William Widjaja, an eighth-grader at Suzanne Middle School, has been named among the 700 brightest young students by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
William received the Exceptional Talent Award for scoring above 700 on the SAT in mathematics before the age of 13.

He is among the select group chosen from more than 14,000 seventh- and eighth-graders around the world. William qualified for the prestigious award last year when he was in the seventh grade and is among the select group lauded for exceptional performance on the SAT or ACT — the same tests taken by college-bound high school students.

“Awards aren’t everything, but the will to achieve them is everything,” he said.
Since 1979, the center has sought the most academically able elementary and middle school students, and encouraged their enrollment in its annual talent search. In 2010-11, more than 50,000 students from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and some 120 countries including China, South Korea and Canada participated.