In His Own Words: An Interview with This Year’s Ferne Cristall Award Recipient
When Ussama Al Khalid talks about language, he lights up. “It changes everything,” he says. “If you don’t talk, you’re almost like a baby – you can’t really get what you need. But once you start learning, once you try, it’s like doors opening.”
Ussama knows this firsthand. Born in Syria, his early years were marked by upheaval. He and his family spent nine years in Turkey before arriving in Canada. Along the way, he picked up Turkish, and then coming to Canada, built his English from scratch.
Now, as a recent graduate of Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School, he speaks three languages – Arabic, English, still some Turkish and bits of others he’s picked up along the way.
It was not easy. “In the beginning, it was hard to communicate,” he admits. “But I kept trying – asking questions, even when I didn’t fully understand the answers. That’s how you learn. You can’t be too shy. You have to try, even if you make mistakes.”
That resilience and determination helped him achieve a major milestone: graduating from high school after a journey that saw him leave school as a teenager to help support his family.
“In Turkey, I had to work. School felt over for me,” he recalls. “Coming to Canada gave me another chance.”
It’s that same persistence that earned him the Ferne Cristall English Language Learner Award, a scholarship for an English Language Learner graduating from the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. This fund was created by colleagues and community members upon the retirement of Ferne Cristall, a beloved ELL teacher who passed away this year.
Ferne was known for her tireless advocacy – securing program funding, helping students navigate everything from exams to university applications, and supporting families with everything from translators to community events. Her classroom was more than a place to learn English; it was a refuge, and a place to belong.
Ussama didn’t know much about the award when he first received it. “At first, I just thought, anyone can get this,” he says. “But then someone told me about Ferne, about her story, how she helped so many people. I felt proud. I understood the meaning – this scholarship keeps her name alive. It keeps her story alive.”
Being the first recipient since Ferne’s passing adds an extra layer of significance. “It feels like an honour,” Ussama says, “It makes me want to keep working hard. It’s like I’m carrying her story forward.”
Ussama has big plans for the future. He is exploring healthcare programs, with hopes of becoming a paramedic, work that reflects his instinct to help others. “There were times in my life when I did not get enough help,” he says. “Now I want to be someone who gives that help to people who really need it.”
When asked what advice he would give other new English learners, he does not hesitate: “Don’t be too shy. You’ll make mistakes – everyone does. But you have to talk. That’s how you learn. Step by step, it gets easier.”
For Ussama, language isn’t just words. It is possibility. It is connection. It is being able to tell your story and learn others. And with this award, it is also Ferne’s story – one that Ussama is proud to carry forward.
Visit this page to learn more about the Ferne Cristall English Language Learner Fund hosted at the Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough.