Dakotah Lambert readily admits that he is a bit of an eccentric. He collects old technology, regularly uses an abacus and has just recently moved from a quill to a fountain pen.

Lambert, who at age 15 is one of Earlham’s youngest students admitted for full-time enrollment, plans to major in computer science, math and linguistics, but he also yearns to be an ornithologist.

“I am interested in so many things that right now it is hard for me to eliminate any of them,” he says. “I don’t think I would be happy if I had to give one of them up right now, but some day I may have to. No matter what I am doing, birds will always be in the mix.”

Lambert says he has hundreds of dreams he hopes to achieve but only one goal — to do what makes him happy. And so far, learning and creating are what make him happy.

Among his creations are a hoverboard prototype he designed when he was in 8th grade, an adding machine made out of Legos, a house of cards that covered his garage floor, a CD of original music he created over fall semester break that is for sale in the Earlham bookstore, a language, a small software company called Pegasus X Software, and a book about the Loch Ness monster. After arriving early for French class one day last semester, he created a Lunisolar calendar.

“I had been wanting to design my own calendar system since my sophomore year of high school when I was reading about ancient Babylonian stuff,” he says. “My Lunisolar calendar is based on the pattern of the moon phases and the time it takes for the Earth to go around the sun.” Lambert’s calendar features a six-day week and a 12- or 13-month year. In a 19-year cycle, years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 will have 13 months.

“The first day of the year always begins on the first day of the week and the last day of the year is the last day of the week,” he says. “The months start on or near the new moon.” Lambert says there is some discussion about changing the current calendar system to one that is similar to the calendar he created.

Born two months premature, Lambert has proven wrong the doctors who told his parents that he would be behind his peers academically. Instead, he raced through his elementary and secondary education so quickly that school administrators say they were lucky to get a high school diploma in his hands. 

Prior to enrolling for kindergarten, Lambert remembers walking down a Centerville Elementary School hallway and reading aloud the Life Skills posters that hung in the hallway, words including perseverance, motivation, confidence, teamwork, trustworthiness and truthfulness. Lambert skipped kindergarten, seventh and eleventh grades.

Tim McLarnan, professor of mathematics, says he is delighted by Lambert’s independence of thought and impressed with his range of passions. 

“He also has very quick mathematical insight,” McLarnan adds. “Seeing him invent for himself Euclid’s algorithm for computing gcd’s casually and on the fly was something that I don’t think has ever happened to me in a lot of years of teaching Discrete Math.”

Lambert says he has always been curious about the things that interest him, and adds that he is interested in lots of things. He will always have an interest in birds and their sounds, he loves both old and new technology, he loves web- and software-design, and he loves working with his hands — latchhook, crochet, cross stitch, woodworking and metalcraft. He also loves music and plays 14 instruments.

“I am constantly in search of information,” he says. “I like to understand how things work mechanically, and I like seeing how things connect. My whole life is centered around educating myself.”

And although Lambert had offers from multiple schools, he chose to further his education at Earlham because it simply made him happy.

“There is nature and culture here, and I love it,” he says. “There are too many good things to count about being here. Here, it is a peaceful place, and there are good people here. I am a relaxed, laid-back person, and people here don’t seem to be offended by that.

“I walk to campus from home, which takes 18 – 25 minutes, and I just listen to the nature sounds.  As long as I am happy, that’s what matters to me. I just try to enjoy myself and learn as much as I can along the way.”

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