Application to Oxford

I took the English Elat for the Q300 course. 

I actually plan to ask the college if they are willing to accept Jack Ben Edwards, as he actually helped me so substantially to adjust to student life, that there truely isn't anyone I could think of whom would be more suited to attend. In collaboration with London Speech Therapy, Rosie Nickleson worked with myself and my Neurologist, providing more detail as to what would be needed to recover. The service, was private speech therapy,  and was most helpful. My speech slurred so badly at the time, I was unsure what to ask the doctor about. I did not know if the slur was worsened by meds, or whether it was noticable at all. I found it inhibited my ability to talk at work.  Whether meds, or speech therapy would work was assessed by Rosie, and she did add clarity to how my speech was effected by my head injury making life more managable. I would only see friends I could talk to with slurred speech, later in the day, and avoid those whom made more of an issue of my inability to speak quick enough, loud enough, clear enough. The therapy is very useful. I was lucky again to have private care. My neurologist care also was private healthcare from the United States. I used UK NHS guidelines and discussed them at my Neurologists office or following up by the phone later during Covid 19. The NHS provided more detailed and updated treatment, and was very helpful. There was little detail for the first 10 years of my severe concussion, and post concussion syndrome recovery. I did, as my doctor predicted also hit my head with a few follow ups. The treatment was a major success. Canadian doctors actually were the first to reccomend that I be treated by a neurologist in the United States. 

I was one of the first concussion cases at my highschool. I was told later on that other students that were needing accommodation after concussions were helped by my working together with my principal, department heads. Concussions were hard for teachers to accommodate at the time, as they really had little research to go by. Our teachers knew that concussions were a big deal, and did not undermine the significant toll that students faced to try pass after their injuries were sustained. My highschool was incredibly forward thinking, and advanced compared to other high schools. I am extremely proud to have gone to WP Wagner. The school chose to care enough to follow up with students, and care. It showed.  

I actually chose to go to WP. Wagner instead of my Cousin Marcus' highschool Scona. He was the validictorian, and football player at their school. It was a difficult choice in some ways to determine where I would go. I decided that by going to WP Wagner, I had to build my own support from scratch. I wasn't well known as my cousin was at Scona. This is something that I found was good. It meant even though I knew I could make it, and maintain being at the top going into highschool, I would have to work just as hard as my cousin did. I am extremely proud of my cousin Marcus, and his sister. They are incredible people, and both went to university to become dentists.

In choosing WP Wagner I made a calculated decision. The vice principle at Scona said to me that I should go to her school at our highschool presentations given to my junior high. I guessed (correctly) that she was the vice principle, and liked her alot. WP Wagner did have a reputation as being a school specialized towards the trades. When I went there it was the first year that Advanced Placement was being implemented. I got the privilege of talking to my many teacher friends, and vice principles about my AP classes and the implementation of the courses. This was a unique privelge. At Scona the program was established, and thus would have been a slightly different experience to have handouts from a previous year. We had new handouts, our teachers were as interested as we were in the classes (they were teaching) we took together, as they considered 'do you like the way I taught this unit?',  'should I teach this the same way next year with the students that come after you guys?'. I actually was criticized for going to WP Wagner. I was stunned initially. This changed quickly. In my opinion WP Wagner is the new Old Scona. 

By going to a school where I had the option of defending my own school from criticism of others, it actually made going there more enjoyable. I could go and make a verbal summary of why the school was just as great as any other academic school in the city for students pursuing university. I could discuss implementation of AP, and found it exciting to see how my teachers put together their note packages, marking guidelines, doing it all from scratch. I feel I was surrounded by a group of extremely ambitious teachers, whom chose to care, and chose to put in an incredible amount of work. My english teacher from grade 10, actually had made a comment about a blind study where students were told they were the top, and treated like the top in one case. In the other, they actually were the top students not a placebo group. The students in the placebo group scored higher by being in an environment that treated the students like they were smart, and capable of being top students. That was the general gist of the story.  By having the attitude that each student matters, WP Wagner, most certainly is exemplary. 

My Doctor, Sandeep Vaid monitored my marks, interm reports, studying skills, gait (balance-ish thing). 

I was a top student and could coast through each 3 years of government programing ( course content required for the examinations on a government exam year). I would make more friends in year 1, and begin to work on areas of weakness year two, then on the last year, would have to make sacrifies socially, particularly, having been at home sick, with colds and flu's I was used to a cram and crash way of getting through the year. I actually stayed home more at the end of the year to not be sick for my exams. That was part of how I aced them. 

I was also treated like I had the potential to suceed. That made every day feel like there was a lot of value in waking up and going to school.