Natasha Perianayagam, 13, is a student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School, in New Jersey
Washington: Indian-American schoolgirl Natasha Perianayagam has made it to the “world’s brightest” students’ list for the second consecutive year by the US-based Johns Hopkins Centre For Talented Youth, based on the results of above-grade-level tests of over 15,000 students across 76 countries.
Perianayagam, 13, is a student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School, in New Jersey.
She also took the Johns Hopkins Centre For Talented Youth (CTY) test in Spring 2021, when she was a Grade 5 student.
Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance, and catapulted her into the honours list that year.
This year, she was honoured for her exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT, School and College Ability Test, or similar assessment, the university said in a press release on Monday, Feb 6.
Perianayagam, parents are from Chennai. She says she loves doodling and reading JRR Tolkien’s novels in her spare time.
CTY used above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their academic abilities.
According to the university release, Perianayagam was among the 15,300 students from 76 countries who joined CTY in the 2021-22 Talent Search year.
Less than 27 per cent of those participants qualified for the CTY ceremony, receiving either high or grand honours based on their test scores.
In her latest attempt, Perianayagam scored the highest grades among all candidates.
“This is not just recognition of our students’ success on one test, but a salute to their love of discovery and learning, and all the knowledge they have accumulated in their young lives so far,” said CTY’s executive director Dr Amy Shelton.
*********************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com