The Next Chapter

Last weekend I attended the Pinnacle Foundation's first ever Scholar Induction. I got up at the crack of dawn to get on a train from the south west to Circular Quay and it turned out that I was amongst many deserving scholars who came from much further than me. As I participated in a myriad of activities in the Museum of Contemporary Art, I gradually got to know each of the scholars. At lunch we went out on groups of five and I went with one local and three interstate scholars. Everyone was extremely friendly and eager to get to know each other - which made me very frustrated that i was losing my voice because I wanted to talk to everyone.

The day wasn't only about socialising; it was full of some very wise speakers who shared their wisdom, inspiring stories and gave us useful advice. We learnt about or had a refresher course on goal setting and stress management. The best part of having these talks was having group conversations and learning from mentors and other scholars. By the end of the day, I think everyone felt a little more at ease about continuing with their education. Wether it be high school, TAFE, undergraduate or post graduate-study, we were all well equipped to take on the next exciting chapter in our lives.

Going out to dinner that night was a nice ending to the evening. We were all very relaxed and comfortable by that point so the conversations were flowing. After ordering dessert there was a sad feeling that came over me knowing that I might not see some of these amazing students again. Thank goodness for technology though because I can at least keep in touch with them on that level. We said our goodbyes at the entrance of the restaurant as everyone dispersed into different directions; into Taxis, back to hotels, back to the airport, back home.
The entire day made me feel so special and incredibly lucky. I am a part of the Pinnacle family and I will look back on this time in my life very fondly. 

As I write this, I realise I have just completed my first week of studying at Macquarie University. I started my first year with a lot less stress because of the support I have received from the Pinnacle Foundation. I look forward to doing my best and making my friends, family, mentor and tutors proud. 

By Daniela Ivana Barisic Sprem

Are you an openly gay adult?

Are you an openly gay adult? Do you have a career, a family, good friends? I want to know, how did you get it?

So many gay LGBTI youth can’t imagine their lives as openly gay adults. They just can’t envision a time when they are in a career they enjoy. They don’t believe they will ever experience friends and family who accept them as they are. They can’t imagine a future for themselves.

How did you ensure you had a future? How did you do it?

Did you know that gay and lesbian youth are 2 to 3 times more likely to attempt suicide then heterosexual youth? Are you aware that 50% of lesbian and gay youth report parental rejection due to their sexual orientation? Did you know that 80% of LGBTI youth report severe emotional and social isolation? That they experience a depression that is 4-5 times more severe then their heterosexual peers?

Tell me, you - who got the job you wanted, a job you love, how did you do it? How did you get to that place where I want to be? Were you that one in four LGBTI youths that became homeless once they came out? Did you experience isolation, depression or anxiety? Did you have family who was ashamed of you, friends who were embarrassed by you? How did you GET to that point, where you are right now? How did you do it?

Did you have someone to give you support, was there anyone who made you believe you could get to the point you are now at? Did anyone give you hope? Was there someone in your orbit that made you realise that a future was actually possible?

The Pinnacle Foundation gave me my hope. They gave me the first glimpse of my future I had seen in a very long time. They know that not having a visible LGBTI role model can severely increase feelings of isolation and emotional distress in young LGBTI people. They know that sometimes we need to see a real life example of how it gets better. Bob Paris once said:

Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.” You might not think you’d make much of a mentor. But if you an openly gay adult, who has a family who loves them, good friends and a job - you can help some one just by doing what you do already. Just placing yourself in the orbit of a young LGBTI can go a long way. You are a living example of how it really does get better, so please - contact Pinnacle to become a mentor. I guarantee that you will brighten someone’s future.

By Ashleigh Scriven

Turning things around

Hi Ashleigh,

Tony & I have just finished marking the exams. During this process, we also keep track of students whose answers are particularly good. You’re one of these students. Your overall result was strong, but we just wanted you to know that the quality that impressed us most was your sensible approach to the scenarios.

Tony & I are looking forward to being involved in your education next Semester. We want to hear your voice in the Tutorials as well – your knowledge base shows you certainly have some useful information for your peers. Speak up!

Great work. Keep it up.

Regards

Cam, and on behalf of Tony.

- - -

Above is an email from my lecturers at uni, sent last Friday. When I got it I cried.

I will never, ever forget that moment.

Last year Cam and Tony would not have known I existed. They wouldn't have seen me during lectures, because I was at work during most of them. They wouldn't have noticed my marks, because I was barely scraping by. They wouldn't have noticed me in tutorials, because I was always running late from work and leaving early to go back to work, and spent the time in class staying as small and as quiet as possible, while desperately trying to catch up on what I had missed that week.

This email was sent to several other students. They will file it away with all the other encouragement they have ever received from their lecturers, parents and families. For me, it is stuck on my bathroom mirror, because it is the first time since I have started my degree that I have felt hopeful. It is the first time I have real hope that I might actually finish my degree.

Every single day I have struggled to stay with my education. Life has felt like a catch 22 – If you want to study at uni you need the money to buy books and pay rent and food and go to the doctors and just live, so you work a lot but when you work a lot you don't have time to go to uni or study for uni, so your grades begin to fail and it looks like you might not pass your courses, so you cut back your hours and fit some more study in, but then its harder to make rent so you get stressed and the fear of living on the streets forces you back to work everyday and you tell yourself that the basic essentials are shelter food and water and that education can come later, except that education is the way out of poverty, and you learnt that at uni, so you should just try try try to get this degree and don't give up just yet, just get through one more semester and it won't last forever and one day you will graduate.

Thanks to Pinnacle, that 'one day' is looking a lot more possible today, then it was a year ago. Why don't you better your odds? Put yourself in a better position. Make a Choice, to apply for a scholarship. Take a Chance that it might get accepted. Take the steps to Change your situation. Apply for a Pinnacle Scholarship today.

By Ashleigh Scriven

The Distraction Monster

I made a promise with myself at the beginning of my university study. Not to procrastinate. At the time I thought it was a reasonable decision to make, I thought I had grown out of the habit which I had so brilliantly perfected during my high school years. No one elected to tell me that university, aside from introducing a whole host of nasty essays into my life, unleashes a demon of unimaginable evil whose very existence is for the sole purpose of providing distractions, and illuminating otherwise uninteresting things. I’ve called this demon the Distraction Monster. Why had nobody given me the heads up about this guy? I have close friends who have completed university, yet none of them warned me! I think it is a massive oversight on their part, and makes me reconsider the closeness of our friendship. I mean imagine my surprise when I am seconds away from understanding the ins and outs of Marxism, and completely out of the blue I have an overwhelming urge to clean the barbeque… A barbeque I’ve not used in 6 months, let alone thought about cleaning. It doesn’t make any sense and can only be explained as the work of the Distraction Monster. It seems to me that people are either frightened of this monster, or enjoy his company. How else can you explain such widespread silence about his existence? Now I am certainly not frightened of this particular monster, but I may be able to explain why he is possibly welcomed on occasion.

My most recent encounter with the Distraction Monster was over the last weekend. I had two essays due and very little time to do them. I was a little anxious and ready to get them out of the way so I could relax and enter end-of-semester holidays as quickly as possible. I had sourced all of my readings and was just about to enter the study zone… and something happened. I can’t recall whether it was the colours, or the familiar voices, but I knew something about my environment had changed. I felt an incredible sense of excitement, a feeling of unparalleled bliss which could only come from one source… EUROVISION! I had completely forgotten it was happening, but knew there was no turning back now. The Distraction Monster had won, he knew my weakness and was only happy to remind me of it. Whatever chance I had of getting any work done was now completely out the window, but if I’m truly honest, I think I may forgive the monster on this occasion. It is Eurovision after all. 

By Steve Walker

To apply or not to apply

When I was completing my application for the Pinnacle scholarship, I gave up at least four times. And when I mean I gave up, I mean gave up emphatically. Throwing the papers away, crying in frustration, deleting the whole thing, emphatically. 

The first time, it was because I had convinced myself that if I just gave myself another 6 months, I could save up the money to buy a laptop myself. I told myself to get over it, get more hours at work and work harder. I told myself that I was taking the easy way out, asking for a handout. My partner slammed that excuse down in a matter of hours, bringing home the fine point that we had already spent one year attempting to make do using the same laptop, and that the very reason I was applying for the scholarship was because it was a large expense that I needed to use DURING my university course.( She was right, it would have taken me probably the whole duration of my course to save up for the one I eventually got from Pinnacle.)

The second emphatic binning of the application came a few weeks later, after agonising over the section of academic achievement. This section forced me to look at what i had been capable of in the past, and really hit home that since the absence of financial and emotion support from a maternal and paternal point of view, I had struggled. This realisation sent me into a spin of hopelessness, having stupidly talked myself into believing I was on a downhill slide into nothingness. Again, my partner put the brakes on that track, using the brilliant logic that THIS IS WHY YOU ARE APPLYING FOR THE BLOODY SCHOLARSHIP IN THE FIRST PLACE. (She was right, the Pinnacle foundation looks for determination, resourcefulness, and potential. The reason they exist is to give a leg up to students who desperately want an education, but are struggling to complete it. Sometimes the circumstances you may find yourself in don't allow academic achievement RIGHT NOW, but that certainly doesn't mean you haven't had academic achievement in the past, or that you won't in the future, especially with some assistance.)

The third tantrum ensued when I came to the section of Personal and/or social circumstances which present significant challenges to undertaking and completing education. After a long period of writers block ( or possibly just plain avoidance) , this section rocked me from top to bottom, and forced me to think about and put into words a period of my life I try my hardest to block out and not deal with.

Pinnacle scholars may seek this scholarship for many different reasons. It can be anything from needing some educational support, or because the university you need to go to means moving away from your loving family into a new and unfamiliar location. It could be because your family doesn't want to provide financial or emotional support, or because your family just can't provide financial support to cover the textbooks this year. It could be because you could do with some guidance and advice form someone in the career you hope to be in one day, or because you want to undertake a conference that could significantly enhance your career opportunities. It could be because you have personal hurdles in front of you, emotional hurdles behind you, or social hurdles underfoot. If the challenge to your education is hard to talk about, push through, because while it may be hard to write, the people that read it are understanding and unfortunately familiar with the large variety of challenges which face young LGBTI.

Before the fourth giving up episode, I did have one minor tantrum regarding the references, in which I deplored I couldn't find any. Or rather, couldn't find anyone I willingly wanted to have to explain my situation to. This excuse for why my application was yet again deleted, was combatted with :You won't find anyone if you don't ask. (Upon putting my stubbornness aside and explaining why I needed some help from a former school teacher, he has since become a fixture in my life, and provides stability and advice for anything from university courses to rental queries. If I hadn't checked my pride and asked for help, I would have missed out on having this person in my life. If people don't know you are struggling, they can't help you.)

The fourth and final tantrum was once I had finally completed the application, and my emphatic excuses had dwindled into a sorry-looking, dejected one: Whats the point, it won't be accepted anyway. I applied in November 2011. I am now a proud 2012 Pinnacle scholar, and have been granted a brand new laptop, four brand new, beautiful textbooks and a host of other educational costs. Pinnacle also arranged a mentor for me, from the profession I one day hope to be employed in, who is unrestricted and extremely generous in her advice and assistance.

There are likely many reasons which your mind will talk you into believing are very good reasons why you shouldn't waste your time applying for this scholarship, and whether the reason is shame, embarrassment, pride, the thought of getting your hopes up for nothing, stubbornness, or just a negative outlook it makes no difference. The one reason why you SHOULD put in an application, and the one that outweighs all the reasons why not, is because you have nothing to lose, and more importantly, you have everything to gain.


Ashleigh Scriven



To download an application, go to the Pinnacle Scholarships Page.

Start getting it together, the sooner the better. Applications for 2013 study close : 15 October 2012

Post-Equal Marriage

Equal marriage has become one of the most topical issues facing our country today – and rightly so. Very rarely does another topic touch the very constitutions of our society and its beliefs regarding equality, justice and dignity.

I would be one of the first to readily admit that I await my Mr Darcy to come along and sweep me off my feet right into the nearest chapel. But tight now, such a dream is not available to me. On the current state of the law, some people are denied the opportunity to celebrate their commitment publicly, not for want of love and affection, fidelity and devotion, but because some other people have said that they shall not. It is, in some bitter irony, truly a struggle between pride and prejudice.

The marriage equality movement is important for two reasons. Directly, it is a movement that aims to secure a civil right. Indirectly it engenders in our society a certain type of discourse where justice and equality take the spotlight.

Justice is an idea. An idea, like a seed, can grow into something big, something strong and powerful. As a seed grows into a tree it bears fruit for all enjoy. So too the labours of civil libertarians will benefit society as a whole. But the seed needs fertile soil, it must be watered and tended to. Same then for ideas - they are mute without their advocates. Our liberal democratic society is fertile soil for justice. If we persevere in our cause, justice will yield the fruit of equality.

This is the hope upon which I ride when I support equal marriage. But at the same time, I am conscious not to lose sight of the battles ahead. We should remember the energy that we gave for our cause, because that is the same energy that we should give to any other cause to advance the welfare of our fellow Australians. Remember especially the energy that our friends and our families gave to supporting our cause, because we should fight for their cause with the same dedication of theirs to ours.

We should keep in mind demographics like youth, Indigenous Australians, immigrants, the elderly, and all those who are on the margins of society. Why should they not enjoy the fruits of equality alongside us and all other Australians? Indeed there are not an insignificant number of us in the LGBT community who fall into one or more of those above demographics. If we stand for diversity, then we should embrace its every facet. Prejudice must necessarily be defeated before we can embrace pride in diversity.

To this end we should recognise that equal marriage is only one facet of discrimination in our society. There is an old adage that there is no rest for the wicked. We must be vigilant against mischief and social injustice. Until the last Australian can walk proudly with their head held high and free from prejudice, we too cannot rest.

Empowering People

I first fell in love with the cause of empowerment back in 2010 when I was 17 and, having just graduated school, spent a good portion of my gap year volunteering at a school in Nepal. I lived in a house on the outskirts of Kathmandu with 12 girls from all around the world. To tackle the mammoth task of feeding us all, my host family had hired a maid; Fulmaija, who was just 16, didn’t speak a word of English, and was being paid 6000 rupees ($75) a month.

As my Nepali began to improve, and Fulmaija started to pick up on the English which was constantly being spoken around her, we began to communicate. Soon, all of us in the house were great friends with Fulmaija, relishing in her cheeky company. We used to dress her up in our old clothes we had brought over, and laughed as she had her first taste of vegemite. Fulmaija was incredibly intelligent, and I have no doubt that had her family decided to keep her in school, she would have gone on to do phenomenal things as an educated woman.

Towards the end of our time together, Fulmaija began to recieve frequent calls from a strange man offering her highly paid ‘maid work’ in India, until one day, she disappeared, never to be seen by us again. What I have learned since then, is that Fulmaija is almost certainly being forced to engage in sex work in the brothels of India, like thousands of other young Nepali girls her age each year. The rate of HIV infection is high, as is suicide and unwanted pregnancy amongst these girls.

As Fulmaija’s likely fate sunk in, I began to think about how any society could place so little value on women that things like this were just allowed to happen…

When I say “began to think”, I began to think a lot. Then I began to research. A lot. What I found, was that many of the developing world’s problems are, so some degree, a result of gender inequality. If we could just find a way to empower women, stories like Fulmaija’s wouldn’t exist to be told.

Opportunities for empowerment are everywhere. If we lived in a world where young gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people could all feel empowered by their sexualities right from the get go, we would greatly eliminate the appalling rates of depression, suicide and alienation experienced by members of our community.

Right now, I’m studying a Bachelor of Justice at Queensland University of Technology, due to be completed in the middle next year. What I love most about my degree is that almost every unit is looking at ways to empower those who are disadvantaged. Hopefully, I’ll go from this on to do my honours year looking at human trafficking intervention practices, and then maybe a PhD after that.

For the moment, Pinnacle is empowering me to make this happen. I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it feels to have the support of the Foundation behind me. To start this semester not worrying about how I was going to find the extra money for textbooks, or how I was going to manage to nab one of the university’s highly elusive shared PC’s to work on during the day was an enormous relief. More exciting that this though, is knowing that I am part of a generation of GLBTIQ young people who Pinnacle will continue to empower.

By Harriet Horsfall

Where I am at now

Looking back at about seven months ago, it is more than clear that receiving a Pinnacle Scholarship has turned my life around. Seven months ago I had absolutely no idea I would end up studying Youth Work and Alcohol & Other Drugs at RMIT University, and have an amazing mentor. At that time I was experiencing accommodation instability and started to not believe in myself. I began thinking about giving up on my hopes and dreams and re-prioritising my goals.

Receiving a Pinnacle Scholarship means more to me than the financial assistance with course fees and materials. Don’t get me wrong, it has saved me from great financial stress and provided me with relief; however it is the fact that someone saw something in me and believed in me that made me feel that there is hope. So I decided then I was not going to give up that easy.

Now I’m doing well in my courses and have an awesome placement working with a very diverse and creative group of same-sex attracted young people. I love this placement so much it does not feel like work at all. My partner sometimes gets a bit annoyed that I do not spend a lot of time at home due to classes and placement commitments, but she knows that in the end it would be all worth it and she sees that I am happy.

My mentor Lauren is an incredible lady. I honestly could not have asked for a better mentor. She simply ROCKS! Lauren has done so much for me in the past few months. Not only does she assist me with my assignments and finding placement opportunities, she also took me to my first professional development conference about mental health and social media. This challenged me a little because I have never been around so many professionals before. I’m glad she did take me because shortly after that my placement supervisor out of the blue asked me to attend the Hume City Council’s launch of their Youth Counselling Service on his behalf. I was more confident with meeting other professionals and networking with them.

Lauren has also helped me solve my first ethical dilemmas as a Youth Worker such as: boundaries and being torn between being a friend and a worker. I’m extremely lucky to have Lauren as my mentor. She is kind, hilarious and great to talk. I hope to stay in touch with her after the mentorship. I could go on for ages about the awesomeness of Lauren but I guess you get the idea that she is my idol, so I will stop here.

Being a Pinnacle Scholar is a great honour and privilege. It changed the way I perceived my life. When I officially start working in the community services sector I would not hesitate in recommending the Pinnacle Foundation to my future clients to help them achieve their full potential and get them where they would like to go in life.

By Laura Partington

Expectations can be a dangerous thing

For my first blog post, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nathan Li. I’m 6’0” and 154 lbs. I’m a 21 years old undergraduate Arts/Law student at Sydney University. Oh and I’m gay.

But you expected that right?

Expectations. We all know what that word means. Semantically at least. At Christmas we expect presents. When our pet goldfish dies we’re expected to be sad. When a lady is pregnant, she is said to be expecting. Expectations mean that something is supposed to be.

But expectations mean something quite different in the context of a person’s identity. Expectations may start to become a form of prejudice, especially in the form of “oh but you’re supposed to…” conform to some expectation of theirs.

Luckily (perhaps), I escape with little more than accusations about a gay man’s sexual promiscuity. I now take in good humour when a straight guy assumes that I “I want a piece of [him]”. He’s not homophobic! (says he). After all, he shows his tolerance by allowing me to “look, but don’t touch”. How awfully generous. But there are those in our LGBT community who are confronted with much more offensive expectations about their sexual or gender identities.

And these expectations confront LGBT youth from a very early age. As a child we’re expected to be a good boy or a good girl. Maybe we’re expected to play sport (I was expected to learn maths and play the piano, neither of which I accomplished). Later we are told we’re expected to bring home a nice person of the opposite sex for our parents’ approval before we marry him or her so that we can bear grandchildren for our ageing mother. And we risk disappointing those expectations. Well, I’ve disappointed my mother on three accounts already. I only hope that she’ll realise I won’t necessarily disappoint her on the fourth!

So I might have been blessed with some miraculous confidence in my identity (or more likely, some extraordinary rebelliousness!) to resist being moulded into a Stepford son. The unfortunate truth is that not every young LGBT person can claim to be so lucky. I don’t pretend to have extensive knowledge in psychology but one only needs to possess common experience to know that these expectations can confine and inhibit the development of a person’s identity.

But why do I make such a big deal about expectations?

The foremost reason is because I believe the world would be a better place if we started expecting the best in everybody instead of expecting others to conform to what we think should be.

The second reason is because I reckon we’re a diverse bunch (the Pinnacle scholars and the rest of the LGBT community). So I’m looking forward to learning from my fellow scholars and finding out from them new ways of seeing the world. Expect from us the unexpected!

Anyway I’ve taken enough of your time. I’ll sign off now and leave you to have a wonderful weekend.

How Pinnacle helped me build my library

I had to leave home for uni, because my family home was in Kalgoorlie, more than 600km from Curtin University, in Perth. Having wanted to be a librarian since a small child, where I studied was non-negotiable, so I was always expecting to need to leave home. However, as I spent my gap year using up my savings in Europe as a Rotary Exchange Student, I had nothing left when I eventually moved to the big bad city, to start my new life. My parents have always been low income earners, and could barely support me. It was because of this I started applying for every scholarship I could lay my eyes on.

Among them was the Pinnacle Foundation. I applied for enough funds for a new computer, textbooks, and software. I cannot say how relieved I was. I knew this scholarship was going to help me get through uni, I didn’t realise it was going to change my life.

The first thing that happened was my new laptop. The computer I had purchased back in high school was on its last legs, and was only just chugging along. So when Pinnacle helped replace it, I was able to give my old one to my younger sister, who was a Year 12 TEE student, and still sharing a PC with two other students. It wasn’t a great machine, but it was still a computer she could call her own. Also, I could now run library-specific software on my new laptop that I couldn’t before.

My mentor is an amazing woman called Robyn. Unlike most Pinnacle Mentors, Robyn is not from the same profession as me (I suppose they didn’t have any librarians listed as Pinnacle Mentors back then…), but despite that, she has been an amazing life coach, mentor, sounding board, and friend. I really cherish everything she has done from me. Around once a month, she picks me up, and we go for a coffee or a meal somewhere, and just talk. Everything from queer politics, to my uni course, to my love life. I also have learnt a lot about queer history from her. This year, she took me to the International Women’s Day Breakfast. Also, when I thought I had to move house, she offered to help me look. When I bought a new bookcase, she drove out with me to pick it up, so I could save money on delivery. And anyway she can see an opportunity to help me, she does. It has been amazing, and I hope to continue our friendship long after our formal Pinnacle Mentorship relationship has ended,

Pinnacle are also helping me attend a number of conferences, relevant to my profession and interest. Last year, they paid for my rego for the 5th New Librarians Symposium, held in Perth. Next month, I am going to Adelaide for the Children’s Book Council Biannual. And, should my paper get accepted, The Pinnacle Foundation have agreed to help me partially fund a trip to Amsterdam in August, for the International Conference on the Future of LGBTI Histories, in Archives, Libraries, Museums and Special Collections!

We are expected to be pro-active in supporting the Foundation though. Last year, I attended the annual Queer Collaborations conference for Australian students, which Curtin hosted. There, another Pinnacle scholar, Veronica, did a presentation on the Foundation, and handed out info of applying for scholarships, with myself and Iz supporting her. We were actively advertising Pinnacle throughout the conference. More than one person at that workshop is now a Pinnacle Scholar.

Above all, it has changed my life. I can never thank enough the donors, and the volunteers, for everything they have done for me, and for making the Pinnacle Foundation what it is. 

By Suzie Day - you can follow Suzie's own blog at www.cataloguethis.com/

 

Photos in My Window

My name is Ashleigh and this is a photo of my bedroom window.

One day I will become a radiographer, and then maybe another day I will become qualified in MRI or CT imaging. My partner is not the biggest fan of using the windows to display pictures of bones of people she doesn’t know, but for the most part she puts up with them because they remind me that the light at the end of the tunnel is a degree, a job and being able to do something I love every day. 

I took these radiographs during my very first clinical placement in 2010.  My favourite is the smaller one on the left window, an AP PEG open-mouth image. At the time, these images were a source of pride, a reminder that I could do just as well as anyone else who was doing the same course as me. A reminder that I had achieved just as much, if not more then those students who had a comfy bed to sleep in, financial and emotional support and enough food during these five weeks of unpaid placement. I slept on the floor of a friends place for the 5 weeks and ate rice for every meal, but I did well enough in my placement for me to feel proud of myself.

At the end of 2011, Pinnacle came into my life when I was working 6 days a week, although often for 14 days or more in a row. It took me a year to recover financially from the placement, and Pinnacle entered my life at a time when I was about to give up on my education, and focus on just being able to afford the rent and food in the same week.

I was teetering on the edge of living my greatest fear -  that I will just ‘get by’ in life. That I will end up ‘just’ waitressing everyday for the rest of my life, ‘just’ making rent, ‘just’ making it. That I will plod through life, doing something that disintegrates my enthusiasm, kills my brain cells, and refuses to allow me the opportunity to hope and dream of bigger and better things.

Pinnacle has seemingly scooped me up from the floor, dusted me off, handed me some hope and given me a gentle shove back in the right direction. They have patched up some holes where my self-esteem obviously fell out, and are doing their damnedest to make sure that my potential stays firmly in my pocket, and doesn’t self-destruct in a moment of panic. Pinnacle has given me gifts that most students take for granted; encouragement, support, confidence, hope, financial stability and the ability to believe in myself.

By Ashleigh Scriven