Indian-American girl picked as one of world's brightest students

AN 11-year-old Indian-American girl has been picked as one of the brightest students in the world by a top American university for her exceptional results in the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) and American College Testing (ACT) standardised tests.

Natasha Peri, a student at Thelma L Sandmeier Elementary School in New Jersey, has been honoured for her exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT or similar assessment taken as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) Talent Search, it was announced on Monday (2).

Natasha Peri one among nearly 19,000 students

She was one of the nearly 19,000 students from 84 countries who joined the CTY in 2020-21 Talent Search Year. CTY uses above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and give a clear picture of their academic abilities.

The girl took the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2021, when she was in Grade 5. Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections were at par with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance. Peri made the cut for Johns Hopkins CTY “High Honors Awards”. “This motivates me to do more,” Peri said, adding that doodling and reading J R R Tolkien’s novels may have worked for her.

Both the SAT and ACT are standardised tests that many colleges use to accept a student for admission. In some cases, companies and non-profits also use these scores to award merit-based scholarships to students. All colleges require students to take either the SAT or the ACT and submit their scores to their prospective universities.

Less than 20 per cent of CTY Talent Search participants qualify for CTY High Honours Awards. “We are thrilled to celebrate these students. In a year that was anything but ordinary, their love of learning shined through, and we are excited to help cultivate their growth as scholars and citizens throughout high school, college, and beyond,” Virginia Roach, CTY’s executive director, said in a statement. There are more than 15,500 enrolments in CTY Online Programmes courses each year. Besides, CTY's in-person Summer Programmes for bright students is offered at about 20 sites in the US and Hong Kong, the statement added.