Aug 23, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By Crystal Crimi

DURHAM -- Four Durham students have risen to the top of their class and beyond.

In the Durham Catholic District School Board, Jonathan Bunting and Jennifer Chung of St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Pickering finished their graduating year with a 95.83 per cent average. At the Durham District School Board, Andrew Good of Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute, Whitby, and Faizah Ilyas of O’Neill Collegiate Vocational Institute in Oshawa tied with 97.33 per cent.

“I’ve always maintained that kind of an average,” Faizah said. “Academics play a major part in my life, I try to maintain a balanced life... but studies do come first for me.”

Faizah, a Whitby resident and Oshawa student, always listens in class, reviews her notes at home, and studies at the dining room table with no distractions. In high school, she spent two to three hours a night doing school work, scheduling it between dinner, breaks, and extra curricular activities.

Her habits paid off, not only with high marks, but scholarship offers.

Queen’s University offered Faizah a Bank of Montreal scholarship worth $40,000 over four years, but she refused. Western University offered her $6,000 for each of her four years - again she refused.

She’ll be attending McMaster University with financial support from a Millennium National Scholarship, worth $5,000 for each of her four years. McMaster is providing her a $3,000 entrance bursary for two years as well. Faizah chose McMaster for its group learning approach in Health Sciences.

For Andrew, it was math at Waterloo University or nothing because of its reputation. He wants to be an actuary, a job which involves things such as calculating insurance rates.

“It’s almost entirely math and I really enjoy math,” Andrew said.

In his final year, he took function, data management, calculus and vectors, physics, chemistry, and biology. Although he does well every year, this year was his best.

“I wanted to show the universities the best I could do,” he said.

For university, he received a $2,000 scholarship and a $5,000 scholarship spread over two years.

His advice for other students, work hard, figure out what you like and base what you want to do on that.

Along with his studies, he also did basketball and track and field.

“You don’t always want to be thinking about school,” Andrew said.

In the Catholic board, Jonathan scored 100 per cent in calculus. His mom, Teresa Bunting, spoke about his marks while he was in Peru.

“This is a kid that strives to get his best,” she said. “He has good study habits, he’ll get home from school, have a rest, and get right to it.”

Jonathan is going to McMaster University this fall for engineering with a $3,000 entrance scholarship. He was offered a $10,000 scholarship to Queen’s University but refused. Ms. Bunting said they always told him not to let scholarships decide the school.

His classmate, Jennifer Chung, tied Jonathan’s average.

“I’m used to getting high marks but I didn’t know I was going to get at the top of my school or Durham,” Jennifer said. She took three sciences and three maths this year.

Jennifer said her average has been the same throughout high school, increasing only slightly each year. Along with doing school work, she plays soccer, hockey, and is involved with other activities.

Jennifer listened to her parents’ guidelines about discipline and trying her best.

Born in India, her father started teaching her math before she began school. Later, she was put into enrichment programs so she could get ahead.

In September, she’s going to McMaster University for life sciences and she’ll try to get a minor in math. She’s still not sure what she wants to do for a career, just that it will be in science or math. Jennifer also received a $2,000 entrance scholarship.