Harbord Collegiate student makes a difference, TPS takes notice

By Mary An

How does one balance all of life’s demands, including school work, extracurricular activities and a  personal life? Recent Harbord Collegiate Institute grad Emily Nguyen has a simple answer: prioritize. When prioritizing, remember that it’s okay to prioritize your own mental health by relaxing, too.

“I feel like I get overwhelmed, like I’m not actually being productive,” said Nguyen during a recent interview with The Annex Gleaner. “But then I have to remind myself that you don’t always have to be productive, and that’s fine too,” 

Nguyen maintained an average of more than 90% in high school. She led Harbord Collegiate’s Safe Schools Committee, and is known in her school and the community beyond as being driven, helpful, hard-working and showing a great aptitude for leadership. 

All of this has been recognized by the Toronto Police 14 Division Community Police Liaison Committee’s (CPLC) Community Safety Scholarship. This scholarship recognizes young adults who strive to build a healthier and safer community. The scholarship awards qualified applicants up to $4,000 towards their tuition.            

Nguyen has participated in activities at her local YMCA alongside her family since she was a small child.

Martin Leung, former Aquatic Supervisor at the YMCA, says Nguyen was always tremendously helpful when it came to working with the community. She and her family were known as people who would encourage participation in activities.

“One of the communities that she and the family created is the big badminton group,” says Leung. “Every week, there’s badminton time at the centre, and she would get people involved.” 

In 2018, the participation rate was lowering in one of the aquafit classes. But with Nguyen’s leadership and involvement, they managed to raise the participation rate to the maximum of 25.

“She led by example. It was almost like a party, she made a really great experience for this class,” Leung said. 

Nguyen is going to study engineering at the University of Toronto. 

She says she doesn’t have a set career in mind yet, because she wants to explore all engineering specialities. 

“I want a lot of work experience, and to get to know the different fields and branches within engineering,” she said. “I feel as though finding something that I would really want to do is really important to me, because I don’t want to go into work dreading it every day.”