By Eoin Ee, Tan Su Vien, Cheryl Julia Lee and Liew Hanqing

THERE is always hope. That is the message from Swiss Cottage Secondary School's former "teen terror", Benjamin Chee Zhi Xian, 16.

"I want to tell teenagers on the wrong path now; as long as you are willing to change, people will give you the chance," he said.

Yesterday, Benjamin (above,left) was named the top student for the Normal (Technical) stream in the school, scoring five distinctions and one B and achieving an aggregate grade of three points.

A far cry from what he used to be. His first year at the school was tainted with records of bad behaviour and acts of vandalism.

"The first year was very bad. It got to a point where we had to send his grandmother and the maid down to pick him up after school, so he wouldn't loiter around," said his mother, Madam Janice Kam, 45, a Human Resources executive.

All that changed one day in 2006.

"I changed because of the chances both my parents and the teachers gave me," he said.

He is particularly grateful to his form teacher, MrShashidaran Kaneson (above right), 33, who made him the class monitor and allowed him to take on responsibility.

This article was first published in The New Paper on 19 Dec 2008.