Two Niagara Catholic students are making their Ivy League dreams come true. Myla Novak and Anderson Dy both accepted offers earlier this spring to attend one of the world’s most prestigious post-secondary institutions: Harvard University. Novak, a Grade 12 student at Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School, applied to numerous schools but Harvard’s was the first response she opened on acceptance day — also known as Ivy Day.
“I started shaking, I couldn’t believe it,” she said recently of learning online that she had been accepted to the Cambridge, Massachusetts school. “I told my parents, ‘Pinch me, this isn’t real, how is this happening?’ and I just felt so in shock, obviously, but very grateful,” said Novak, who also received acceptance to Brown University in Providence, R.I.
“To be able to study biomedical engineering at one of the best schools in the world, it really felt like an honour and it still, honestly, doesn’t feel real. It hasn’t really sunk in yet.” A family road trip to Harvard while she was in elementary school left an impression.
But it wasn’t until last year when she looked at its application that she began to seriously put in the prep work. Lakeshore Catholic High School Grade 12 student Dy applied to 14 post-secondary institutions but figured Harvard was a long shot. He initially applied because he was drawn to its diverse liberal arts education, and wanted the breadth of education an Ivy League school could offer.
Dy quip.
