Cara Zemelman, a third-grade student from Woodbridge, VA, and member of Branch 2, has been honored as one of the brightest students in the world by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY).

Cara, a student at Cardinal Montessori School, was honored for her exceptional performance on the SCAT, an exam taken as part of the CTY Talent Search.  She is the daughter of Branch 2 members Theresa and Cal, and big sister to Branch 2 members Danny and Diana.

More than 15,000 students in grades two through eight tested through CTY’s Talent Search between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, representing all 50 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Armed Forces installations in Europe and the Pacific, as well as more than 70 countries. The students who scored in the top 9% on their test were 2020 Grand Honors awardees.

CTY is a non-profit affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. CTY began with a seventh-grade boy from Baltimore who had exhausted all the options for math courses he could take at school. Julian Stanley, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins, worked with this boy to arrange access to challenging math courses so the boy could continue to develop his academic talents. In 1997, Dr. Stanley and Johns Hopkins founded CTY in response to the national need to recognize and develop the world’s brightest young minds. Alumni of CTY include the co-founder of Google, the CEO of Facebook, and leaders in the sciences, arts, and government.

Normally, CTY holds a banquet in Baltimore, MD, for Grand Honors Awardees and their families, where medals are given to the students. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award banquet was canceled, and awardees received their medals in the mail.

Cara’s family, teachers, and friends are very proud of her hard work and dedication. Though Cara enjoys learning about a variety of subjects, her teachers marvel at her enthusiasm and persistence in the classroom. Congratulations, Cara!

Submitted by Theresa Zemelman