High marks and a victory for Germany – it has been a good week for Andrei Feldiorean

July 16, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

It has been a good week for Andrei Feldiorean.

Last Wednesday, he was officially named Cardinal Carter Catholic High School’s top scholar for the 2013 – 2014 school year, and the momentous week was capped on Sunday when his team, Germany, brought home the World Cup after defeating Argentina.

We won’t force Andrei to choose which victory was more meaningful for him but, for the sake of argument – and this article – we’ll just assume his 96.17 average might have the slight edge.

“I was really happy that happened,” says Andrei – of his grade. “I was really hoping it would happen.”

Ending his high school career on a particularly high note before heading off later this summer to McGill’s live sciences program in Montreal, was a personal goal he set for himself as an elementary school student at St. Jerome.

“In Grade 8, I started working harder and harder, and when I reached high school I decided it would be really important to keep my marks up, especially with how competitive universities are,” he says. “I decided I would have to do my best in order to get into the university programs I wanted.”

As a student in Cardinal Carter’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program, his game plan was relatively simple – plug away by completing all assignments and finishing everything on time or, even better, just ahead of time.

“What they told us in IB is it is just about time management and to give yourself enough time,” he says. “You might have to take time away from other things you like doing but if you put in the time you will be able to do it.”

The importance of education was instilled in Andrei by his engineer parents from a very early age. Born in Romania, he settled in Toronto with his family in 2002 “just hoping for better opportunities and a better quality of life.” They eventually moved to Aurora in 2006, where Andrei entered Grade 5 at St. Jerome.

“First and second grade here were difficult,” Andrei explains. “I had trouble with that but as years went by, I just put in more of an effort, I started to get the hang of things, and my parents really put an emphasis on education. My parents really helped to build the appreciation of what you could do, even learning for the sake of learning. Over time, I just thought I could do better if I could distinguish myself in some way and work as hard as I can.”

Part of a way to stand out from the crowd was entering the IB program, the separate stream at Cardinal Carter which, although it requires extra work, gives students a leg up when it comes to extra credits that stand students in good stead when it comes to university applications.

“I always tried to do as well as I could in class, making sure my teachers were noticing I was taking an interest and I was trying my best,” he says. “You have got to be persistent and it takes a lot of time to succeed.”

As he prepares to head off to university this summer, he is spending time working at Ballantrae Golf and Country Club’s tennis and soccer camp, building on his success on Cardinal Carter’s tennis team, where he was named MVP for three of his four years.