Alumnus helps education reach soaring heights

By Mike Boone, The Gazette

Not many Beach Boys hits spring to mind when it's snowing in late April, but Be True to Your School was playing on the jukebox in my head during a conversation with Arvind Ramanathan.

The 32-year-old Montrealer is the managing director of Vigilant Futures, a five-year-old company that does research and development to create software for the financial industry. Ramanathan is an alumnus of LaSalle Catholic High School, which has become LaSalle Community Comprehensive.

Last autumn, I met Paul Wasacz, who teaches at LaSalle Comprehensive. He was trying to raise $45,000 for an ambitious educational project: Wasacz wanted to take a group of Secondary IV students to Ecuador, where they would work as volunteers on a construction project in a disadvantaged community.

This was no class trip to Upper Canada Village. Raising enough money to elevate social consciousness in the high Andes was a steep hill to climb for a public high school in a lower-middle/working-class community.

Wasacz pulled it off. And Ramanathan did much to help.

On a Friday in early March, Vigilant Futures rented the Imax theatre at the Scotia Bank complex for a 3-D screening of Alice in Wonderland. Tickets cost $20, the event sold out and proceeds for the LCCHS Ecuador Experience were a cool $4,500.

Ramanathan went to LaSalle Catholic from 1990 to '94. One of his teachers was Paul Wasacz's father.

"I had a great time in high school," Ramanathan says, differentiating himself from what he estimates are the 50 per cent of enrolment for whom secondary education is unrelenting misery.

"I wasn't one of the cool kids," Ramanathan admits. "I didn't play football or sleep with all the cheerleaders.

"But I went on all the trips: Washington, New York, all the ski trips, a trip to Europe. The teachers were excellent, and it was a great experience for me."

Ramanathan is never far from the source of those warm memories. He still lives in LaSalle and helps out at the school.

Ramanathan keeps in touch with his former teachers. At Christmas, he volunteers to drive LaSalle Comprehensive students around to collect non-perishables for the school's food drive.

Vigilant Futures is involved in educational initiatives, including Youth Futures, a non-profit organization set up to combat Quebec's high dropout rate. At Ramanathan's initiative, the company rented the Imax theatre for a matinée screening and the graphics staff designed a cool-looking ticket for the event.

"A lot of the onus was on the kids going on the trip," Ramanathan says. "They had to sell the tickets, and they did a great job."

Ramanathan will be on the guest list for the Ecuador Evening Wasacz is planning. He and the 10 students who made the trip, from March 31 to April 10, want to thank donors.

Students did 19 fundraising projects, including a spare-change drive, several bake sales and pub nights for parents. Wasacz was especially grateful to Central Audio in Ville St. Pierre for ponying up video equipment and to Vigilant Futures for "stepping up to the plate" with the movie screening.

He's hoping for more at-bats next fall and in years to come.

"I think this can be an annual event," Wasacz says, "if we can get the community behind us. Some people didn't think we could raise $10,000 in LaSalle. For fundraising to have done as well as it did, I think more people will get involved."

Original Release:
Montreal Gazette interviews Arvind Ramanathan of Vigilant Futures