Toronto's top grad dreams big.
Laureen Hachem, 17, graduated from Grade 12 at Northern Secondary School with a 99.2 per cent average, making her the TDSB top scholar for 2010. Hachem will start at the University of Toronto in the fall.
Staff Photo/MARY GAUDET
Toronto's top public school scholar has been harbouring a secret dream.
"I remember in my Grade 6 yearbook my goal was to cure cancer," said Laureen Hachem, the now 17-year-old chuckling nervously in appreciation of the enormity of what she's just said out loud. "So, hopefully that'll happen."
From most everybody else, those words might seem an admirable aim unlikely to come true. From Hachem though, her résumé can make one believe that dream can be fulfilled through desire and determination.
The graduate of the gifted program at Northern Secondary School, at Mount Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue, scored the highest marks in the Toronto District School Board this past school year. Hachem completed eight Grade 12 courses with an overall average of 99.2 per cent, including perfect marks in both physics and her co-op placement as a medical research assistant at Dr. Charles Tator's neurosurgery lab at Toronto Western Hospital.
Hachem admits to studying hard - up to five hours a night - but says it's never been about the marks.
"I just had this genuine curiosity," she explains. "I really wanted to understand all the concepts I was learning. I wouldn't be happy unless I understood it."
Her mother, Nellie, laughs that her daughter's inquisitiveness wasn't so easy when her daughter was younger.
"Question after question," remembers the interior designer, who immigrated to Canada from Belgium in 1987 with her husband and Hachem's older sister.
For Hachem, it's never been enough to know when two trains heading in opposite directions at different rates of speed will meet. She needs to know how she'll use that information in real life.
"She's practical," said Leonila Liko, the assistant curriculum leader of Northern's special education and gifted program. "So she loves to learn the theory and the content, but she likes to see how to apply it to real life situations. She goes beyond the classroom, I think that for me that's the key."
And away from the blackboards is where Hachem truly shone, says Liko.
Hachem was a tutor throughout her four years at Northern as well as being member of the math and science club and president of the French club, through which she organized a cultural festival to raise funds and awareness for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). She was also vice-president of the school's cancer committee, treausurer of the heart and stroke committee, and volunteer at the United Way.
Nellie said her daughter achieved a proper work-life balance.
"She really did. She joined a lot of clubs. She goes out with her friends."
Hachem is articulate for her age, but not beyond her years. Her conversation is still peppered with the typical teenage tics of 'like' and 'uh'. It is clear she is the antithesis of the deeply shy, studious bookworm. But it's also clear how important education is in her family.
Hachem's older sister is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Toronto. Her father, Becher Hachem, holds a PhD in applied science and engineering physics and had the highest marks in his time at the Université de Liège.
"There is evolution in life, and one moment (sometimes) you need to solve problems," said Becher on the role of school. "And the only way to solve (them) is through invention and creativity. That comes when you know the basics."
Almost perfect, Hachem seems to have the basics down pat. Her next step will be at the University of Toronto this fall to study life sciences, a precursor to medical school.
After that, well, her dream of curing cancer isn't folly to her father.
"I think she will be able (to), I believe in her," he said.
Likely more of us are too.