Born just as the first iPhone launched, the Class of 2025 has also never known a world without YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
Yet despite growing up with ever-present distraction, four 海角社区官网students have graduated with 100 per cent averages聽鈥 a testament to discipline and smarts, but also to an ability to navigate the digital world that shaped them.
Sheena Qin,聽Andrew Peng,聽Sowmya Ramanan and聽Safiya Vohra-Bangi are the 海角社区官网District School Board’s top scholars, besting 22,400 of their Grade 12 peers.聽
Each earned perfect marks in advanced functions, calculus, chemistry, biology, physics and at least one other course. In English they scored above 97 per cent.聽
Qin, Peng and Ramanan, all friends from Bloor Collegiate Institute downtown, were enrolled in TOPS, an enriched math and sciences program.聽鈥淕rades didn鈥檛 directly bring us together,” said Qin, “but we鈥檙e all people who like STEM and work hard.鈥 They will all study computer science in September, with Qin and Peng off to the University of 海角社区官网and Ramanan to the University of聽Waterloo.聽
Vohra-Bangi, who graduated from Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, will study engineering at U of T.聽
Raised on touchscreens, hashtags and endless scrolling, their lives have spanned social media鈥檚 rise and, more recently, the arrival of ChatGPT. The Star spoke with them about the tech they rely on, the habits that help them focus, and whether cellphones have been truly banned from Ontario classrooms.
Andrew Peng, 18
Andrew Peng
Steve Russell/海角社区官网StarWhat digital tools helped you learn?
I’m a curious person and often get lost down Wikipedia rabbit holes. It’s an easy way to get a lot of niche information that otherwise would be quite difficult to access.聽
With distraction a touch away, how do you maintain focus?
I tend to not get distracted easily. I have a relatively high level in piano, the Royal Conservatory of Music, ARCT, so that means I spent a lot of time playing piano when I was a kid. You have to be disciplined and not distracted to reach that level.
What about free time?
When I was a kid, I played games until my tablet was out of battery. But now, I don’t really play games. I do competitive programming or research. I like to go on runs and bike rides.
Have you had to limit tech use?
No. But I must say that my study strategies are probably not the best. Sometimes I take a 鈥渄ue鈥 date to be the 鈥渄o鈥 date and then I have to speed through it. I can somehow pressure myself into focusing.
How has AI impacted your education?
I use it as a tool to greatly boost my efficiency. ChatGPT is basically a search engine on steroids. Instead of me needing to scour a bunch of forums, websites or research papers, ChatGPT just does it for me. And it can do other things well, like formatting a formal email.
How would you describe learning in the digital era?
In two words: efficiency and laziness.聽
How effective was the new cellphone ban in the classroom?
That’s the official policy, but 90 per cent of my teachers didn’t follow it, which I believe is the correct decision. If you can manage the usage of technology then it makes learning much more efficient. You shouldn’t ban it for 100 per cent of the people just because five per cent abuse it.聽
What is your relationship to failure considering your average is perfect?
My motto in life is I just try my best. I’m not striving for perfection. So even if I fail, I don’t get sad or give up since I know there is nothing I could change about it.
Sheena Qin, 18
Sheena Qin
Steve Russell/海角社区官网StarWith distraction a touch away, how do you maintain focus?
For STEM subjects, especially, I try to do as much of the homework in class as possible, and I try to go to libraries because I want to establish certain spaces as a workspace to feel less distracted. I also try to turn the distraction into something good: me and my friends use (voice, video, text platform) Discord to communicate, but a lot of times we’ll sit in Discord and talk about what we’re studying so we learn from each other.
What about free time?
I like to play a lot of video games, like Pokemon or Civilization VI or Genshin Impact.
How has AI impacted your education?
In English, instead of giving us an essay to write at home, the teacher had us write it in class, with pen and paper.
What technology is school not addressing?
AI isn’t ever going to disappear. So I think (schools should) teach us how to use it properly. Also, I feel like the computer science curriculum could be enriched because now it’s relatively easy to self-learn it all.
How would you describe learning in the digital era?
The process of getting something or writing your ideas down is simpler, but the thinking is still there.
How effective was the new cellphone ban in the classroom?
Most teachers didn鈥檛 really care, as long as you were not using it the entire time. I would use (my phone) to play (game-based learning platform) Kahoot! or take pictures of a lesson if I couldn鈥檛 write it down fast enough.
What is your relationship to failure considering your average is perfect?
It doesn’t feel good, obviously, but maybe it was just down to chance. Maybe this job just had too many applicants. I try not to dwell on it.聽
Sowmya Ramanan, 17
Sowmya Ramanan
Steve Russell 海角社区官网StarWhat digital tools helped you learn?
I do a lot of practice quizzes online. I also use Quizlet for flashcards to help me study. It helps me review the subjects and make sure knowledge is being reinforced.
With distraction a touch away, how do you maintain focus?
I put time limits on all my social media apps, otherwise I do find I get pretty distracted by them. I鈥檒l set a one-hour limit, mainly for Discord.
What about free time?
I watch YouTube videos, pretty random ones. I play the piano and swim, (and did) badminton for a little while. I learned how to solve Rubik’s Cube.
What鈥檚 the digital tool or app you can鈥檛 do without?
Discord. It鈥檚 the main way I talk to my friends. But also to collaborate聽鈥 hopping on calls and sharing worksheets and hearing other people’s ideas on how they would solve things. I don’t think I would have gotten a hundred per cent without that.
How has AI impacted your education?
I found it very helpful. It takes a bunch of the info from the internet and summarizes it and it can answer really specific questions聽鈥 rather than reading through a bunch of websites, which I could do, but it would just take a lot longer. And I can also ask it for a source so I can be sure that it’s not completely false. I’m able to ask a lot of follow-up questions. It’s very quick and efficient.
How effective was the new cellphone ban in the classroom?
I had one teacher who was very strict, and others weren’t as strict. In that one class ... it definitely helped me stay on track and focused.
Do you use any analog techniques?
Writing it out helps (for memorization), not all my notes, but sort of like a mind-dump of key concepts.
What is your relationship to failure considering your average is perfect?
One of the failures I’ve had is not finding a job. It was very disappointing. Both inside and outside of school, (failure makes me) work harder, to make sure I get better.
Safiya Vohra-Bangi, 17
Safiya Vohra-Bangi
R.J. Johnston/海角社区官网StarWhat digital tools helped you learn?
If I don’t understand something, I’ll watch a YouTube video. Let’s say your teacher glazes over a topic and you want to learn more, then I鈥檒l ask one of the AI tools to explain it. And before a test, you can ask it to make you a practice quiz.
What about free time?
I do calligraphy. I started when I was in Grade 6 because I started bullet journaling and I just loved it. I also play recreational hockey sometimes, hang out with my friends a lot and watch Netflix.
Have you had to limit tech use?
In the last semester of Grade 12, I took computer science, calculus, chemistry and physics. So I tried to delete Instagram for a few months, but I would still get distracted by other stuff.
What鈥檚 the digital tool or app you can鈥檛 do without?
I think I could live without any of them.聽iMessage doesn鈥檛 count, right?
What technology is school not addressing?
They should incorporate technology more in the curriculum. Coding would also be a really useful class that everybody should take, just to understand algorithms. It would open up your mind.
How would you describe learning in the digital era?
It’s a lot quicker. Knowledge is a lot more accessible.
What is your relationship to failure considering your average is perfect?
Academia is not the only way to experience failure. You can experience failure in friends sometimes, not for me personally, but you can. And with sports or at competition or maybe you don’t get a job. If you’re a high achiever, maybe you’ll be hit a little bit harder by it, you might be a little bit more sensitive to it. And even if you try really hard, sometimes something’s just not for you; it’s just not your thing.
These Q&As were edited for clarity and length.
Correction - July 22, 2025
The first photo caption was updated from a previous version that misidentified聽Andrew Peng and聽Sheena Qin. Andrew is shown on the left and Sheena is in the middle.聽
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