Kiruthika Baskaran

Grade 11 students participating in the University of Windsor's Science Academy examine a jar containing the invasive spiny water fleas during a tour of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research on Wednesday, July 11, 2018.Grade 11 students participating in the University of Windsor's Science Academy examine a jar containing the invasive spiny water fleas during a tour of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research on Wednesday, July 11, 2018.

Past participants now mentors at UWindsor's Science Academy

Carefully tucked away in Layale Bazzi’s academic portfolio sits a certificate she received in Grade 11.

This certificate, while not her most notable accomplishment, represents a moment that forever influenced her academic career.

“When I first saw the University of Windsor’s department of physics in all its glory and met some of the students in the physics club at the time, it was like a whole new world opened up to me,” Bazzi said on Tuesday.