Downtown Sisters Singled Out by Global Search for Academic Talent
A pair of sisters who live in Battery Park City and attend PS/IS 276 have been identified as among the brightest students in the world by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY), a gifted-education program for school-age children, which is affiliated with the eponymous university in Baltimore, Maryland.
The sisters are Sanjita and Samedha Saxena, who are in the seventh and fourth grades, respectively. “We are an academically oriented family,” explains their father, Mayank Saxena. “Both Sanjita and Samedha are high achievers in academics as well as extracurriculars and sports. They are both self-motivated, diligent, and committed to excellence, but also very kind and considerate.”
“We knew that Johns Hopkins ran a program for gifted students, which provides advanced math, arts, and sciences, for above-grade level kids,” he continues. “They test each child in math and English to qualify through a global talent search program, and then offer the students courses online during the academic year, followed by in-person sessions across the United States each summer.”
The non-profit CTY program (which gives out more than $4 million in scholarships per year) accepts students from second through 12th grades. It was founded in 1979 by psychologist Julian Cecil Stanley, who was a lifelong advocate for accelerated education for intellectually precocious children. In the years since, it has welcomed more than a few exceptionally clever kids who later found fame—among them journalist Ronan Farrow, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook/Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, politician Andrew Yang, and musician Lady Gaga. Also in the alumni mix are several dozen Rhodes Scholars, MacArthur Fellows, and Regeneron Science Talent Search winners.
Mayank and the girls’ mother, Hema Iyer, are both investment bankers based in New York who have traveled and lived around the world. They have resided in Lower Manhattan for 20 years, and moved to Battery Park City six years ago.
“We decided to test Sanjita when she was in third grade, and she qualified,” Mayank recalls. “This encouraged Samedha to take the CTY test last spring, when she was in her third grade.”
Sanjita, who competes on the Battery Park City School debate team, was recently admitted to the National Junior Honor Society. She is on the school’s softball and volleyball teams, and writes for the school newspaper. Like her sister, Samedha plays in the Downtown Little League and the Downtown Soccer League, and is also a coding enthusiast.
In the most recent round of CTY evaluations, Samedha was one of more than 15,300 students from 76 countries who qualified to sit for the SAT, ACT, or School and College Ability Test, usually taken by high-school seniors applying for admission to a university. Among this already exceptional cohort, she was one of a small group that qualified for High Honors.
According to CTY, this certifies Samedha as, “one of the brightest students in the world.” The organization’s executive director, Dr. Amy Shelton, congratulated Samedha, saying, “this is not just recognition of our students’ 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.”
Samedha says, “I am elated to get this recognition from CTY. I am excited to continue to grow and excel. My motto is, ‘believe in yourself, aim high, and strive to make a difference every day!’”
Sanjita, whom Samedha credits as her inspiration and role model, says, “I enjoy learning and challenging myself. It is important to always put your best effort in everything you do as your work is a reflection of yourself.”
Mayank observes, “our daughters are passionate about learning and are self-starters, which has a lot to do with their success. But they have been nurtured by the Battery Park City School, which is a very inclusive and supportive institution, and by the tight-knit community that is Battery Park City.”
For information about the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, click here.