A student motivated to become a doctor following his mother’s cancer diagnosis is one of two York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) students who graduated with perfect averages.
Rohan Kumar graduated from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Father Michael McGivney Catholic High School (CHS) in Markham and will enter the five-year medicine program at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ire. Rohan encourages students to work hard, take on challenges and have fun.
YCDSB Top Scholars are the students with the highest average at their secondary school, with the average calculated based on their top six Grade 12 courses. The IB program was designed in Switzerland in the 1960s to give students around the world a chance to earn a rigorous, internationally recognized diploma to use for entry into universities.
Fellow Father Michael McGiveny IB graduate Jashvir Rathore will study computer science at University of Toronto with the hopes of combining his passions for computers, chemistry and physics into a career. Jashvir encourages students to set challenging goals and to work hard to achieve them, but to always focus on being happy with what was learned rather than the outcome.
Chloe Wong from St. Brother André CHS in Markham graduated with a 99.83 per cent average and will study life sciences at University of Toronto. Serina Wing Yan Chan of St. Augustine CHS in Markham graduated with a 98.67 per cent average.
“I want to congratulate the YCDSB’s Top Scholars who have worked so hard to achieve this incredible accomplishment,” says Director of Education Domenic Scuglia. “I also want to thank the staff, families and everyone else who supported these young adults so they could excel in their academic work. I know all these exceptional students are driven to make this world a better place and we are excited to see what they will do next.”
The YCDSB has Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) and Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) scores “far exceeding” provincial averages, the board reports. With 97.5 per cent of its students graduating from secondary school in five years, the YCDSB has one of the province’s highest graduation rates.
Top photo: Rohan Kumar. Photos courtesy of the York Catholic District School Board.
