Martin Van Buren Senior Excels In Many Things

At the beginning of his sophomore year at Martin Van Buren High School in Queens Village, Waseque Qazi saw a copy of the school newspaper, The Beeline. Unlike other students who did not pay the paper much attention because of its infrequent publication and haphazard appearance, Qazi decided to get involved.
“I was pretty interested,” he said. “Our paper used to come out just once a year and I figured if I got more involved with it, the paper could do much better in terms of artwork and layout.”
Two years later, with Qazi working as the layout and art editor, The Beeline now appears monthly with eight pages of content. However, Qawi doesn’t just coordinate the graphics; he’s a part-time writer - his latest piece was a preview of the next generation of video game consoles. “I love it,” he said. “In fact, it’s one of things I take pride in at the school.”
But there is much more to this exemplary student than his work with the school paper. With a 98 average, Qawi is a member of the school’s Arista Honor Society. He’s taking AP English and AP Calculus, a pair of classes that have challenged him.
“I’m very passionate about math,” he said. “It’s always been one of those subjects you can prove, it’s always been concrete.”
Qazi participates in the Leadership Organization, an extracurricular group that raises money for the school and those in need.
The last two years, he volunteered with the Key Club, which put in hours at soup kitchens in the area, spent time at the Glen Oaks nursing home, and participated in the March of Dimes and Breast Cancer Walk; Qazi raised money for that organization three years running.
In addition, Qazi is interning at the Marketing Department of America, where he puts together databases and does a lot of work on Microsoft Excel for the online marketing firm.
Then there is his love for art. Qazi, who was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and came to Jamaica, Queens when he was five months old with his parents, is an aspiring and talented cartoonist. Not the traditional comic book or Superman kind, but Manga, the Japanese-style comics that are more like novels, complete and detailed worlds that are the vision of a single author. The characters remain consistent, and they are allowed to grow and develop.
Qazi even had the first chapter of his first series, called “Gene,” about a boy who finds a magical lamp and the adventures he encounters, published in the February issue of The Beeline. Qazi readily admits that drawing is how he lets out his emotions, whether he’s angry, happy, sad or excited. He first got into Manga when he watched the Saturday morning Manga cartoon, “Dragon Ball Z.”
Although he’ll always be an artist at heart and has a passion for computer graphics and the school paper, Qawi says his future will lie in the field of physics or biomedical engineering. “I feel my place is behind a paper and pencil and not a computer,” he said.
But for now, Qazi will continue to excel in numerous interests, and show responsibility beyond his years. “He’s always been that way,” his mother, Nasrin Shafi, said. “I never had to push to get his work done. His teachers [at P.S. 95 in Jamaica] still want him back. One of the teachers there said he could take over the class.”