Supportive Parents
Saheela Ibrahim the vice president of Harvard Islamic Society for the current academic year is excited to serve the HIS community. The daughter of Nigerian immigrant, she was accepted to Harvard at the age of 15 which made her among the youngest students in history of Harvard University. She was also selected among The World’s 50 smartest Teenagers by TheBestSchools.orgin 2013
Saheela was a student of Conackamack Middle School in Piscataway NJ, at young age she was eager to learn more about math, she asked school authorities to move her to a higher grades. Her wish was granted, she was allowed to skip sixth grade and that was the beginning for her fast track journey in education.
While in the high school, Saheela said, she was no longer feeling challenged by her public school classes, so she moved to the Wardlaw-Hartridge School, a 420-student private school. Here again she was allowed to moved fast, she skipped her freshman year and enrolled as a 10th-grader.
As per William Jenkins, the Wardlaw-Hartridge School’s director of development, Saheela was very smart and she kept pushing herself. School officials were impressed by Saheela, as she was not a book worm, and she did not spend all her time studying. Saheela excelled outside the classroom as well, she was participating in three-sports for the school, softball, soccer and swimming.
Saheela scored 2,340 at SAT (a perfect 800 in the math, 790 in writing and 750 in reading). Saheela began applying to colleges; she wasn’t sure whether any college would want to admit a 15-year-old. So she hedged her bets and filled out applications to 14 schools from New Jersey to California. “It’s the age thing. I wanted to make sure I had options,” said Saheela. In the end, 13 colleges accepted her – including six of the eight Ivy League schools, Saheela settled on Harvard. She was among the youngest members of the school’s freshman class.
She was delighted when she got her first acceptance from California Institute of Technology. “I was so excited. I got into college!” Saheela said. More acceptances followed, from Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Williams College, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University in St. Louis.
Saheela was torn between MIT and Harvard. A visit to both campuses made the choice easy. “She went to Harvard and she fell in love with the place,” said Shakirat Ibraheem, her mother. Presently Saheela is pursuing her career in Neurobiology at Harvard, she would like to become a research scientist.
Saheela’s Nigerian parents were totally supportive of the young scholar. Her father would often study with her till late night and teach her the subjects, school did not offer.
Saheela believes the key to success is knowing what you love to learn as early as possible, a knowledge she says she got at the age five. “If you are passionate about what you do, you can work wonders and I am passionate about many things, especially math and science, it will work out well.” “I try my best in everything I do,” Saheela said. Saheela is also interested in languages Yoruba, Arabic, Spanish, and Urdu, in addition to English, she also likes computer science, logic and sports.
For further reading please visit,
- http://greenbiro.com/16-year-old-nigerian-saheela-ibraheem-listed-among-the-worlds-50-smartest-teenagers/
- http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/piscataway_15-year-old_girl_he.html
- http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/his/about/executive
