He's the world's youngest male professor — and he once fooled his whole Miami classroom

The youngest male professor in the world tricked his students into thinking he was one of their classmates. Nathan Thomas, 21, is an engineering teacher at Miami Dade College, a position that he had when he was 18 years old, making him the youngest male professor according to Guinness World Records. 

Upon meeting his students, he had some fun with them, tricking them with a clever ruse. 

“Before class started, I sat in the front row acting like a student,” he said in an interview with PEOPLE. He shared that he sat with his students, staying there for five minutes until class started. “I said out loud — one of my friends was also in my class — I was like, ‘Oh, where’s this professor at? It’s 10:05; like, he’s not here. He probably sucks.’”

He then walked towards the front of the classroom, saying, “‘Oh yeah, by the way, I’m the instructor.’” 

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Thomas has many achievements under his belt. He's currently pursuing a degree in Law at the University of Miami. Still, he is pretty humble with his accomplishments, revealing that he doesn't care all that much about breaking a world record. 

 “To be totally honest, I’m not a big stickler for awards and recognition and stuff like that,” he said. “I would say my mom was definitely the most excited.”

“I’m appreciative, but it’s kind of onto the next thing for me."

Did Thomas face any challenges while teaching kids that were at times older than him?

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Thomas also revealed that even though he was intimidated by the prospect of teaching kids the same age or perhaps older than him, he never had any issues as a teacher.

“I’m not sure how my experience would be elsewhere — I’m sure I could’ve run into problems — but at Miami Dade, I never ran into any problems,” he said. “Everyone was super respectful.”

He acknowledged his youth to his students yet made it clear that it was still a class like any other college course. 

“I made it clear the first day that, yeah I’m a little young, but let’s not make that part of the classroom experience,” he said. As he pursues a law degree, Thomas revealed that he's still working for Miami-Dade College, even though he's now transitioned to teaching online classes.

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