Samedha Saxena among “World’s Brightest” students

Besides Samedha Saxena from New York, another Indian American girl and a Delhi boy are on the Johns Hopkins list

Two Indian American girls and a boy from New Delhi are among the “world’s brightest” students selected by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) as part of its 2022 talent search.

Samedha Saxena, 9, Natasha Perianayagam, 13, and Aaryaveer Kochhar, 9, were selected by Baltimore, Maryland-based CTY, a gifted education program for school-age children based on the results of above-grade-level tests of over 15,000 students across 76 countries.

Read: Natasha Perianayagam among Johns Hopkins’ ‘world’s brightest’ (February 7, 2023)

Saxena, a Grade 4 student at Battery Park City School in New York City is one of the youngest students to qualify for the CTY global Talent Search Program at the age of 8 in Spring 2022.

Congratulating Saxena on her achievement, CTY Executive Director, Dr Amy Shelton, said, “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.”

“It is exciting to think about all the ways in which they will use that potential to discover their passions, engage in rewarding and enriching experiences, and achieve remarkable things – in their communities and in the world,” Shelton said.

CTY uses above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their academic abilities.

Less than 27% of 15,300 students from 76 countries qualified for the CTY ceremony in the 2021-22 Talent Search year, receiving either high or grand honors based on their test scores, according to a university press release.

As reported earlier, Perianayagam, a 13-year-old Indian-American schoolgirl, has been named among the “world’s brightest” students for the second consecutive year by the CTY.

A student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School in New Jersey, Perianayagam also took the Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth (CTY) test in Spring 2021, when she was a Grade 5 student.

Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections were on par with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance, which catapulted her into the honors list that year.

Perianayagam, whose parents hail from Chennai, said she loves doodling and reading JRR Tolkien’s novels in her spare time. In her latest attempt, Perianayagam scored the highest grades among all candidates.

Kochhar, who also claims to hold the record for the youngest author in the world, is a student of Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School, New Delhi.

At the age of nine, Aaryaveer committed himself to be a change-maker in the world. He is the youngest member of the Inclusive United Nations and recently claims to have presented recommendations to The Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the highest global authority on child rights.