Hannah Rothman

ADVANCED PLACEMENT: You’d think the typical 16-year-old taking three college-level courses and working for the Santa Barbara High School newspaper, The Forge, would be looking for more free time. Hannah Rothman took a different path. Since September, she’s been interning at The Independent and helping the news department with her research and writing skills. “I’ve learned a lot here,” she said. “Maybe more than any one English teacher ever taught me.” Included in this new base of knowledge is the fact that “people can be really ADD,” Rothman explained, and, consequently, writers must work hard to keep their compositions moving swiftly in order to keep readers’ attention. Follow what this Isabel Allende fan and hopeful future student of some East Coast university has done for The Indy so far at independent.com/hannahrothman.