Every so often I choose to focus a high percentage of these columns on teenagers. It’s my way of driving home the point that our future is in good hands. There are many more exceptionally positive teenagers in our high schools today than there are exceptionally negative ones; the ones that tend to get most of the publicity. Our high schools are also populated by thousands of “average” teenagers, young people who will make positive contributions to our society as adults, something like you and I have tried to do.

Elise Samson, a Grade 12 student at Cedar Community Secondary School, is one of our exceptionally positive teenagers in the Mid Island Region. This is a group of unbelievably motivated and energized young people; kids who do paid work 20 or more hours a week, take leadership positions in a variety after school activities, volunteer in the community and still get straight A’s.

Elise’s paid work is at Yellow Point Lodge where she works in the dining room three days a week. I have a feeling if you have ever dined there, you’ll remember her. She’s that kind of person.

At school, Elise is a member of the Cedar Student Council, a Peer Tutor, and along with friends, an active organizer of a variety of activities such as fun fairs, Cedar Idol and more.

After school, as well as her job at Yellow Point Lodge, she is also involved with the Nanaimo Film School and has appeared in two independent films as an actor.

It’s hard to believe that Elise could be described as a “quiet, behind the scenes person” but those are the exact words used by her teacher, Bruce Podetz” when he nominated her as a Hidden Hero. He says it was only when he began to see her applications for scholarships that he realized how truly extraordinary she is. He knew she was a good student, even a great student, but he had seen only the tip of the iceberg he says.

Wendy Harrington who owns a dance school in Cedar met Elise when she started taking dance lessons with her and soon became aware of her exceptional talent.

“She has such wonderful energy,” she told me, “and such a positive ability to relate to children. I thought, ‘I can’t let this person go.’” So she hired her as a teacher.

Wendy went on to say, “She is the most outstanding young woman I know. She is a great role model and she has so much love and passion for everything in life, not just dance. She has high morals; she’s respectful and consistently responsible. You couldn’t ask for more in a young woman.”

For the last two years, Elise has taught ten dance classes a week. That’s ten hours a week on top of her 20 hours at Yellow Point Lodge. She also spends many additional hours preparing for various shows involving her students. One of them won first place and another second at a recent Upper Island Music Festival.

Aren’t these hours beginning to sound like a full time job on top of her school commitments?

I had planned on shooting a video feature at the Cedar Heritage Centre featuring Elise teaching dance to kids but at the last minute the centre wasn’t available. Without skipping a beat, Elise arranged for us to get the gym at Woodlands School and also arranged class release time with her students’ teachers. This is just one more example of a young woman who is going places no matter what obstacles might get in the way.

Elise has been accepted at Malaspina for next year. She plans on becoming a teacher. Here’s to the kids lucky enough to be in her class.