9-Year-Old Howard County Girl Among Brightest Kids In The World: Johns Hopkins

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — A 9-year-old from Ellicott City has been named one of the brightest students in the world by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.

Satori Cannon, who is homeschooled now, started kindergarten in the public school setting for the socialization benefit. But she was in school for only 100 days before the coronavirus pandemic struck and shut down schools.

"We started homeschooling during the pandemic and that is when we discovered just how perfect it was for her. It allowed her to go at a much faster pace, cover a wider range of material and explore areas of interest she would not have been able to pursue in public school at her age," Laura Cannon, Satori's mom, told Patch.

Satori started talking early and had an extensive vocabulary by the age of 2, Laura Cannon said. The family got a glimpse of her academic abilities when she was just 6 years old.

"We were trimming the Christmas tree and she found an old broken mechanical ornament in our ornament box. She asked me if she could fix it and I said, 'Sure, you can try, but even mommy can't fix that.' She asked for glue and toothpicks. She returned 30 minutes later with a completely repaired ornament and I was shocked," Cannon said. "She has said she wants to be an engineer since she was about 5 years old."

Reading happens to be Satori's passion and she's currently diving into the Harry Potter series of books. She also loves watching how-to videos on YouTube Kids. One of her favorite YouTubers to watch is Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer who builds interesting things to solve weird problems, Cannon said. She's active in Girl Scouts and sings with the Peabody Children's Choir.

"I love so many things it is hard to choose (my favorite). But right now I am really enjoying art, piano and playing with my friends," Satori said.

To keep Satori challenged, her parents engage her in a variety of educational opportunities daily that include a mix of online courses, live instruction by her parents, independent study, hands-on projects that include engineering kits, activities such as homeschool gym class, music and art, as well as an ecological learning community.

"She is able to understand things so quickly that we've found she does very well with anything that allows her to work at her own pace. The ecological learning community is awesome — it is called Roots and Wings and is a program for homeschool children at the Community Ecology Institute in Columbia," Cannon said.

Recently, Satori was accepted into Mensa, the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. To qualify for Mensa, an individual must rank in the top 2 of the global population, scoring 132 or more in the Stanford-Binet test or 148 or more in the Cattell equivalent.

"She had participated in their free reading program, which provides book lists for advanced students in her age band. Then when we found out her test scores qualified her to become a member of Mensa and we submitted her application. I don't think that she knows how exciting it is, but we are very excited for her," Cannon said.