Northside High School Teen Researcher Heads to China for International Degree

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J., Sept. 12, 2017 -- Albany Park (Albany Park, Chicago) resident Joshua Roth (17) travelled to China last month to begin work on an international baccalaureate having completed a unique research program into the workings of the brain.  

Roth started high school early. During 7^th and 8^th grades at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School (Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School), he enrolled in an advanced program at Chicago’s Lane Tech College Prep High School (Lane Tech High School). The program was for kids who wanted to graduate early. He went on to Northside College Prep High School (Northside College Prep High School), where he took five AP courses, participated in Chicago Public Schools’ (Chicago Public Schools Aspen Challenge Chicago (Aspen Challenge Chicago), tutored at Budlong Elementary School (Budlong Elementary School), and was selected at 16 by Pioneer Academics to research how human brains register pain (Pioneer Academics).

“Neuroscience interested me as a small boy. My first language was Spanish; but by the time I was in middle school, I had forgotten it. I always wondered how that was possible. I was a kid trying to understand how his brain works,” says Roth. “Pioneer enabled me to explore neuroscience at a very deep level, and earn college credit,” says Roth. Roth’s research was published earlier this year in The Pioneer Research Journal 2016, Volume 3, (The Pioneer Research Journal 2016).

The leap ahead in middle and high school gave Roth time to complete the one-of-a-kind Pioneer Research program, and to indulge his wanderlust by going to Germany for a year. Roth attended the Christoph Probst Gymnasium (Christoph Probst Gymnasium) in Gilching, Germany. He went there because he wanted to immerse himself in a foreign culture.

“In Germany, I realized I was looking for more. I found what I was looking for in China. I won a scholarship to study culture and language at United World College (UWC), in Changshu. (United World College, China).

In two years, I’ll return to the US for college. “I want to study in America after China, because the best schools are in the United States,” according to Roth.  

Roth will complete his studies in China and graduate from Northside College Prep in 2019. He’ll be 19 years old, and readier than most for college. He’s unsure when he’ll return to Chicago, but there’s one thing of which he’s certain, “The feeling for the city you grew up in never really goes away.”

About Pioneer Academics

Pioneer Academics, a US-based public benefit corporation, provides qualified high school students around the world the opportunity to conduct one-on-one, undergraduate-level research under the mentorship of a college professor at a leading US college or university. This year the Pioneer Research Program has enabled over 350 students in 21 countries to prove to themselves and to others their own exceptional capabilities and to prepare for higher education.   

www.pioneeracademics.com

Contact:          Bob Wittenburg                                   
Company:       Pioneer Academics, PBC
Cell:                (949) 689-4867
Email:             [email protected]