Indian-American teen named 'world's brightest student' for the second time

Indian-American teenager from New Jersey, Natasha Perianayagam, was named in a list of "world's brightest" school students by the US-based John Hopkins CTY for the 2nd year.

She took part in the Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth (CTY) in the spring of 2021 as well when she was in grade 5. The 13-year-old performed well in the verbal and quantitative sections and was found to be on par with the 90th percentile of advanced Class 8 performances.

This year, she was named in the list based on an above-grade-level test the institute held across 76 countries for over 15,000 students. She scored the highest marks among the candidates. The Johns Hopkins University said the teenager aced several tests, including SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test) and similar assessments taken as part of the CTY talent search.

Among 15,300 participants, less than 27% of them qualified for the CTY ceremony. They received high or grand honours based on their test scores.

"This is not just recognition of our student's 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," said CTY's executive director Dr. Amy Shelton.

Natasha is a student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School and her parents are from Chennai. She likes to doodle and read JRR Tolkien's novels.