John Hopkins ranks Nigerian student world’s most talented
The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth has recognized Nigeria’s Fareedah Oyolola, a secondary school student at Greensprings School, Lagos, as one of the most talented students in the world.
This honour comes as a result of Fareedah’s exceptional performance in the advanced School and College Ability Test (SCAT), which every student must take to help John Hopkins ascertain their current academic abilities prior to admitting them into its talent search programme.
Speaking about her experience on the test, Fareedah said, “The test was a multiple-choice aptitude test in verbal and quantitative reasoning, and I had to answer 100 questions within 44 minutes! At the end of the test, my score was in the 92nd percentile for verbal reasoning and 87th percentile for quantitative reasoning.
There’s no way I would have gotten these high scores with such a limited time window if not for the great work put in by my teachers, towards developing my comprehension abilities and mathematical reasoning skills. I am very grateful to them.”
In a Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth-issued statement, Executive Director; Virginia Roach, congratulated Fareedah and other outstanding students across the world, saying, “We are thrilled to celebrate these students. In a year that was anything but ordinary, their love of learning shined through, and we are excited to help cultivate their growth as scholars and citizens throughout high school, college, and beyond.”
The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth is an initiative of Johns Hopkins University committed to nurturing extraordinary young minds. Its 2020 – 2021 programme draws nearly 19,000 students from 84 countries, including Fareedah. Fareedah and other honourees from other countries are expected to attend a summer programme in the United States or Hong Kong.
Among other positives, this news is definitely a light in the tunnel for Nigerian education.
