DURHAM — Starting university as a mature student is a challenge for anyone.
Local student Raheleh Saryazdi is proving that it’s not only possible to succeed, but also to be among the best of the best.
On June 4, she graduated from Trent University Durham with an honours bachelor of science degree in psychology.
But that’s not all — she was also one of four students to win the school’s prestigious Symons’ Medal, which recognizes high overall standing at graduation.
“This medal is not about me,” Ms. Saryazdi says. “So many people helped me get where I am today.”
A mother of two young children, she made the decision to attend university when her daughter started kindergarten.
“I was very nervous about being a mom and going to school full-time,” she says. “From the moment I walked in to Trent I felt really welcome. The professors made me believe I could do it.”
Over the years, she made use of many support services available to students, including a peer mentor and the school’s academic skills centre.
Ms. Saryazdi “fell in love” with psychology after taking some introductory courses and began work on a complex honours thesis that studies the effectiveness of French immersion education.
She says it’s a topic many parents have questions and anxieties about.
“I’ve always been very interested in language and bilingualism,” says Ms. Saryazdi, who speaks both English and Farsi. “There has not been a lot of research done on (French immersion) in the past few years. We hear a lot about it, but we have kind of forgot about the research.”
For her thesis, she did a “meta-analysis,” which means looking through all the published research from the past 40 years and combining it to determine whether immersion education is effective.
She went through more than 12,000 documents and often worked eight to 10 hours a day on her thesis.
Ms. Saryazdi’s next step is to publish her work and attend the University of Toronto this fall in the masters in psychology program.
Her goal is to one day become a professor.
Trent University Durham celebrated its largest graduating class to date at the June 4 event, with 154 students receiving degrees.
The ceremony for Trent University Durham grads was one of eight Trent convocation events held in Peterborough between June 2 and 5.
A total of 1,725 undergraduate students received degrees and 20 per cent were named to the President’s Honour Roll, which celebrates undergraduates with a cumulative average of at least 80 per cent.
