There was a time in Myriam Piquant's young life when she refused to admit she was smart.

So she kept quiet about her good grades to her neighborhood friends. In elementary and middle school, she didn't let on to fellow students about where she lived (Mattapan) or her cultural difference (Haitian), or her goals in life (lawyering).

Today Piquant is not afraid to show her achievements.

"I don't care," the 17-year-old said one evening as she sat in her family's small living room in Mattapan. Her father, Jacques, a taxi driver, was nearby, arms folded and face swelling with pride. "My parents would tell me that 'you go to school for an education, not for your friends,' " added Myriam. "I was smart. And I knew I was smart. . . . Now I surround myself with people who want to go somewhere."

So on Saturday mornings, you won't find Piquant, a junior at Beaver Country Day School in Brookline, loafing around in front of the TV. Instead, she heads several times a year to Harvard University, where she and other like-minded black high schoolers in a group called the Du Bois Society meet to grapple with scholarly work.