Charlie Williams
Saint-Laurent

Categorized at the end of elementary school as an unruly child and thus assigned to a special education class upon entering high school, Charlie Williams, a student at Saint-Laurent high school, has been through some hard times. The victim of mockery from his fellow students and sometimes provoking angry responses from his teachers, one day he decided he’d had enough of being at a standstill and being told he’d never make any headway. Today Charlie is as motivated as they come and has fought back, making up for lost time and dreaming of going on to university in a not so distant future.

Charlie is now 17 years of age and says in all honesty that basketball, his favourite sport, was his saving grace. This and the help of two people in particular who offered him a helping hand during one of his lowest moments. It was a period when the young man was thinking of dropping out of school and his basketball coach Marc-André Demers convinced him not to, asking him instead to give up the bad behaviour and focus on his studies. “If I wanted to stay on the team, I had no choice but to improve in class. Basketball was the only source of motivation I had left,” admits Charlie, who has been a member of the team for six years now and also plays football in the summer for the city team in Saint-Laurent.

Easier said than done however for a boy who more often than not let himself be influenced by his fellow students and thought mostly about having fun rather than studying. Despite this fact, he did so and in a brilliant way, above all thanks to Alexandra Pauzé, a teacher who sort of took him under her wing. The consequence of which is that Charlie has managed to extricate himself from the special education class, has caught up the two years he was behind in the regular high school program and in all probability will obtain his high school diploma next year by completing his studies in an adult education program. All these efforts have enabled him to silence the prophecies of doom in his regard.

“Mrs. Pauzé always told me she couldn’t study for me and do my homework in my place. However, she helped me so much so that I could succeed that now I know that in life, everything is possible. You just never have to give up,” he says with assurance, adding that he now wants to follow the same path as his brothers and pursue a career in computer science.

The student services counsellor and the man in charge of the sports teams at Saint-Laurent high school, Robert Leblanc, remembers his first encounter with Charlie. A rather heated encounter he does not have happy memories of. Nevertheless, today when he speaks of Charlie - and in fact he believes the other teachers would all depict the same portrait - he describes him as being the perfect example of perseverance.

“Charlie has come a long, long way,” he starts by explaining. “Today, it is as though he’s gone from being a stubborn little boy who did everything to cause trouble to a young adult who is determined and motivated by his goals for success. He works so hard that he has gained the respect of his teachers and the school principal Mrs. Louise Chénard, who has followed his progress since Grade 1. He has also earned this respect as a member of the basketball team and he has become, thanks to all the efforts he devotes to practice, an influential player on the team.”

Today, Charlie can see the reward for his efforts looming on the horizon, and believes more strongly than ever that he will succeed. All the same, he was never a bad student in elementary school. He just lacked concentration and self-discipline. “And it cost me dearly,” he points out. “Until the day I said to myself, you’ll see, you’ll get out of here.”

If he had a single message for all those who are tempted to follow the same path as him, Charlie would simply say: “never let anyone tell you that you aren’t capable of doing anything good. You are the only one who can be the judge and do what it takes to succeed.”

Charlie Williams
Saint-Laurent