Indian American children were among top scorers in the ‘talent search’ sponsored by John Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, CTY identifies America’s top students in Grades 5-8 and provides programs, services and resources to help them make the most of their special academic abilities. These very bright young people were invited to participate in CTY’s talent search because they scored 97th percentile or higher on school standardized test. They then took additional above–grade level exams, which yielded, further information about the verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities of these bright learners. Over 78,000 students from 19 states and the District of Columbia participated in this year's talent searches.

7th and 8th graders who took the college SAT and scored approximately in the top 26 percent compared to all students in the search were recognized at an awards ceremony on June 5, 2004 at Suffolk University and on May 22, 2004 at Southern New Hamshire University. Other ceremonies were held at different locations all over New England to recognize students from different regions. The group taking the SAT is a self- selected group who are motivated learners.

Anirvan Mukherjee from Shrewsbury Middle School won the first place in Massachusetts for Math. Kabir Banerjee from Boston University Academy won the first place in Massachusetts for Verbal. He also received the highest overall combined score for Math and Verbal and a one-course scholarship to attend a college-level course at Suffolk University. Arjun R. Venkatachalam from Cooperative Middle School won the second place in New Hampshire for Math and a one-course scholarship to attend a college-level course at the University of New Hampshire. Suhas Rao received a one-course scholarship to attend a college-level course at Wheaton College for scoring over 700 on Math portion of SAT1 before age of 13.

Some of the other Indian-American students recognized were:

Anirudh Arun (Medfield)
Kabur Banerjee (Cambridge)
Alka Bhatt (North Chelmsford)
Tuhina Bhattacharya (Brocton)
Ankan Dhal (Westford)
Aditi Dugar (Lexington)
Prasant Ghantasala (Westford)
Trupti Ingle (Burlington)
Sriran Jayakumar (Lexington)
Aparajith Kannan (Westford)
Preeya Khanna (Lexington)
Neha Kumar (Westford)
Aditya Mahesh (Westford)
Christine Mathai (Westford)
Sanchali Pal (Newton)
Anuj Patel (Westwood)
Suhas Rao (Westwood)
Ritik Ray (Andover)
Arun Saigal (Burlington)
Tara Soni (Lynnfield)
Abhisek Sonnatakke (Westford)
Sudarshan Srivatsan (Westford)
Divya Thekkethala (Mansfield)
Neelum Wadekar (Westwood)

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

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