On Thursday, October 21, juniors and seniors were privileged to receive some meaningful advice regarding life after high school and convey a strong message of perseverance.  

Mount Carmel students were lucky to be able to interact with former New Orleans Saints player, successful businessman, and 2008 Mt. Carmel graduate, Glenn Foster. 

In addition to being in the NFL for two years, Foster owns several different businesses but is most prominently known for owning SLAG Tile & Countertops.

Living on the South Side of Chicago throughout his entire childhood, Foster gave students some insight into some of the obstacles he faced to get to the point he is right now. He described how it was coming into Mount Carmel being super skinny and not really knowing what to do outside of school in terms of activities. But he found an interest in football, so he tried out alongside about two hundred other people. He recalls being one of twenty out of those two hundred kids who were cut. 

So he decided to persevere, start working in the weight room, and try to gain weight. Eventually, he became a varsity starter his senior year and was described as a monster on the field by his fellow teammates and coaches. 

Foster also recalled getting into an altercation with a 9-year-old boy who was gang-affiliated. After the altercation, he went home and a couple of hours later that same boy came to his house with five other gang members. Foster was lucky enough to actually know one of them. He described experiences like those as eye-opening and life-changing. 

Later on, after he got a scholarship to play football at The University of Illinois. “I was a junior in college, I was on top of the world,” as he described it. But then he received some major news that his girlfriend, at the time who had trouble finding a job because she didn’t have citizenship, was pregnant. That set a major roadblock in his life. On top of that, he had to be suspended from the football team after getting a DUI, and he described his life as a mess. 

Persevering through all of those obstacles only made him stronger. That was the main message and theme he was trying to convey during his time talking to the students, a message of perseverance and self-betterment. 

“One of the best ways to better yourself and better your attitude is to remove yourself from toxic subculture,” Foster said. 

He feels this way because if you grow up in a bad environment, around bad influences, that’s all you are going to know. He said oftentimes teenagers and even adults make bad decisions and are overall toxic people because “that’s all those people know.”

Foster feels that everybody is going to have obstacles in the way of their goals, but it’s about how you respond to those problems. 

His final message to MC students was  “No matter how many times you get knocked down, whatever obstacle life puts in your way, and whatever choices you make, good or bad, you have to accept it, learn from it; and move on.”