Nigerian teenager At Harvard Makes List of Smartest Teenagers, Commended by Obama

19 year old Nigerian Saheela Ibraheem, Harvard student, has been recognized as one of the world's 50 smartest teenagers. At 15, she was accepted for admission by 13 top colleges in the United States, including the MIT, Columbia, Princeton and six other Ivy league colleges. She chose Harvard.

And at 19, she'll be graduating from Harvard in May this year. She had the opportunity to meet President Barack Obama and the first lady Michelle Obama.

The teenager had the honour of introducing the President and First Lady Michelle Obama at the event.

Here’s a bit of what The Best Schools website had to say about the teenager,

At just 15 years old, Saheela Ibraheem was accepted into Harvard University, which makes her among the youngest students ever to attend that school. But that’s not the most impressive part, Saheela was accepted at 12 other colleges, including MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Brown, Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Chicago.

Saheela’s Nigerian parents, totally supportive of the young scholar, sometimes taught her subjects the schools didn’t offer.

Saheela believes the key to success is knowing what you love to learn as early as possible, a knowledge she says she came to at age five. “If you are passionate about what you do, and I am passionate about many things, especially math and science, it will work out well.” The teen is also interested in languages, and knows Yoruba, Arabic, Spanish, and Latin, in addition to English.

As for her own brain, Saheela claims she is nothing special. “I try my best in everything I do,” Saheela said. “Anyone who’s motivated can work wonders.”

Motivation is indeed a powerful tool for success.