Warden student honored by Johns Hopkins

MOSES LAKE — Warden Middle School student Nikolas Connor Massa was honored by Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at a statewide awards ceremony for gifted children.

Massa also received special recognition at the Oct. 2 event for having the second highest score in the state of Washington on the SCAT Verbal test.

“It was really surprising, I didn’t know I scored that high,” Massa said. “I just went there and studied a little in the car ride over.”

Massa says he wants to go to college after high school, but isn’t sure where. He says his ultimate goal is to move to Seattle and become a missionary.

“He sets his alarm clock so he can read in the morning. He loves to challenge himself so that’s why we let him do the Johns Hopkins competition,” said Connor’s mother, Jill Massa.

Massa, now a seventh-grader at Warden Middle School, was invited to the awards ceremony based on his exceptional performance on an above grade-level test given last year to second through eighth grade talent search participants last year.

CTY conducts the nation’s oldest and most extensive academic talent searches and offers educational programming for students with exceptionally high academic ability.

“With our annual award ceremonies, we’re committed to giving these exceptional young people a stage on which to recognize their academic achievements, just as we celebrate achievements in athletics and performing arts,” said CTY executive director Lea Ybarra. “Their performance places them in the top tier of students taking these tests, and they certainly deserve acclaim.”

Seventh and eighth-graders took the ACT and SAT, tests used for college admissions while second through sixth grade students took the SCAT, an above-level test.

In 2009, more than 53,000 students participated in the talent searches offered through CTY.