And in much lighter news….do you remember the late nights you spent studying and doing homework back in high school? And that exciting moment when you finally saw your name on the graduation list?
Many students had that same experience today, but for one in particular, it's even more joyful. Alyssa Fisher has been blind since birth, but this visionary 16 year old is graduating as the valedictorian of Wesley High School.
Fisher got the news today, and our team was at the school shortly after the announcement, while the kids were still signing each others' uniforms. Courtney Menzies spoke with her and her mother and has this story.
High school is pretty tough for any teenager, but for Alyssa Fisher, it was a lot more challenging since she is completely blind.
Fisher was born with retinopathy, which is an eye disease caused by abnormal blood vessels that affects premature babies.
But that didn't stop her from topping her grade and now she will be graduating as valedictorian:
Alyssa Fisher, Valedictorian, Wesley High School
"I'm very excited, in fact I'm so excited I feel like I wanna cry."
"A lot of sleepless nights, a lot of frustration and stress. It was pretty hard but with God and with family, a lot of confidence, I made it this far."
Carol Fisher, Alyssa's Mother
"I am over excited, I think I am more excited than her. The challenges, there was a lot of challenges but with perseverance, she made it. Now I ensured that she was never left behind with anything so if it takes us past midnight to stay up and try to get her stuff together, that's what we did."
And to get to the top, she had to put in a lot of extra work:
Alyssa Fisher, Valedictorian, Wesley High School
"I have to read things over a couple times before I get it, while they can just stick it in their head. Me, I have to read it like a good four or five times before I can really understand anything."
Courtney Menzies:
"Were there any special accommodations that the teachers made for you?"
Alyssa Fisher, Valedictorian, Wesley High School
"They give like time, enough time for me to complete my assignments and work. I have to move at my own pace while everyone is moving a bit faster than me."
Carol Fisher, Alyssa's Mother
"When it came to the braille aspect of it, she never did learn the braille. For me, I am a working mom so it was kind of difficult for me to learn the Braille to teach it to her. So what we did, we focused on the computer. With BCVI, they have a program called the NVDA and so that program, when they installed that on the computer, everything that she does, when she types, it talks back to her and so that part moved her forward so she was never left behind when it comes to anything like that."
"She has to work twice as hard or trice as hard as the others because for her, they are seeing, for her, it's what you have to read back to her especially when it comes to studying for a test or so, I have to sit there and read two, three, four times, so that she could really get the understanding, sit and talk with her, she would give back information to me, so we would put it in the format and then she would type it, she would edit her work, because as I said, the machine reads back to her, and then she edits her work and then the final product is what we hand in so it's time consuming, but in the end, it really paid off for her."
And her mother says that there was never a time when Fisher felt like she couldn't overcome her disability.
Carol Fisher, Alyssa's Mother
"She is a person that is strong headed and from she was a baby and from she knows herself, she keeps on hearing, you can do anything, don't let your disability keep you down, you can do anything, you can achieve anything, and what you put in is what you get out so that's the mindset she grew up with and she continues with it."
Fisher says she has an interest in science, but she is taking a gap year before attending sixth form.
