{"id":7654,"date":"2014-08-06T05:07:36","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T09:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7654"},"modified":"2014-08-13T15:01:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T19:01:42","slug":"de-sereville-spreads-girl-power-in-science-before-heading-to-u-of-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/de-sereville-spreads-girl-power-in-science-before-heading-to-u-of-t\/","title":{"rendered":"de Sereville spreads \u201cGirl Power\u201d in science before heading to U of T"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As she set her sights on the University of Toronto\u2019s engineering sciences program, Aurora\u2019s Yvette de Sereville wasn\u2019t quite sure what to expect.<\/p>\n

Rising through the ranks at Aurora High School, where she was recently named top scholar of this year\u2019s graduating class with a mark of a whopping 98.3 per cent, she did more than enough to secure her place in the program, plus a few scholarships to boot, but getting into the program itself wasn\u2019t the only thing on her mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cGirls are still a minority in my program, but I find it is a growing community,\u201d Yvette explains. \u201cI find during the adolescent years there are a lot of insecurities, especially for women, and everyone feels shy to maybe approach that sort of field because it is so male dominant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those \u201cinsecurities\u201d, she said might be at the root of the problem, but there has been a concerted effort to shift those tides. U of T, for instance has hosted an all-girls weekend which Yvette says \u201cinspired us to appreciate how much we are being welcomed into this field.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is great because they really encouraged us to feel comfortable,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

It was a lot of hard work to get there. In making the grade by a very comfortable margin, Yvette graduated Aurora High School this June not only with the top mark, but also special scholarships from U of T, as well as the Governor General\u2019s Academic Achievement Award, and scholarships in math, physics, chemistry, and French from the York Region District School Board. <\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to study science principally because I like to discover how the world works and the nature of things,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I approach something that is always my first question. Whenever I try to understand, I ask why, and I felt science is the best way to answer all of my enquiries.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interest started in elementary school. By Grade 8 she says she was already feeling a connection with math and, eventually, science. The \u201clogic\u201d of the fields appealed to her and she eventually fell in love with the subject. Although she was always a good student, she says \u201cI stepped up my game\u201d when she got to high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just figure out what works best for you and it is different for each student,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me, I knew which subjects I wanted to spend more time on and then I knew which ones I could get by just doing a little bit less work on. I did a lot of work during my lunch hours and I could get that out of the way to spend more time at home just to rest and relax.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important just to be healthy, exercise, and do a few extracurriculars as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those extracurriculars were the AHS band as well as their Robotics club. At AHS, Yvette says she is thankful they always \u201coffered opportunities for all kinds of people to excel\u201d and it was there she found her niche. Teachers were always available for extra help, particularly in Grades 9 and 10, which are often formative years for students figuring out what they want to do, develop study habits, and other methods to help them move forward. <\/p>\n

With just a few weeks left before her big move to Toronto, Yvette is taking a well-earned rest before beginning the frantic process of packing up and settling in. She has been keeping in touch with those in her program over Facebook and through U of T chatrooms and although this will be her first time away from home, she is ready to get down to business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am most looking forward to the challenge because it is a very challenging program, and I am looking forward to learning time management skills because of all the work I will be doing,\u201d she says. \u201cThe most important thing is to keep healthy and happy. When you are in Grade 9 and 10, it\u2019s time to explore what works for you, and getting to know your strengths and weaknesses is really important to your success in senior years.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As she set her sights on the University of Toronto\u2019s engineering sciences program, Aurora\u2019s Yvette de Sereville wasn\u2019t quite sure what to expect.<\/p>\n

Rising through the ranks at Aurora High School, where she was recently named top scholar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/2014-08-07-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1Zs","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 09:53:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}