John: A Director in the Making
November 2008
It is not often that an exceptional student comes along who continues his record of excellence despite extreme physical setback. John is a student in his final year at Sentinel Secondary in West Vancouver, a student with a reputation as an accomplished mountain biker. He has a talent for video making, and had won a scholarship to a film school in Vancouver for the summer after his grade ten year. Following a mountain biking injury prior to last summer which left him with quadriplegia, he worked with staff at GF Strong, Jill Harburn, Helen Karabelas and Robyn Littleford, who indicated that he is highest achieving student they have seen come through the rehabilitation centre. While there, John developed some upper body strength in spite of his injury. He has now gained dexterity in his lower arms and is able to pick some objects up.
After return to Sentinel in November last year, John excelled in a full grade 11 program. He has strong family and school team support, and maintains a high level of independence in handling his technology, which includes troubleshooting technical problems that he experienced with his laptop last year. John controls his laptop with a jouse that is manipulated with the mouth to access an onscreen keyboard. He has also tried voice recognition software. John accesses text electronically; in addition to scribing for him, his Special Education Assistant last year, Sean Lee, scanned novels and teacher-prepared materials into Kurzweil 3000. His Learning Resource Assistance Teacher, Kristina Kildaw, obtained electronic copies of some of his textbooks.
Last year, John completed coursework for a visual arts and media course using the videoediting software Final Cut Pro. His teacher, John Isernia, indicated that John scripted and directed a detective movie involving bad cops and drug dealers. It involved writing the script, choosing and directing the actors and photographers, producing, and editing the footage. He unfortunately lost much of his work when his computer crashed, though a mountain biking video that he had been working on prior to his injury and completed afterwards remains intact. His teacher indicated that his work is outstanding in relation to his peers.
This year, John is taking a full grade 12 course load, including chemistry, physics, calculus, math and a photo/video course, in which he plans to create either a series of short films or a feature length movie. After graduation, he is planning on attending university and he is considering engineering. John is sure to have a long list of successes in the years to come.