I've spent a lot of time delivering various programs to both primary and secondary students over the past four or five years and I've learned that the majority of today's young people are being given a bad rap by far too many adults.

For every kid that gets into trouble, there are dozens and probably hundreds who are doing well. But for some reason I hear far more negative stories about teens than positive ones.

I want to be sure to write a number of stories about John Barsby students in particular. I've been told that Barsby picked up a bad reputation in the seventies, a reputation that seems to have stuck even though it has grown into an exceptional community school today.

Last week I mentioned my intentions to Devra Elliott. Her quick response was that I should start by doing a column on her niece, Andrea Philip. So that’s who will be featured today.

My commitment is that this will be the first of many columns over the next several months that will highlight the truth about the vast majority today’s young people.

From the time Andrea was old enough to pull herself up on a piece of furniture, she would hang on and dance if there was any kind of music playing. Then at the age of four her grandmother, who was a dancer in Hungry before the war, enrolled her in a dance class during one of Andrea’s regular summer visits to Port Alice and a star was born.

Both her Port Alice teacher and her grandmother recognized her exceptional talent and encouraged her mother to enrol her at the Kirkwood Dance Academy where she continued to study until she graduated from John Barsby in 2001.

“I’m not saying this just because I love her,” her aunt Devra told me, “but when I first saw her on stage when she was just four years old, she shone. She had the whole audience in her hand."

And her mother says she excelled in school. She was an A student, always on the honour role and, although she tended to push herself, she also knew when she had too much on her plate and would drop something.

“She seemed to take the best from both me and my husband," her mom concluded.

Andrea is a proud Barsby graduate who is dedicated to her school. She loved (most of) her teachers, especially in the drama and music departments and her love affair with Barsby climaxed when she got the role of Sandy in the school's production of Grease a few years ago. She had loved that music from the time her mother introduced it to her when she was eleven years old.

With encouragement from Krista Andruski, her drama teacher, Andrea went over to Vancouver to audition for the American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York City. This school does auditions in major cities around the world. Only the exceptional talents are accepted.

Andrea was deemed to be one of those talents and given a partial scholarship. So, with help from her parents topped up by savings from a summer job, she moved to New York to complete the two-year program and graduated last spring.

The day after graduation she moved to Pennsylvania to do summer stock at a resort. When that gig was finished she was offered a job at the resort's golf club and later a restaurant as an enticement for her to stay and perform in their 2003 Christmas show. Rehearsals for that show began the week before last.

If Andrea hasn’t “succeeded” in the theatre world by the time she is twenty-five, her plan is to come back to Nanaimo and study criminology at Malaspina.

Today's youth are doing just fine thank you.