WSA Students Win Regional, National Honors in Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Program

Oct. 16, 2011 - PRLog -- Seattle Pacific University was the setting on October 9th for the recognition ceremony for the top achievers in Washington State for the 2011 Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) Talent Search.  Two West Sound Academy students, 7th-grader Tova Levine of Bainbridge Island and 8th-grader Carter Gale of Poulsbo, were among those students receiving awards.  The CTY Talent Search is a program offering testing of highly capable students in the United States and around the world, about 50,000 students total annually.  Students in 2nd through 6th grades take a computerized School and College Abilities Test (SCAT) at a testing center near their home before June 30th, those in 5th and 6th grades take a computerized Spatial Test Battery (STB), also at a nearby testing center before June 30th, and students in 7th and 8th grades take paper-and-pencil ACT and SAT tests at specific testing times and locations near their home up until June.  Parents of all participating students receive guidance materials along with the test results, and students earning the highest scores qualify for participation in CTY's online and summer programs for highly capable youth.

West Sound Academy students Tova and Carter were among the highest-scoring students in the state in this year's CTY testing and so were invited to the special recognition ceremonies at Seattle Pacific University. Tova was awarded two Certificates of High Honors for her especially high scores on both of the tests given to 6th-graders, the SCAT and the STB.  Carter was awarded a Certificate of High Honors at the Seattle ceremony for his high scores on both sections of the ACT test.  The WSA 8th-grader was also invited to attend CTY's Grand Ceremony in Baltimore, Maryland on November 13th.  This event is a special recognition of the very highest scoring students from this year’s testing of 7th and 8th graders in the United States and around the world.  Carter and his family won't be attending the ceremony, but he will still receive a Certificate of High Honors and a medal.

Parents Aaron and Judith Levine and Carmen Gale were in attendance at the day's events to watch their children receive their awards.  Tova and Carter had another supporter in the audience:  Allan Batchelder, their Humanities teacher at West Sound Academy.  Batchelder has a special appreciation for the Johns Hopkins CTY program.  His son participated in the CTY testing two years ago, received the Certificate of High Honors, and qualified for enrollment in one of CTY's online math courses.   "The Johns Hopkins program did wonders for my son's self-confidence in mathematics above grade-level, and I'm certain it's still paying benefits in his daily class work, even two years later!” Batchelder notes.

Because of their high scores Tova and Carter will have the opportunity to enroll in the summer and online courses offered by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.  The WSA students also qualify for other opportunities from Johns Hopkins, such as CTY’s Family Academic Programs.  And at school this fall, Tova and Carter are using their academic talents in an extracurricular activity:  they are practicing with other West Sound Academy middle school students to prepare for the Knowledge Masters Open contests in December and April.  

Parents who would like more information on the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Talent Search can visit the organization's website at http://cty.jhu.edu/ts/index.html

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West Sound Academy: an independent college preparatory school for grades 6-12 on the Kitsap Peninsula in Poulsbo, Washington, providing a rigorous academic and art curriculum and offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in grades 11-12.