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At his father's suggestion, Andrew Peng Wang applied for a scholarship awarded annually by a national Chinese-Canadian organization.

"My father found an ad in the paper and said, 'You should apply for this'," Wang recalled.

So the Grade 12 Humberside Collegiate Institute student did, thinking it would be nice to win any scholarship fund to help lower his tuition fee for post-secondary school next year.

To his surprise, Wang was selected recently as one of 20 award recipients by the Chinese Professionals Association of Canada, recognizing outstanding academic achievement and community leadership.

Wang certainly demonstrated both with an academic average of 96 per cent last year, taking courses ranging from English to physics.

He also joined numerous extracurricular activities including choir, stage band, peer leadership team, track and field, tennis, badminton and the Humberside robotics club.

"It's hard to find the time," said Wang, who arrived in Canada as an immigrant six years ago from China. "But I like to be busy. For me, it's all about time management."

He received his $1,000 scholarship award at the association's annual gala held earlier this month with Premier Dalton McGuinty in attendance.

Association president Howard Shen said the organization, consisting of 23,000 internationally trained professionals across Canada, has been handing out scholarships for the past eight years.

"We represent the new immigrants coming to Canada and help them integrate into Canadian society. And of course, there's many ways of doing that," Shen said. "One way is to provide bursaries and scholarships to students."

This year, the association awarded $22,000 in bursary and scholarship funds, selecting 20 students from more than 150 applications.