Arjun Sharda, a 12-year-old tech entrepreneur, said he plans to remain in middle school because of the value of interpersonal connections and community engagement over rushing into college. Sharda was a guest on a recent episode of the Texas Talks Podcast.

"I would rather possibly stay in middle school,” said Sharda on a recent edition of the Texas Talks Podcast. “I think it's important to value the people, meeting people, skipping directly to college or something; I don't think honestly that like it will be. Of course, I'll get free of college, but honestly meeting people. I think that I would prefer to meet more people around my age group, help more people, do more stuff.”

“Even in college, meet people who are passionate like me, who knows, they might become my next co-founder." said Sharda. “I just want to take something like the Steve Jobs route for AI. He revolutionized technology, and I want to revolutionize AI, possibly with robots."

Sharda is a 12-year-old tech entrepreneur known for his prowess as a full-stack developer, author, and founder of TLEEM, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing education in technology, leadership, entrepreneurship, engineering, and mathematics. His projects include Searchor, a Python library for web development, and Passeo, a Python encryption tool, among others. Through TLEEM, Sharda aims to empower individuals worldwide with similar passions and drive positive change in the fields of technology and leadership.

Texas Talks podcast is hosted by Brad Swail. The weekly show is focused on public policy in the state of Texas, with insights from the people and organizations that influence it.

The podcast is available on Simple Cast and YouTube.