School was never a struggle for 18-year-old Robert Kleinman.
Kleinman, who just finished Grade 12 at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, graduated with a 99.8 per cent average in his top six classes, the highest overall average in the Toronto District School Board.
“I worked very hard,” Kleinman said. “I spent about three hours studying each night. I really tried to understand the basics.”
While Kleinman did well in English this year, his best subjects were math, computer science, economics and biology, the first three of which he scored 100 per cent in.
Along with the three hours of studying he put in each night, Kleinman was the captain of the senior boys swim team, he participated in past Canadian Jewish News chess tournaments and he was the captain of the Reach for the Top team, which competes in a national trivia quiz show of the same name.
“There’s time to do it all,” Kleinman said of his extracurricular activities. “I guess you have to manage your time fairly well.”
According to his mother, Debbie Schachter, Kleinman has always been a good student.
“He’s a bright boy, he’s always done his work and always tried to understand everything he’s been asked to learn,” she said.
This year, Kleinman participated in the National Biology Competition. He won first place and received a $5,000 scholarship to the University of Toronto.
Even though Kleinman has always achieved high grades, his parents were still surprised by his average.
“We were shocked. It’s hard to believe that our kid is a top student,” Schachter said. “Although we knew it was possible when we saw his grade-point average.”
Kleinman attributes some of his success to his teachers.
“I had a lot of very good high school teachers, many that have pushed me along the way in order to always keep achieving and improving,” he said. “[Without these teachers] I would have never been pushed and stimulated in the same way.”
While Kleinman has a strong work ethic, he makes time to socialize.
“There’s a lot of things I enjoyed about high school – hanging out with friends, going to movies. It was always a lot of fun,” he said. “You still have time to do things on weekends, as long as you study on the week nights.”
Kleinman also finds time to hang out with his two younger brothers, aged 14 and 16, who may be following in his footsteps.
“They’ve got very good work ethics as well. Their marks are about the same when mine were at their age,” he said.
This fall, Kleinman plans to take life sciences at U of T and may apply to medical school after he gets his undergraduate degree.
“I’ve always wanted to go [to University of Toronto.] It has a very good reputation,” he said. “I’m interested by life sciences. For awhile I’ve wanted to become a doctor, for almost as long as I can remember.”
Kleinman is spending his summer volunteering at a sleep lab.
“I’m doing a little bit of a research project,” he said. “It’s fun. I’m learning quite a bit. The sort of stuff I’m doing now is very different than school.”
