One the top eight scholars in New Zealand last year, Zabin Farishta wants to share her brains with other people. The former Lynfield College student scored five scholarships and a premier award of $10,000 last year, adding to the scholarship she won in Year 12. However, the school dux won't disappear into an ivory tower. Now studying commerce and engineering at the University of Auckland, Zabin wants to use her economic savvy to help developing nations. The 18-year-old from India remembers what it's like to be an immigrant, and spends an hour each week helping refugees at Lynfield College's refugee centre with their homework. "I think New Zealand has given me a lot of opportunities," she says. "Now I want to represent New Zealand in a developing country like Afghanistan. They have the resources, but they don't have the technology." She spent some time in Africa before coming to New Zealand in 2003, and she says her eyes were really opened to the conditions over there. That's when her desire to help people really grew. If she hadn't been so fond of economics, she would have been a doctor, she says - it's just that biology wasn't her subject. "I could have been an astronomer, but I don't like the hours," she admits. Despite her tremendous brains, Zabin isn't a stereotypical swot. She looked at accounting, but decided it wasn't her cup of tea. While she is an excellent programmer, she says playing computer games "hurts my head" but she loves reading the odd crime novel or books by authors such as John Marsden, who wrote the Tomorrow When the War Began series. "I like playing chess, but my sister beats me," she says. Little sister Melody is just 13. She also watched movies to chill out before her exams, and refused to study for too long. Like any typical teenager, Zabin was on the phone to a friend at midnight when she found out her results, and screamed for joy. "I was really shocked," she admits. The secret to her success? "I tried answering everything I could; I didn't leave a single blank page."
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