Success in the cards for teenager

Note card sales in Cambridge, Mass., are about to skyrocket.

Hena Haines is coming to town. Haines, 18, will graduate today as Wheeler High School’s valedictorian and will attend Harvard in the fall. Among other things, she credits using flashcards to help her compensate for her dyslexia.

“We’re in the process of moving to Colorado,” said Haines’ mother, Hiemi. “We’re finding tubs and tubs full of flashcards.”

Haines did not make less than an A in four years at Wheeler, despite taking 15 Advanced Placement classes. The hundreds of flashcards, though, are emblematic of the broader reason for Haines’ success.

“I’ve never seen a student work so hard to keep up, and not just keep up, but rise above what anyone else is willing to do,” said Joyce Taaffe, Haines’ AP psychology teacher and a 21-year veteran at Wheeler. “I think it’s remarkable.”

Haines grew up around hard workers. Her father is a vice president at Lockheed Martin; her mother, who immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea at 15, is a former chemical engineer. Her sister, Lindsay, will be a senior at Yale. Haines said she studied as many as six or seven hours a night.

“I kind of like the process of learning, and the feeling, especially, of solving a really complicated math problem,” she said. “When I finish, I feel really accomplished.”

Haines’ reading difficulties were unlocked last year when she took AP psychology. Haines learned about learning styles and learning disabilities.

“I decided I wanted to research it more, so I got this book called ‘Overcoming Dyslexia,’ and I kind of realized I was dyslexic,” she said.

Haines asked to be tested, which confirmed it. Hiemi Haines said that on some diagnostic tests, Hena scored in the lowest 2 percentile. Haines’ diagnosis said that she had “extraordinary difficulty” with reading and spelling.

When reading, Haines cannot sound out new words, and can’t use clues to decipher meaning. She also has trouble tracking when she reads.

“I still have to put my finger underneath all the words, so I’m pretty slow at reading,” she said. “It takes me awhile to finish a book.”

Haines makes flashcards for new vocabulary words. In her English classes, she makes cards that explain plot and characters’ relationships to one another. Sometimes she draws pictures instead of using words to help her remember.

In addition to her studies, Haines was president of a club that tutored elementary school students, and swam the breaststroke for Wheeler’s swim team. Last summer, she did a research internship with Emory’s school of medicine.

She is a long way from middle school, when low standardized test scores kept her out of the gifted classes.

“Once I got to high school, I said, ‘It doesn’t really matter what other people do, it’s what I learn,’ ” Haines said. ” ‘If I’m not really that smart, that’s OK with me. I’ll just try my hardest.’ “