New Jersey Indian American Girl Makes Johns Hopkins’ World’s ‘Brightest’ List

Natasha Peri, an 11-year-old from New Jersey. (photo via IANS)

NEW YORK – Two Indian origin girls – New Jersey-based Indian American Natasha Peri, 11; and Dubai-based Priyamvada Deshmukh, 12 – have been named to the world’s “brightest” students list based on results of above-grade-level testing of 19,000 students across 84 countries, according to Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, a part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

“Peri, a student at Thelma L. Sandmeier Elementary School, was honored for exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT, or similar assessment taken as part of the CTY Talent Search,” said a statement from the CTY.

Deshmukh, a student of GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai, has been honored for her exceptional performance on the SCAT assessment taken as part of the CTY Talent Search, a university statement said.

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.

“This motivates me to do more,” she said, adding that doodling and reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels may have worked for her.

Deshmukh took the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2020, when she was still in Grade 6. Her results in the verbal sections levelled with the advanced Grade 10 performance. She made the cut for Johns Hopkins CTY ‘High Honors Awards’.

Due to the Covid-19 induced delay in global logistics support, she finally received her much awaited “High Honors” pin this week, which she lovingly kept in front of her grandparents’ photograph as tribute to her roots.

The delay in officially getting the certificates did not stop her from attending the summer program at John Hopkins University’s CTY in English literature where she studied the confluence of art and science in literary writing and completed the course scoring an ‘A’ grade.

She followed up with top scoring the second level of the Asset Talent Examination which also qualified her for the summer program at Northwestern University this year, where she is learning about fiction writing this year.

Her elder brother was among the first UAE students to have cleared the Duke University TIP (Talent Identification Program) when he was in Class 8.

Her parents joke that it’s nothing but routine sibling rivalry that she wanted to achieve the same, just a year ahead of her brother. Even though she loves physics and computer science as subjects, unlike her elder brother (a student of astro physics at the University of Massachusetts), Deshmukh wants to pursue humanities and literature when she goes to college five years down the lane.

As part of Johns Hopkins policy, information is not broken down by age or race.

Likewise, it is left to the guardian to disclose the prodigy’s name. Within the U.S., awardees come from all 50 states.

“We are thrilled to celebrate these students,” said Virginia Roach, CTY’s executive director.

“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,” Roach added.

The quantitative section of the Johns Hopkins CTY test measures the ability to see relationships between quantities expressed in mathematical terms, the verbal section measures understanding of the meaning of words and the relationships between them.