FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Matt Bowden
Email: mtbowden1@jhu.edu
Phone: 410-735-6045

BALTIMORE June 10, 2007— Over ­­480 of the most academically gifted seventh and eighth graders in the country were honored on Sunday, June 10, 2007  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
  
  
• 59 achieved perfect scores of 800 on a given section of the SAT
  
  
• One eighth grader distinguished himself with a perfect score of 1600 for Math & Critical Reading combined
  

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 2005-6, over 84,000 students from 19 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. 

The results of these tests give families a better idea of a child’s academic talents, earn children possible recognition through CTY’s awards ceremonies, and possibly qualify a student for CTY’s summer programs or distance education courses.

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.  

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. Ralph Etienne-Cummings, currently an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at Johns Hopkins University, and the Director of the Institute of Neuromorphic Engineering at the University of Maryland, delivered the keynote speech.  

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Media colleagues:  For a complete list of students honored at the national Grand Ceremony, please contact Matt Bowden at (410) 735-6045, or email mtbowden1@jhu.edu. 

Detailed score requirements are available at http://cty.jhu.edu/ts/tsfaq.html#Awards_1.

More information is available at www.cty.jhu.edu, including an inside view of CTY's Summer Programs from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and at CTY Quick Facts.

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