Hard work paid off for a young ace engineer after his academic excellence gained him a spot in an international honour society.

Sekai Wainwright-Basden, 18, was welcomed into the Phi Theta Kappa Honour Society after he scored a 3.894 grade point average in his first year at the New England Institute of Technology.

The young scholar’s academic ability also landed him on the dean’s list at the university for three semesters in a row.

Mr Wainwright-Basden said: “I honestly didn’t think I would be as successful as I currently am, but now I’m just trying to remain humble and strive for more excellence within myself.”

The former CedarBridge pupil, from Warwick, said that his academic success was thanks to a combination of hard work and curiosity.

He said: “Every night I’d just come back to my dorm, sit down, pull my book out and just go over everything I’d learnt for the day and hope it sticks.

“I just hunkered down, really got into my work, asked questions in class and ultimately hard work and determination led to my end result.”

Mr Wainwright-Basden, who is studying advanced automotive technology with a specialisation in diesel technology solutions, added that independent learning was a key part of university.

He explained: “Before university, I was more reliant on what happens inside the classroom, but in college it’s totally the opposite, what happens outside of the classroom is what you retain and what constitutes most of your knowledge base.”

He added: “The in-depth workload was very tough because a lot of these classes that I’m taking are very new to me.”

Despite his apprehension, Mr Wainwright-Basden discovered how much his hard work paid off in November at the end of his three-month semester, or quarter, at university.

He said: “I actually came across the dean’s list to get a letter for applying for scholarships, and one of the ladies that helped me when I was getting my letter said: ‘By the way, do you know you made dean’s list?’

“I also got a bunch of letters from different people throughout the school saying I made it and I saw my name posted somewhere around the school.”

He added: “I realised I got it again for a second time and then I got an e-mail the other day saying I’m about to get it again, so that made three.”

Mr Wainwright-Basden said that he will have to keep his GPA above 3.0 to stay in Phi Theta Kappa.

However, he added that the benefits will be well worth the effort. He said: “It looks good on your résumé when you’re applying for jobs and scholarships and you get a lot of outreach from the Phi Theta Kappa community.

“This prestigious honour isn’t just awarded to anybody, so I’ve got to do everything to stay on the list, which means more studying and working harder.”