A student whose desperation to escape years of bullying led him to drop out of school at 16 has won the B.C. government's highest scholastic award at the post-secondary level this year.
Glen Leonard, now 35, has been awarded the $20,000 Queen Elizabeth II British Columbia Centennial Scholarship, given to the province's top university graduate who is going on to further studies in a Commonwealth country and is likely to make a major contribution in their field.
He has been accepted directly into the PhD program at Cambridge University in England, as well as the master's degree program at Oxford University, after finishing his degree at University of B.C. with marks that led the chair of the honours English department to call him "one of the brightest and most gifted honours students" he had seen in 34 years of teaching.
But 19 years ago, Leonard left his Lower Mainland high school after he could no longer stand the bullies who taunted him in the locker room, pushed and shoved him in the hallways and in gym class, and laid in wait to beat him up after he left the school grounds.
"Like other students who are bullied in school - whether it's because of their sexual orientation, race or religion - I often felt hopeless, and in many ways, it's a miracle I'm still here," Leonard says of those "dark days," when his main solace was reading. "Literature was an escape for me, and also a liberation."
Despite having completed only Grade 9, Leonard found a job at Marks & Spencer, where he designed window displays and eventually co-ordinated visual presentation for all the company's department stores throughout B.C. He was well paid, doing creative work, travelling on an expense account - but something was missing.
Back to school at 23
So at 23, he earned the equivalent of a high school diploma through the Ministry of Education after six months of study. With that under his belt, he enrolled at Capilano College, and took course after course, while still working full-time.
Right from the start, Leonard went from being a B student in high school to earning consistent As and A-pluses, achieving 100 per cent in a particularly tough English literature course.
"It was a treat for me to go to school - my whole life became focused on my education. And I felt I had overcome my past failure: the fact that I had to leave high school always stayed with me."
When Marks & Spencer decided to pull out of Canada in the late 1990s, Leonard came to a crossroads. He'd gone as far as he could go at Capilano, having finished all the available credits to transfer to third-year university. He could either find another display job - or he could give up his career, and go back to school full-time to finish his degree.
He chose the degree - and continued the successes he'd enjoyed at Capilano College.
"When I was getting those As and A-pluses at UBC, it was a sort of vindication of my earlier disappointments at high school, and made me feel that the darkest period of my life was well and truly behind me," remembers Leonard, who won scholarships and was invited to join the Golden Key National Honour Society of North America.
Teaching new Canadians
As a break from studying, Leonard volunteered as an English tutor and gave lessons to new Canadians, including a mother from China and her six-year-old son. "It was amazing to go from teaching an adult to teaching a child," says Leonard, who realized during that experience that he had a talent for teaching. He decided he wanted to do so at the university level, combining his love of literature with his love of teaching.
His honours thesis dealt with the work of social critic E.M. Forster, who has a special place in Leonard's heart. The British novelist's sophisticated liberal humanist philosophy had been both a beacon of hope and an avenue of escape for Leonard when he was struggling with the unthinking brutality of his tormentors at school.
"Forster felt himself to be something of an outsider in society, and it was this that led him to fomulate a philosophy based on tolerance, sympathy and understanding," Leonard says.
His connection with Forster led Leonard to decide on a plan of action - to study at Oxford, which has a world-renowned master's program in British literary modernism; and then Cambridge for his PhD, because that's where all of Forster's papers are stored.
After graduating from UBC in spring 2003, Leonard earned a certificate in teaching English. He spent the next few months teaching and applying for scholarships and to graduate schools. "The application process is almost a full-time job in itself," he says.
Overcoming the age barrier
In the case of winning scholarships, it's not an easy job for a mature student. "Age is a definite barrier," Leonard says bluntly. He acknowledges one possible reason - that younger students have longer careers ahead of them - but also notes that lack of focus and burnout results in a high level of dropouts at the master's and PhD level. "I have a clear focus; I'm going to accomplish (my goal) come hell or high water. And I honestly feel I could not be the student I am now if it hadn't been for my years working."
The Queen Elizabeth II scholarship has no such barrier - in fact, two of this year's winners are mature students.
"Our government funds life-long learning because we see the benefits to individual students and society as a whole," said Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond. "We believe in acknowledging and encouraging excellence, and Glen Leonard's achievements deserve recognition and reward."
Leonard's $20,000 will cover half of his expenses for a year at Oxford, where tuition alone is almost $23,000 Cdn; his savings, student loans and sacrifices by his parents - now retired - will make up the rest.
Leonard doesn't know where he'll end up after he finishes his master's and doctorate - although if work is available, he'll definitely come back to B.C. to teach British modernism.
"At Capilano College and at UBC, the level of academic standard was exceptionally high, preparing me thoroughly for Oxford and Cambridge," he says. "And from my firsthand experience, both at college and university in B.C., I know outstanding teachers can and do make a difference in the lives of their students." |
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