Roberta Hannah is a high school senior from Massachusetts. A student at the Springfield High School of Science and Technology, Hannah has been accepted to all the eight Ivy League Schools for the fall 2020 semester, a huge feat worthy of celebration amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Western Mass News reports that Hanna knew early on that she had been accepted into four, but after the Ivy Day, which was celebrated on March 26, a confirmation of her acceptance into all eight was made.
“I was really anxious getting up to the day, and then I started opening the letters, and I was like oh, I keep seeing ‘yes,’” Hannah told Western Mass News.
She said she had originally wanted to apply to three of the Ivy League Schools but her family asked her to go for all the eight. “So I didn’t really have a choice,” Hannah told the outlet.
Hannah credited her achievement to hard work as well as her honors and AP classes. Currently studying to take seven AP exams, Hannah took four of the same exams last year saying: “But up until then, I was mostly in honors classes or pre-AP.”
Hannah plans to attend Columbia University to study biochemistry and African-American studies. “So my goal is to be a medicinal chemist, but with making medicine and kind of the one researching it,” she said. “I want my focus to be on increasing accessibility and making the medicine more affordable.”
Despite her academic prowess, Hannah also boasts of an impressive, high school track and field career, according to AthleticNet. She believes without her mother and sister she wouldn’t be celebrating her acceptance in all eight Ivy League schools.
“I think because of the fact my mom didn’t go to college, she always pushed us a little extra hard,” Hannah said of her mother Valerie Williams.
