A Class 5 student has been selected for a NASA trip after reaching the final rounds of a Maths Olympiad that started with a regular school maths test

Ayesha, a 10-year-old student from Haryana, is preparing for a journey far beyond her classroom. The Class 5 student has been selected for an educational visit to NASA after making her way through the Mittsure Mathematics Olympiad, which reportedly attracted more than one lakh participants.

What makes her story stand out is how simply it began. Ayesha took the Olympiad test at her school in Bhakhri village in Mahendragarh district, treating it like another academic competition. She cleared the first stage and continued advancing until the competition took her to the national level and eventually to a final interview in Jaipur. The Times of India first reported her story.

From a school test to the national stage

Ayesha was studying in Class 5 when she entered the Maths Olympiad. She first topped the school-level round before moving through the district and state stages.

Her performance eventually took her to the national round. She then appeared for a final interview in Jaipur, where a three-member jury asked her questions across different subjects. According to the report, she answered almost all of them correctly.

That final performance helped Ayesha secure one of four places for an educational visit to NASA. Mittsure has also said that more than one lakh students registered for its Olympiad, with participants coming from across the country.

Only four students were selected for the NASA visit

Ayesha was among four students chosen for the educational trip. The other selected students were Gaurangi Sharma from Rajasthan, and Shubh Jain and Jayprakash Pandey from Madhya Pradesh.

The scale of the competition makes Ayesha's selection notable. Mittsure said its 2025-26 Olympiad received more than one lakh registrations across over 2,000 schools and 675-plus districts. Sixty students received national recognition, while four earned the opportunity to visit NASA.

For Ayesha, however, the numbers were not part of the plan when she first sat for the examination. Her family initially viewed the test as another school competition.

Her family did not expect the test to lead to NASA

Ayesha's father, Rajkumar, is a retired Indian Navy personnel. He told The Times of India that the family did not expect much beyond the competition when she first took part.

But Ayesha kept clearing each stage.

Her mother, Snehlata, said her daughter has always taken her studies seriously. Ayesha reportedly spends several hours studying after school and attends tuition for around three to four hours. She is also the eldest of three siblings.

The journey has now taken her from Bhakhri village to an opportunity that most students only encounter through textbooks and documentaries.

NASA trip comes after months of competition

Ayesha is expected to travel to the US next month, subject to completion of her passport formalities, according to The Times of India.

Her story is less about one sudden achievement and more about how far a simple opportunity can take a student. She did not begin with a national competition or a plan to visit NASA. She began with a maths paper at school.

One test led to another round, then another, until the Class 5 student from a village in Haryana found herself among four students selected for an educational visit to NASA.

For Ayesha, the biggest jump was not from Haryana to the US. It was from that ordinary school test to the final selection.