{"id":7047,"date":"2017-08-03T13:07:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T17:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7047"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:34:53","slug":"ben-williamson-carleton","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/ben-williamson-carleton\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming Ben Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Welcoming Ben Williamson\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

On any given night, more than a thousand people stay in homeless shelters in York Region, a sprawling set of suburbs north of Toronto. Every one of them has a story, but few can be as tragic – or as hopeful – as Ben Williamson\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While living at a youth shelter, the future Carleton student maintained grades in the high 90s, sat on the Premier\u2019s Council on Youth Opportunities<\/a>, and served as a policy advisor to his local Member of Provincial Parliament. All the while, Williamson was living with a severe disability that confines him to a wheelchair and limits his ability to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI knew that if I could get past this point in my life,\u201d he says \u201cI describe it as a tornado\u2026I would succeed. I would do well. And I just kept fighting, because to me, there was no other option. There is no other option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Williamson would spend hours calling youth shelters in an effort to find a place to live.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ben Williamson’s Quest for Success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Williamson\u2019s path to Carleton has been anything but typical.  Just a few months ago, he didn\u2019t know when – or even if – he\u2019d finish high school, much less start university. Due to the accommodation requirements for his cerebral palsy, Williamson\u2019s high school recommended he be placed in an intensive program that could provide the support he needs – mainly a scribe to write for him – but the program was designed for students with developmental disabilities. Through it, he was able to take only two courses per semester, and they were not university prep courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williamson was winning awards for academic achievement, but was unable to enrol in academic courses. The school would allow him to leave the intensive program, but he\u2019d also have to leave the support it provides behind. Alternatively, he could stay in the program, but it would take three additional years to complete high school. Even then, the course work would not match his intellectual ability or ambitions. Down the road, the articulate Williamson is eyeing law school and a career in child advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Williamson\u2019s situation was too tenuous to last that long. Living in the shelter, with medical expenses running to hundreds – even thousands – of dollars a month, he just couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School became so stressful, that Ben decided he needed to leave after he completed his co-op placement at the local constituency office of MPP Chris Ballard, most recently Ontario\u2019s Minister of Housing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Ballard\u2019s wing, serendipity took over. He connected Williamson with David Onley. Ontario\u2019s Lieutenant Governor from 2007 – ’14, Onley used his term as the province\u2019s vice regal representative to advocate for Ontarians with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former Lieutenant Governor David Onley played a major role in putting Williamson on the path to Carleton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really didn\u2019t take long to see that this was a very, very smart young man, facing very adverse circumstances,\u201d Onley says. \u201cI immediately thought of Carleton, primarily because of the attendant care program, but also the complete commitment to accessibility it has on so many different levels. It\u2019s a true commitment.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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“I just thought there must be some way to provide some assistance. I didn\u2019t know what it was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A Network of Support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seeking to ascertain if there was a program for someone in Williamson\u2019s situation, Onley reached out to Larry McCloskey, director of Carleton’s Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities<\/a>, which co-ordinates academic accommodations and support services. McCloskey recommended the Enriched Support Program<\/a> (ESP), a bridging program that provides academic support designed to help students transition to university.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe program isn\u2019t set up specifically for students with disabilities,\u201d says Susan Burhoe, its co-ordinator. \u201cIt\u2019s for students with a wide range of personal circumstances that might have interfered with them being as successful in high school or college as they might have been otherwise. We\u2019re set up for the exceptions. We give people a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded in 1996, the ESP keeps with Carleton\u2019s long tradition of being an accessible institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There were people on campus who said we have this tradition of access, and we want to maintain some sort of commitment to that,” said Burhoe, who started a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> to help cover Williamson’s expenses. “So they started this program as a way to do that, but maybe in a bit more of a responsible way.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“We didn\u2019t just say come down, and sink or swim. We said come, and we\u2019ll give you some support in navigating this new system.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Students accepted into ESP enrol in three courses, and two non-credit seminars. If they maintain a minimum GPA, they automatically earn admission. The lighter course load helps ease students\u2019 transition to the new set of expectations that come with university and, for a student like Williamson, it provides a chance to continue his studies that otherwise wouldn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCarleton is the doorway to the rest of my life,\u201d he says. \u201cWhere it will take me\u2026I don\u2019t know. I used to think I had a plan. I had a five-year plan in my head. I\u2019m going to finish high school, and then I\u2019m going to go to university. I\u2019ve kind of stopped making plans, because I feel like they\u2019re going to change, but in a good way. I had always envisioned applying to Carleton one day\u2026but then David Onley and Susan Burhoe came into the picture and they completely changed that. They are the reasons that I\u2019m going to university. I owe them everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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On any given night, more than a thousand people stay in homeless shelters in York Region, a sprawling set of suburbs north of Toronto. Every one of them has a story, but few can be as tragic – or as hopeful – as Ben Williamson\u2019s. While living at a youth shelter, the future Carleton student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1930],"class_list":["post-7047","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97994,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7047\/revisions\/97994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}