Republished-How 13 varsities offered this Nigerian admission •Story of 16-yr-old among world’s 50 smartest teens

In a world where teenagers are increasingly turning to drugs, unwanted pregnancies and alcohol, it is laudable when intellect is celebrated.  This might explain the motive of TheBestSchools.org, when they embarked on a project to determine the World’s 50 smartest teenagers of which US-based Nigerian, Saheela Ibraheem, was ranked.

According to the organising group, the yardstick for measurement was the most popular measure for intelligence - the Stanford-Binet IQ test offered through Mensa International, an organisation for high-IQ people. According to the test, an average Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score is 85–114 while 144 or above is considered genius-level. Saheela and her counterparts graded above average in the scores.

Saheela is not new to the intelligence limelight. She became quite famous when at the age of 15, she filled out 14 applications to attend college at very prestigious institutions in the United States of America. She was accepted by 13 of these schools, including six of the eight Ivy League schools including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Princeton, Brown and Columbia.

She eventually chose Harvard University, making her among the youngest students ever to attend the school. She intends on studying neurobiology or neuroscience so as to understand how the brain works.

While in high school, the prodigy skipped the sixth and the ninth grades and switched from public schooling to the more challenging private school, Wardlaw-Hartridge School. Her teachers described her as an “old soul” and “mature for her age.” When she wrote the Standard Aptitude Test (SAT), she received a perfect score on the mathematics section.

Interestingly, Saheela’s parents, who are migrants in the US, encouraged her intellectual pursuit and from a tender age, taught her subjects her school didn’t offer at the time. According to them, as at the age of five, Saheela refused help with her homework, insisting that she wanted to do it herself. From a tender age, she also showed a flair for mathematics and science and was encouraged by her parents to keep at it.

She was also encouraged to try her hands on several extra-curricular activities including soccer, softball, foreign languages and playing musical instruments.

Today, she is celebrated, not only as the youngest Harvard undergraduate, but as one of the smartest teenagers the world over. She claims that she is nothing special and is quoted as saying that “anyone who is motivated can work wonders.”