Bengaluru, DHNS: A Class XII student at Bethany Junior College, Rukaiya Abuwala, has secured the first rank in the International English Olympiad conducted by the Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF). Rukaiya stood first among candidates of 42,800 schools from 1,400 cities in 25 countries who took part in the six olympiads conducted by SOF.

Rukaiya took the exam on January 31. Rukaiya has been taking the annual Olympiad for several years now and in 2016, she even secured the international rank 7. “I had cross-checked my answers with the answer key, which came out two weeks after the test and I had got all of them right. I was kind of sure but I did not expect to get International Rank 1,” she said.

She has a passion for the English language, having inculcated the habit of reading from a young age. “I started reading because of encouragement from my mom. I like crime fiction and Lee Child, Dan Brown and Cornelia Funke are some of my favourite authors.” Her mother is a businesswoman and father is a medical transcriptionist.

In spite of being a Science student, Rukaiya intends to take up Bachelor of Arts, as she wants a career where she can work closely with English. “I am not sure what exactly, yet, but I know I have several options like theatre, content writing, advertising and journalism.” She likes to write and dabbles in poetry, song-writing and short horror stories. Rukaiya will go to New Delhi in June to collect her prize.