Moral to Graduate from Law School

As if receiving a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a high school diploma at age 17 was not accomplishment enough, next month, Kansas native Braxton Moral will be one of the youngest individuals to graduate from law school in modern times.

At about age 2, Moral’s mother, Julie Moral realized her son was just a little different. He understood concepts that others his age did not.

By age 5, his vocabulary had accelerated and he was having conversations with his three much older siblings and adults. In elementary school, he started getting bored. That’s when the counselors contacted Julie and Carlos Moral, Braxton’s parents.

“His vocabulary was different,” Julie Moral said. “We would take him places, and everybody would comment on his vocabulary.”

What Julie and Carlos remember most was that their youngest son was never “ordinary.” Although he got along with his peers, played games and enjoyed tennis and debate, he always wanted to do more, to learn more and to discover new principles.

After being tested for gifted, Braxton’s parents, who live in Ulysses, were contacted by Duke University’s Talent Identification Program.

“They had him tested at the college, and they thought the machine was broken (his score was so high),” Carlos Moral said.

Braxton was placed with a gifted teacher at school, but other than with his gifted teacher, he was bored at school.

“I skipped fourth grade, so fifth grade was kind of the experiment. But it wasn’t any different,” he said. “So we decided the next year, I wanted to try something different.”

First Braxton took a class at Fort Hays University, but again, he was bored. Both college graduates, his parents did not know what to do next. Then his father found out about a special program at Harvard’s extension program that was for “special” students.

Braxton took his first undergraduate class at Harvard while still in sixth grade. In addition to the online college classes, Braxton said what kept him going was his gifted teacher back home.

“A lot of it is just exposure to different ideas,” he said. “But if your gifted facilitator comes to you one day and says, ‘Hey, let’s talk about this (famous) guy’. Or ‘What are nanobots?’ it helps you realize there is more out there.”

Although Braxton didn’t meet with the teacher too often, the exposure to new ideas was inspirational. During sixth grade Harvard tested him and found he should enter composition two — a course his college-aged older siblings were about to take. Then he had to take an expository writing class. This was a course, Carlos Moral said, his advisor at Harvard thought he might not pass.

“They said that there’s no way he’s gonna pass — don’t get your hopes up because this was going to be over probably,” Carlos Moral said. “Then he passed it. He killed it.”

By high school, Braxton was attending both Harvard, mostly online, and Ulysses High School.

“He pretty much does great; he’s easy going. He just wants to be like everybody else,” Julie Moral said. “He’s a blessing from God.”

Braxton’s parents wanted him to attend high school, his mother said she didn’t want him to miss the high school experience, going to both prom and homecoming.

“We wanted for him to have as much of a normal life as possible,” she said. And according to her son, he did.

During the summer, his parents went with him to Cambridge, so he could take his in-person classes there.

“I was perfectly happy there (at Harvard),” Braxton Moral said. “It’s different, just because they are all older, but they were nice.”

At Harvard Braxton developed a love for government and realized he wanted to go to law school. He decided to attend Washburn University School of Law, and this time to take the traditional amount of time.

But what should have taken three years, he completed in two and one-half. He simply “just did a little extra” each semester.

Next month, Braxton Moral will receive his juris doctor degree. In February, he will take the bar exam.

In addition to practicing law, most likely governmental or administrative, Braxton would like to work for a politician. After that, at least for now, he would like to go into politics, mainly on the national scale. He has met with Kansas’ U.S. senators Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, as well as Gov. Laura Kelly.

In his spare time, Moral talks to kids at schools, encouraging them to do their best and achieve their highest potential. He motivates them to attend trade schools, the military or college — to do what they excel at.

“When I started out, it was more about just something fun to do,” Moral said. “And then you start off you’re like, ‘Well, I just kind of want to get better now.’ So once you get a little bit of experience, it transfers from just fine to an actual goal.”

Because of medical complications, Julie Moral was not able to attend either of her son’s last two graduations. But, she said, nothing will stop her from going this time.

“He’s ordinary but extraordinary,” Julie Moral said. “He wants to do something to help others. You can’t just sit back if God’s given you this talent and this ability to do things.”

Article and photo by Alice Mannette, reprinted with permission as first published in the Hutchinson News on November 9, 2021