Overcoming challenges made IMSA student more than just a scholar

Timothy Akintilo is the kind of thoughtful, engaged high schooler who excels academically in one of the state's most challenging environments while also finding the time to help others.

The 15-year-old senior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora recently was named a semifinalist for the National Achievement Scholarship Program, open to African-American juniors who take the PSAT/NMSQT test.

Last year, 160,000 students took the test and only 1 percent - among them Timothy - scored high enough to qualify as semifinalists.

"They are the top students in the country," said Matt Budreau, assistant direct of public information for the National Merit Scholarship Corp. In all, 1,300 finalists will be selected, and 800 scholars will be announced April 8.

Timothy has managed to excel in the classroom, as well as in off-campus research, while also finding time to mentor younger students as they adjust to the challenges of the rigorous academy. One veteran IMSA instructor calls Timothy one of the best students he's ever had.

His tenure at the prestigious Aurora school, however, began much differently, when he was a shy and reserved 13-year-old who struggled to find his groove and whose grades left much to be desired.

There were plenty of reasons for his difficulties.

He was a good two years younger than most of his peers. His first roommate left the school, so Timothy moved in with another roommate in a different residence hall, leaving behind some of the friendships he'd begun to forge. He ended up having a hard time with his second roommate, who eventually moved out.

"My sister Lisa (who graduated IMSA in 2011) said it would be hardest thing I'd ever done in my life. I knew it was true, but I didn't know it was going to be this hard," said Timothy, who started elementary school a year early and skipped the 9th grade.

"My junior year, my grades were a lot better, and I feel like I really settled in socially. One of my friends likes to say I grew a personality during junior year."

Despite his young age, Timothy never hesitates to take risks in class, said Russian teacher Pavel Husen, who considers Timothy one of the best students he's had in 16 years at IMSA.

"When you study a foreign language, and you're sitting in a class with a lot of smart students, smart people, you don't want to make mistakes - but he's willing to risk making mistakes. That's a large part of his success."

Last year, Timothy earned a gold medal in the National Russian Essay Contest's intermediate level.

"He's so inquisitive," Husen said. "He is dedicated. He's humble. He's driven. He's got one of the best hearts of anybody that I've had."

Timothy said he chose to study Russian because his sister "had a blast" learning the language. He finally had a chance to visit Moscow during the International Students Science Fair, held in August.

"I didn't know this when I signed up for Russian, but I found out when I went there this summer they are very, very strong in biotechnology, which I am quite interested in. In college, if I want to study abroad, it opens up options."

Timothy wants to study cognitive science and likely go to medical school to become a doctor, possibly a neurosurgeon or neurologist.

His focus is more reliable than that of most undergraduate college students, said Dr. Timothy Reissman of the Center for Bionic Medicine at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Timothy helped Reissman design a system to track when patients with lower limb prostheses or spinal cord injuries are standing or reaching for objects at home, in order to improve therapy. The two worked together once a week for about eight months.

Reissman said he would have never guessed Timothy was just 14 when he started on the project.

"He could have been an ambitious undergraduate," he said, adding that Timothy's main challenge is having enough patience for the slow progress of research.

"He definitely comes across as very smart. He's good at brainstorming. He's also very humble, almost quiet, so you have to be more direct with him, and then all of a sudden a ton of things come out."

Timothy said the project was a meaningful experience.

"That's the first time I've done something that has directly impacted someone's life," he explained.

Unexpectedly, it also made him more acutely aware of his empathy for others, he said.

"There was a very experimental prosthetic arm. I had only seen it in video before. I picked it up and it was amazing, but I didn't like the way it felt. It was really cold and hard," he said. "They don't feel like a human. They feel like a robot, and I think it would be disconcerting to family members. That made me realize that I care about people a lot more than I thought I do."

Timothy's mother said that looking back, she shouldn't have let her son enroll at IMSA at such a young age. But her daughter had done the same, and Timothy really wanted to follow her footsteps, she said.

"His first year was really, really rough," said Lara Akintilo, a pharmacist. His father is a physician while his sister is studying at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

"As a parent it just broke my heart. It (the difficulty) is gone now, but as a parent, we don't forget those kinds of memories."

Growing up Bourbonnais, Timothy was always a top performer in all his classes. He started playing piano at age 3, and then fell in love with the cello.

At just 11, he was a remarkably talented young cello player, Katrina Cessna, music director and conductor for the Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra.

"Any instrument you play, it takes a certain mental toughness to play - and Timothy had it," Cessna said. "He was dedicated; you could tell he practiced."

Timothy said he always sets a high bar for himself and gets upset if he doesn't meet it. Playing music used to be a great way to de-stress, he said. "I wish I had more time for it," he said.

These days, he spends about 3½ hours a week tutoring fellow students, generally sophomores in their first year at IMSA, in subjects such as Russian, computer science, calculus and writing.

The reason he tutors? Because he wishes someone had reached out to him with that kind of help when he needed it.

"During sophomore year I struggled a lot. My grades were pretty terrible, I was always in my room," he said. "Now I get to go and knock on people's doors (to help).

"I feel like if that had happened to me my sophomore year, I would have done a lot better. I don't want what happened to me to happen to other people."

Timothy Akintilo

Age: 15

Hometown: Bourbonnais

School: Illinois Math and Science Academy

Who inspires you? My sister Lisa, who graduated from IMSA in 2011. She's so dedicated, and she's so smart. She's probably the smartest person that I know. And she's always there for me.

What book are you reading? I don't have much time to read for leisure. My favorite book is "Nexus: Mankind Gets an Upgrade" by Ramez Naam.

What's on your iPod? Kanye West, Big Sean, Haywyre.

Three words that best describe you? Forward-thinking. Cautious. Quiet.