TIA Once Again on the National Stage: Four Students Honored as Thermo Fisher Top 300 Junior Innovators

Our Students Shine in the National STEM Spotlight

As the new school year begins, The Islamic Academy for Peace students are bringing fantastic news to our school community — an outstanding national STEM achievement and a proud moment for all of us.

Four TIA students have been selected as Top 300 Junior Innovators in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC), one of the nation’s premier middle school STEM competitions:

• Mohammad Ibrahim Riaz

• Zaynab Shakir

• Roudha Fathima Siddiq

• Maryam Zaheer

A Remarkable National STEM Achievement

The JIC journey begins with around 60,000 middle school students participating through affiliated science fairs across the country.

From this broad pool, qualifying students are nominated to compete nationally. In 2026, 1,997 students completed applications for the Junior Innovators Challenge.

From those 1,997 national entrants, only 300 students were selected as Top 300 Junior Innovators.

We are incredibly proud that 4 of those 300 students are from TIA.

A Proud Moment for TIA School Community

Having four students named among the National Top 300 is a wonderful achievement and a moment of great joy and pride for our entire school community.

With four students selected, our school recorded the second-highest Top 300 student count nationwide among individual school/campus listings.

Here in Massachusetts, 4 of the 10 Top 300 Junior Innovators came from The Islamic Academy, giving us the highest number of honorees among individual schools in the state.

A Reflection of Curiosity, Hard Work, and Support

These numbers are exciting, but what makes us even prouder is what they represent:

TIA students’ curiosity, hard work, creativity, perseverance, and love of learning, together with the guidance and encouragement of their teachers and families.

Achievements like this reflect what is possible when students are given opportunities to ask meaningful questions, explore ideas deeply, learn from challenges, and confidently present their work beyond the classroom.

We are grateful to see our young scientists representing TIA, Methuen and Massachusetts on the national stage, and we hope their achievement inspires many more students to dream, explore, and pursue excellence.

We congratulate our four National Top 300 Junior Innovators on this extraordinary achievement and pray that this milestone inspires many more students to pursue science, innovation, research, and service to humanity.

Alhamdulillah! May Allah bless our students with beneficial knowledge, continue to guide and inspire them, reward everyone who supported their journey, and enable them to use their talents to benefit humanity. Ameen.