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Newmarket high school student Herman Isayenka said he could not believe it when he got the phone call that would help his dreams come true.
The Grade 12 student at Dr. John M. Denison Secondary School said it took him time to process when he got the call for a $120,000 scholarship award for engineering.
“It was a very crazy moment,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Isayenka earned the Schulich Leader Scholarship in April, one of the most prestigious scholarships in the country. With the scholarship, he will be attending the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University.
The scholarships are valued at $120,000 each for engineering, with 100 total scholarships given out each year across 20 universities.
Isayenka earned the award through an application process, becoming the top applicant in his school and taking on extracurricular activities, including the school robotics and business case teams.
“I’ve been working really hard in my last school year,” he said. “It’s going to be very significant for me.”
School guidance counsellor and business teacher Evelyn Morris said Isayenka is an amazing student, achieving a 95 per cent or higher in most courses across his four years. She noted that he has acted as a peer tutor, an air cadet and has an aptitude for math, engineering and business.
“Herman is a kind, intelligent and well-rounded student who will make the world a better place,” Morris said. “Dr. John M. Denison is proud to foster well-rounded students that possess the soft skills and hard skills necessary to set kids up for success at the next stage.”
The student said he was inspired to get into engineering by his father, who worked in IT and health.
Isayenka said he realized at a young age he preferred math and science, and tried out a math club at the University of Toronto during the pandemic. While being part of the club, it put him on a journey with activities like coding where he discovered he wanted to keep working in the field as a career.
“As I was building myself with that, I just realized, this is actually what I wanted to do,” he said.
Isayenka said he hopes to get into the field of computer engineering, working on AI, believing in how big its getting and its capacity to change the world.
With the scholarship, he said he “can focus more on my studies and hopefully, impact the world with my work in engineering.”
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