A 12-year-old student from Edlin School (10742 Sunset Hills Road) will appear on the NBC show “Genius Junior” on Sunday (April 15). 

The show, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, airs every Sunday at 9 p.m.. Teams complete challenging brain teasers like spelling complex words backwards, relaying directions to a destination through rote memorization and memorizing the U.S. highway system.

Vinay Ayala, a seventh grader, is playing for the team, “The Fellowship of Genius Schmenius,” also known as FOGS. Other team members include an eight-year-old from Andover, Ma. and a nine-year-old from Kingsland, Ga..

Ayala enjoys building model cities and was part of a team that won first place in the national Future City competition earlier this year. He aspires to become an engineer.

“I love to memorize things,” Ayala said, noting that he can memorize a deck of shuffled cards in fifteen minutes and recite them in correct order.

The winning team will take home a grant that NBC promises will “set the stage for a big and bright future that lies ahead.”

Photo via NBC