Kartik Iyer, an International Community School student from Sammamish, was recently honored as one of the brightest middle school students worldwide at a national medal ceremony sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) in Baltimore, Md.

The center honored Kartik, one of 40,800 participants in the 2012 CTY Talent Search, for his exceptional performance as a middle school student on the college SAT in the under 13-year old category.

These exceptional students joined the 2011-2012 CTY Talent Search, which finds and recognizes the academic capabilities of advanced students around the world. More than 40,800 second-through-eighth grade students from 50 states and 110 countries participated in the 2011-2012 search. Enrollment for this year is currently underway at www.cty.jhu.edu/ts.

Kartik, who is a student at International Community School in Kirkland, is part of a select group. The honored students are selected because they were the top students among the 13,350 seventh and eighth graders testing last year through CTY. CTY uses above-grade-level tests (such as the college SAT for middle school students) because they provide clear pictures of advanced students’ academic abilities.

Students honored at the 2012 Grand Ceremony have also qualified for CTY’s residential summer programs, online classes, and family academic programs, where gifted students meet others like themselves from all over the world and have an opportunity to stretch their creative and intellectual wings, and discover where their special talents may take them.

Past participants in the CTY Talent Search include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and performer Lady Gaga.