Indian-American Girl, 11, Declared One Of Brightest Students In World
Natasha Peri, an 11-year-old Indian-American girl has been judged as one of the brightest students in the world by a top US university for her exceptional performance in the SAT and ACT standardised tests.
Both the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) are standardised tests that many colleges use to determine whether to accept a student for admission. In some cases, companies and non-profits also use these scores to award merit-based scholarships.
All colleges require students to take either the SAT or the ACT and submit their scores to their prospective universities.
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 Talent (CTY) Search, a statement said on Monday.
She was one of nearly 19,000 students from 84 countries who joined CTY in the 2020-21 Talent Search year. CTY uses above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their true academic abilities.
Peri took the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2021, when she was in Grade 5. Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance.
She 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.
As part of Johns Hopkins policy, granular information is not broken down by age or race. Likewise, it is left to the guardian to disclose the prodigy’s name. Within the US, awardees come from all 50 US states.
Less than 20 per cent of CTY Talent Search participants qualified for CTY High Honours Awards. Honorees also qualified for CTY’s online and summer programmes, through which bright students can form a community of engaged learners with other bright students from around the world.
“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. In addition, CTY’s in-person Summer Programmes for bright students is offered at about 20 sites in the United States and Hong Kong, the statement said.
It may be noted that most Indian-American school children perform very well in schools. Some commentators, mostly the Americans, say that they are not impressed by this as the Indian students are mostly bookish and have not much practical knowledge. But that criticism is highly debatable, given the topmost positions that the India-Americans are occupying in the United States in various fields these days.
On the contrary, there is a gradual realisation that behind the success of Indian-Americans is their firm commitments to family-values that prioritise togetherness by coming to each other’s help rather than being highly individualistic. And most importantly, the Indian-American parents, most of whom immigrants from professional backgrounds, spend countless hours in helping, encouraging and preparing their kids to become champions.
