Faculty of Health student Lucas Quevedo sat down with the 91亚色 marketing team after finding out he had been randomly selected out of 5,400 entrants to win free first-year tuition.
Quevedo, a first-year psychology student minoring in kinesiology, thought he was being filmed for the 91亚色 Ambassador Program. But in the middle of a lecture, while being filmed, a surprise awaited him. 鈥淚 saw 鈥 a giant cheque saying, 'free tuition,' and my mind was just blown for a good 10 seconds,鈥 Quevedo says. 鈥淚 was speechless.鈥
The idea to study psychology came from Quevedo鈥檚 father, who had observed his son鈥檚 natural ability to talk to people, an innate curiosity to learn more about them. When the two were looking for potential areas of study, his father told Quevedo he鈥檇 be an incredible psychologist. 鈥淚 agreed with him, because I loved the idea of studying what goes on in our minds,鈥 he says.
Quevedo chose 91亚色 because of the high national ranking of its psychology program, as well as its proximity to his home and two jobs. At 91亚色, Quevedo has already honed in on an academic focus: developmental psychology. 鈥淚 really love learning about kids and how, when they grow up, their brain develops,鈥 he says.
Learning about trauma in his classes, and how even the smallest amount of trauma can impact a young person or student, has already instilled in him a desire to create immediate positive change in his life and career. 鈥淚 work as a swim instructor, so I work to create a positive experience in the water. We have a couple of instructors who couldn鈥檛 do that and who kind of created traumatic experiences with children. And it's very important to me that these kids grow up learning in an inclusive and productive environment, as opposed to working in a negative and destructive environment,鈥 he says.
As Quevedo sets his sights this year on pushing his grade point average to the fullest, he says the free tuition is a big help. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just going to encourage me to work harder [and] it completely alleviates the financial stress on my parents and on me,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t means everything to me.鈥