Contributed photo MARIO CAPITANO is among the top three Ontario Scholars for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. His average for his final year at Robert F. Hall Secondary School was 95.5 per cent. Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School student Mario Capitano placed in the top three positions for Ontario Scholars in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

His average for his final high school year was 95.6 per cent, which earned him the Governor General's Academic Medal for highest average at his school.

The excited Bolton teen says he achieved the impressive average with a lot of hard work. He found the majority of his courses quite easy as he was able to understand a lot of what he was learning.

Mario handled media relations and advertising for the Culture Awareness Program (CAP) at Robert Hall, which tried to create awareness in the school about other cultures by bringing in food from various cultures as well as African drummers and Japanese sword fighters.

Two of Mario's hobbies are playing the piano and tennis, and he also coaches a peewee baseball team.

He recently graduated from the Columbia Squires, a youth leadership program in which he had a leadership role in doing community service and planning fun events for the group.

Named Bolton's Junior Citizen of the Year, he is also a twin whose brother Michael had an average of 92.5 per cent.

Mario will begin studying Health Sciences this September at McMaster University.

The other top two students in the board's high schools are Andrew Cheung from St. Francis Xavier Second School with a 98.67 per cent average and Zhuo Jian Wang from Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School with at 98.

Andrew will also be studying Health Sciences at McMaster as he received a four-year scholarship from the university.

Zhuo has an entrance scholarship to the University of Waterloo, where he will study Mechatronics Engineering.

"These students are to be applauded on their exceptional academic achievements," said Michael Bator, director of education, in a press release. "Marks like these represent many hours or perseverance and dedication. These qualities should serve them well as they continue their academic endeavours through the post-secondary level and beyond."

There are about 88,000 students in the entire school board with schools in Mississauga, Brampton, Caledon and Orangeville.

"On behalf of the board, I want to say how proud we are of these exceptional students," said board chair Peter Ferreira. "Their achievements are examples of the many great things that take place in our schools. We wish them and all our students the very best in their future endeavours."