“Failing is a part of learning” – lifelong student leader looks back on four years at Mac

Ava Colangelo first became a student leader in Grade 3 and just kept going.

She was the pint-sized class rep on the student senate at St. Ann Catholic Elementary in Fenwick, working alongside older and much taller kids to plan fundraisers and dances.

Fast forward to her fourth and final year at McMaster and Ava was president of the McMaster Undergraduate Physics Society, Vice President Student Affairs with the McMaster Science Society and Vice President Finance with McMaster Undergraduate Women in STEM.

Along with serving on student government throughout her undergrad, Ava was a Faculty of Science student ambassador, mentor, teaching assistant for two first-year physics courses, solar eclipse ambassador and undergraduate research assistant with professors Takashi Imai and Maikel Rheinstadter.

Heading into her third year, Ava put her event management skills and love of checklists to the ultimate test as a Welcome Week planner for the Faculty of Science. That’s where she befriended incoming physics student Jade Mendes, striking up a conversation on a bench outside the Burke Science Building. Jade’s the incoming co-president of the McMaster Undergraduate Physics Society.

And Ava spent last summer at Canada’s national particle accelerator, working as a student research assistant in the nuclear science gamma-ray speciality group at TRIUMF.

So how exactly did she manage all of that while taking a full course load as an honours physics student with a minor in mathematics? She started each day by checking her Google calendar and maintaining her lifelong aversion to spare time. “If I’m not doing something, I feel like I’m wasting time.”

It’s a work ethic Ava learned from her parents who run a commercial construction company in the Niagara Region. “My parents are always working, even when they’re sitting on the couch at home. They never have any downtime.”

While Ava also had no downtime, she had a whole lot of hard times during her early years at McMaster. The first year was academically challenging and second year was harder still. “I didn’t pass a physics mid-term until the second semester of my second year.”

Through it all, her grandmother remained her biggest cheerleader. “My nonna kept saying that I’ll be an excellent professor.” Ava appreciated the vote of confidence but thought constantly about changing programs. She was the first in her family to go to university so no one knew what to say or do when her marks tanked after stellar grades all through high school.

“In my family, you do what you’re good at. If you’re not good at something, you stop doing it. I wasn’t good at physics in the beginning but I really enjoyed it.”  She reached out to associate professor Miranda Schmidt for advice. “Prof. Schmidt told me that failing is a part of learning and reassured me that my marks would improve. The most important thing was that I enjoyed physics.”

Ava gradually learned how to learn, study and manage her time. Her marks are now straight As across the board. “If someone had told me in my first year that I’d have those averages in my final year, I never would’ve believed it.”

Ava also came to love what initially frustrated her to no end. “I dreaded going into a classroom and seeing a physics problem waiting on the whiteboard. But now, I’ll happily spend an entire day in Hamilton Hall working through a single problem. My friends will head off to class and take a break and come back six hours later to find me in the same seat, working on the same problem. It’s so rewarding to see all the hard work pay off. It’s like solving a puzzle with occasional helpful hints from your professors.”

Having studied biophysics, astrophysics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics and the thermodynamics of Kaluza-Klein black holes during her undergrad, Ava’s headed to McGill University this fall to study atmospheric science and climate change modelling. “I want to take everything I’ve learned at Mac and do science that’ll help society.” She says the warm welcome she received at McGill reminded her of being a student in Physics & Astronomy at McMaster.

Going to McMaster and spending a summer at TRIUMF in B.C. prepared her extended family for her move to another province for graduate school. “I have family who’ve been born and raised in Niagara and never left. They remind me all the time that we have everything we need here so why leave? And I remind them that I had to leave for the program I took at Mac and the program I’ll be taking at McGill. While I’m moving away, I’ll always be proud of my roots.”

Her parents understand and Ava’s grateful for their unconditional support. There’s never been any talk of Ava joining and someday taking over the family business. And Ava’s 85-year-old grandmother remains her biggest fan, pointing to the sun, moon and the stars while telling her granddaughter that she’s destined to be a great professor. Ava’s hoping to score an extra ticket to Convocation so her grandmother can watch her walk across the stage and become the family’s first university graduate.