FREEPORT, Illinois, October 4, 2017 (Newswire.com) - Emmanuel Ventouris is a man of high achievements. After finishing the high school with a 4.0 GPA, he received a scholarship at Columbia University and graduated with high honors.
"I was always motivated. Growing up with no father figure around, I had to become the man of the house. I had three older sisters and a mother, meaning that I am the youngest in my family. My mother tried her best to give us a meal every day and a birthday present every year until she got sick with lung cancer. For someone that didn't smoke a single cigarette in her whole life, that was a big shock. To know that you can get such a monstrous disease even if you live a normal healthy life is crushing. I was 14 at the time. I grew up in a poor area of Brooklyn, and it wasn't always easy.
I spend most of my day, teaching lessons about life to the kids that come from families with dysfunctions. The reason? I don't want to watch another young teenager go through the same hard times that I had to deal with. In life, you either have to suffer a strong trauma to change, or you need a good education, and when I'm talking about education, I don't mean the school matter. Our education system is failing, and I have to change that. Kids from all over New York come here to my class.
Emmanuel Ventouris
"I could get into a gang and sell drugs to make a living for my mom and my sisters, but I chose to live a different path. At that time, my mother couldn't take care of us as she used to. Everything became a struggle; there were days when my sisters had to ask on the streets for food. We started to live with food stamps and the generosity of people only. It didn't take too much until our beloved mother died, I was only 15 at the time."
We started to feel sorry for Mr. Emmanuel, as he told us his story, and he immediately sensed it: "Don't try to feel sorry for me. Although I miss my mom so much, the fact that she had to die was a life changer for me. I strongly believe that in order for us to change, we must suffer a lot. That was the moment when I took the faith in my hands and ran as fast as I could to succeed. I started a job at my school as a coaching assistant and a part-time job at a local restaurant. During the day I was at school, studying and doing my work as a coaching assistant. From 5 p.m. to 3 p.m. I was a waiter.
I couldn't stop my studies, so I took my textbooks to the restaurants and did my homework there. When I came home in the morning, I had exactly three hours to sleep. I had to change my daily regime so much that I couldn't feel tired anymore during the day."
With all of these hard times, Emmanuel Ventouris knew that he had to provide and care for his sisters because he considered himself the head of the family. Not too long ago, Mr. Emmanuel Ventouris started a fund campaign for a noble cause: Giving better education to the youngsters from affected families.
"I spend most of my day, teaching lessons about life to the kids that come from families with dysfunctions. The reason? I don't want to watch another young teenager go through the same hard times that I had to deal with. In life, you either have to suffer a strong trauma to change, or you need a good education, and when I'm talking about education, I don't mean the school matter. Our education system is failing, and I have to change that. Kids from all over New York come here to my class."
I had young boys, who committed serious crimes, cry in front of me when I talked to them. It's like no one else tried to understand them. I think that our young generation needs to be educated, not blamed. The ones who are to be blamed are us, the older ones. The kids happen to be aggressive, depressed, and anxious only because of the medium in which they grew up in."
We wish nothing but the best to Mr. Emmanuel Ventouris and his desire to make the young generation better.
Source: Web Presence, LLC
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