When students excel academically, some are placed on the school honor roll, while others are eligible for scholarships. In rare instances, gifted pupils have an opportunity to join Mensa. This is the case with 12 students who are enrolled in North Carolina’s Pender Early College High School, according to StarNews.

There are currently about 110,000 Mensa members living in 100 countries around the world, according to Mensa International’s website. The news source reported that there are even Mensans in North Carolina, but not many of them are young. Scott Borah, Pender’s career development coordinator, hopes to change that.

The idea to enroll Pender students in Mensa first came about when Borah was looking for clubs they could join. After checking some test scores, Borah found that several students qualified for entry into the society.

"I always knew there were some that did very well on tests," Borah told the news outlet. "I know that there’s probably some more out there."

In order to join Mensa, members must have an IQ in the top 2 percent of the population, the society’s website states. If parents are curious to see how their child ranks in relation to other children their age, they can have him or her take an IQ test for kids.