A Bermudian first-year student at a top US university has made the dean’s list for academic excellence.

Halle Teart, 18, scored a 3.68 grade point average — above the 3.5 threshold for inclusion on the list at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The former Bermuda Institute pupil from Southampton is studying for a degree in sociology and Africana studies, with a double minor in anthropology and social policy.

Ms Teart said: “Hopkins is supposed to be a very challenging school, but I will say that it has not been as challenging for me as I thought it would be.

“I don’t want to say that I had it easy, but I worked hard, attended all of my classes, studied hard, and just did what I was supposed to do.”

Ms Teart added that she kept track of her grades and calculated the results throughout her first semester, so the dean’s list announcement this month was not a surprise.

She said: “I sent the letter to my mom and she was very excited and congratulated me.

“I also sent it to my teachers. I didn’t expect them to respond, but they did and said ‘I’m not surprised, I didn’t expect anything else’.”

Ms Teart added the key to her success was hard work.

She said: “I set high goals and expectations for myself.”

“I know what I want to do, I know where I want to be in life, and I know what I want to achieve.

“I remind myself that if I’m going to go where I want to go then I have to do x, y, and z to make it there.”

Ms Teart added that she used her determined mindset to get through a difficult linguistics course on language and the mind.

She explained: “That class was just a lot of information compressed into such a short period of time. I had to actually dedicate my time and stay focused on learning the information and preparing myself.”

Ms Teart said that her next goal was to boost her grade to a 4.0 GPA in the new semester.

She added that she hoped to work for the United Nations as a policy analyst after graduation.

She said: “I want to make sure that I did what I had to do and I can look back at the end of the day and say ‘I tried my best’.”