A typical question during the job interview for the Queen’s Park press gallery summer intern: Name the premier, party leaders and any members of cabinet.

While most applicants might know one or two ministers, Yusra Javed “started rattling off the entire cabinet.”

“We had to stop her when she got to about a dozen names,” recalled Allison Jones, a reporter at The Canadian Press and press gallery president.

Javed died early Saturday from a rare illness that affects the heart.

The well-regarded press gallery intern was 21.

“One of the stories she told during the interview that I was most impressed by was that she said while covering last year’s provincial election for Rogers TV Durham, she was at a campaign stop” where Doug Ford hadn’t planned on taking reporters’ questions, Jones said.

“Yusra was apparently having none of it,” Jones added. “She said she found his campaign bus ... and waited there, peppering him with questions when he approached and not stopping until he agreed to do an interview with her.”

The premier had kind words about Javed, noting she “sure held my feet to the fire a few times.”

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Ford said Tuesday. “... I just want to say our prayers and thoughts are with her family and to the press gallery.”

A visitation was held Sunday at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, followed by a memorial service on Wednesday at Ryerson University’s journalism school, attended by more than 100 people including her family.

While in hospital, Javed worried aloud that she would not be able to finish her internship or graduate on time with her friends next spring.

Ryerson announced Wednesday that she will receive a posthumous degree at convocation.

The press gallery will also pay tribute to Javed, hanging her portrait in the gallery lounge at the legislature. The government house leader’s office is planning a moment of silence for her when the house resumes at the end of October.

“She was just unstoppable through her sheer force of will,” Jones said. “With her drive, tenacity and curiosity, there is no doubt in my mind that she was on her way to becoming one of the best journalists in the country.”

Javed attended Father Michael McGivney high school in Markham, and her family later moved to Pickering.

As the gallery intern, Javed impressed reporters from a number of media outlets, writing stories and even landing a scoop for the Star and iPolitics about the Ford government neglecting to hold a required anti-racism conference.

At Ryerson, she was known for her hard work and her support of friends and fellow students — even strangers.

School of Journalism Chair Janice Neil recalled the many notes of thanks she and others received from Javed over the years and how “she made all of us feel special.”

At Ryerson, Javed did a podcast about Valentine’s Day 2017 when, after finishing a shift at her part-time retail job, she came across a distraught woman at the edge of the subway platform.

Javed “went over and gently embraced her,” Neil said, as she slowly moved her to safety. “She turned the woman around, she gave her an embrace — a total stranger. She stood there for 15 to 20 minutes, as one train after another was going through the station,” and as the woman wept in her arms. “She just kept holding onto her” until help arrived, Neil said, adding the woman must think it was “an angel who saved her life.”

Sherina Harris, who met Javed on their first day at Ryerson, said the two were like sisters who shared a love of musicals.

When Javed went to New York to see Hamilton, she deliberately kept it a secret — and stayed off social media — “just so that she could surprise me with a T-shirt from the gift shop,” said Harris.

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“... She could make anyone feel like they were the most special person in the world.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Javed “made a mark at Queen’s Park with her brilliance and optimism,” and Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said “her legacy will live on.”

“Yusra told me she wanted to be a famous news reporter before she died,” said close friend Matthew Rodrigopulle. “At the time, I assured her that would happen … I believed she could do it. There was nobody I knew who had a harder work ethic than her.”

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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