Campus

Sunday April 16th, 2017 marks 10 years since the Virginia Tech massacre when 32 lives were brutally lost. In part 1 of a special two-part story, survivors of the Virginia Tech shootings bravely recount the emotional and disturbing events of the fateful day that transformed their lives forever.

After robbing a store to feed his crack cocaine addiction, Jesse Thistle gets thrown in jail. While locked up, Jesse reflected on his life and oddly enough, he thought about education. He wanted to do better for himself, so he started by picking up a few books. Slowly he began to turn his addiction to crack to an addiction to higher learning.

How an Indigenous homeless crack addict turned his life around to becoming one of the most decorated PhD students in Canada. In part 1 of a special two-part story, Jesse Thistle details his upbringing in a broken family, a heavy addiction to crack cocaine, and a decade living on the streets.

After years of suffering with Crohn's disease, Brittany Ferreira was forced to have her colon removed. At just 23, she wore an ostomy bag. Now, she's dealing with mounting insecurity about her body, as she figures out how to embrace it.

Roddy-James Rodriguez is just one of the hundreds of students on campus, who give up on life each year, and attempt suicide. The mental health crisis isn't new, and it isn't going away. And while schools are scrambling to beef up their support staff and resources, the reality is, the system is failing students. Roddy's struggle with depression is rooted in years of neglect, abandonment, and self-hate. Throughout his entire life, he was failed by pretty much everyone -- his schools, his community, and even his own family.