BALTIMORE June 15, 2008 — 540 of the most academically gifted seventh and eighth graders in the country were honored on Sunday, June 15, 2008 at the Grand Awards Ceremony hosted by The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY). Among the middle school students invited: - All earned exceptionally high scores on at least one section of the college SAT or ACT
- 54 achieved perfect scores of 800 on a given section of the SAT
Identified through the Johns Hopkins CTY Talent Search
These exceptional children earned their opportunity for recognition by participating in the annual Talent Search organized by The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (www.cty.jhu.edu). Since 1979, CTY has sought the most academically able elementary and middle school students each year and encouraged their enrollment in CTY’s annual fall Talent Search. In 2007-08, over 63,000 students from 50 states and the District of Columbia participated in the Talent Searches offered through CTY. Students enrolled in the search go on to test in December or January. Their day in the limelight
The students honored at CTY’s Grand Ceremony are a select group. From over 24,000 seventh and eighth grade testers across the country, they have scored the highest on either the SAT or ACT – the same tests taken by college-bound juniors and seniors. Above-grade-level tests, taken independently from the pressures of mandated assessment, can provide useful information to students, their families, and schools, particularly when a student has “hit the ceiling” of what their grade-level tests can discern. Above-grade-level testing gives a clearer picture of their academic capabilities. These students also possibly qualified for CTY’s residential summer programs, online classes, and family academic programs, where gifted students meet others like themselves, stretch their creative and intellectual wings, and discover where their special talents may take them. CTY’s founder, the late Dr. Julian Stanley, once estimated that only about one in 10,000 seventh graders can achieve scores as high as the students honored at the Hopkins Grand Awards ceremony. “CTY is honored to give them a stage on which to recognize their achievements, as might be done for excellence in athletics or the performing arts,” said Dr. Lea Ybarra, executive director of CTY. “Today is really their day in the limelight.” Ybarra credits parents and educators for sharing in the honored students’ accomplishments. “Parents who make academics a first priority for their children, and teachers who inspire their students to achieve their best, create engaged young people who are well-prepared to lead and shape tomorrow’s world.” She also credits the students for their success. “These students possess an academic fearlessness, combined with the desire to learn and achieve,” she said. “Not only will their enthusiasm for learning benefit them, it will benefit their entire generation, for these students will be the leaders, thinkers, and doers of tomorrow,” she said. The top students invited to the Grand Ceremony were individually honored on stage at Johns Hopkins by Dr. Ybarra. Dr. Edyth H. Schoenrich, currently a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, delivered the keynote speech.
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