Turnaround Achievement Awards honour 25 students

The 2016 Turnaround Achievement Awards honoured 25 students who turned their struggles into victoriesat aceremony in Fredericton on Wednesdaynight.

All Grade 12students received a $1,000 scholarship from the event sponsor, Kingswood. Other corporate sponsors handed out other scholarships for a total of $35,000.

Ramses Smith was one of theaward recipients, andwill graduate from McAdam High School this year.

"I'm a whole different person," said Smith.

"I went from more of a negative person to more of a positive person, always looking for the best things in life."

I want to be a role model. I want to be the change that these kids might need for their future.- Ramses Smith

Smith was adopted into a new family when he was six, and was diagnosed with ADHD in Grade 5.

Leading up to Grade 9, Ramses had been pleasant and co-operative, but something changed when it came time to write his English Language Proficiency Assessment.

He shut down and refused to do the work, and when he finally wrote the essay, his first line was "The ELPA is stupid."

"I was panicked," said his mother Kelly Smith, "because you have to pass this if you want to graduate from high school."

His attendance began to suffer, and so did his marks.

"I started doing some things that weren't really the smartest things to do, like missing school, not doing my work, not being the best role model," said Smith.

After being diagnosed with dyslexia, Smith did not allow this label to define him.

He learned new skills and learned more about dyslexia so he could be successful in the classroom once again.

Became a leader

"What really changed my mind was, you know, I want to be a role model. I want to be the change that these kids might need for their future," he said.

Smith become a leader at McAdam High,serving as SRC president, playing every sport offeredand joiningmany committees.

"He decided he wanted to run for president of course, and when he spoke in front of the students I thought, 'Oh, where did this kid come from?'" said his mother.

Smith will be attending Mount Allison University in the fall. After that he wants to be a pilot.

Another student getting an award will be Sassy Loughery,in Grade 12at Chipman Forest Avenue School.

Her life changed when her younger, 14-year-old sister died in a motor vehicle accident in October 2014.

"They were like twins. Everybody thought they were twins. They did everything together." said Sassy's mother, Michelle Loughery.

"When I lost my sister I also lost my best friend," said Sassy.

The person driving the vehicle that hit Sassy's sister went to the same school, which made it difficult for her to attend. Her marks, which had been in the 90s, began to drop.

"During my Grade 11 year my marks were not as high as they usually would be due to that, and I even failed one course, and I never thought I would fail any."

New ways to cope

Loughery turned her life around when she found a new way to cope with her sister's death.

When I lost my sister I also lost my best friend.- Sassy Loughery

"To take time and think about her once during the day and then leave my mind good for the rest of the day," she said.

"To be able to think about other things and not have that on my mind."

Loughery would think about her sister during the hour-long bus ride to school in the morning.

After she started doing that, her grades improved. She took the class she had failed again, and passed without any problems.

Loughery plans to go to St. Thomas University and became a social worker. She hopes she can help people who struggled like she did.