Parents, educators, and provincial dignitaries gathered last night at the Fredericton Inn for the 31st annual Kingswood Turnaround Achievement Awards.
The awards honour local students who overcame genuine adversity in their young lives to correct academic and personal declines that threatened their futures.
Since its inception in 1994, the event, sponsored by the Kingswood organization, has honoured 1,088 Fredericton- and Oromocto-area students, and distributed $616,500 in scholarships. Of this year’s 25 honourees, 19 of them—18 seniors and one junior—received $49,000 in scholarships to help with their post-secondary education. Each graduating student also received a $1,000 bursary from Kingswood toward post-secondary education.
The ceremony paid tribute to the work 25 students put into overcoming their very real-world challenges.
The challenges were daunting.
Quinn’s story
“When I was 10 years old, my mother and father went on a trip to Mexico and my father sadly passed away, which was hard,” said Quinn Lavigne, a Grade 12 student at Chipman Forest Avenue School.
Said Lavigne, “I was not very great in school after that because I had a very hard time with my anxiety and I was in a very low place at the time.”
But, he said, three things helped him cope in the years after his father died: supportive educators, family, and music.
“There are a few people that really stick out who really helped me at school, like [Chipman Forest Avenue School Principal] Miss [Yvonne] Caverhill, Jill Yates, and Sandy Phillips.”
In Grade 10, Lavigne said he realized he needed to improve his academic performance. He’s spent the past two years doing just that. “Without those teachers, I don’t know where I would be.”
Playing music also helped him focus constructively.
“I play music a lot,” said Lavigne, who plays drums, mandolin, guitar, piano, banjo, and fiddle. His late father, mother, sister, and grandmother are all musicians. “I grew up in a very musical home.”
One of Lavigne’s favourite songs is Bruce Robison’s “Travelin’ Soldier,” which has a special significance to him and his family.
“That’s the song my mother played me when I was a kid,” he said. “And that’s a song that my father and her used to sing together. So, it really is a family-based song for me. It was definitely the right one to choose.”
“Quinn’s positivity is infectious,” Caverhill said. “He has an incredible gift with words, always knowing just the right thing to say to brighten someone’s day.”
Lavigne also won a $1,000 Nic Plimmer scholarship last night, in addition to his Kingswood bursary. He will study welding at New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) this fall.
Hannah’s story
Fredericton High School Grade 12 student Hannah Michaud was going through a rough time outside of school. Her parents had divorced and she was tasked with caring for a younger cousin at home.
“In 9th grade I didn’t come to school that much because I had issues going on at home,” said Michaud.
She credits her turnaround to help from teachers and counselors at her school. The school’s Black Kat Student Centre alternative education program played a big part in her change.
“They were always there for me,” Michaud said of the Black Kat Centre’s staff. “If I needed to talk or if I needed a break or time to just focus on past work that I hadn’t already finished, I always had this room to come to.”
Said FHS Vice-Principal Laurie Pearson, “Only through Hannah teaching us what she needed could we allow her to be successful in the classroom.”
Michaud is grateful for the help she received in school and wants to help students with similar challenges after she graduates.
She won two additional scholarships last night: The Dizolve Group Scholarship for $2,500 and the St. Thomas University Scholarship for $2,000.
“I’m going to Saint Thomas University next year because I want to be a teacher. I want to provide the support to somebody else that I had when I was struggling.”
“I’m going to Saint Thomas University next year because I want to be a teacher. I want to provide the support I had when I was struggling to somebody else.”
Hannah Michaud
Peyton’s story
Divorce can be hard on the separating parents and their children alike. For Grade 12 Fredericton High School student Peyton Bernard Perley, his parents’ divorce several years ago hit him hard.
“My parents just separated at the time, so I was hot headed,” Perley said. “People could say little things and it would set me off.”
When he started high school, Perley said he skipped classes a lot, prioritizing hanging out with friends over his studies. And when he was in school, he said he created distractions for his teachers and fellow students.
Last year, when he realized he needed to change, he enlisted the help of FHS teachers Abigail Fox and Oliver Burnett from the school’s Black Kat Student Centre.
“Miss Fox and Mr. Burnett helped steer me in the right direction when I first came here,” Perley said. “They helped push me into graduating this year and to giving it my all.”
Part of that guidance involved reassessing his social circle and addressing the anger he felt from his parents’ divorce.
“I realized you have to face your problems if you want to fix them,” said Perley. “Yes, I was angry. And it was mostly basketball where I used to channel my anger. But I learned that I don’t only have basketball to control my anger. I can use a bunch of other stuff. I can keep my mind calm.”
When Perley decided to commit to his studies, “he swore up and down that this was his year,” Fox said. “From that meeting on, he delivered his promises tenfold. His attendance skyrocketed. His average has remained in the 90s all year. And he’s a favourite student to many teachers as he brings such a positive attitude every day.”
Said Perley, “I was already confident enough I could do it, but they just gave me that extra confidence.”
Perley won an additional $1,000 scholarship—The Jenn Brewer Memorial Scholarship—at last night’s event. He plans to attend the NBCC in the fall to take the HVAC course.
“That’s a career that can take you a long way,” he said.
