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St. Robert Catholic High School graduates Harris Chan and Shums Kassam have quite a few things in common. They both just graduated from St. Robert’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program, they have both enrolled in the same engineering program at U of T for September, and they both scored a remarkable average of 99.6 per cent, earning them the highly-coveted title as this year’s top scholars.
At Robert CHS, top scholars Harris and Shums were friends who shared a solid work ethic and believed that there is strength in numbers. As students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, they formed study groups with their peers to examine the course material and analyze it from a variety of angles.
“Shums and I only had one class together this year unfortunately, but since we were taking the same courses throughout the year, we would talk over email about the course material,” said Harris. “We’d exchange study sheets and discuss the courses as we went along. It was great!”
Harris is no stranger to success. He has received much attention over the last couple of years for his mind-boggling ability to solve the Rubik’s Cube in less than ten seconds, a feat for which he once held the North American record with his fastest official time of 7.33 seconds.
Even more amazing is the fact that Harris is colour-blind. It doesn’t slow him down though, as he compensates for it by using more brightly coloured squares on his Rubik’s cube. In addition to solving the Rubik’s Cube, Harris also found time during his years at St. Robert CHS to co-found the school’s ping-pong club and tutor other students in math, science and physics.
In September, Harris will be attending the Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto – the same program his friend Shums has chosen. As for a career choice, Harris isn’t sure yet what he wants to do, but he feels that engineering science is a good program for him.
“Right now I’m not sure yet – that’s why I picked engineering. It’s exciting, but if it’s not what I want, it is a degree that can take me to many different places - financial, management, an MBA,” said Harris. “It’s a great place for people who don’t know what they want to do yet.”
Shums Kassam doesn’t yet know about his impressive accomplishment of being named one of York Catholic’s two top scholars of this school year. He is currently in Tanzania with his older sister Zahra volunteering at an orphanage, said his brother Abbas, a 24 year-old law student.
Abbas tell us that although his brother committed a lot of time to his studies, he still found time to do other things that he enjoys. Shums was the president of the school’s social justice club and a member of the dragon boat team that travelled to Macau to represent St. Robert CHS in Macau last year. Out of school, Shums is a 2nd black belt in taekwondo and spends time teaching this skill to youths.
Like Harris, Shums has chosen to accept an offer from the University of Toronto to attend its Engineering Science program. Abbas said that Shums also isn’t quite sure what he wants to do yet, but feels that engineering science will open plenty of doors in the future.
This year, 13 York Catholic District School Board graduates achieved impressive averages of 97.5 per cent or higher.