He finished high school in two-and-a-half years.

He studied English for six months and then was ready to tackle college-level English.

He crammed through 28 chapters of organic chemistry in four days—then placed in the top one percentile on a nationwide chemistry test.

Yet Francisco Mancillas’ latest passion is art, and his hope is to have his work accepted for the Annual Student Exhibit later this month.

“When I paint or when I draw something, I feel that I’m able to escape the physical world, and so my mind gets transported to a different dimension,“ Mancillas said.

Originally from Mexico, Mancillas is the first generation of his family to attend college. As a physics-engineering major, he will graduate from City College with seven associate degrees and over 170 credits. He attended University of California, Los Angeles prior but had to drop out due to financial problems.

Jens-Uwe Kuhn, chair of the chemistry department, said only two students during his five-year career at City College have scored as high on the American Chemistry Society organic chemistry exam.

“I’m not talking about my class, I’m talking about across the nation,” said Kuhn. “This is a tough exam …. You’ve really got to know your stuff.”

Throughout his childhood, Mancillas’ father would ask him questions about science and countries around the world, which resulted in his interest in science and desire for knowledge.

“I’ve taken just about anything … just because I like knowledge,” said Mancillas. “I don’t care what form it comes in.”

He wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to study. He is forced to find a balance between his academic life and his 25-hour weekend work as a fragrance specialist.

“He’s very detail-oriented,” Kuhn said. “He thinks outside the box. He always has questions beforehand and it’s very clear that he thinks through experiments.”

Mancillas consistently impresses science professors with his tenacity and passion for science, but none of them would know he is also an artist.

One day, Jacqueline Kuehn, computer science department chair, happened to pass by Mancillas’ seat and noticed a drawing in his open folder.

“It’s so beautiful [and has] great maturity,” Kuehn said. “There’s an emotional feeling you get when you look at his work.”

Mancillas took the course “ART 141 – Fundamentals of Oil Painting” taught by former art department chair Nina Warner.

Two oil paintings he created for the class depict opposing interpretations of the same subject: one realistic and the other more abstract.

Warner commented on the paintings: “Interesting as a pair–almost surrealistic. Strong as individual paintings.”

He is submitting both, along with a drawing that took him over a year to complete, to the 2013 Annual Student Exhibition.

“I want to become a person who’s in balance with himself,” Mancillas said. “That means I don’t want to be known for anything. I want to be passionate about whatever it is that I’m doing and be able to find that balance in my life.”