Zachary overcomes dyselexia to win scholarship

The tall, well-spoken young man, the first child of Carmen and John Georges of Cascade, completed CAPE in two units, and obtained a total of five distinctions and three two’s in Mathematics, Chemistry, Accounting, Caribbean Studies and Communications Studies. He had already obtained six distinctions and a B in Add Math in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams.

“I was in standard three at junior school when my teacher at that time, Miss Hasranah, suggested to my mother that I should be tested by a psychologist,” says Zachary. “The specific disability was dyslexia, for me it was also my processing of information which was at a lower level than it should be. Dyslexia means that in addition the main indicator is of interchanging letters and numbers so ‘d’ would look like ‘b’ and instead of ‘dog’ I would spell ‘bog’. I can tell you that I would see a big neon sign saying ‘94’ and I would say flat out ‘49’.

“When it was discovered, Mom quit her job at Angostura as a lab technician and supported me fully. She spent two years and helped me get through SEA, getting her Montessori certificates so she could understand how she could help me cope better with it.” This very determined mother ended up teaching at Bishop Anstey Junior Sschool, and is still there although Zachary moved on seven years ago.

According to Zachary, “After the diagnosis, it was a light bulb that went on and it seemed to explain why I didn’t understand certain things in class that other people would catch in an instant. I now had a reason why I was the way I was. From Standard Two I was always working towards top grades but would fall short of the A. In the end, Ms Grace Campbell, principal at that time of the junior school, recognised that my effort was to be rewarded and I was awarded the challenge trophy for those who had persevered throughout junior school and did well at SEA.”

Zachary got his second choice school, Trinity at Moka, and has never looked back. He realised that a lot of hard work and focus was needed to keep on par with his classmates, and says, “Never once have I used it as a crutch, and I never saw it as an excuse for not giving my best. I just had to find ways around as well as try to cope, finding different and new ways to process the information I was being taught.”

What about sports? “I tried different sports including tap dancing,” he said with a chuckle, “but never took to it. I just never saw the results that academia got me.” However, his eyes lit up as he spoke of discovering Dragon Boating within the last two years. He is now captain of his Dragon Boat team. “I took to it like a duck takes to water, and boat with Wanton Warriors for school, and am currently in a team called Peking Ducks. I really like the sport.”

Zachary is currently doing a one- year diploma in Baking and Pastry Arts at the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute at Chaguaramas “I started to cook age five with my mother, it was a way for her to keep me in check, making sure I didn’t get up to mischief and the reading of the recipes helped the dyslexia. Family reunions weren’t complete, said an uncle, without my cr?me caramel.” This course will help to decide whether Zachary likes this field or not, and whether to further pursue it as a career or profession.

However, if he is awarded the Peter Helps Scholarship bequeathed to Trinity by the first principal Peter Helps, at Oxford University, plans will change as Oxford does not offer culinary arts. But he has two passions – baking and chemistry. “The two always meet, the kitchen is a big chem lab,” says Zachary. Should he get the scholarship to Oxford, it will have to be a degree in chemistry, at the end of which it can lead to his going back to do culinary arts and baking and pastry, or the more technical aspect of post graduate work in food science.

As practical as ever, this handsome young man says, “Anybody can cook, baking is a science, if you put too much salt into dough it will not rise, too much salt into a pot, you can always add water. I don’t necessarily have to specialise but will always cook, will always be in a kitchen, I love cooking and baking.”

Zachary is currently juggling at least three things which include SAT’s for entrance to American universities, hotel school and also trying to organise documents to register at university. He had a special request: “I want to specially thank my mother and family for making me what I am today. Also Ms Tina Schuler, now principal of Bishop Anstey Junior Sschool, the staff of Trinity College, my friends and other well wishers, because I couldn’t have done it without them.”