Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 31/00) - The 2000 recipient from Sir John Franklin high school of the Governor General's Academic Medal had an important message for its students.

"The only thing that will last you forever is yourself," Michael Demko said during a recent assembly.

"What you know, the skills that you learn, is the only thing that cannot be taken away from you."

Demko, who graduated from Sir John Franklin last year, received the award for having the highest average during his final two years in high school, and is calculated on actual results after diploma exams.

On his Grade 12 diploma exams (which are externally marked Alberta exams), Demko achieved 99 per cent in Biology 30, 98 per cent in Chemistry 30, 95 per cent in Physics 30, and 91 per cent in Social Studies 30.

After the ceremony Demko said he doesn't like receiving awards all that much.

"The people giving the awards seem to have a lot more fun than the people receiving them," he said.

"You get plenty of acknowledgements just over the course of the year. The good relations that I have with my teachers, for me, is more important than any single day or any award."

Demko, who's lived in Yellowknife since Grade 3, is studying computer science at the University of Waterloo this year.

"I finished one academic term and I'm just finishing up a co-op term right now," Demko said. "I'm working at a programming company in Yellowknife, testing software.