He has an accountant and everything,” his mom said.

The gifts were particularly personal for Joe, who had been diagnosed with leukemia at MSK in September 2021, and has had a clean bill of health for almost a year. 

“I see a lot of other kids with cancer at the doctors when I go. They aren’t as lucky as me,” he wrote in a GoFundMe last year soliciting donations.

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Somehow, the youngster also managed to find the time to visit Rep. Anthony D’Esposito to lobby for funding for Tourette’s research and awareness.

He’s also raised money to build wells in villages in Nigeria so locals can have access to clean drinking water, having learned about the issue while attending church at St. Raymond’s. 

“He’s a normal kid — he’s just very giving,” his mom said.

On top of his various philanthropic and advocacy projects, he plays on youth baseball and basketball travel teams and earned a black belt in karate. 

“There’s nothing he doesn’t do — I’m exhausted,” his mother said.

Despite just graduating, Joe isn’t taking a breather anytime soon.

He just accepted an offer to attend remote classes at Louisiana State University, with the dream to work as a journalist and “spread good news,” he said.

“I want the world to be positive,” he said. “I want to travel, to show that we’re more alike than different.”