Four Years of Academics

Though she had always excelled academically, at the Academy Hannah Otis found an environment that nurtured her pursuit of academic growth in every subject. By the time she finished her four years at ICJA,
Hannah had achieved national and international recognition in multiple areas—from Talmud to AP science and math. She and her peers in Honors Girls’ Talmud took the top seven spots in a Yeshiva University girls‘ Talmud competition. Hannah and another classmate tied for 1st place, out of hundreds of high school girls across North America. The competition results came in during the same week that Hannah took 2nd place in Ulpaniada, an international math competition in Jerusalem.

Hannah’s interest in science, specifically biology, was piqued in her science courses at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, which led her to do research at a Northwestern University lab. “While conducting my research, I had to draw on my knowledge of biology, chemistry, and mathematics. The Academy provided me with a great foundation in the sciences and mathematics, without which I could not have succeeded in my research.”

That research led her to become one of only 300 students in the nation to become a semifinalist in The Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS), the nation’s most prestigious pre-college science competition.

Hannah was also named one of approximately 40 candidates from Illinois in the 2012 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program and a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program.