Most 16-year-olds do not go around quoting mantras repeated over and over by their mother, but Kyle Torain does and isn’t ashamed.
“My mom says a lot, ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail’ and I think about that often because it’s very true,” says the Cathedral High School junior. “If you don’t study you’re going to fail and if you don’t practice you’re not going to perform well. It works in all of life’s situations.”
Torain’s mother, Gwendolyn Johnson has prepared him well. A single mom of five, Johnsonshe’s been “very resourceful” finding programs suitable to Torain’s interest and others to challenge him. For instance, Project Mister and Success Prep, two Center for Leadership Development programs; a DeVry University program that focused on entrepreneurship and money management, and volunteer work at The Lord’s Pantry and Second Helpings are all programs she’s found either through friends, research or Torain’s school.
“It’s always been important to keep him busy,” says Johnson.
It’s been important so Torain wouldn’t become one of the many young, Black faces pictured on the news accused or having committed a crime. Instead of hanging out in the streets this summer, Torain was holed up in a chemistry lab on the campus of IUPUI researching the composition of kidney stones.
Torain was chosen as the youngest member of Project Seed (Summer Experience for the Economically Disadvanged) this summer, where many local professors and industrial scientists voluntarily open their research labs to local high school students to expose them to scientific research experience.
Not any high school student is accepted. Students are chosen based on their transcript, which must include a high GPA and one year of chemistry, teacher recommendations and written essays.
Although he could have studied different proteins that may help counter prostate cancer or forensic science, Torain says he liked the challenge most of the kidney stone lab – obviously listening to mom again.
“What we did was find the composition of kidney stones using an easier method called Micro CT, which doesn’t break the stone during the process like other methods,” explains Torain. “The main goal was to be able to find out how and why kidney stones form so in the future, people can take necessary measures to prevent them from forming.”
Sound complicated? Not for Torain who has a 3.7 GPA while taking three honors classes.
“When people hear scientific things they’ll say, ‘Oh, I can never understand that.’ But when you do it and get used to doing it I think anybody can do it if they put forth the effort,” he said. “I didn’t know how to do a lot of things in lab but after a couple minutes of explanation I got it,” he says.
Although Torain’s faculty mentors – Dr. James McAter and Dr. James Williams – weren’t available for comment due to travels outside of the country, IUPUI science professor Kim Nguyen who also worked with Torain spoke highly about his accomplishments and character.
“He’s a very polished high school student and I was impressed with his research and academic achievement,” she said. “His poster project was beautifully done with the sophistication from junior or senior student in college.”
After returning from Boston where he presented his composition kidney stone research via a poster during the 34th National Chemical Convention, Torain who was once considering a career in architecture, is now looking at either engineering, international business or chemistry.
A very busy high school student, Torain plays the clarinet, bass clarinet and saxophone in band, participates on the wrestling team, caddies for the Meridian Hills Golf Club and is an active member at First Samuel Missionary Baptist Church.
“I like staying busy,” he says. “Unless I’m doing homework at home, I’m really bored.”
For more information on Project Seed visit www.indyprojectseed.com.
