Unless you’re on the Olympic podium, being in the middle never means top billing. It often signifies not being very interesting (think middle of the road), not having much autonomy (being stuck in the middle), or not being noticed (think Jan Brady). And then there’s Middle School. Nothing represents the agony of all the world’s “middleness” quite as much as being in Grades 7 and 8. Physically, intellectually, socially, hormonally at no point are we stuck in limbo more than we are in those crucial, sometimes painful years between childhood and adolescence.

At least that’s how it’s always been in the past.

When I first speak with Winnie Hunsburger, she immediately dismisses my naïve notion that Middle School is like being in suspended animation between childhood and adolescence. Middle School at BSS is not, she insists, merely a cocoon that links the Junior School (where students spend their childhood) and Senior School (which they leave as adults).

Dr. Hunsburger, the Middle School’s Team Leader for Research Inquiry, took everything that I thought I knew about Middle School and flipped it on its ear. In a manner of speaking, I got “middle schooled”.

“One of the most important things with this age group is that it’s a period of change at all levels as dramatic as a child undergoes from birth to age three,” she tells me. “Our role as educators” she says, “is about providing what’s best for the students at this stage of life.”

After only a few minutes, some things become clear. First, that Dr. Hunsburger sees this period as one of exciting growth instead of something that just needs to be endured; second; that BSS has designed some exciting and innovative curriculum that sets the Middle School apart; and third, that and bear with me if your memories of Middle School, like mine, are less than rosy the BSS school program sounds like a lot of fun.

For whatever may still haunt you from Grade 7 the awkwardness, the acne, the lack of social grace it’s clear that Dr. Hunsburger sees this as an exciting time of growth: not a period of waiting out puberty, but an opportunity for girls to shine.

“This is when the girls start to wonder, ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where am I headed?’” Dr. Hunsburger explains. “They are examining and exploring their own identity. Their frontal lobes which are involved in decision making become really active”

Dr. Hunsburger sees that activity as being essential to everything in school life. And that means making students much more active in the classroom. “In Grade 6, students are still generally OK with people making decisions for them, but part of our role as educators is empowering them to start making decisions for themselves.”

It’s something that Dr. Hunsburger calls “bounded freedom”: providing them with an environment where they can practice making decisions and allowing them to make mistakes all in a safe space.

It’s like when babies learn to walk, she tells me. “You wouldn’t tell a toddler ‘you’re not ready to walk yet, so you’d better stay right where you are.’ No, instead you get stuff out of the way. In the same way, kids need to pursue their own answers.”

So how does this philosophy take shape at BSS? Girls in Middle School get to explore their own curiosity in programs focused on investigative research, which get them engaged in researching and exploring issues that are meaningful to them.

“Sometimes these lines of inquiry are provoked by the teachers, but they are defined by the students by what’s important to them,” Dr. Hunsburger says. While research in the Junior School is closely tied to curriculum, in Middle School the students themselves define the topic and scope, with the teachers helping guide the students in their work.

These projects can draw forward from any subject, and often have implications that stretch across the entire curriculum. So when the Grade 7 students start with the question “What is number?” it’s guaranteed that the answers aren’t all in math class. Instead, it will take them to social studies what numbers mean to society and beyond.

It’s an approach that Helen Raso, Lead Teacher for Curriculum Development for the Senior School echos. Ms. Raso says that the approach has meant that the students hit the Senior School ground running. “Many teachers have spoken about the fact that girls currently in Grades 9 and 10 are more open to investigative work and working independently than they were in previous years” she says.

And it goes far beyond the actual projects, Ms. Raso says. The Middle School teachers are also excellent at collaborating, something she says means that the students are totally supported through their  independent work. The teachers meet regularly, and know all the students well, so they know where every student needs help. A good word for a good Middle School educator is ‘catalyst’. They key is to spark something; ask provocative questions.

The questions are just the beginning.” So instead of being focused only on coming up with the answer, the students discover all the ways in which these questions can be asked and answered. The teachers help refine their questions, and direct their research. But where that research takes them? The students decide.

“It’s not just about covering curriculum, it’s about bringing the curriculum to life. We are trying to shift traditional paradigms. It‘s so powerful” Ms. Raso says.

That paradigm shift is not just academic to Ms. Raso. “When I was a student, I never felt that I was part of the decisions that were made in school. I never felt that my own ideas were validated. I quickly learned that if I learned to spew back what the teacher said to be in the same way it was said, that was the key to success,” she says. “Now, that way of thinking has changed completely. It’s now about respecting kids as thinkers and contributors.”

Dr. Hunsburger echoes this passion as fundamental to her approach. “It’s been a major change, moving away from the understanding that education is about transmitting information into the student’s brains. It’s much more about helping the student construct her own understanding.” It’s challenging, they both admit, but then so is the paradox: how something can be in the middle and at the top at the same time?

Contributors: Chris Atkinson (English) · Warren Crawford (French) · Sarah Crump (Science) Janice Foster (Middle School Coordinator) · Jean Humphries (Social Science) · Carly Ziniuk (Math)

What is BSS’s approach to middle years schooling and how does that approach relate to teaching girls? Warren Crawford: To answer the first part of the question, I would suggest the words ‘room to grow’. Middle School is a time of significant change, from elementary to secondary and from child to early adolescent. By offering a diverse program of investigative, project based curricula, the Middle School taps into a girl’s inherent curiosity and helps her to find a variety of ways to understand herself, her peers, the School community and the communities she inhabits. Janice Foster: We believe in offering a safe environment so the girls will take risks in their learning and encourage them to become life long learners. Working with a variety of pedagogies, such as inquiry, problem based learning and project based learning allows the girls to discover the type of learner they are and what works best for them. This approach to learning works well for girls, as they need to feel safe. Girls also like to know where everything fits into their own lives and the real world approach in projects and inquiry allow girls to relate what they do in the classrooms to their actual lives.

How does the Middle School program connect to our overall philosophy at BSS?

Chris Atkinson: The Middle School program bridges the gap between the Reggio inspired program of the Junior School and the more subject specific demands of the Senior School. We work with students to provide them with the skills and aptitudes necessary to become creative, broadly skilled, and motivated individuals prepared for whatever challenges they face in their futures. Our approach is attuned to the particular needs of this age group as they explore a multitude of new questions, some educational, some social, and begin to more fully uncover who they are as individuals and their place in society.

Why do girls this age need a program specially designed for them?

Jean Humphries: More than anything, they need teachers who understand the competing forces in their lives, and who are empathetic when the balancing act doesn’t always work the way we (or they) would like it to. They need a program that gives them both the room to shine as they become passionately engaged in a subject, and the leeway to fail, bounce back and start again.

Warren Crawford: Girls can benefit from a program tailored to their particular social emotional needs. While it would be unfair to state the program design will compass every girl in every situation, there is an essential sense of connectedness between heart and mind to which they have a natural affinity. Ensuring the development of confidence in their ‘voice’ is an equally essential benefit of a single sex, girls’ environment.

How does it prepare them for the challenges of Senior School?

Carly Ziniuk: Having a tight group of teachers gives them the security of relationships they need at this age, and in many ways having a larger group of teachers and having a bit more distance from those teachers is one of the bigger challenges. On the other hand, they find more confidence in themselves individually and collectively and in their own learning by the end of Grade 8. I think in some ways the Senior School has changed with the Middle School students arriving there, as much as the Middle School students change as they move to the Senior School. The amount of homework and laptop opportunities increase as Grade 8 progresses both of those are intentional on our part to prepare them for the experiences they are going have in the Senior School.

Give us an example of how the investigative research model benefits Middle School girls?

Chris Atkinson: Students are provided with the opportunity to explore questions in a deep, cross curricular manner while developing strong research and representational skills. While engaging in this project style learning, they practice two very important skills that will serve them throughout life: the ability to ask and refine good questions and the strength of mind and determination to see a project through to a successful end. Students at this age and stage often grapple with an inability to communicate the depth of understanding that I believe they experience. Through our investigation of literature, they can often find ways to understand and give a

They need a program that gives them both the room to shine as they become passionately engaged in a subject, and the leeway to fail, bounce back and start again voice to these more profound and important aspects of themselves. As we investigated the world created by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass my students were able to observe and empathize with Alice in many ways. Through investigating the history of the story, and looking further into the ideas presented, students began to understand the story as much more than ‘a children’s book’. As the complexity of their understanding grew, so did their ability to identify with Alice’s thoughts and emotions, and determine a new understanding of their own strengths as a person. It is through investigating what makes a book ‘tick’ like the Mad Hatter’s watch that they can see how literature can make more of the world open up to them. In turn, these investigations can allow them to open a greater part of themselves up to the world.

Sarah Crump: Junior School students arrive in the Middle School ready and excited to learn. They have energy and they want to take part in all aspects of learning. They excel and develop deeper levels of understanding because they are given the chance to think about their current understanding of concepts and build on this through practical hands on experiences, real life examples, group discussions, and research. The great part of investigative research is that students are not fed facts, concepts and theories from teachers and textbooks; they are forced to uncover these truths for themselves. When studying the particle theory, we looked at the difference between a solid, a liquid and a gas and the students were asked to prove that they were all matter based upon a single definition: doing this in an investigative manner, students observed several interactions: dissolving drink crystals in hot and cold water to see how this causes a different outcome, investigating how 50mL of water and 50mL of sugar mixed together are not equal to 100mL of water, compressing a liquid and a gas in a syringe. Their real learning came from putting all of their observations together, as a group, and being challenged to come up with their own particle theory. When tested against the particle theory that is generally accepted in science, their theories came out as very accurate. It is through this process that we can see a student’s true understanding. The best part is that we are not just learning facts from a textbook or accepting the theories of others, but having real, observational experience of what they understand and can now use to think about and describe the world around them. It helps them make sense of the gap between the ideas that they hold, and those being investigated in science.

What are the challenges of being a Middle School student?

Sarah Crump: There are many challenges to being a Middle School student, including, but not limited to; new teachers, new location, more teachers, more subjects, unique timetables, joining the Senior School, using lockers, using Dudley locks, more independence, freedom to purchase snacks at rec time, freedom to purchase and eat lunch in different locations, meeting new people, making new friends. The exciting part is that many, if not all of the Grade 7s, look forward to and thrive with these new challenges.

Janice Foster: Friends and fitting in. At this age, girls, especially, are concerned about the social aspects of life. We offer a variety of activities and classes to help the girls. Our new Healthy Girls program gives the girls a place to feel comfortable chatting with their peers about issues from wellness to relationships.

Jean Humphries: Learning to use and balance the hot headed social aspects of adolescent life and the cool headed skills of critical thought at the same time.

Carly Ziniuk: The hardest part of being a Middle School student is discriminating between all the amazing wonders the universe holds and which one they should attend to at any moment.

This is wonderful because they bring so many new perspectives to their learning, but it can be a challenge to try to figure out how to move from the latest Glee episode to finding the slope between two points on a graph.

What is the single most important lesson you want your Middle School students to learn?

Chris Atkinson: The lesson of understanding themselves as a learner with gifts, aptitudes, skills, and interests that they may not yet be aware of as they enter their teen years. Along with these wonderful realizations often come personal challenges for students. As their teachers, we provide support for the individual and group to overcome these. At this age, the support comes in many forms: from patience and understanding to a kind and gentle push in one direction or another and must be done judiciously, in an individualized manner, and with a healthy dose of wit and wisdom. They will also learn more about the types of working and thinking that will aid them in becoming successful as they move forward in school and life.

Warren Crawford: The key lesson is to develop a patient awareness of themselves as growing individuals. That it is okay to pause and reflect on the many questions that they face. That there is a time for ‘why’ and a time for ‘why not’. That they can learn how to frame responses to their world that connect them to others. This may sound like multiple lessons, but they are all related.

Carly Ziniuk: Their classmates have really interesting things to teach them. The other part of this, which follows, of course, is that each girl has something to share with her classmates, too. Being willing to share your ideas and build up learning with each other is key to how we learn and discover concepts in the Middle School Math program.

Jean Humphries: You need to celebrate your strengths, not apologize for your weaknesses.

Janice Foster: We want Middle School girls to learn to take risks and think for themselves.

Sarah Crump: That learning is exciting. Knowledge is power. Ask questions. Try, guess, hypothesize, and develop theories. Learning is a process.

Describe a Middle School student in one word.

Chris Atkinson: Spirited. Warren Crawford: Dynamic. Janice Foster: Exhilarating or inquisitive. Wait,that’s two words. Carly Ziniuk: Questions! Jean Humphries: Perky! Sarah Crump: Can’t do it in one word!

Class News

Christina SORBARA ’97 married Kerry Weiland on January 14, 2011, in Toronto, in the presence of family and friends. With open hearts and delicious food, the beautiful brides promised their love and commitment to each other. Contact Christina at csorbara@sorbaragroup.com.

Heather LOGAN Sprenger ’01 married Jon Sprenger on August 2, 2009, in Belleville, ontario.

Francesca PALOZZI Slocombe ’96 and Elliott Slocombe were married at BSS on June 12, 2010.

BSS old Girls (l to R): Jessica MAILLOUX Kelly ’97, Jessica LOMAS Morgan ’96, Katie HILBORN Avery ’96, Catherine FARQUHARSON ’96, Francesca PALOZZI Slocombe ’96, Claire PLAXTON ’96, Cristin PENNACHETTI Lazier ’96, and Hilary DOYLE ’96.

Francesca with her two sisters, Angelique PALOZZI Kelley ’91 and Paola PALOZZI Fuller- ton ’88 (with Bishop Tottenham’s portrait in the background!).

Pamela RITCHIE Levitt ’92 married Howard levitt on May 29, 2010. She has been working as an Anchor and Reporter at BNN Business News Network since october 2009. She and her husband are expecting their first baby in March 2011. In the photo are old Girls Shoshannah COULSON Sutherland ’92, Pamela RITCHIE Levitt ’92 and Samantha HAYWOOD ’92.

Sydney SKELTON Simon ’03 was married on May 30, 2010, to Ben Simon, who she started dating within days of arriving on campus at Yale during her freshman year. Her closest BSS friends, Julia CAMERON ’03, Shraddha KOTHARI ’02 and Leen AL ZAIBAK ’03, were in attendance, and her sister, Maggie SKELTON ’08, was her maid of honour. Sydney and her husband tied the knot in Toronto, but currently live in Washington, DC. Sydney works as a curatorial assistant in modern and contemporary art at the National Gallery of Art, and would be happy to give tours to any visiting BSS old Girls.

Andrea TSAI Barker ’02 and Daniel peter Davidge Barker were married in a private civil ceremony on June 5, 2010, at BSS in advance of their provence wedding in September. The intimate event, conducted by Reverend Gibbs, was shared only with their parents. on September 4, 2010, they celebrated their main wedding with 30 of their dearest friends and family at a French farm house surrounded by vineyards near Ménerbes, France. Afterwards, they spent a blissful week honeymooning along the beautiful Cote d’Azur in the South of France. Andrea and Daniel have been residing in Bermuda for the past four years.

Susan McNAIR ’02 and Ananda Ghosh were married on May 22, 2010. They began their day with an Anglican ceremony in the BSS Chapel and then proceeded to a Hindu ceremony and a dinner reception at The Royal York Hotel. Giselle GOS ’01 and Ava LEUNG ’02 were in the wedding party, and Diane AHN ’01, Chloe BROWN ’03, Elizabeth FINNERON-BURNS ‘02, Gesseca GOS ’01 and Jessica MOSS ’02 were in attendance.

Julie KARN Kelk ’96 and Greg Kelk are thrilled to announce the birth of their son, Thomas William, on April 23, 2010. Thomas is the first grandchild of Janet HOWELL Karn ’66.

To Alice PARKES ’94 and husband Christian piteau, a daughter, Annabelle Rose, born at 9:15 am, May 17, 2010, in Montreal, weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces. She is a sister for Chloe Anne. proud grandmother is Joan DIXON Parkes ’59 and excited aunt is Joanna PARKES Senior ’98.

Katherine WASSERMAN ’92 and Shawn Nodder are thrilled to announce the birth of their second daughter, Victoria Darcy Nodder, on october 1, 2010. proud big sister is Alexandra Rose Nodder.

“Every minute, you’re surrounded by people from around the world”

by Megan Griffith-Greene

We wanted to see what Middle School is like from the students’ perspectives so we caught up with three girls to help paint a picture of life in the middle of BSS and what comes next.

GRADE 7: Starting out Strong

Kitty Yin may be new to BSS this is her first year at the School but she’s got a lot to compare it to. In fact, you’d have to call Kitty something of a school expert: her family has travelled around a lot and BSS is her ninth school. Actually, it’s more than just a school, it’s her home: the studious 12 year old is one of BSS’s boarders, alongside about 80 other students from around the world.

So what about the Middle School program stands out to the seasoned student? “I really like how at BSS there is a lot of opportunity to try new things.” (So far, the highlights have included cross country skiing and swimming.) And it’s not just that she has the chance to try something once. Kitty feels that her diverse interests are encouraged and nurtured. “I love to draw I’m quite involved in art, but I also love to read and do math. And I like that I don’t have to choose between all the things I enjoy.” Grade 7 has been keeping her busy, but she’s quite clearly engaged by it too. She talks gleefully about the books she’s reading for English (“I find them very deep and inspiring,” she says), her projects about 3D design technology and the nature of structures, and learning about international migration and settlement in social studies. And settlement is a subject she knows something about. Born in China, Kitty moved with her family to PEI when she was 8 and now boards with other worldly girls from Japan, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Russia, Mexico and elsewhere. She loves boarding. “Every minute, you’re surrounded by people from around the world,” she says. She’s also fond of another boarder: a friendly cat called Pebbles.

Appropriate for a girl named Kitty who’s a little in love with a cat, she’s planning on becoming a vet.

“I have developed really good time management skills”

GRADE 8: Solidifying the foundation Lauren Adolphe started at BSS in Junior Kindergarten a decade ago. Now in Grade 8, Lauren is a girl of many passions. She loves math, plays a mean game of badminton and is an internationally competitive Irish Dancer.

She has an uncommon ability to articulate the exact nature of her interests. Math, which she’s quite passionate about, appeals to her not only for its practicality, but also because she enjoys the class discussions about different ways of finding solutions to problems. She really enjoys how the Middle and Senior Schools work together on house events because she finds it very rewarding to interact with girls in different age groups. She’s looking forward to Senior School because she’s eager for more leadership opportunities and a greater course selection.

She’s actually already decided which courses she wants to take next year. Among them is Latin, because it will help her move toward becoming either a doctor or lawyer. She’s having difficulty deciding, she tells me. Medicine appeals to her because she finds science fascinating; her inspiration for the law is an aunt, who she looks up to as a role model.

And she’s not afraid of balancing her dance training with the demands of Senior School next year. “I have developed really good time management skills,” she says, sounding much older than her 13 years. With 10 local competitions and international events that have taken her to Nashville, Ottawa and Disneyworld, Irish dance certainly keeps her feet busy, but she’s not letting that slow down her school plans.

“The athletic program is amazing. We have a rock climbing wall at School. You go to birthday parties for that, and we do it in School!”

GRADE 9: the next Step

Simone Marsden started BSS in Grade 7, and she hit the ground running, getting active in academics, volunteering and athletics. Despite the fact that many of her new classmates had known each other for years, Simone says she felt at home at BSS right away. Part of the reason? Middle School teachers are really connected to the students, she says. “They really care about what you’re thinking, and we got a lot of one on one time with them.” So even though she found the coursework challenging “BSS operates at a much higher level academically than other schools,” she says, it wasn’t long before she felt completely absorbed in her classes.

Another reason why the transition was easy: “We have a lot of fun,” she says. “The athletic program is amazing. We have a rock climbing wall at School. You go to birthday parties for that, and we do it in School!”

But to hear Simone talk about her experience in both Middle School and Senior School, it’s clear that the environment at BSS has really allowed her to thrive. She’s curious, confident and has an incredible range of interest, which she’s been able to cultivate. So instead of starting Senior School by feeling intimidated or afraid, she’s excited. Here’s a shortlist of what Simone is excited about: making it to the OSSA swimming competition, getting further into biology and chemistry, and participating in interdisciplinary performance arts, because she really loves to dance.

She can already see how the threads of her interests are coming together. In Grade 8, she was encouraged to choose a topic for investigative research class that she really connected with. She chose to combine her interest in environmentalism, science, animals and social issues and did a presentation about whale hunting. She examined the issue in different cultures, looked at how governments reacted to it, and researched the ecological effects. “I’ve always been an environmental person,” she says, “But it really opened my eyes.” She hopes to pursue her love for animals and interest in science as a veterinarian.

And while she’s busy looking forward, she’s also spending a lot of time helping the girls behind her. She’s reading to girls in the Junior School twice a week, and really enjoys tutoring and mentoring the younger girls. It’s all part of giving back to the community that she feels so connected to.

“You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.”John Ciardi.

I remember tuning in to see what shenanigans Spike, Joey and Caitlin were up to on the painfully amateurish, but somehow compelling television show, Degrassi Junior High. What was it about those awkward kids that had adults as fascinated as the target audience?

I suppose we could all relate because everyone was 13 years old once and it was probably horrible. These are among the most difficult ages where kids are neither here nor there.

For years, educators have been grappling with this age group. Junior high schools that largely mirror high school, middle schools that usually co-exist within either a junior or senior school environment, or some blend of the two, have been evolving to find the right way to keep these children focused and help them navigate the confusing and often difficult emotional and physical changes they’re going through. Usually encompassing grades 6 to 8, whatever approach educators take, there is nothing straightforward about this age group or their learning needs.

The Link caught up with Assistant Head of the Senior School, Dr. Angela Terpstra, to get her expert take on the middle school challenge and what BSS is doing in its approach.

TL: What was BSS’s history with Middle School did we ever really have one before or did we just play around the edges?

AT: In the past, BSS approached the Middle School as being good prep for a strong Senior School. We emulated the Senior School approach and thought, as did most at the time, that it was a great way to get these young minds on the path to academic success. ‘Give them more, sooner’ was the philosophy.

Since the early 1990s, developmental psychology and cognitive science research caused everyone to rethink that approach. It became clear, as if it hadn’t been already, that the mind and body of a 12 year old are very different from those of a 16 year old just as vast a difference in fact, as say, that of a two year old to a five year old. But it’s taken a long time to respond to this reality, particularly in schools that were seen to be university prep after all, what can be better prep for higher ed than something that looks like higher ed for young people?

We needed to reexamine how we were working with our young adolescents, so in 2009/10, we began with a pilot program where these girls were given a different approach to their studies in accordance of our own learning, and that pilot set in motion much more research and a new program design which has continued to evolve ever since.

TL: Middle School seems all the rage these days with some saying it’s the answer for this age group and others questioning its value. Why do you think it is so important?

AT: This is a very painful time for kids, with lots of change physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and socially. A time of chaos when they are trying on a variety of identities and not quite sure which fits.

They’re not kids anymore, but not yet full blown teenagers. Many schools want to control kids of this age, avoid the messiness of their groping toward adulthood, regiment their behavior and, to quote educator and author Nancie Atwell, “avoid any acknowledgement that the students’ needs, tastes, values are, alarmingly, not our own.”

We can’t think that these girls are “less” than older teenagers or just smaller versions of the older girls. They have ideas, capacities and creativity that are particular to their stage of development. We believe that this reality demands an approach that is designed and built for this age group.

TL: How do you carve out a distinct place for these students in a school that was designed for a Junior School and a Senior School? Do these students have a home of their own or do you want them integrating with the Senior School?

AT: We want to carve out a place for them that is distinct academically, socially, and physically, but they also want to be a part of the larger school to be a school within a school. If adolescence is a time for young people to become acclimatized to an adult world, then we can pick and choose how we ease them into that world by including them in appropriate activities with the older girls, but also creating their own activities that allow them to shine in their own way.

We want the best of both worlds. We have also created a distinct timetable (and that was maybe the hardest accomplishment, thanks to Sian Jones, Vice Principal, Academic Program, and her timetabling team!) that allows for discrete classes, and yet gives flexibility to teachers to collapse the times and create longer periods for work. We’ve woven in particular programs that we think are important, for example, Healthy Girls, Robotics STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), lots of physical activity and exposure to the arts.

We’ve created a staffing model where the students are no longer in the hands of nine or 10 teachers, (who would want to have nine or 10 teachers at age 12?). By reducing the number of teachers who operate as a team, they know the girls well and have time to discuss their progress with each other to ensure everyone is getting what they need.

Currently, we have dedicated several classrooms for our Middle School and fortunately, they are smack in the middle of the School.

TL: Would there be any fears that these students could feel intimidated or uncomfortable out of the ‘nest’ of the Junior School where they can be the top dogs?

AT: There is always a fear when approaching something new. We have created safe ways of having the girls begin the transition to the full Senior School experience in a non threatening way. If we give them strategies now to help deal with those changes and build resilience, we are giving them life long skills.

TL: Describe the BSS Middle School program in a nutshell is there a particular pedagogy or philosophy that drives the curriculum? Any difference in how students are measured? Homework? What can I expect when my daughter graduates to Middle School from Junior School and how will that better prepare her for Senior School?

AT: Our Middle school is inquiry driven and girl shaped! I mean that our pedagogy is inquiry and our focus is to make sure that the culture and practices that characterize BSS are focused on giving our girls confidence, autonomy and ability.

We have also chosen to not measure the girls in the same ways as high school. The report cards for Middle School measure in grades, not numbers and there is more anecdotal reporting that paints a clearer picture of how they are as learners. We have taken the focus away from the marks and put it more on the learning. So, for example, instead of having a final assembly where only girls with the highest marks are celebrated, we have “exhibitions of learning” where we celebrate the work of all the girls and put it on display for everyone to see.

TL: What would you say to parents who believe that a certain amount of academic competitiveness or achievement oriented acknowledgement is good for students?

AT: I’d agree. It is good at appropriate times for girls, or anyone, to have achievement rewarded and to be motivated by a certain amount of competitiveness. And these girls will have lots of opportunities to do just that when they’ve built the confidence, the maturity and the resilience to manage competitiveness well, whether they win or lose.

Coming in to the BSS Middle School, you can expect a time of exploration, of taking risks, of feeling safe and believing that the world lies before each girl as a plethora of possibilities.

No Exit’s sparse and somewhat claustrophobic set is essentially bare. As described by the valet, (Jonah Freedman) there is a noticeable absence of any traditional instruments of torture. The lack of mirrors is the first thing Joseph Garcin (Jake Danto-Clancy) and Estelle Rigault (Rachel Stone, Grade 11) observe upon entering the room. Only Inez Serrano (Carolyn Scott, Grade 12) understands that a reflection can be more than skin deep. Without being able to see their superficial selves reflected in a mirror, the three inhabitants are forced to look inside themselves it becomes the worst form of torture imaginable.

Against the sparseness of the stage, the audience cannot help but watch intensely as the characters focus on each other with eyes of indignation, horror, and disbelief. The trio gives beautifully controlled performances, delivering succinct lines, Stone’s intense emotions as a French socialite and Scott’s portrayal of a ruthless lesbian postal worker forming the heart of the play.

The only disappointing moments occur when the characters experience visions from the “outside.” Director Rachel Metalin has the actors stare longingly into the middle distance as they explain their sightings back on Earth, at times causing them to lose their trademark character.

Overall, No Exit is ingenious, ugly and scornful. As each character flings themselves at another in the hopes of redemption, they realize that there is no escape from the acts they have committed. They are damned forever. Hence, Sartre’s underlying message: Man is alone in this world; he is responsible to his own will and decisions. No one can save him from himself.

Nia Silgardo is a Grade 12 student at The Bishop Strachan School and Assistant Editor of Spectrum, the BSS student newspaper. This article was guest edited by Frances St. George Hyslop and Kennedy pope, Grade 12, Editors-in-Chief, Spectrum.

by catherine marostica

Girls at The Bishop Strachan School are faced with an often overwhelming number of choices when it comes to extracurricular activities. One can participate in the folk choir, a mainstage production, intramural sports, or clubs ranging from Fashion and Sewing, to Girls in Science and Fair Trade. For some of our graduates, making the leap from secondary school to university is challenging enough; some opt to focus on their studies alone, leaving extracurricular activities behind. Others, like Nicole KESTERIS ’10, must work hard to find a balance between their athletic and academic commitments. Nicole is a first year Economics student and goalie for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. A demanding school and training schedule notwithstanding, Nicole was named athlete of the week in November 2010 by the Ontario University Athletics (OUA), and made a member of the 2010/11 OUA All Rookie team.

For recent graduates Joanne ARCHIBALD ’10, Alexandra SISAM ’10, Haley HATCHDINEL ’09 and Emma KRAUSE ’08, staying involved in the life of their school is an essential part of their university experience. Joanne and Alexandra joined The Queen’s Bands this past September at Queen’s University. The Queen’s Bands is Canada’s largest and oldest university marching band, performing pre-game and half time shows at all Golden Gael football games. When the Gaels play at home, Joanne, Alexandra and their bandmates (which includes a pipe band, drum corps, brass band, and Highland dancers) march crowds of football fans from the main campus to the football stadium. Former Games Captain Joanne is a flag bearing member of the Colour Guard, which leads the Bands respective units. Alexandra, former Service Learning Prefect, is a member of the Cheerleaders, which requires some serious fitness in addition to being comfortable wearing a short, pleated skirt and sleeveless vest in frigid temperatures. No gleeful ‘cheerios’ here the whole ensemble works together to generate spirit and support of the Golden Alexandra SiSam ’10, Cheerleading at a 2010 Golden Gael football game. Alex is a member of the 2010/11 Queen’s Bands. Photo Courtesy oF JEFF CHAN, © JEFF CHAN 2010

Joannne Archibald ’10, proudly bearing a flag as a member of the Colour Guard in the 2010/11 Queen’s Bands Gaels. Much to the delight of their proud family members, both girls appeared alongside their bandmates in Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade on November 21, 2010. Positions in the Queen’s Band do not come by easily; there is an audition process, and this year over 40 candidates auditioned for two spots on the Colour Guard. When asked why she chose to try out for the Colour Guard, Joanne replied “I joined because my Dad told me to, and because I wanted to get involved,” a true testament to the fact that a parent’s influence can never be diminished. She adds, “It seemed like a lot of fun and it is a lot of fun!”

Haley HATCHDINEL ’09, currently studying Theology at McGill University, also opted to join a club this past September, although the club she joined has far more recent roots than the Queen’s Band. Haley, a self-identified Harry Potter fanatic, joined the McGill quidditch team, now in its third year of existence. For those of you not familiar with J.K. Rowling’s fictional series, quidditch is a sport played by wizards and witches on broomsticks. It was first adapted to ‘muggles’ (non magical people) seven years ago at Middlebury College in New England. More than 200 universities are now affiated with the International Quidditch Association, including McGill University and Emerson College, where Old Girl Emma KRAUSE ’08 majoring in Communication Studies not only plays for her college team, she is the Commissioner of the Emerson College Quidditch Association (ECQ). As Commissioner, Emma helps manage an organization that includes five house league teams, a World Cup team, media and equipment departments, and over 250 members.

What does this mean? It means Haley and Emma run around a soccer pitch on a broomstick, chasing after a ball. While this may sound quaint, rest assured, quidditch for muggles is very much a contact sport. In fact, Haley was called for ‘cobbing’ or excessive elbowing in a recent game and Emma injured her tailbone at the 2009 Quidditch World Cup, by falling on her broom. It happens. Quidditch is a combination of a number of different muggle sports, most closely resembling rugby with basketball thrown in for good measure. It is a demanding game. As Emma points out, “Playing quidditch requires athleticism: running, handeye coordination, the ability to shoot, catch and pass a ball. [An] understanding of field space and ball movement is also most helpful.”

Both Haley and Emma participated in the fourth annual Quidditch World Cup in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, November 13–14, 2010. Yes, you read that correctly: the Quidditch World Cup. With over fortysix teams and seven hundred athletes, the Quidditch World Cup is a legitimate and ever growing sporting event. Although Vermont’s Middlebury College took the Cup, McGill placed a respectable twelfth overall and was the top ranked Canadian school. Emerson College fared even better, making it to the quarter final round, ultimately losing to second place Tufts University. Although Haley and Emma did not play against one another, they have each made significant contributions to ensuring the legitimacy of quidditch as a real sport. “What I love about quidditch is that it melds the fantastical with athletic elements,” says Emma. “Everyone is running around on brooms and there is a person dressed in yellow with a tennis ball in a sock sticking out the back of their pants (the snitch). I love that the sport can both be serious and goofy at the same time. So many sports are about competition and ego and while quidditch does have those elements, it is also self effacing due to its fantastical nature.”

It would seem that girls truly can do anything they set their minds to, including helping to establish a sport previously only seen on the pages of a J.K. Rowling novel. Congratulations to all our Old Girl athletes for the effort they put forth.

This Valentine’s Day the Boarding Council decided to celebrate in a BIG way. on the 14th of February the Student Centre was completely transformed into a chic club lounge. Tall cocktail tables were covered with pink and black tablecloths. There were clear vases filled with a few of a girl’s favourite things: sweetheart candies, cinnamon hearts, and heart shaped chocolates. Ambience was set with the sound of sweet tunes drifting across the softly lit glass dome. The ‘quiet room’ was sectioned off as our club, with golden Christmas lights and neon pink glow sticks. The techno beats began, and the excitement of the night truly started when the beat dropped, and the staff joined in for the fun!Toni Knox, Boarder Captain, Class of 2011 .

Updates from recent Bss boarding grads…

Natalia PANG ’10 is studying at Queen’s University in Kingston, ontario. She writes, “life in university passes by really quickly; two more months and I will be finished first year! I am really enjoying the huge variety of courses available at university. I am taking German, which, to say the least, is challenging! But I found a passion in learning a new language, so I am further pursuing this interest and I will be going on a language trip to Germany this summer. I am really excited… but also nervous! I am looking forward to embarking on a new experience, and embracing the culture there!” See page 23 for moreon Natalie PANG.

Ibiyemi BALOGUN ’10 is studying at the University of Toronto. She writes, “BSS taught me to get involved, and boy am I involved. I’m a member of the Residence group, and I am also a volunteer on the Student Residence Council (SRC). So far, it has been a lot of fun; we get to plan parties, workshops, and events on campus to promote competition between different residences. I do really miss BSS though; I especially miss the fact that boarding was inside the building, because having to walk to classes in the snow is taking a toll on me! I also miss the BSS choir, the Nativity and Festival of Carols.”

Shirley HUANG ’09, former St. Monica’s House Head (2009), writes, “I’m currently studying Medicine at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. After working as a PR intern at Stella McCartney during the summer, I took a leave of absence last semester to intern at Vogue in New York. It was such an amazing experience and something I’ve wanted for so long; but making such a spontaneous decision was really terrifying. Being away from school has definitely made me appreciate the experience a lot more, just as starting at university helped me realize how much I loved BSS boarding.”

Senior BSS Drama and Dance students and UCC actors came out to participate and to have the chance to audition for Jeff’s summer program with open Jar productions after the Master Class was finished. Due to the exceptional nature of this opportunity, invitations were also sent out to old Girls and old Boys who are currently pursuing Theatre as a profession. Six alumni joined the workshop and chose to audition as well.

The BSS Dance Studio came to life as the actors danced, performed, questioned and laughed, benefiting from Jeff’s advice and experience. It was a joyful experience that allowed students to shake off the stressful energy that is normally associated with auditioning and realize that the actor who can own the moment and genuinely commit to every gesture with a true sense of play, is the one who will be memorable in the director’s mind. Jeff’s emphasis was not on perfection or precision, as those qualities develop with rehearsal, but it is the actor who can “raise the stakes” and “take risks” that shows the director that there is potential in what they can do.

It was an honour for the performing Arts Department to host Jeff and we hope that a few of our actors will participate in open Jar’s summer program in New York. The mandate of open Jar is based on the experiment of capturing fleas in a jar with a lid; known as exceptional jumpers, the fleas learn to only jump as high as the lid and even when the lid is eventually removed, they still only jump as high as the lid. Our work and opportunities like this workshop, allow our developing performers to jump and learn as if there were no lid, in hopes that their drive and effort will take them as far as possible.

Brendon Allen, Senior School Drama and Biology Instructor

Deryn lavell, Head of School, was pleased to get together with the Friends of BSS (Hong Kong) at the Kee Club during her visit to Asia last November.

Deryn lavell, Head of School, and husband, Stephen Johnson, were pleased to make a BSS old Girl connection over dinner in Toronto last fall. Stephen’s mother is a second cousin of Elizabeth BELL ’57. Seated (l to R) is Deryn, Marian HAHN Bradshaw ’40 and Grant Brown. Standing (l to R) is Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s brother Peter Bell, and Stephen.

West Coast old Girls Deryn lavell, Head of School, attended a Head’s conference in Victoria, B.C., in october. Although a branch reunion was not held on this visit, she was pleased to meet with a few West Coast alumnae who enjoyed the opportunity to catch up and hear more about BSS. There are 175–200 old Girls living in B.C. today, a number of whom remain well connected with friends from their school days.

Bss teamwork crosses the Atlantic Carol MOOREEDE Clark ’62, Founder of the Cabbagetown Regent park Museum (CRpM) and Cabbagetown press publisher, has seen the museum’s newly published book, Polly of Bridgewater Farm, incorporated in the curriculum of a dozen schools in Northern Ireland, both Catholic and protestant.

The author, and enthusiastic CRpM supporter, Catharine TURNBULL Fleming McKenty ’48, was invited this past october to a conversation with students interested in writing and family history at the brand new Drumragh Integrated College near omagh, County Tyrone. The principal commented, “This appears to be a very special book and the world needs more stories of hope amidst adversity.”

Before she left Ireland, friends celebrated Catharine’s 80th birthday with the première of the new song ‘polly of Bridgewater Farm’. She was later interviewed for an hour by Gerry Cooley on Dublin local radio by an historian who so admired Carol’s production of “polly” that he changed the format of his forthcoming book.

California dreamin’ Old Girls gathered at the Viceroy Hotel Santa Monica in los Angeles, California on March 23, 2011. Back row from left: Alexis KRELSTEIN Fingold ’89, Alexandra BROOME Dwek ’79, Kim Gordon Magee (former Head of School), liz Woolley (faculty). Front row from left: Margot ANDREW ’79, Sabreena PETERS ’02, Jill BLAKEY ’02, Deryn lavell (Head of School), Kelly GORDON ’03, Becky HUTNER ’99, pinky McAllister (faculty), Natalie LEGGETT ’85.

Lisa WILLMOT Hockin ’89 hosted an old Girl event in San Francisco, California, on March 24, 2011. From left: pinky McAllister (faculty), phillip Norris, Lisa WILLMOT Hockin ’89, John Hockin, Deryn lavell (Head of School), Alex BURGESS Norris ’89, liz Woolley (faculty), Valerie STEEL Orick ’93, Emma COX ’03, Tom lowden, Jill BLAKEY ’02.

Bss students learn about commerce in Asia. Following a tour of HSBC, arranged by Leslie STEPHENSON ’85, The Friends of BSS in Hong Kong were delighted to host BSS students and teachers at ICS Trust ltd, in the offices of Elizabeth THOMSON ’67. old Girls Beatrice LEE ’03 and Mary CHIU ’99 spoke to students about their experiences working in Hong Kong; Beatrice is an International Marketing Manager at a local design company, G.o.D. (Goods of Desire), and Mary works in the investment banking industry for Morgan Stanley. old Girls commented on how polite, friendly and composed the BSS girls were. The Friends of BSS in Hong Kong look forward to hosting students again in the future.

Phyllis and Marilyn Lill are a mother daughter entrepreneurial team who personify everything that might be good about working with your mom. Lilium, their rustic yet glamorous bijou of a floral boutique in an historic home on Hazelton Avenue in Yorkville, opened its doors in the Spring of 2010.

Like its owners, Lilium is effortlessly chic. The shop is filled with luscious blooms, bouquets and potted plants, complemented by a carefully curated selection of products for the home. Care for quality and an eye to detail are evident in every display, unsurprising considering the store’s location and surroundings. With White Bridal a few doors down, Celebration Shoes around the corner and the Hazelton and Four Seasons Hotels at the end of the street, one could plan a posh wedding within the two block radius. What is unexpected about this Yorkville florist are the surprisingly down to earth prices.

The idea to open a flower shop with her mother came to Marilyn LILL ’02 while she was working for Bergdorf Goodman in New York after graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in that city. Having studied floral design at renowned institutions including Constance Spry Flower School in England and Catherine Muller in Paris, Phyllis SCANDRETT Lill ’70 was running The Conservatory floral design studio out of her home in Toronto when Marilyn, who was ready for a change from fashion and New York City, made the phone call that would drastically impact both women’s careers. As soon as Marilyn suggested that they open a store together, Phyllis knew instantly that going into business with her daughter was something she wanted to pursue.

Not long after they began planning their new endeavour, they happened upon the perfect location in Yorkville and, from there, everything fell into place. Sympatico personalities and a mutual respect for each other’s talents have resulted in a harmonious and conflict free working relationship no small achievement for a mother/daughter business duo, though for Phyllis and Marilyn this comes naturally.

“It’s a privilege to work together,” says Phyllis. “We have mutual respect for each other’s strengths. I so respect the skills Marilyn brings, and vice versa.” These include the strong style aesthetic and marketing savvy that Marilyn honed working in New York at Bergdorf’s, and before that in events planning and as an intern for famed fashion house, Prada. Phyllis’s artistic sensibility and botany knowledge round out the entrepreneurial picture. “What we each bring to the table is very different,” says Marilyn. It’s a harmony that’s reflected in the soothing atmosphere of the boutique, which also hosts workshops and seminars for budding floral designers from Toronto to Korea. Overseas, education related travel is a new business direction for Lilium, though it’s Phyllis’ passion for sharing her craft, as much as the alternate revenue stream, that has led them to innovate. As a legacy family, (Phyllis’s daughter) Mary Catherine LILL ’97 is a lawyer in Toronto, son James is an Engineer in Australia), both women agree that the lessons they learned at BSS helped contribute to the success of their entrepreneurial venture. Having served as a longtime volunteer, including terms as a Governor and Trustee, Phyllis cites the strong and successful women she met and learned from during her time on the Board as influences. Marilyn credits the strong work ethic and confidence to set and pursue goals that were instilled in her while at BSS as essential tools to success. She was also motivated and inspired by her BSS peers (including fellow classmate at BSS and FIT and NYC roommate, Aja SINGER ’02, who is also featured in this issue of The Link.)

The lessons they would share with future BSS entrepreneurs in training include the importance of having a business plan and persevering when obstacles inevitably do arise. Knowing that mom has your back? That can’t hurt, either.

Building a Family of Companies and of Multi-Generational Entrepreneurs

by Dana Lacey

This story starts nearly 60 years ago, in 1954, when a pair of teenaged Italian brothers immigrated to Canada. Fresh faced and eager to carve out a living, Alfredo and Arcangelo De Gasperis were ready to make their mark on this country.

In the early days, neither of the brothers imagined what their first business venture would eventually become. “The honest truth is that we were so busy doing what we were doing that the only time I really thought about the size of the company was when I was on holidays,” Alfredo says. “It has been a lot of fun but it has also been a lot of hard work. A lot of our business was created by handshakes and honesty. Your word was your bond.”

Following the advice of their cousin, the pair decided to launch their own company. It wasn’t easy, both being new to the country and to business, but their determination, work ethic and strong entrepreneurial spirit got them through that first tricky year. In the early years the company had only one employee and limited work experience, and was run out of a bungalow in Toronto near Highway 401. The family lived on the main floor, and the rest of the property was dedicated to the business: basement office space, backyard pipe storage, and truck maintenance in the single car garage.

In 1960, the pair was joined by a third brother, Antonio De Gasperis, and the company was ready to grow in a big way. So began Con-Drain, a small concrete and drain business. You almost wouldn’t recognize the company today: it employs over 2,000 people and commands a multi-billion dollar market share across several different industries. “We grew it little by little,” Antonio explains, “we picked up expertise in each project that we did, because we really didn’t know much about sewers back then.”

It’s now one of the largest sewer and watermain companies in Canada, boasting a host of subsidiaries that include road development, electrical and gas line installation, community and neighbourhood development, all operating under the Con-Drain Group of Companies umbrella. Con-Drain operates in the GTA, Golden Horseshoe, Western Ontario, the Ottawa region, other provinces and the U.S. And, in honour of its Italian heritage, the family also owns the Vineland Winery in the Niagara Escarpment.

The family’s most important legacy? A long, dedicated lineage of entrepreneurs. “My parents are living their life with a constant positive attitude coupled with an invigorating work ethic,” says, Antonio’s daughter Christene De Gasperis, who works for family subsidiary Aspen Ridge Homes. “They have constantly stressed that the little details in life are as equally important as finite decision making.”

In addition to their business empire, the brothers built a large, closely knit family. Nearly all of the granddaughters have attended The Bishop Strachan School. “We choose to send the girls to BSS because we wanted to create a great tradition within the family,” says Alfredo’s daughter, Carla De Gasperis. “BSS has a world class reputation and trains girls to become leaders in their chosen field. This parallels fundamental family values: ‘Do what you love to do and do it well.’”

Antonio and his wife Theresa have five granddaughters. From their daughter Carla and her husband Chris, there’s Alessia (Class of 2008), Cassandra (Class of 2010) and Arianna, who is currently in Grade 11. The couple’s son, Jim De Gasperis, and his wife, Lina, have two daughters who went to BSS: Stephanie (Class of 2001) and Amanda (Class of 2004).

Alfredo and his wife, Helga, have one young granddaughter, Laya, the daughter of Christene De Gasperis and her husband Sandro Colavecchia. Laya is currently in Grade 2 at BSS.

A lot of sacrifices were made to make Con-Drain what it is today, Alfredo says. It’s not always easy being an entrepreneur, especially as a new Canadian. The brothers are very much Old Country, and learned English on the fly from the tradespeople they encountered along the way.

Those sacrifices have paid off: Con-Drain focuses on residential greenfield development and has ventured into commercial and municipal business as well. It got its first big break in the 1970s, when Con-Drain was hired to clear the drains of chicken feathers in a west Toronto community. The company had been plucked from the yellow pages, and the community was impressed by their honesty and willingness to work around the clock. When the man who first called them went on to found Cadillac Fairview, he hired Con-Drain as his sewer and watermain contractor as it built the now flourishing 7,000 acre Erin Mills community. Word spread, and soon Con-Drain boasted a healthy stable of clients.

Their timing was impeccable. Canada was in the middle of an infrastructure growth spurt, and Con-Drain was at the ready to help the GTA grow. The brothers’ core philosophy no job is too big or too small played a large role in getting the company through the startup phrase. Even a small opportunity has potential to grow, the brothers point out. This philosophy, paired with their customer first commitment, helped attract loyal customers who preferred the brother’s quick turnaround and more personal, hands on approach to business.

Since the 1950s, Con-Drain has expanded through new subsidiaries and acquisitions, and now there are several businesses under the umbrella of the Con-Drain Group of Companies. The first addition was Metrus Properties, which quickly grew into a large player in the design, building and leasing of industrial buildings within the GTA. Today, the company boasts over 12 million square feet of industrial, commercial and office space. Next was Con-Elco, which found a niche in the reconstruction market by refurbishing older subdivisions and providing upgrades for utility companies, and Con- Strada Construction, which specializes in road work construction and spawned three companies of its own, all of which allowed the company to take on larger projects (and earn a larger cut of the profit).

The brothers weren’t done yet. The next subsidiary to launch was land develop expert Metrus Development. The company acquired Crowle Fittings, which provide the fittings and valves for the sewer and watermain industry, in which Con-Drain was already a major player, helping launch it into the industrial and municipal markets.

The subsidiary list goes on (and on), including Con-Cast Pipe, Con/Span Canada, Sky Cast Inc. and Concrete Products. In its first year, Aspen Ridge, the firm’s residential construction arm, built 20 homes. Now, it builds over 1,200 a year. The acquisition of Fellmore Electrical Contractors added roadway lighting, traffic lights and temporary construction site power to Con-Drain’s arsenal.

These subsidiaries all popped up organically, building a strong, vertical company. Now, the umbrella company can take a piece of undeveloped land, move the earth, install the pipe and storm water systems, the roads, the hydro and utilities, and even build the homes that go on top.

Of course, the brothers didn’t go it alone: both credit their success in part to their wives, who provided a strong support system. “My wife did an excellent job raising our children and understanding why I was never at home,” Antonio says.

All along, the De Gasperis family made sure to involve their family members at a very young age. Their children were expected to take on entry level jobs, and get to know each aspect of the company before climbing their way up the ranks. “We let them make what we hoped were small mistakes so that they would eventually learn how to make the right decisions,” Antonio says. “That’s one of the reasons we were able to grow so much. We’ve got some great kids doing some really good things.”

The second generation of De Gasperis leaders has since taken over some of the day to day operation of the Con-Drain Group of Companies, but the founding brothers are still on hand as the principals of the company. The kids (now adults) carry on the founders’ entrepreneurial spirit, and have each developed their own niches within the company. The siblings and cousins meet regularly, but they trust each other to follow their fathers’ ambitious footsteps.

“Family is everything,” Antonio says. “If you don’t have a family, then a business like this will disappear. All that I have done, sure, I have made money but in the end, I am doing this for the kids.”

And now, as the next generation of the De Gasperis family grows up in the shadow of entrepreneurism, you have to wonder what empires they will build.

Through the BSS Run for the Cure, over $20,000 was raised for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Funds were collected through     t-shirt and bracelet sales, a pancake breakfast, and additional donations. We are thankful for the many donors, students, old Girls, parents and staff who worked together to make this happen. We can’t wait for next year!

The BSS Run for the Cure (2.5 km around the neighbourhood) will take place over the Harvest Reunion weekend on Saturday, September 24, 2011. We encourage all members of the BSS community to join us for the run and pancake breakfast, followed by fun activities for adults and children of all ages. Save the date, and stay tuned for details.

Want to see more from the BSS Run for the Cure and Family Day activities? View an online album at http://dubicki.ca/bss/2010_run-for-the-cure/

Harvest Reunion is an exciting time at BSS. This year, over 250 alumnae, past and present staff and faculty attended the annual old Girls’ Cocktail party to reflect on memories from days gone by; to reconnect with loved ones; and, to share stories of life challenges and successes. Old Girls from classes ending in 0s and 5s joined us from Antigua, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and across the United States and Canada. We would like to thank our dedicated Year Reps for their early planning and unwavering enthusiasm and support of our community.

Did you know Harvest Reunion is not just for old Girls celebrating milestones? Next fall, BSS will honour special reunion years ending in 1s and 6s at the annual Cocktail party on Friday, September 23, 2011, but there are activities for all members of the BSS community on Saturday, September 24, 2011. We encourage all old Girls to bring family and friends to BSS on Saturday morning, where there will be fun activities for people of all ages highlights include the BSS Run for the Cure (2.5 km) and pancake Breakfast, Harvest Games, old Girls’ basketball and soccer, a barbeque, and a carnival for kids.

Please start thinking about how you will reconnect and celebrate with classmates, and stay tuned for details.

Want to see more from the old Girls’ Cocktail party? View an online album at http://dubicki.ca/bss/2010_harvest-reunion/

On December 20, 2010, BSS welcomed its youngest group of alumnae to get together for drinks and snacks at Scallywags restaurant in Toronto. our alumnae from the Classes 2006-10 were delighted to catch up and share stories about their university experiences at schools in Canada, the United States, and abroad.

Ms. Dagg has always known what she wanted to do with her life. When she was two years old her mother took her to the Chicago Zoo and it was here that she was introduced to the giraffe, an animal that has captivated her throughout her career. It was this first glimpse at the zoo that spawned her dream of travelling to Africa to research giraffe in the wild.

Born in 1933, Ms. Dagg grew up in Toronto, where her ambition to study the behaviour of the giraffe was not altogether typical. However, her parents, renowned professor and communications theorist, Harold Innis, and noted writer and former Dean of Women at University College, Mary Quayle Innis, provided her with unwavering support and encouragement to pursue her dreams.

Ms. Dagg lived only a few short blocks from BSS. It was here that she met her two best friends, with whom she remains close to this day. While at BSS she displayed a love of sport and was on a number of teams including basketball, tennis, lacrosse, badminton and, when it was cold enough for the outdoor rink, hockey. This devotion to athletics carries on; she plays tennis twice a week near her home in Waterloo.

Although her passion lay in Biology and the study of animal behaviour, Ms. Dagg didn’t take Biology at BSS. Instead, she enrolled in Chemistry and Physics in Grade 13, as she was told at the time that this would better prepare her for university.

After graduating from BSS, Ms. Dagg attended the University of Toronto, where she completed her BA in Honours Biology with the Gold Medal for scholarship. She wanted to go to Africa to do field work immediately after getting her degree, but she didn’t know where to start or how to go about it. So she started writing letters. She wrote to anyone and everyone she thought might be able to help her get there. Despite her efforts, no one was particularly helpful, some were even amused at the notion of a ‘girl’ travelling on her own to do such work.

In the meantime, she enrolled in the Master’s program at the University of Toronto to study the genetics of mice. During her work at the university, a fellow student connected her with a professor in South Africa, Jakes Ewer.Mr. Ewer then put her in touch with Mr. Matthew, a farmer with a large citrus farm with many giraffe near the Kruger Park. After corresponding with Ms. Dagg, the farmer invited her to stay on the farm and complete her research on the giraffe. However, earlier reactions to her goal of travelling and studying giraffe had made her cautious, and she had only used her initials in her correspondence so as to not alert people to the fact that she was female. Sure enough, the farmer assumed he was inviting a young male researcher to stay with him.

Undaunted by this detail, at the age of 23, Ms. Dagg completed her Master of Science and set out for Africa. She arrived by ship in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and then travelled to Grahamstown where Jakes Ewer was a professor at Rhodes University. While staying with the Ewers, she received a letter from Mr. Matthew rescinding the invitation to the farm. He had discovered from one of her letters that she was female and felt it wasn’t proper for her to come as she would have to stay in the house, not with the cattle hands as he had originally intended, and his wife and daughters were out of the country. After some debate Mr. Matthew relented and she set out to drive over 1,000 miles to the farm.

Ms. Dagg quickly adjusted to life on the farm, rising each morning at 5:00 am to head out and find giraffe, going back to the house for breakfast at 8:00 am and spending the remainder of the day with giraffe until dinner at 6:00 pm. In the evenings she would sit and listen to Mr. Matthew tell stories about his life and Africa until, almost asleep in her chair from her day spent in the bush, she would politely make her escape to bed.

There were over 90 giraffe roaming the farm and Ms. Dagg would go out and observe groups of seven to 10 at once, “I would watch them interact and Mr. Matthew and I also filmed them,” she says. Until this time no one had ever really studied the giraffe and there were certainly no published works about their behaviour. She not only conducted behavioural studies, she also made mappings of the local flora and worked out which species of plant they liked to eat. During her stay, a giraffe was killed on the farm and she participated in the dissection, another first, which, like a true scientist, she thoroughly appreciated.

Ms. Dagg had arrived in Africa in 1956, when apartheid had recently been implemented. Apartheid, meaning separateness, was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the government of South Africa between 1948 and 1993 under which minority rule by white people was maintained.

Says Ms. Dagg, “I was incredibly excited to be in Africa, I had dreamed of it for my whole life…but I found the racism shocking the maid was not allowed to stay in the house as whites and blacks could not be in the same place overnight…all of the workers on the farm were black, and, when I arrived I tried to be friendly with them, but the white managers did their best to prevent this as it was not encouraged or accepted.”

While Ms. Dagg was in Africa she wrote to her mother every week discussing her research, travels and adventures. One week, she wrote her mother a letter saying she was off to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, leaving her in suspense until the next letter assuring her that the climb had been a success.

Ms. Dagg spent four months on Mr. Matthew’s farm before leaving for east and central Africa to observe giraffe in different habitats. She then returned to the farm in South Africa for another few months where she completed her behavioural and ecological studies.

Before Ms. Dagg had left for Africa she had met a young physicist, Ian Dagg. Although she wasn’t sure whether he would wait for her while she was away for a year studying giraffe, he did, and on her way back to Canada they were married in London, England. He died in 1993 after 35 years of marriage.

After returning to Canada a married woman, Ms. Dagg was unable to find a permanent job in biology and so took temporary jobs, including teaching Physical Education at a local school for students aged four to 20, which she describes as “quite an experience” and worked on her writing and research.

After moving to Waterloo with her husband, who had been offered a job as a physics professor at the University of Waterloo, Ms. Dagg found it was much harder for women to get into academia than it was for men and animals need people to fIght for them. Writing books and having them published is very satisfactory. I’m hoping it will change people’s understanding and draw attention to the current situations of many animals.

She had difficulty finding a job in her field. She soon found a part time position teaching one course, which she did for three years. She was thoroughly enjoying teaching, and asked to teach two courses. She was told this was possible, but she would still be considered part time, whereas the male professors with the same course load were permanent, full time employees.

“At this point I thought I’d better get my Ph.D as I’d never be taken seriously without it” she says. “I completed my doctorate in Animal Behaviour at the University of Waterloo and wrote my thesis on the gaits of large animals.” This thesis was the first study of its kind and much of the analysis and findings were taken from her own films of giraffe in South Africa.

Ms. Dagg didn’t slow down after obtaining her Ph.D; in 1967 she travelled with her husband and three young children, Hugh, Ian and Mary, to Australia while her husband was on sabbatical. While in Sydney, she became an unofficial Research Associate at the Taronga Zoo. Accompanied by Mary, she would visit the zoo every day to study the behaviour of giraffe and other animals. After returning to Canada a year later she went on to work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Guelph, teaching Mammalogy and Biology. This was Ms. Dagg’s first full time position in her field and, after being denied tenure for a number of official reasons, but unofficially because of her gender, she left the University in 1972 to focus on activism, research and writing. After experiencing challenges and frustration in her own professional life due to discrimination, Ms. Dagg was instrumental in driving change and drawing attention to the inequity of women in Canada, particularly in academia. In 1988 she published Miseducation: Women and Canadian Universities, discussing sexism in universities against women students, staff and faculty. By this time she had also published a number of books on a range of other topics related to biology including Camel Quest Canadian Wildlife and Man, Summer Research on the Saharan Camel, Wildlife Management in Europe, Running, Walking and Jumping: The Science of Locomotion, and The Giraffe: its Biology, Behavior and Ecology.

While Ms. Dagg continues to be a pioneer as a zoologist and feminist, her attention is now directed to advocating for the rights and welfare of animals, who she says “need people to fight for them.” She is especially proud of what she’s doing now: writing about animals. “Writing books and having them published is very satisfactory. I’m hoping it will change people’s understanding and draw attention to the current situations of many animals.”

In 1978, Ms. Dagg was hired by students as a Resource Person in the Integrated (now Independent) Studies Program of the University of Waterloo, a program developed entirely for and by the students. Its unique approach encourages students to choose their own courses and focus on what interests them, rather than a prescribed course of study. Recent thesis project topics have included “Producing, Packaging and Selling Contemporary Music” and “Modern Communication Networks and the Search for Information.” Currently, Ms. Dagg is a Senior Advisor for the program.

Ms. Dagg’s newest book, Animal Friendships, due to be released in August 2011, gives readers a new and unique look into the lives of the animals she loves and to whom she has devoted so much of her time and energy. It is an academic study of social behaviour in wild animals, exploring animal bonding behaviours and social interactions including mutual grooming, playmates for infants and the pleasure of companionship.

Recently recognized by BSS as the tenth Distinguished Old Girl Award recipient for exemplifying the School’s values and tradition of excellence, Ms. Dagg continues to impact the lives of others through her leadership, adventurous spirit and extensive contributions to the fields of biology, zoology, activism and animal rights.

Ms. Dagg is currently collaborating on a book on human evolution. “Our thesis is that for over four million years our forbearers were not aggressive killers, but were actually monogamous groups living mostly amicably.” The book, Ms. Dagg says, “raises another perspective entirely to the work that is currently published.” She continues to influence her field and develop new passions and aspirations, so it is appropriate that her advice to current BSS students is a saying she obviously lives by: “Go after your heart, don’t let anyone hold you back.” Fitting words from a very inspiring woman.

Laura Mustard

In high school, Laura Mustard loved economics she admits she wasn’t your typical teenager. In university she earned a double major in Economics and English, not a traditional pairing. “One’s practical and one’s… less practical,” she jokes. “My dad used to say, ‘you have to be employable.’”

Ms. Mustard began her career at General Motors’ computer department. “That was a very male dominated environment women were secretaries or did corporate training.” Not so Ms. Mustard; she preferred to roll up her sleeves and immerse herself in the nitty gritty of programming. But she soon realized that her true passion lay in teaching. Today she teaches Business at BSS.

Ms. Mustard endured the grind of a double major in order to make herself, as her dad advised, more employable, but also because she dreamed of becoming a teacher. “You know how you grow up, seeing your parents do certain things? My mom was an elementary school teacher. I used to pretend I was a teacher as a little kid.” BSS was a logical fit for her combined passions. “BSS is the only independent girls school with a very full range of business programs, Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Financial Securities, co-op programs within the department,” Ms. Mustard says, “all these things that most independent schools can’t offer because they don’t have the expertise.” “The best part,” she says, “is that every program is designed to offer something the students are genuinely interested in.”

BSS runs with the student as entrepreneur idea, and gives a lot of leeway to educators wanting to try something new, Ms. Mustard says. When they’re empowered to run with their own ideas, BSS girls really shine. “You’re allowed to caution and advise, but ultimately they’re going to do it on their own. It’s all about trusting them.”

This year a group from Ms. Mustard’s class was inspired by Silly Bands, colourful elastic bands shaped to look like dinosaurs, stars and myriad other designs, which kids wear as layered bracelets and dreamed up the Bish Band. Her students created their own design, came up with a price that included the bulk cost and U.S. conversion rate and duty tax; everything that was needed to bring Bish Bands from concept to fashion statement.

Other entrepreneurial ventures included home-baked cookies, handmade jewelry, imported Japanese specialty gifts and fair trade products.

Whenever possible, Ms. Mustard uses BSS itself as a case study in her lessons. “The School is full of enterprising people,” she says, “from the student run box office to collaborations with other schools to the successful marketing campaign.”

If there’s one lesson she wants her students to take away from her classes, it’s that “business is not a man’s world,” Ms. Mustard says. The School tackles this in part with the Val Stock Memorial Speaker Series, which invites powerful female role models, including the occasional Old Girl, to speak to the girls about their experience in business. Of course, BSS girls have a leg up in finding personal role models. “A lot of students come from backgrounds where women in their lives are involved in business,” she says. “Some students even have CEOs for moms.”

“It’s important for girls to have the entrepreneurial spirit,” Ms. Mustard says. “Women look at the world differently, and see different opportunities. If you don’t encourage women to act on the opportunities they see, there will be something missing in the world, and too much from one perspective.”

It makes you wonder what once unleashed on the world these girls will come up with.

Fraser Landry

Fraser Landry got his first taste of entrepreneurship at an early age. His dad, a choir conductor, hired him to man the box office and sell tickets for his performances.

In high school he discovered mentorship organization Junior Achievement, and his attitude quickly shifted gears. “JA probably saved my life,” he says. “It was great because it was really hands on; you learned by doing, by experiential teaching. It was a place where I got some positive feedback from adults,” something that was missing in his high school, he says. After high school he spent a decade as JA’s program manager, where he managed kids who ran their own companies.

Meanwhile, he studied business at university, and then philosophy. “I wasn’t ready to enter the working world, and philosophy was the thing I found the least like the working world,” he jokes. After graduating, he spent 10 years as the general manager of Kinko’s Copies Canada Limited before attending Teachers’ College at the University of Toronto.

“I think I’ve always done things that involved teaching and working with kids, but I resisted teaching because that’s what my father did… now I think I wish I had done it sooner.”

At BSS, Mr. Landry teaches Introduction to Business, Entrepreneurial Studies, International Business, Civics, Careers and Philosophy. He’s also the School’s Student Leadership Coordinator, where he designs and delivers leadership training and retreats, oversees the annual student election and acts as a mentor, coach and adviser to BSS’s Prefects. While he’d taught both boys and girls at JA, BSS is a whole new experience, he says. “I had to get used to letting the girls be more social. I think the girls like working on real problems they can get their hands on, and can feel make a difference.” That’s where his philosophy major came into play.

“My main goal when teaching is to get the girls to think about the world they’re living in; the philosophy side of me just wants them to question everything. If they see things they think they can change, I want them not to just accept them.” He adds, “BSS has girls who are and will be in a position to make a difference.”

In March, Mr. Landry took a class of his Business students to China, with stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, where, in addition to the more traditional cultural sites, the girls visited factories and other places of business. China was a logical choice because of the country’s current and continuing position in the world, he says.

Mr. Landry’s teaching philosophy is proudly student centred. He lets them solve their own problems as much as possible. He credits the School for encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit in its girls. “The administration has been very supportive of kids taking over part of the School and selling stuff.”

BSS’s annual Deck The Hall event is the best place to see the entrepreneurship class in action. “There’s a group of girls that, for the past three years in a row, have sold close to 1,000 chocolate covered strawberries.” Other groups sell things like cookie dough and greeting cards. One young student makes her own jewelry, and has expanded her business beyond the School.

He’s proud of an ongoing Entrepreneurial Studies project that launched last year. “Instead of doing a one off project, the girls wanted to something sustainable.” The entrepreneurs teamed up with the Finance department, and the result was The biSHOP, an aptly named supply store in the School that the girls run by themselves at a profit.

“Of course I’m not going to let them go down the road by themselves,” Mr. Landry says, “but I let them sink or swim on their own.”

Mary Ellen Moran

Mary Ellen Moran has long been enamored with numbers. “They can be used to tell a story” she says, “so long as you speak the right language.” She loves accounting, which uses the abstract to explain the concrete supply, demand, and a company’s bottom line.

After high school, Ms. Moran spent four years in the numbers industry as an auditor for banking behemoth Royal Bank of Canada. She was younger, much younger, than her colleagues, and one of very few women in the field. The RBC job was quite the career kick-start: it sent her around the world, and within a few years she’d travelled and worked in Buenos Aries, Argentina, Brazil, the Caribbean and New York City. “I was just in the right place at the right time,” she says. She moved on to the Bank of Montreal to get a taste of the investment side of banking. “It was great experience,” she says, but she wasn’t convinced she wanted to make a career of it. She began thinking about her future, and remembered how much she’d loved an earlier job working with teens at Junior Achievement. She took a year off to attend Teachers’ College, got her MBA, and never looked back.

In the 11 years Ms. Moran has been at BSS, she has taught Accounting, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Financial Securities and Introduction to Business.

“When I got to BSS, I realized I have a real passion for teaching girls,” she says. She finds that girls have fewer boundaries, are more open to discussion and collaboration: it’s not uncommon for Ms. Moran to spend the bulk of a class answering increasingly pointed questions from her students. “I love the level of interaction with the girls our discussions can be so vibrant. They ask great questions that can send you travelling down some great tangents.” The girls then bring that discussion home to continue with their parents.

Ms. Moran especially loves teaching this generation of girls about business because, she says, “They don’t know anything of the past. The anti-girl glass ceiling, socially accepted discrimination today’s girls won’t face the same obstacles that most Old Girls faced.” More importantly, these girls aren’t weighed down by the sense that someone is going to hold them back; they truly believe that girls can do anything. And that, above all, is what Ms. Moran wants her students to take away from her course.

“Whether they choose to go into business or become an optometrist, we teach them the skills to help them operate in the world. We teach them how to interpret marketing and understand personal finance and how the stock market works. We want them to know about all the opportunities open to them.”

Ms. Moran’s high school passion has not disappeared. Accounting is still her favourite class to teach. She loves helping girls realize the power of numbers. “I know I’m not raising a class of accountants. But it’s important to know what doors are going to be open for you, and know ways of creating that opportunity. If you can read numbers, you can make decisions. Accounting’s purpose is decision making.” When girls leave Ms. Moran’s class, they’re better armed to take on the world.

Ann Shen

Ann Shen always thought she’d be an accountant, like her mom. But after two years working co-op at an accounting firm, she realized the career wasn’t for her. “It wasn’t what I was interested in, personality wise.” Instead, she got her math degree, with a specialty in business studies. “Somewhere in the middle I thought I wanted to be a doctor,” she laughs. “Teaching was my third choice.” This time, it stuck. Ms. Shen teaches Business, Math and Computer Science at BSS.

Ms. Shen’s Grade 10 Introduction to Business course is the girls’ first introduction to business concepts, and covers the basics: entrepreneurship, personal finance and marketing. “There’s a little bit of everything,” she says. “A lot of the topics they can go home and talk to mom and dad about, which comes up at parent interviews,” she says. “Parents will say, ‘My daughter has never wanted to talk about business, but now we’re having this conversation about finances.”

At this age 14 and 15 a lot of the girls already have a savings account, or a debit card, perhaps an RESP of savings bonds, but they really don’t understand big picture personal finance, Ms. Shen says. “I try to teach them the value of money, start to get them thinking about budgeting, and about how much they actually have to make to live. They quickly realize it’s very expensive to live in Toronto, and they learn that to live the lifestyle they’re currently living what it costs for that cell phone, for that daily coffee they’re going to have to work really hard.”

Ms. Shen also teaches Introduction to Accounting to Grade 11s. “I enjoy teaching because I love being around people, and I enjoy learning. That’s part of my philosophy. Some girls will say I’m fairly strict, because if you don’t have rules in a classroom, things don’t get done. But I care about them and am really passionate about the subjects.”

Each year she gives her students an assignment: make some stock “purchases”, and then track them. “Last year, nobody made any money,” she says, which was an opportunity to learn about the business cycle. “It’s interesting because they could see the direct results of the recession.”

This year, the business department is trying out a brand new project. The class chooses a business venture, and each student has her own role. “They have full reign in choosing the idea, contacting the suppliers, raising capital by selling shares…and when we wrap up, they go to the bank and give money back to their shareholders.”

The girls spotted an opportunity. The School recently lightened its all out ban on nail polish to allow certain, natural colours. Each student is responsible for selling shares in the venture to raise the money needed to buy the polish. They determine how much capital they need to raise, decide on a share price, print off the shares, and hone their elevator pitches to solicit students, teachers, and parents to buy shares. “It’s not always easy,” Ms. Shen says, “and there are parents that demand full shareholder value presentations from their daughters before they pony up the cash.” So far, their hard work is paying off: The class made a deal with a supplier, and have since sold over 200 bottles of pale pink polish.

Aja Singer ’02

Aja Singer always knew she wanted to pursue fashion. But when she arrived at McGill University, she sidelined her passion to major in science, specifically, anatomy and cell biology, and minor in art history. “The first year, I was pretty happy, but as the years progressed, I felt I was missing out on being able to do something creative,” she says by telephone from her New York studio.

So she applied to Parsons, the prestigious design school in the heart of Manhattan, and made the move stateside in 2006. That was when the genesis for her contemporary clothing label, Alex and Eli, which she started with Anna Zeman, began to gel. “We were very studious and not like the regular fashion students. We were nerds,” she explains, with a laugh. “One day, we went for a walk and were sitting on a stoop and started talking about [the line]; there were lots of points where we could have turned around and stopped but we didn’t.”

With Alex and Eli, Ms. Singer, who attended BSS from Grade 6 through 13, tapped into an underserved apparel category: chic suiting options (sleek trousers, jackets with edgy detailing) that would not break the bank. The New York Times profiled the duo in 2009 when they launched their collection and their now signature blazers have been spotted in the hit show Gossip Girl and on paparazzi darling, Kim Kardashian.

All of the clothing is made in New York’s garment district. Ms. Singer points out that much of their success has come from being incredibly self-motivated. “You definitely have to love what you’re doing because there’s so much personal sacrifice,” she says, citing twice yearly New York Fashion Weeks as the most demanding time of the year. “The month before, we’re working very long days but [we] love it.”

She and Ms. Zeman are thinking long term, from web sites to special collaborations and licensing. “All of those things are helpful financially,” she explains. Despite a lightning fast start, they realize that success in the fashion industry does not happen overnight. In the meantime, Ms. Singer, who turns 27 in August, has already learned that being an entrepreneur means trusting her instinct above all else. “You get a lot of advice and only 25 percent of it is actually worth taking,” she says. “Know what you want to do and stick with it.”

Elizabeth Thomson ’67

When Elizabeth Thomson took her first trip to Hong Kong, she had no idea that she “was going to be staying the rest of my life.” But as she explains from her office after a long day (early morning, Toronto time), “if life gives you a gift, you have to accept it.”

She had been a Boarder at BSS her family is from Thunder Bay and attended the University of Western Ontario before pursuing law at McGill University. “I think if there had been more business studies during law school, I would have realized that I was always interested in business,” she recalls. “I was always seeing another opportunity around the corner.”

Today, her company, ICS Trust (founded in 1980), provides corporate, legal, accounting, bank, trade and tax services all under one roof, assisting companies that want to break into the Asian market and beyond. “We give them a platform they might not otherwise be able to find,” says Ms. Thomson, who is also on the board of the Canadian and U.S. Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong. The latter named her Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 at the annual the Women of Influence Awards, also hosted by the South China Morning Post.

As she sees it, women are particularly well suited to entrepreneurial endeavours. “It gives you a lot more personal freedom than being an employee,” she says, adding that her husband, Kishore Sakhrani, is the company’s director. “What I would say to Old Girls or young girls is try it out. I’ve been really happy to see a lot of young women coming to Asia.” Perhaps not surprisingly, she served as the first International Governor for BSS from 2004 to 2009.

Ms. Thomson insists that any culture shock came not from adjusting to life in Hong Kong but from making visits back to Canada (her daughter, Simone attended BSS and has since returned to Hong Kong).

“It really doesn’t matter here if you’re a man or woman; it’s a paradise for entrepreneurs,” she explains, noting government administrative red tape that exists here in Canada. “You get support for being an entrepreneur and there are many others like me who have made things happen and have built their business from nothing to something.”

Devin Connell ’00

It’s late afternoon hours after the lunch crush yet patrons continue to pop into Delica Kitchen, the boutique eatery created by Devin Connell.

There’s the man who wolfs down his mini banana bread loaf on the spot, a woman who arrives to pick up her order of heat and serve dinners, and a new mum who stops by for her regular java fix.

That each of them exchanges greetings with Ms. Connell is a testament to the welcoming environment she’s created.

Since opening Delica Kitchen in November 2009, she has developed a loyal clientele who come several times a week for her hearty chili and inspired sandwich offerings (favourites include the Buffalo style roast chicken and Italian tuna melt).

The food business is in Ms. Connell’s DNA parents Linda Haynes and Martin Connell founded ACE Bakery. Although she earned a degree in graphic design from Parsons The New School of Design in New York, she kept up various gastronomic pursuits, attending classes at the prestigious Cordon Bleu and apprenticing at the Slanted Door, a renowned San Francisco restaurant.

But it didn’t take long for Ms. Connell to realize that owning a business is no cakewalk. “Part of you thinks that you’re the boss and so you can sleep in, but that doesn’t exist,” she says.

In as much as she went in with a solid understanding of her concept fresh, wholesome takeout fare she concedes that she wasn’t entirely prepared for the business side. “I’ve never been good at math and numbers so that’s been a steep learning curve; I would have taken more business courses or gotten more practical experience.”

At least she’s put her graphic design know how to good use; the clean look of Delica’s web site and branding bears her stamp.

Overseeing all these different facets, however, means that balance is always a challenge. “You can get caught up in the minutiae and it can be hard to get the big picture,” she says. “It’s important to be in here but I also need to step back to get perspective.”

Ms. Connell has a heap of ideas on her plate, starting with a line of frozen prepared foods that would be carried at gourmet food stores such as McEwan and Pusateri’s.

“What makes me really happy is having new people in my life who are my customers and making them happy.” Plus, she now has extra appreciation for the small victories. “Getting through my to do list feels awesome.”

Jane Apor ’89

If this profile of Jane Apor reads different from the others, there’s a reason; the writer (ahem) also happens to be her sister. This means that any attempt at objectivity is futile and you might as well just indulge me as I share her story.

I’ve watched Jane parlay a creative pursuit into a bona fide business. Around a decade ago, Jane was on the beach in the Hamptons and made a necklace from a shell and a strand of seaweed. At the time, she was living in London and working as the Director of Retail Events and Promotions at Estée Lauder. (She attended what is now known as the Schulich School of Business at York University, where she graduated with an MBA in Arts and Media.) She returned to Toronto in 2002 thinking that she would take the summer off before resuming with the global cosmetics company and that’s when the necklace idea this time using materials less slimy than seaweed began to take shape.

But despite the overwhelmingly positive response to these lariat necklaces (complete strangers bought them off her on the spot), it took Jane a few years to get comfortable with the idea that she had traded corporate life for something so artistic and unstructured. “I was in denial,” she admits. “I thought I was stringing beads.”

Technically, she really was doing just that; but by handling every piece, she made a conscious decision to take her line, which she titled J.Rox, in a deliberately niche direction. “There’s not only beauty and substance, there is a personal touch,” she explains, noting that there is also an aspirational element.

“I don’t represent the typical artisan. I wear my jewelry and people see that and respond to my style.”

Jane traces her entrepreneurial spirit to her parents who did not have traditional nine to five jobs. “I grew up on fashion shoots and film sets so I wasn’t conditioned to the norms of an office or dressing a certain way.” But she also says her 14 years at BSS inevitably shaped her mindset. “I could never draw people, but I had a sensibility towards colour and abstract design,” she says of art class. “At BSS, the opportunities were limitless…and I was always challenged and encouraged to try a multitude of things.”

Beyond Toronto, Jane has set up J.Rox trunk shows in countless jetset locales: Palm Beach, Muskoka, Miami and the Hamptons a smart strategy given the colourful yet luxe aesthetic of her semi precious stone necklaces and leather charm bracelets. As long as she oversees everything herself, she is aware that her business can only get so big. But that suits her just fine. “I’m my own window and my own advertising,” she says.

It’s also made her realize that inspiration can come from anywhere. “Be open and embrace it and accept it and challenge yourself to do something outside the norm,” she says, adding that J.Rox has completely changed her life in ways she would never expect. “I had to change the way I dress!” she says, noting that she now builds her outfits around her jewelry. But really, she’s just traded one uniform for another, a stunning necklace instead of a striped tie.

Tara Dawood ’91

In the days leading up to her interview for The Link, Tara Dawood was swamped with planning an event. But not just any meet-and-greet. January 8, 2011, marked Pakistan’s first professional networking lunch for women.

“We never had anything like this,” she says by phone from Karachi once her routine had gotten back to normal. Not that Ms. Dawood, a precocious child who interviewed visiting celebrities before going on to study at Cornell, Oxford and Harvard, has ever been content with normal.

At times, Ms. Dawood comes across as an unassuming guru with one foot each in the worlds of law and finance. “I appreciate the way that law could be a facilitator for self optimization for people,” she says. “I’m a big believer in justice and rights.”

But business savvy seems to course through her veins.

When Ms. Dawood moved to Karachi in 2000, she says she was struck by both the potential opportunity for her do something meaningful as a function of the socioeconomic limitations imposed on others. “It was one of those situations where I found that a lot of women and children were not part of the financial sphere in Pakistan,” she says.

In 2003, Ms. Dawood established Dawood Capital Management, her namesake asset management business. Its success allowed her to create Ladies fund four years later. The pro bono investment advisory service works with female entrepreneurs and women seeking financial guidance, whether regarding Shariah compliant or conventional mutual funds.

“There’s a lot of women’s wealth that is isolated from banks and the banking sector,” she explains. “I worked with a team to discover that if a woman has a designer bag, she will get a bigger kick from it than if she has money on a bank statement. Now, [we’ve created] tiers of women investors and we’re giving them market incentives signals or gifts.” The bottom line, she says: “We are redefining women’s finance.”

She estimates that there are now 100,000 children with financial security. What’s more, she has raised enough money for Plan Canada to sponsor two Pakistani girls.

Ms. Dawood, who attended BSS from Kindergarten through to graduation, does not downplay this achievement. “I think the survivors at BSS are the survivors in life,” she says.

This might explain her realistic (daresay, normal) insight on life’s highs and lows. “I think every human being will always have moments of doubt and moments of conviction. I feel strongly that we are a product of our choices,” she says.

Had her life taken her down a different path, Ms. Dawood says she might have ended up writing legal fiction. Which is not to suggest that door has shut (she pens the Girl Friday columns for the Friday Times in Pakistan). It’s just that she finds her current work so immensely rewarding on so many levels. “I think seeing people’s lives affected in a positive way so they evolve is wonderful,” she says. “There’s nothing I like more than evolving myself.”
Linda Lesueur Darragh ’72

As the director of entrepreneurship programs for Chicago Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago, Linda Lesueur Darragh approaches the subject from many perspectives.

But perhaps most interesting of all is the idea that entrepreneurship is something that can be taught.

Indeed, Ms. Darragh points to the internet explosion during the mid-90s as an accelerated period of small business growth and limitless opportunity. As such, academic institutions have continued to modify the way they teach entrepreneurship. Whereas students from previous generations might have been drilled with the message to build a business plan and stick to it, Ms. Darragh says, “That’s about the worst thing you can do. Today, when you’re starting, you want to be flexible and iterate and pivot and change.”

She speaks from experience.

Having completed her Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Urban Geography and her Masters of Science in Urban Planning both at Queen’s she knew she was interested in government at the municipal level and urban economics.

When her university sweetheart was transferred to Chicago to pursue his Ph.D, she followed him there and managed to get a job in the city’s planning department where she was subsequently assigned to a task force investigating economic development. Fast forward 25 years skipping over various twists and turns through jobs related to technology, venture capital and women’s business issues and she gets offered a teaching position at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management before moving over to the University of Chicago in 2005.

Ms. Darragh currently teaches two classes in the winter quarter and another in the spring. While there will always be interest in entrepreneurship as it relates to consumer products and technology, she seems most passionate about social ventures when large financial (or academic) organizations work to achieve objectives that benefit the public good.

Time and again, she says that statistics have shown that entrepreneurial spirit is further strengthened when a person grows up in a family of entrepreneurs. “You could say it’s genetic or environmental, but there’s a lot to be said about the vision of what can be done.” And Ms. Darragh extends this thinking to her four years at BSS. “I think it gave me huge freedom to express myself and push boundaries. I could take risks at BSS and realized it doesn’t matter if you fail or goof and that’s critical to going forward through life.”

Liz Levine ’95

Ask Liz Levine what being an entrepreneur means to her and she answers, “I think it’s the magic combination of being determined to succeed and determined to not listen to anyone else’s set of rules.”

Of course, she arrives at this definition from over a decade of personal experience. Her resumé is both extensive and impressive, ranging from various gigs as a television producer (with CHUM, Global and CBC) to journalist stints at the Vancouver Sun, the National Post and Playback magazine. A newspaper story led her into documentary film (earning her a Gemini in 2004) and from there, she was brought on as the new media producer for JPod, the television series based on the novel by Douglas Coupland. Currently, Ms. Levine is the executive director of development at Brightlight Pictures, an independent film and TV company. But she’s also the co-founder of Random Bench, a production company she started with her best friend from Queen’s university, Adrian Salpeter, and it’s into this endeavour that she pours her passion.

She concedes that some of her friends are still not entirely sure what she does. “The term ‘producer’ is so vague,” she says, noting that there are fiscal and creative producers and she falls into the latter camp.

Ms. Levine attended BSS from Kindergarten until graduating year. “I was definitely instilled with the surefootedness and confidence that the world was mine to make of it,” she says, crediting both the School and her mother’s positive support for her perseverance and drive.

When she does relax, it’s with Anthony, her partner of 14 years who is an artist and writer. She divides her time between Vancouver and Los Angeles (where Salpeter is based) and says a typical day involves 200-300 emails and a stack of scripts. In other words: few red carpet industry shindigs.

Indeed, with the freedom comes responsibility. But the tradeoff is worth it, she insists. “You realize that 60 hours a week cannot just deliver a paycheque, but something with paycheque on top and then the reward is 1000 times greater. There’s nothing as fulfilling as seeing your creative idea come to life.”

Cristin Pennachetti Lazier ’96

It would not be a stretch to say that Cristin Pennachetti Lazier swims against the current as far as her love for swimwear. After all, it is a well known (albeit unscientific) fact that women hate shopping for bathing suits even more than denim or lingerie.

But Ms. Lazier says she’s loved this summertime staple as far back as she can remember and considered starting her own line in earnest a few years ago when she saw a void in the market for stylish swimwear that women could feel confident wearing.

Having worked for five years in advertising, she knew that assembling a few ad-hoc focus groups would produce important insight. “It was a challenge in terms of trying to adapt, based on what the clients said they needed, and, at the same time, stay true to the brand and vision,” says Ms. Lazier.

Fortunately, things went more smoothly when it came to recruiting the artistic talent. Old Girls Devin CONNELL ’00 and Courtney WOTHERSPOON ’00 (friends of Lazier’s sister Jessica PENNACHETTI ’00) helped design the website and print designs, respectively.

The result is a well edited collection of one and two piece suits boasting pretty patterns inspired by beachy chic getaways such as the Hamptons, Capri and the Seychelles. There is a selection available at Vocado in Liberty Village, although most people contact her directly via word of mouth.

Ms. Lazier says that she’s now building her brand using the skills she learned as an account executive. With one exception this time, she’s essentially a team of one (a patternmaker creates the prototypes and they are manufactured locally).

In the four years since conceiving Destineau, Ms. Lazier has given birth to two daughters, Brooke and Paige. She also works four days a week for the City of Toronto.

Ms. Lazier loves that the learning curve never hits a plateau. “In some aspects, you seriously learn something new every hour versus every day,” she says. “To a certain extent, you’re creating the process but there’s also a way of doing things that you can’t control.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the name Destineau was born out of a portmanteau of “destination” and “eau” (“water” in French for any lapsed language students). But “destiny” seems to figure in there somewhere, too. If nothing more, Ms. Lazier points out that she has wonderful creative latitude from which to grow the collection. “I’m never going to run out of places in the world.”

Rosemary Little JeFares ’83

Rosemary Little Jefares likes to say that being an entrepreneur is not a question of resources, but rather, being resourceful. Of course, this is the type of insight that can best be gleaned after years of experience 15 years in Ms. Jefares’ case.

In that amount of time, she has built a “wee floral empire” as she refers to her business, Quince Flowers.

Ms. Jefares did not see floral artistry in her future back when she studied fine art at York University. But by the time she moved to the U.K. to pursue her Masters at the University of York, focusing on the sociology of visual culture her creative seeds were evidently sown.

On a whim, she began working part-time at a flower shop run by Lady Julia Hodgkin (wife of British painter Howard Hodgkin) which was well located within design/restaurant guru Terence Conran’s retail spaces.

Ms. Jefares admits she was a quick study, learning all botanical aspects as she went along. “I still find all that so fascinating, even after 15 years,” she says.

Once she decided to go solo, Ms. Jefares was determined to set up a similar shop within a shop arrangement back in Toronto, thereby gaining better visibility among a wider range of clients.

She set up Quince Flowers in UpCountry, the furniture retailer known for its updated vintage style. In 2008, she moved into a light  filled location on Queen Street East in the city’s burgeoning Riverdale neighbourhood. This is where most of the assembling from striking, stunning wedding centerpieces to simpler, verdant bouquets takes place.

She counts restauranteur Mark McEwan as one of her longest clients. So when he opened his namesake specialty food store at the Shops at Don Mills, Quince was invited to create a small concession, aptly named Flowerbar. Ms. Jefares has two staff working out of that space and four at the main location.

Today, one quarter of her revenue comes from standing orders and she remains a go to source for magazine editorial shoots.

While the recession marked a less bountiful period (“The first thing people cut were flowers,” she says, matter-of-factly), Ms. Jefares now feels optimistic. She has many exciting initiatives on the go, including a partnership with the Women of Baycrest Hospital called Blooms for Baycrest, a subscription bouquet service that helps fund women’s brain health. Quince Flowers has also sponsored the Canadian Opera Company from last year through 2012, providing all inhouse arrangements and opening night bouquets.

Ms. Jefares, who has two children under ten years old, cryptically says she’s planning to redefine how we buy flowers over the coming years. Whatever this means, it’s clear her business continues to blossom.

Amy Verner attended BSS from Junior Kindergarten through Grade 9 and remembers liking art class much more than English. She has been a lifestyle writer for the past eight years.

Not every 13 year old has the gumption to run her own business, but in the midst of Toronto’s 2009 municipal garbage strike, BSS student Greta Hoaken saw a flash of opportunity. Too young to be hired for a summer job at any local establishment, Greta recognized in the city wide headache a potential for her very own business venture and, like any good entrepreneur, she jumped at it.

“My family’s really big on talking about current events, especially in our community, so we were talking about the garbage strike,” recalls the now 15 year old Grade 10 student, “and I noticed that people were making a lot of money [by running private trash removal businesses] and how it must be a really great experience.” With some encouraging words from her father, she decided that she would give it a try.

Greta immediately scoured the internet for junk removal services and contacted a couple of them before finally opting to partner with a company called Just Junk. Within a day, her truck was booked.

“They were a little surprised the first time because they didn’t correctly clue into the fact that I was so young, so they were a little confused to find [a 13 year old waiting for them] saying, ‘Okay, how much is this going to be?’ and then writing a cheque for the amount!”

Though the young, savvy proprietress had to abandon her business after only three weeks in order to attend summer camp, she admits to having generated a substantial profit in this short time.

“The first time I did it I had to pay for the truck, so the profit was lower,” Greta explains. But, once the media got hold of her story, that changed. Before long, the teen found herself promoting her business on Global News and CTV.

“I’m the most awkward 13 year old in the world in those videos, but unfortunately they’re on YouTube now,” she laughs.

Happily, the media attention led to a business boost for Just Junk which would also prove beneficial for Greta. “They got a lot of free advertising from this, so the second and third time they actually didn’t charge me for the truck, which was really sweet of them.” She casually adds, “I made much more after that.”

For Grade 11 student Ali Sermol, entrepreneurship comes with a social mission: to educate her peers on the ins and outs of shopping ethically. As head of the BSS Fair Trade Club, Ali and her teammates aim to bring a heightened level of consumer consciousness to student life by incorporating more fair trade products within the School itself. Often, this means involving other members of the student body to join in.

“For two years we have made our own line of t-shirts, which incorporated all of the students,” says Ali, who is now in her second year of running the club started by her sister four years ago. “The first year we couldn’t get fair trade; they were just American Apparel, but student designed. The second year we went to a local, fair trade company.

Again, [the shirts] were all hand designed by girls in our School. This year we are going to make a line of reusable canvas bags, which will be really great. We’re going to sell them, probably at the end of the year.”

The club’s decision to sell canvas bags is reflective of Ali’s drive to expand others’ awareness of the world of fair trade. “With fair trade products there are hundreds of them but usually people think of flour, sugar, chocolates. But, you know, the list goes on.”

While the club works to teach others, it has also been an ongoing learning experience for Ali. She recalls their booth at this year’s Deck the Hall fundraiser as a unique challenge, which joined the Fair Trade Club with other individual sellers in collaboration. “It was really an opportunity to sell different products and raise money for different organizations. That in itself was a really big challenge to organize and took a lot of coordinating time and money and people and all of that. Luckily I have a good team of girls behind me.”

Working as part of a team is its own training ground. This year, Ali opted to divide the group’s members into four sections, each focusing on either advertising through Chapel announcements, managing finances, researching materials, or soliciting designs. By breaking up the group according to task, operations are able to run much more smoothly though asking for help from the team isn’t always easy.

“Definitely my biggest struggle is delegating,” Ali laughs. “Being kind of an A-type person I find that I want to do it all myself, but I am learning to delegate and this year things went a lot faster.”

Her advice to other young entrepreneurs is to reach out for assistance when the job demands it. “I think just asking for help is probably the best thing I can say to anybody else. Because the help is there.”

She adds, “I have a group of four or five core girls who are there with me 100 percent, watching my back and making sure all the details are on track, and that’s very nice of them.”

Sometimes, the desire to make a difference in the world ignites an entrepreneurial spark. This was the case with two pairs of BSS sisters Stephanie and Laura McGowan, and Giulia and Sofia Benic who realized that their crafty jewelry making pastime could be used to raise money for charity.

“We came up with the idea to make bracelets for awareness so everyone could wear them around School,” says Grade 7 student Sofia Benic.

Adds Giulia Benic, who is in Grade 9, “Our grandmother had breast cancer and [the McGowans’] father is the head of radiation at Credit Valley. So because we had experienced breast cancer in our family, and because of [the McGowans’] father, we decided we wanted to contribute somehow.”

The two pairs of sisters, who are all friends, strung bracelets together over the summer to be sold around the time of the Run for the Cure.

“We used Swarovski crystal beads and breast cancer charms,” says Stephanie Mc Gowan, a Grade 12 student. “We sold them for a couple of days before the Run for the Cure [in October] and then most of the day of the run.”

The popularity of the bracelets came as a welcome surprise, and taught the girls a valuable lesson in supply and demand.

“We didn’t think the Junior School was going to buy that many,” recalls Stephanie. “We were only going to sell to them once or twice, but then after going one day we realized that they wanted them more than the Senior School, which was surprising. So we decided to readjust some of the bracelets to make more smaller ones because we realized that the Junior School liked them more.”

In total, the girls managed to sell about 400 bracelets at $10 apiece a whopping achievement.

“It was very rewarding, because we got to give back and raise money,” recalls Sofia. “And it was actually quite fun to make the bracelets. We got to spend some quality time together.”

The experience also proved inspirational. Says Sofia, “We learned how much people care and want to give back, and we realized how much we can actually make a difference even as a small number of people. If everyone tried to do something, to raise money for anything, it would really make a big difference.”

As for Greta Hoaken, nearly two years have passed since her days as the neighbourhood garbage girl, but she has been able to dip her toes into yet another business venture through her Intro to Business class at BSS.

“We sold Tim Hortons at School,” she says. “Everyone was involved. I was really into marketing, so I helped make posters and videos that would advertise it. We showed them in Chapel to get people excited about it. Other people worked on pricing, and then some people worked on administration. So it was really interesting.”

Still itching with the entrepreneurial bug, Greta has been grateful for the opportunity to continue to pursue her passion in an academic setting. She is enthusiastic when she says, “I think BSS offers some really great classes and really helps kids find what they like to do.”

Kelli Korducki is a columnist with The Globe and Mail.

Brodie and her sister, Grade 12 student Taylor Kirsh, noticed something was missing.

“Taylor and I saw a kind of void there, because it was really directed towards the parents,” says Brodie. Adds Taylor, “We’ve always wanted to do something at Deck The Hall because it’s been so cool. There were no student booths at the School and it just seemed right.”

Right for what? The sisters had been cooking up a business idea for awhile.

The Cookies Stand is a sweet tooth’s dream. Currently the brand markets three treats. It started, however, with one chocolate dipped idea. “My family and I are innovators and we’re always thinking of new ideas,” says Taylor.

Brodie expresses a similar sentiment, saying the Kirshes are often brainstorming in the car or at home. “One day we were just trying to figure out what to make,” she says. “So we put all our creative minds together and came up with this, and it tasted delicious, so we decided to sell it.” The product was an Oreo cookie on a stick, dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles, dubbed The Cookies.

“We wanted to make something inexpensive, presented nicely that tasted delicious,” says Brodie. Like Coco Chanel, Mary Kay, Martha Stewart and Spanx founder Sara Blakely before them, Brodie and Taylor had found an untapped market and a product for it to, quite literally, devour.

Aiming to target the student attendees, the Kirsh sisters set up shop with The Cookies Stand at Deck The Hall 2009. The treats were a hit amongst students, teachers and parents, and the sale was a success. Mostly though, the enterprise was just for fun.

The next year however, everyone in Brodie’s EB class was required to undertake her own venture. So, armed with two new products Pringles half dipped in chocolate with various toppings called The Hip Chip, and Caution, a box of sweets covered in chocolate and icing sugar (beware, once you start, you can’t stop) The Cookies Stand returned to Deck The Hall. The Cookies sold for $2, Caution for $5 and The Hip Chip for $3. For ten bucks you could have one of each and possibly, depending on your willpower, a blissful sugar overload. Brodie and Taylor sold out of Caution and The Hip Chip (they had only a few of The Cookies remaining) and doubled their profits.

A couple of winning capitalists, Brodie and Taylor should be just as recognized for their charitable efforts. The sisters decided to donate a portion of the business’s profits to the Zama Zama orphanage project in Swaziland a cause the BSS students have been raising money for six years.

Brodie found the marketing unit in her EB class to be particularly instrumental in The Cookies Stand’s success. “We’re learning about the importance of product placement, price, promotion…That’s really been helpful,” she says. “If they look like the dog’s breakfast, no one’s going to buy them. They’re packaged very nicely, that’s our thing.” The sisters have put a lot of thought into packaging, and Taylor’s creative brain has certainly helped. “Brodie’s more of the business person, she has a lot of ideas,” says the elder sister. “I’m an arts student so I try to think outside of the box a lot of the time.”

While the EB class was a driving force and a shaping tool for the budding company, The Cookies Stand also has the BSS learning environment to thank for its success. “I can’t think of a better place as a high school student to start your own business,” says Brodie. “The administration and teachers are really open to it because it’s a great opportunity for the girls to learn. It’s practice basically, and we have a huge support system.”

Its products made great stocking stuffers, but The Cookies Stand has proved a success beyond the holiday season. Brodie and Taylor have accepted orders at various times of the year, most recently an order for Caution boxes to be used as loot bags.

Though Taylor will be attending university next fall, the business will remain in tact, at least for Deck The Hall 2011 (Taylor plans to return for the three day event), and likely beyond. “I think it’s really cool to be able to do what you want, rather than what other people tell you to do,” says Taylor. “I thought it was great that Brodie and I were able to make our own decisions.” The sisters have discussed pitching their products to at least one major business, and in the meantime, they’re happy to take requests.

“It actually takes us a few hours to make the products, but once we have the two of us working together, it’s not that difficult,” says Brodie. “All businesses take work, so this is just our time that we have to put into it.”

“Just ask us,” says Taylor. “We’re totally willing to make extra product at any time, so if we get a phone call or email or text message, we’re down to do business.”

Spoken like a couple of budding tycoons.

<!– p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 17.0px ‘Adobe Garamond’; color: #90152f} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times; color: #1a1a18} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 21.0px ‘Adobe Garamond’; color: #90152f} span.s1 {font: 16.8px ‘Adobe Garamond’; color: #1a1a18} span.s2 {font: 60.6px Times} span.s3 {color: #90152f} span.s4 {font: 20.8px ‘Adobe Garamond’} span.s5 {font: 7.0px Helvetica; color: #90152f} –><a href=”http://bssthelink.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/11.001_Middle-School-final-proof_img_81.jpg”><img title=”11.001_Middle School final proof_img_8″ src=”http://bssthelink.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/11.001_Middle School final proofimg_81-300×215.jpg” alt=”" width=”300″ height=”215″ /></a>How BSS is making Middle School memorable and meaningful. by megan griffith greene
Unless you’re on the Olympic podium, being in the middle never means top billing. It often signifies not being very interesting (think middle of the road), not having much autonomy (being stuck in the middle), or not being noticed (think Jan Brady). And then there’s Middle School. Nothing represents the agony of all the world’s “middleness” quite as much as being in Grades 7 and 8. Physically, intellectually, socially, hormonally at no point are we stuck in limbo more than we are in those crucial, sometimes painful years between childhood and adolescence.
At least that’s how it’s always been in the past.
When I first speak with Winnie Hunsburger, she immediately dismisses my naïve notion that Middle School is like being in suspended animation between childhood and adolescence. Middle School at BSS is not, she insists, merely a cocoon that links the Junior School (where students spend their childhood) and Senior School (which they leave as adults). Dr. Hunsburger, the Middle School’s Team Leader for Research Inquiry, took everything that I thought I knew about Middle School and flipped it on its ear. In a manner of speaking, I got “middle schooled”.
“One of the most important things with this age group is that it’s a period of change at all levels as dramatic as a child undergoes from birth to age three,” she tells me. “Our role as educators” she says, “is about providing what’s best for the students at this stage of life.”
After only a few minutes, some things become clear. First, that Dr. Hunsburger sees this period as one of exciting growth instead of something that just needs to be endured; second; that BSS has designed some exciting and innovative curriculum that sets the Middle School apart; and third, that and bear with me if your memories of Middle School, like mine, are less than rosy the BSS school program sounds like a lot of fun. For whatever may still haunt you from Grade
7 the awkwardness, the acne, the lack of social grace it’s clear that Dr. Hunsburger sees this as an exciting time of growth: not a period of waiting out puberty, but an opportunity for girls to shine.
“This is when the girls start to wonder, ‘Who am I?’ ‘Where am I headed?’” Dr. Hunsburger explains. “They are examining and exploring their own identity. Their frontal lobes which are involved in decision making become really active”
Dr. Hunsburger sees that activity as being essential to everything in school life. And that means making students much more active in the classroom. “In Grade 6, students are still generally OK with people making decisions for them, but part of our role as educators is empowering them to start making decisions for themselves.” It’s something that Dr. Hunsburger calls “bounded freedom”: providing them with an environment where they can practice making decisions and allowing them to make mistakes all in a safe space.
It’s like when babies learn to walk, she tells me. “You wouldn’t tell a toddler ‘you’re not ready to walk yet, so you’d better stay right where you are.’ No, instead you get stuff out of the way. In the same way, kids need to pursue their own answers.” So how does this philosophy take shape at BSS? Girls in Middle School get to explore their own curiosity in programs focused on investigative research, which get them engaged in researching and exploring issues that are meaningful to them.

“Sometimes these lines of inquiry are provoked by the teachers, but they are defined by the students by what’s important to them,” Dr. Hunsburger says. While research in the Junior School is closely tied to curriculum, in Middle School the students themselves define the topic and scope, with the teachers the link middle school spotlight · helping guide the students in their work. These projects can draw forward from any subject, and often have implications that stretch across the entire curriculum. So when the Grade 7 students start with the question “What is number?” it’s guaranteed that the answers aren’t all in math class. Instead, it will take them to social studies what numbers mean to society and beyond. “A good word for a good Middle School educator is ‘catalyst’,” Dr. Hunsburger tells me. “The key
is to spark something; ask provocative questions.” “Research is not a linear process,” Dr. Hunsburger explains. “It’s about perspective and back and forth; coming back to what you think and resays is essential to helping the students become mature, critical thinkers. “Learning can come from multiple disciplines; it’s about understanding different perspectives,” she says.
Ms. Raso says that the approach has meant that the students hit the Senior School ground running. “Many teachers have spoken about the fact that girls currently in Grades 9 and 10 are more open to investigative work and working independently than they were in previous years” she says.
And it goes far beyond the actual projects, Ms. Raso says. The Middle School teachers are also excellent at collaborating, something she says means that the students are totally supported through their
A good word for a good Middle School educator is ‘catalyst’. They key is to spark something; ask provocative questions
independent work. The teachers meet regularly, and know all the students well, so they know where every student needs help.
“It’s not just about covering curriculum, it’s about bringing the curriculum to life. We are trying to shift traditional paradigms. It‘s so powerful” Ms. Raso says. That paradigm shift is not just academic to Ms. Raso. “When I was a student, I never felt that I was part of the decisions that were made in school. I never felt that my own ideas were validated. I quickly learned that if I learned to spew back what the teacher said to be in the same way it was said, that was the key to success,” she says. “Now, that way of thinking has changed completely. It’s now about respecting kids as thinkers and contributors.”Examining it. The questions are just the beginning.” So instead of being focused only on coming up with the answer, the students discover all the ways in which these questions can be asked and answered. The teachers help refine their questions, and direct their research. But where that research takes them? The students decide.
It’s an approach that Helen Raso, Lead Teacher for Curriculum Development for the Senior School, Dr. Hunsburger echoes this passion as fundamental to her approach. “It’s been a major change, moving away from the understanding that education is about transmitting information into the student’s brains. It’s much more about helping the student construct her own understanding.” It’s challenging, they both admit, but then so is
the paradox: how something can be in the middle and at the top at the same time? 

This issue of The Link is about ‘entrepreneurship’. Never has it been more important for a school to design learning opportunities that allow students to think like an entrepreneur. It is the spirit that is driving innovation in today’s economy. Imagination, vision and having the courage to take risks, are the characteristics of entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs. You don’t necessarily have to be starting a business to be an entrepreneur. Nowadays, it means more than that. It’s a way of seeing the world figuring out new and improved ways to do old things. It’s about invention, creative problem solving and being able to anticipate needs, not simply respond to them.

At BSS, we want our girls to be exposed to this kind of thinking in their everyday worlds, whether it’s tackling an academic problem, or masterminding their own start up ventures, like the girls you’ll meet in this issue of The Link. I’m awestruck by the gumption, creativity and get it done mentality of these young girls who see an opportunity and go for it. Inside the School and out, BSS students are learning about business, making a profit and making a difference.

In fact, it was that same spirit that drove innovation in our own Middle School. Finding the right academic, social and emotional approach for students in this age group has been a real challenge for educators. But BSS, with the leadership of Assistant Head, Senior School, Angela Terpstra, used the principles of entrepreneurship to find a solution. You’ll read about the team’s inventive approach to the program and hear from the students about how it’s working for them.

BSS can do its part, but the environment our girls grow up in at home plays a big role in how they see the world. Imagine having Alfredo or Arcangelo De Gasperis as grandparents. New immigrants from Italy in 1954, the brothers started a modest concrete and drain business in their backyard. Today, Con-Drain employs over 2000 people. Altogether, the De Gasperis brothers have sent five granddaughters to BSS because they wanted to create an educational tradition in their family and, according to Carla De Gasperis, Alfredo’s daughter, BSS reflected their values: “Do what you love and do it well.”

Entrepreneurship is certainly a style our Old Girls have embraced in their professional lives and Globe and Mail columnist Amy Verner profiles nine of these amazing women in this issue.

It was also that spirit of adventure and having the courage to chart new territory that drove this year’s Distinguished Old Girl, Anne INNIS Dagg ’51. Her many accomplishments were the result of a woman in charge of her life who wasn’t afraid to challenge convention and try to make us see the world differently. She stands as a tribute to, and a symbol of, the values we hold dear at BSS and I’m honoured to welcome Ms. Dagg into our Distinguished Old Girl hall of fame.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue as much as I have and we would love to hear your feedback or your stories of entrepreneurship.

What do current parents Phillip Crawley and The Honourable Linda Frum, and current grandparent Paul V. Godfrey have to say about Facebook, Twitter and BSS girls? What does 2011 Head Girl Katherine Snell have to say?

… on Facebook and Twitter

Are you on Facebook? How many friends do you have on Facebook? Do you Tweet?

Current parent Phillip Crawley

Phillip Crawley: No, I am not on Facebook nor do I tweet, but The Globe makes good use of both Twitter and Facebook to connect with our audience.

Linda Frum: I was briefly a member of Facebook but it really annoyed my teenagers so I left. They were blocking me anyway.

Paul Godfrey: Many of my friends and family are, but I’m not on Facebook. My business e-mails keep me too busy to “tweet”.  My life is somewhat of an open book so I probably don’t need any more exposure.

Katherine Snell: I am on Facebook and currently have 709 friends.  I don’t have a Twitter account, but I do occasionally indulge in it. My favourite was a hilarious Suri Cruise impersonator, but I think the account got shut down. . .

… speaking of Facebook friends

The definition of ‘friend’ may take on a different context in Facebook land. How do you define a ‘friend’ or ‘friendship’?

Phillip Crawley: Someone who stands by you when you don’t deserve it, and gives you advice you don’t want to hear…but you listen, because you know they are on your side.

Current parent, the Honourable Linda Frum

Linda Frum: A friend is a kindred spirit who accepts that a lot of the time I have to conduct my friendships via email. A friend is someone you can have a lifelong conversation with…either in person or by text.

Paul Godfrey: A friend is someone whose company I enjoy and with whom I can spend time discussing experiences or items of mutual interest.  Most of all, a friend is someone who is there for you in times of personal need.

Katherine Snell: I think ‘friend’ can mean a million different things: somebody who you enjoy laughing with, somebody who you can confide in, somebody who knows your life story . . . and any combination therein!

Describe a BSS girl in 140 words or less (140 characters is just too limiting a description of a BSS girl)

Phillip Crawley:

The best know how to win, how to lead, how to make a contribution, in a world where there are many less privileged. And the best know that, and take advantage, so they can give back to those less fortunate. Their generation will be leaders of society, and will transform business thinking in a way that their mothers (and fathers) will admire.  BSS builds their character, and gives them the confidence to know they can fulfill their aspirations.

Linda Frum:

A BSS girl is bright, confident and ready to face life’s challenges fearlessly. She has a strong moral compass and is so tough she doesn’t even need to wear sweatpants under her kilt in sub-freezing temperatures.

Current Grandparent, Paul Godfrey

Paul Godfrey:

A BSS girl exemplifies a community leader of the future who is trained to have a career in her chosen field from business to politics, science to health care, teaching to technology.  A BSS girl is an individual who will develop into a well respected woman with superb people skills, flawless manners and considerable class.  Her education will prepare her for the many challenges that face all of us in this changing society.  A BSS girl is an individual with a strong sense of self worth who is always prepared to put more back into the community than she will ever take out.  To put it simply, a BSS girl’s path of life is one of ultimate success.

Katherine Snell: A BSS girl reveres tradition, but seeks to break boundaries. She knows her limits, but knows even better how to push them. There is no task that cannot be accomplished by the BSS girl, and no small number of people wanting to help.

The ultimate debate: iPhone or Blackberry?

Phillip Crawley: Blackberry, not iPhone

Linda Frum: Blackberry! Was in Saudia Arabia recently and felt a patriotic jolt of pride every time I saw a Saudi pull out his Blackberry in the Arabian desert no less!

Paul Godfrey: Blackberry.

BSS Head Girl, Katherine Snell

Katherine Snell: Blackberry.

I see your ultimate debate over smart phones and I raise you this question, “What is your favourite app? What is your favourite appetizer?”

Phillip Crawley: Favourite app The Globe and Mail.  Favourite appetizer crab cakes.

Linda Frum: My favourite app is electronic Scrabble. And I love it when my Grade 2 daughter beats me. That’s when I know BSS is doing a good job. Favourite appetizer? Hmmm, would be easier to list the foods I don’t like.

Paul Godfrey: My favourite app is, of course, the National Post newspaper app. My favourite appetizer is any salad prepared by my talented wife.

Katherine Snell: Without a doubt, my favourite app is ‘Piano Cats’ a keyboard you can play that meows. It’s a much worse sound than a real piano, but much more hilarious. I have the free version. . . I can only imagine what the full version entails.

…on blogs, commenting on online news stories

Do you blog? Are there particular blogs that you follow?

Linda Frum: I strongly recommend political blogger David Frum at www.frumforum.com.

Katherine Snell: No! I don’t think I have anything original enough to say. . . yet.

Paul Godfrey: No, I don’t blog. I follow bloggers who cover politics, sports, business and, of course, the media.

Have you ever commented on an online news story?

Linda Frum: I have never commented on an online news story, but I often read the comments others make.

Paul Godfrey: Although I don’t go online to give my opinions, I do discuss my comments with my colleagues at Postmedia Network.

Katherine Snell: Never, although I have written a letter to the editor of a newspaper (the old fashioned equivalent, perhaps?).

David Hockney just opened an exhibition of his work, using Apple’s Brushes application on his iPhone and iPad. Any predictions as to what is next for our artists and writers in terms of digital application?

Linda Frum: Not sure, but whatever it is, I hope a BSS girl invents it.

Paul Godfrey: It is remarkable today to imagine how artists like David Hockney can advance the world of art through a digital application such as Apple’s Brushes.  There appears to be no limit on how technology can advance the careers and imagination of creative people.  I describe myself as a technological novice so I will leave the development of future digital innovations to the younger, more visionary, creative and technically savvy individuals.

Join us for this year’s BSS Heritage Dinner, learn more about the event and register now.

Janet Ainslie

Assistant Head, Finance and Facilities

Message from the Chair and Vice Chair, BSS Foundation

It has been a pleasure and an honour for both of us to serve on The Bishop Strachan School Foundation during the past year. The year was an exciting one as we welcomed Deryn Lavell in her new role as Head of School, as well as new Trustees Heather Regent, Mary Deacon and Elizabeth VANSTONE ’64. We are tremendously grateful to all of the Trustees for their hard work and dedication in support of the School, and will greatly miss the contributions of recently retired Trustees Tim Lazaris and Anita Mah congratulations as well to Tim in joining the Board of Governors this year.

Increasing our ability to provide financial aid continues to be one of the School’s most important priorities and we want to thank all the members of our BSS community for their strong support of this initiative. Thanks to your generosity, the School was able to not only retain its current level of financial aid but, most critically, we were able to welcome great new girls to our community. This priority will continue to form an important part of the work of the Foundation in the years ahead.

Despite economic uncertainties, the BSS community has shown its unwavering support for the School. The 2009/10 Annual Fund raised an unprecedented $756,000 and a total of $2.7 Million in gifts and pledges were committed overall to the School’s priorities. This year also saw 100% participation by the Board of Trustees, the Board of Governors, as well as the Old Girls’ Executive Committee and US Foundation Board in support of these critical fundraising initiatives. The many parents, past parents, grandparents, alumnae, faculty, staff and friends of BSS who supported the School’s Annual Fund, as well as donors who made significant donations to financial aid, the endowment and mentorship are the core from which the School expands its ability to deliver top notch programs and recruit and retain girls who ‘seize the day’ and pursue their paths with confidence and passion.

Finally, we are pleased to report that the Foundation’s endowment has recovered nicely from the challenges of the 2008/09 market downturn, with the return on our investments at 8% and the value of our endowment standing at $14.7 Million at year end. Although we remain cautious and vigilant, we believe we have the right mix of fiscal prudence and good management to both protect and grow the Foundation’s assets.

We would like to thank all our Trustees for their hard work and dedication in service to the School in the past year. We thank the many supporters who have shown their unflagging support of BSS’s mission and the dreams of the girls who, everyday, bring their youthful exuberance and their aspirations into its halls. We look forward to more exciting challenges and opportunities in the months ahead.

Click here to download the The BSS Annual Report 2009/10. (PDF)
Please note: the corrections to the BSS 2009/10 Annual Report (as of January 12, 2011) are posted on the BSS website, here.

1948

1951 60 Year Reunion

This is Ms. Fleming’s second year as Director of Service Learning, a position formerly referred to as Director of Community Service. With the change of title has come a philosophical switch throughout the School, not away from volunteering but rather to including reciprocal relationships and promoting student involvement in all aspects of service–from concept to completion. This approach necessitates that students take on leadership roles and learn how to foster successful and functional group dynamics.

Ms. Fleming and her fellow faculty members hope that by developing an atmosphere of service learning within BSS they will instill three main components of the educational approach into the core of courses and programs. These components involve personal growth, academic enhancement and hands on community service.
“The idea of service learning is what we’re hoping the program will evolve into,” explains an enthusiastic Ms. Fleming. “Ideally, each of the initiatives will connect something from class to something within our community and then to reflection and personal growth in the students.”

BSS has a rich history of volunteerism during World War II, girls volunteered at veterans’ hospitals in the city. Now a large part of the organizational and planning onus has shifted to the girls. This immerses them in projects and allows them to claim ownership of their own actions and initiatives. There is an emphasis on providing every girl with the opportunity to take on leadership positions in order to foster their leadership skills through practical applications.

The service learning experience begins in the Junior School where developing reciprocal relationships with other communities, near and far, is of the utmost importance. Many of the service learning endeavours that the Junior School students undertake are inspired by Roots & Shoots, a program of the Jane Goodall Institute. According to a statement on their website, Roots & Shoots is all about “making positive change happen for our communities, for animals and for the environment.”
The girls at BSS took this approach to heart and developed three groups: one to focus on animals, one to focus on people and another to focus on the environment. They take on the responsibility of the entire process, from deciding where they want to help, to organizing a plan, and finally to following through. The girls must learn how to lead others and how to work together to accomplish a common goal.

A three-year (and counting) partnership with the Anglican ministry at Flemingdon Park is a part of the focus on making positive change and relationships with people, and the relationship began with a simple question: “What do you need?” Reverend Helena of Flemingdon Park initially asked for help with the Thanksgiving food drive that has now become an annual service learning opportunity for the students. This year, the Junior School girls organized two home cooked dinners for the Flemingdon Park community. And they didn’t just cook; they shared the meal with community members and also shared stories, laughs and thoughts.

Patti MacDonald, Assistant Head of the Junior School, has seen the girls have life altering experiences during their service learning endeavours. This year, one Grade 6 student (who has been involved with the food bank at Flemingdon Park since her Grade 4 year) was meeting with Reverend Helena when a woman had to be turned away from the food bank. It was an emotional experience for the student to realize that, even when someone needs to eat, they can’t always find instant aid.
“I’m convinced now that for this one girl specifically, her life is going to be different,” says Ms. MacDonald of the Grade 6 student. “She’s going to look at her role in society differently having had that experience and so that’s our goal for all of the girls to find ways to allow them to have that personal moment where they see the potential for them to save the world.”

It’s the combination of awareness and a passion to make change with the ability to create action and lead others in action that is the key to effective service learning. The Junior School students are involved in a program that balances service with leadership. They have reached far beyond the GTA in their quest to improve the world and improve themselves by becoming heavily involved in the ACACIA Female Leadership Initiative, a program that not only operates under the umbrella of the Jane Goodall Institute, but is co-founded by Julia Coburn, the daughter of Junior School Administrative Assistant, Ellen Palmer. ACACIA believes in nurturing leadership, stating on their website that the program “connects people to people, ideas and resources in order to create effective future leaders, build understanding and facilitate sustainable solutions to problems locally and internationally.”

As part of their involvement with this program, the BSS girls are pen pals with Nganza High School students in Mwanza, Tanzania. They share their experiences involving service learning and community volunteering with each other, and also discuss cultural similarities and differences.

At a BSS assembly this year, the recipient of the 2009 Jane Goodall Youth Leadership Award, Shadrach Meshach from Tanzania, answered the girls’ questions about Roots & Shoots and other volunteering initiatives. The girls from younger grades, the ones who have yet to become pen pals with a Nganza student, were abuzz with questions, wiggling their fingers at the end of raised hands for Meshach to take notice. They wanted to know, “How long does it take for a letter to reach Tanzania?” “What’s different there?” “Why do they need our help?” “Do you like Canada?” Their excitement was palpable.

Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head of the Senior School, believes the next crucial step for service learning at BSS is forming the connections between service learning and the curriculum, a development that is already taking place at the Middle School level.

“What we want to do is actually shift and say that it’s not just about giving back, as many girls assume, but it has more to do with what the girls themselves are willing to learn. What do you learn when you’re involved in these things?” explains Dr. Terpstra. The shift Dr. Terpstra speaks of is from seeing oneself as a giver, to seeing oneself as the receiver in a volunteer position. “Girls need to realize that their presence on projects actually may detract from [the project itself] but other people are willing to work with [them] in order for [them] to learn and be a change in the world,” she says.

The focus of the service learning experiences for the Grade 7 girls is, ‘What am I doing and what is my attitude towards certain things?’ This year, as part of that focus, and also as a demonstration of the connectedness of their studies, the Grade 7s were taken to an organic farm and experienced what it was like to work there. The experience exposed them to a part of their community that many of them were unaware of. It also gave them an opportunity to learn about environmentalism, the food supply, agriculture and the impact they have on the food chain in society. That’s geography, sociology, science and some wholesome hard work all rolled into one.
The Grade 8 program takes the next step after self-realization and turns to the theme of social justice. The girls are encouraged to figure out what they are passionate about and to follow through on that in some manifestation, and though it seems an easy charge, it can be tricky to find a specific calling, no matter your age.

“A lot of girls don’t know what they’re passionate about yet,” says Ms. Fleming, “or what impact they can actually have.” She explains that it’s only by doing that they can discover what truly motivates them. “One of my goals is to make [service] exciting and then leave them.”

When you speak with the students, it seems Ms. Fleming has achieved her goal. Alexandra Sisam, Service Learning prefect, says the reason she relishes her position is because she gets to help people fall in love with volunteering. Having taken on the responsibilities of prefect, Sisam has had an opportunity to become a leader in her school community and she uses her role to inspire others in the area of service. “I want to be able to provide girls with the opportunities that they need to get involved,” she says, “because it is really fun and rewarding.”

Sisam works with the Service Learning Council to organize and promote different service learning initiatives throughout BSS, including GAS days (Go and Serve) and long term volunteer opportunities. She hopes the girls will not only have fun volunteering, but will learn something too. “I believe that service learning helps people to be thankful and appreciate what they have,” says Sisam.

In Grade 9, the service learning component focuses on stewardship the responsibility one has to protect and support a community. At this age, the girls begin to be more financially responsible, perhaps earning their own money, and they begin to make their own purchases and social decisions. Focusing on stewardship is about educating them as to the repercussions their decisions may have on things such as the environment or socio-economic atmosphere of a community.
Though Grades 10 and 11 have yet to have specific curricular implementation of service learning initiatives, those students are still being exposed everyday to the philosophy of benefiting themselves by benefiting others.

It’s these connections that create awareness and an understanding that will hopefully fuel the girls to be socially informed and responsible. “I do feel that service learning is essential to development of youth,” states Ms. Fleming. “It is important that our girls learn the skills associated with service work because meaningful service experiences contribute to the development of our girls into responsible and empathetic citizens. The girls are our future leaders.”

The Horizons program helps BSS students develop as leaders through tutoring. For the past five years, BSS girls have regularly visited other schools in diverse Toronto neighbourhoods to provide one-on-one tutoring. This year the program was expanded from Grades 9 to 12 to include Grade 8 also. These students work as literacy coaches, working on puzzles, alphabet games and the like, with kindergarten students. The older girls visit schools on a regular basis alternating weekly between facilitating discussions on global issues and leadership and providing one-on-one tutoring and mentoring. Pairs of a BSS girl and a student from another school will often be given a task to complete which requires them to work together and learn from each other. There are four separate Horizons programs that run throughout the year, one of which involves BSS students interested in robotics. Last year they introduced the students at one school to computer programming, robot building and presentation skills in order for the group to compete in First Lego League, a world wide Lego based robotics competition.

BSS prides itself on creating an environment that fosters intelligent, successful women who will be positive contributors to society. As the current ad campaign states, “With the right education, girls who want to change the world become women who do.” This is not a witty slogan in the eyes of the School’s faculty and staff, it is a true goal; one that can be consistently and constantly achieved. Incorporating service learning further into the educational experience is just one way of obtaining that goal.
“We’re really taking the notion of citizenship and global citizenship very seriously what does it mean to be a citizen of the world, a citizen of Canada and a citizen locally, and in what ways do citizens have roles and responsibilities?” says Dr. Terpstra. Trips abroad are an intense service learning experience and there are several opportunities for every student at BSS to take part. For seven years the School has been running an annual trip to Jamaica. The trip is open to Grade 11 and 12 students. Ms. Fleming, the main coordinator of this and the other service learning trips, never tires of seeing the girls learn while travelling. “A highlight for me is that we are all growing together through these experiences. It is incredible to watch the girls discover themselves through the service of others and that I get to be a part of their learning and grow with them,” she states.

Grade 12 student, DeeDee Tardiff, went on the trip to Jamaica last year and found it to be an invaluable experience. “I’d like to think that I have always been socially aware, but this really opened my eyes and let me see first hand the poverty in the world and the amount that other people really need our help; whether that help comes in the form of time, money, or even awareness,” she says.

BSS girls also travel to Ecuador during March Break, in partnership with the Me to We program. Me to We aims to “provide youth the unique opportunity to not just visit a community but to get to know the people, the issues and to be a part of the work that is being done to provide youth with worldly understanding.”
“Every year I’d say girls come away from the trips with a new outlook and appreciation for their own lives,” says Ms. Fleming.
Although the international trips are intense experiences in service learning, there are opportunities to be involved in service learning initiatives nearly every day at the School.

BSS has created a reciprocal relationship with the Russell Hill Retirement Residence. The communities come together to enjoy a walking club and BSS girls have undertaken the creation of scrapbook memoirs of the lives of individual Russell Hill residents.

Monthly, girls are encouraged to Go and Serve at GAS day. Each month a different community establishment or cause is benefited. There are many non-profit organizations that partner with the School so that girls can get involved, including Out of the Cold, Right to Play and Churches on-the-Hill Food Bank.

Ms. Fleming emphasizes that the initiatives being undertaken focus on reciprocal relationships. “We are giving them these opportunities to let them know what’s out there and make them more aware and more responsible,” she says. “The reciprocal relationship is the key so they’re learning and they’re learning about themselves and about the people they’re interacting with.”

Ms. Fleming is currently consulting with a University of Toronto professional on developing more curricular connections between service learning and academia at BSS. Integrating the approach of service learning into the curriculum is not something that happens overnight. Instead, it is a process that Dr. Terpstra believes involves asking and answering an important question: “What’s an authentic way to make it all come together?” Ultimately, service learning initiatives like the ones currently in effect and in development at BSS create a wildly rich environment for leadership, growth, awareness, knowledge and self-confidence attributes that make an empowered and successful woman.

To assist in our recruiting efforts, our extended BSS community, which includes Old Girls, Current and Past Parents and Students, act as ambassadors on our behalf. Should you be interested in attending any of our events during our travels, or would like to recommend a prospective family, please contact the Student Recruiting Office directly at 416 483 4325 ext. 1220 or studentrecruiting@bss.on.ca. ]]> http://bssthelink.com/volume03-102009/bss-ss-student-recruiting-2/feed/ 0 http://bssthelink.com/volume03-102009/old-girls%e2%80%99-events-calendar-2/ http://bssthelink.com/volume03-102009/old-girls%e2%80%99-events-calendar-2/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:22:14 +0000 admin http://bssthelink.com/?p=368 ...read more]]> September:
Harvest Reunion 2010: Celebrated years end in 0 and 5… 

CLASS NEWS

1940 70 Year Reunion

Save the date! Harvest Reunion events will take place at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, contact the Development Office at 416 483 4325, ext. 1841, or development@bss.on.ca. 1945 65 Year Reunion

1945 65 Year Reunion

Save the date! Harvest Reunion events will take place at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, please be in touch with Flora MULLIGAN Agnew at 416 920 0742 or woodlawn@sympatico.ca.

1950 60 Year Reunion

Have you bookmarked lunch at Jane WOOLLEY Carruthers’ on Thursday, September 23 as the start-off to our 60th anniversary Reunion? Joyce CARTWRIGHT Lewis, 416 483 7879, joycec.lewis@sympatico.ca, Ann GREEY Richmond, 416 485 6167 and Jane WOOLLEY Carruthers, 416 489 1322, plan a rogue’s gallery of snapshots. Come and be a virtual part of the show! Don’t forget Reunion events will also take place at the School on Friday, September 24, and Saturday, September 25.

1954

Ros MURRAY Bradford has a new address and telephone number: 34 Boustead Ave, Toronto, ON M6R 1Y9, telephone 416 766 0821.

1955 55 Year Reunion

This a reminder that it is 55 years since we graduated from BSS and the Reunion weekend will take place from Thursday, September 23 to Saturday, September 25, 2010. We had such a successful 50th gathering and we hope you will be able to attend this 55th. So please mark the dates on your calendar and, even better, contact a classmate and come together. For those interested, a small donation to the School will be requested. If you have an email address to add to our class list, please contact the Development Office at 416 483 4325 ext. 1877 or development@bss.on.ca. Looking forward to seeing you Sally ELLSWORTH Cameron (416 494 7368, sarahian@sympatico.ca), Nan HAM Blair (416 934 1436), Mary PATHY (416 968 0658, mapathy@sympatico.ca), Donnie SADLEIR Farley (dgfarley@sympatico.ca) and Jane WEBER Bunting (jane.bunting@sympatico.ca).

1956

Adrienne ALLEN Dubois writes, “Currently, I am working in the field of environmental sustainability at the local level here in Hingham, MA. During the last year I have co-authored a handbook detailing how to test soil and water, describing what recycling systems are necessary and available, and set up an environmentally sensitive demonstration plot to prove that toxic chemicals in pesticides and fertilizers used by our lawn care company all over our condo association (as well as many others) are unnecessary, unhealthy and that organic lawn care is the way to go. My goal is to make a difference in a new field after 38 years of working in the field of education and the last 20 running my own educational consulting business in CT, NY and NJ, helping families relocating to the U.S. find schools for their children.”

1957

Anne JONES Hume visited BSS in December, 2009, to speak with Rita Gravina’s Grade 10 history classes about a personal project she is currently working on. She shared with the students her father’s and uncle’s World War I diaries. As the girls had just finished studying the First World War, this offered a perfect real-life connection to the Great War. In January 2010, Anne was invited back to speak with the Grade 7 girls about her first young adult historical novel, Against All Disaster. The novel, set in 1837 Toronto, tells the story of a country girl’s adventures as she searches for her missing father. Part of the Grade 7 curriculum examines the Rebellions of 1837; students were able to understand this time period through Anne’s captivating fictional account. Anne spoke to the entire Grade 7 class and then met with smaller groups in their English classes to discuss the novel and to help students with their own creative writing.

1959

Miranda DAVIES is retired from her career as a child psychotherapist in the Health Service Industry. Her clinical papers have been published in the Journal of Child Psychotherapy, the Journal of Analytical Psychology, Analysis: Rivista Internatzionale di Psicoterapia Clinica, Analytische Psychologie, and Analytische Kinder- und Jugendlichen- Psychotherapie. She is enjoying a quiet village life near Stroud in Gloucestershire. She sings in a small solo singing group and in the Gloucester Choral Society, which recently performed the St. Matthew Passion in Gloucester Cathedral. She is preparing for the Lieder, Mezzo Solo, Folksong (Canadian of course), and duet classes in the upcoming competitive Cheltenham Festival of the Performing Arts. She welcomes visitors to ‘Hillslie’, her house with a view.

1960 50 Year Reunion

Save the date! Our 50 year Reunion will take place at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, please be in touch with Jane DALTON Baldwin at 519 938 8838 or baldwinj@sentex.ca.

1963

Dr. Jonquil BURNFORD Covello received her PhD in English Literature from the University of British Columbia in November 2009. Her dissertation is on the Literature of the Northwest Territories. Jonquil lives with her husband, Lou, in Yellowknife, NWT.

1965 45 Year Reunion

Pencil it in! Harvest Reunion events will take place at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, contact Alana BLACK Kotler ’65 at kotlera2002@yahoo.com. Still desperately seeking: Margaret ADAMS Bent, Frances BARNETT, Julia ERDMAN, Candace FRASER Yao, Helena GARNER, Joan GREEN, Geraldine GROSART Hubble, Helen GUROFSKY, Elizabeth HEINICKE, Frances LAWSON, Susan MACNEILL, Philinda MASTERS, Michael MERRILL, Kristen NEWELL Clifton, Heather PENTLAND, Janet PLAYER, Elizabeth RORKE, Harriet SMITH Pattison, Susan STREB, Ann SWEENY, Elizabeth VAN WYCK Rockefort, Norma VINCENT, Lindsay WALKER, M. WARREN Lang, Victoria WIESE, and Alexa WOOD Pratt.

June BIBBY owns and runs a bed and breakfast in France. The La Tour Experience (www.latourbandb.com) is an 18th century farmhouse situated deep in the Charolais countryside, a half hour west of Macon, ten minutes from Charolles. Guests have access to a nearby swimming pool and riding stables, or can enjoy a peaceful walk on country lanes through unspoilt landscapes. The Charolais region is conveniently located half way between Paris and the Mediterranean, a land of 12th century Romanesque churches and impressive chateaux.

1970 40 Year Reunion

Margot SAINSBURY Mills and her posse are planning to gather the Class of ’70 on Friday, September 24, 2010, after the BSS Old Girls’ Cocktail Party! Any suggestions or updates … please email Margot at mignonmargot@hotmail.com.

1971

Sally HULL’s company, The Artemis Group (Vancouver), hosted a very successful half-day workshop entitled “The Future of Leadership! What needs to Change?” in the beautiful and historic Hycroft. Sixty-seven women and one man met to engage in a lively dialogue. Rayona Sharpnack (The Institute for Women’s Leadership) facilitated the distinguished leader panel of Diana Theman (BC Hydro), Barbara Ross Denroche (The Refinery of Leadership), Lorna Howes (Coastal Health, Jean Slick (Royal Roads University), and Lis Petersen (YWCA), who shared their experiences and ideas for the future. By taking the time to reflect and engage with others in an open learning environment, participants left inspired. Another event, The Alchemy of Leadership was held on June 29, 2010. To join the dialogue, visit www.theartemisgroup.net.

Suzanne KINGSMILL has written a second Cordi O’Callaghan mystery, Innocent Murderer, published by The Dundurn Group. Suzanne is the author of numerous magazine articles and five other books, including Forever Dead, a prequel to her latest book, and non-fiction books, Breaking up Solvent and The Family Squeeze. For more information, please visit Suzanne’s website at www.suzannekingsmill.com.

1975 35 Year Reunion

The Class of 1975 invites you to celebrate our 35th Reunion! Please mark your calendar and plan to join us:Thursday, September 23: Boarders’ Dinner and Tour at BSS (5:00 to 7:00 pm); Friday, September 24: Old Girls’ Chapel Service and Cocktail Party at BSS (6:00 to 8:30 pm); Saturday, September 25: 1975 dinner in downtown Toronto; Sunday, September 26: optional breakfast, for those who are still in town! For more information or to update your contact details, be in touch with Vicki WELSTEAD at vjw@rogers.com or 416 693 1501.

1980 30 Year Reunion

Save the date! Our 30 Year Reunion will be taking place at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, please be in touch with Cori WOOLLEY (cwoolley@sports-entertainment.com), Cathy BONGARD (bongard.pitfield@rogers.com) or Mary Anne LEEMING Ballantyne (maryanne@caddetails.com).

Christina MEIPOOM Tamm writes, “BSS taught me the vision, strength and intellect to have the courage to be great. Hence, I always go for the adventure. I have bought a farm, and will rehabilitate and raise race horses and herd sheep in the pioneer Icelandic Community of Hekkla near the Village of Rosseau (Estonians are big on the whole Viking thing). My talent? To carry on where Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven left off, so a gallery show is in the works. I must succeed and failure is not an option. Thank you for all the great work you are doing to keep it all alive and inspirational at BSS.”

1982

Nadia CRISANTE Rochon, Tannis TOPPING McDonald and Alix AZIZ MacDonald got together for drinks at Lizard Creek Lodge in Fernie, BC. Tannis, who is back from Australia, is living in Fernie, Alix has a holiday home there, and Nadia was on a ski vacation with her family. It was fun to catch up after so many years and share stories about our great time together at BSS. You just never know where you’ll run into a BSS Old Girl!

1985 25 Year Reunion

Classmates of 1985: This year is the 25th year following our graduation from BSS. We’re sure that the news from all of you is exciting, uplifting, and fantastic, and we all want to hear about it. Please join us for cocktails and much celebration of our accomplishments, trials, endeavours, and plans yet to unfold. We look forward to seeing you over the reunion weekend (September 23 to 25, 2010), and will reach out to connect with you and remind you of our upcoming celebration in the months that follow. For more information or to update your contact details, be in touch with one of us: Paisley HILL (danpais@sympatico.ca), Sandra MEREDITH (meredithsandra@hotmail.com) or Mimi WOOD (woodpinkney@rogers.com).

1989

Emanuela DE BERARDINIS Marcello is relocating to Grand Cayman in July, with her husband and son, and would be interested in connecting with other Old Girls in the area. Email edeberardinis@yahoo.com.

1990 20 Year Reunion

Where did you go for university? What have you been DOING for the last 20 years?? Come out the weekend of September 24 and 25, 2010, and share your news! Your class of 1990 reps are starting to make plans for our 20 year reunion. Friday, September 24, is the Old Girls’ Cocktail Party at the School; tickets are only $20. Saturday, September 25, is Family Day at BSS your chance to bring your spouse, kids and friends to experience what BSS has to offer. Saturday night an event will be hosted by Amoryn ENGEL and Martha ROGERS. Stay tuned for more details! For more information or to update your contact details, be in touch with Laura SHAW (laura.shaw@cogeco.ca) or Amanda GUILFOYLE (aguilfoyle@ucc.on.ca).

1991

Tara DAWOOD, CEO of Dawood Capital Management Ltd., managers of LADIESFUND™, hosted the 2nd LADIESFUND™ Women’s Entrepreneurship Awards on March 12, 2010, in Karachi, Pakistan, during International Women’s Week. Tara is deeply committed to the financial security and development of women and children in Pakistan. The awards were founded to celebrate success and to encourage those in need of inspiration. Nominations were received from across the country. The award ceremony was attended by hundreds of eminent women from different backgrounds, professions and ages, and successfully served as a platform for their interaction and fellowship. Shazia MOHAMED ’91 was also in attendance.

Shazia MOHAMED is currently practising as an art therapist for children and families, and is a personal counsellor for high school teens at a college in Karachi, Pakistan.

1992

Christine BENSE writes, “Following three years living and working for Kraft in Chicago, I was moved to the UK on a three-year work assignment with my partner and our two boys. I am currently the Plant Director of a soluble coffee factory and I am making good use of my chemical engineering background! Over the last 18 months, we’ve been adapting to English culture and exploring our new surroundings. In an effort to take full advantage of our time here, we’re actively making our way down the list of things to see and do in the UK and have already visited a number of other wonderful European locations. In the coming year, I hope to do much more of the same…”

1993

Ira CYMBALSKI Alexandra recently completed a Masters degree in Liberal Studies at Simon Fraser University.

1995 15 Year Reunion

Hey 95ers! Scary but true we’re approaching 15 years. We’re hoping to get everyone out to the Old Girls’ Reunion, September 23 to 25, 2010. Stay tuned for more details but please reach out to Andrea JANCELEWICZ Cook (416 5612718, andrea.cook@proximity.ca) OR Robin KESTER (416 540 7734, robinkester@gmail.com) and make sure your contact details are up to date. You can also find us on Facebook. Anyone who wants to help with planning, let us know. See you soon!Andrea and Robin.

1998

Stacey YUEN is working towards her MBA at ESADE in Barcelona, Spain. This summer, she will spend 12 weeks in Haiti on an internship with The Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative. As the Vice-President of the MBA Student Association, Stacey travelled to Washington, DC, in April to attend the Graduate Business Conference, which brought together the student leaders of the Top 50 Business Schools to share best practices, exchange ideas, and learn from each other. She and her team are looking forward to hosting the GBC at ESADE in 2011. Stacey has been working hard to secure sponsorship for the MBA Tournament in Paris, which gathers the European B-schools for three days of athletic events in May. Stacey writes, “Life continues to be grand. B-school seems to be really agreeing with me, despite the vicious (or virtuous, depending on how you look at it) circle of tiredness. As my new friends and I secure our summer internships, and plan for the year ahead, we’re reminded that our time together is limited. As we count down the last six weeks of our First Year of the Full Time MBA at ESADE, it’s hard to believe we’re “here” already…carpe diem! Cheers from Barcelona.”

1999

Nadya WASYLKO is currently based in New York City and shoots editorial fashion, portrait and fine art photography. To view her work, visit www.nadyawasylko.com.

Lee-Ann CAMERON was recently promoted at Sotheby’s to the role of Business Manager in the Contemporary Art department and is still happily living in London.

2000 10 Year Reunion

Hi Class of 2000! Our 10-Year Reunion is coming up can you believe it?! Let’s start re-connecting so we can plan a great Reunion for our class. It’ll be a time to reminisce, celebrate (whether it’s new babies or business adventures!), and build ties. Feel free to email us at BSS.2000.Reunions@gmail.com if you want to help plan/host an event during the Reunion Weekend, September 23 to 25, 2010. Be sure to update your email address with us as well, so that you don’t miss out on the details! We look forward to hearing from you. Get ready for some serious fun!Angela HO and Courtney JOLLIFFE.

2003

Jessica CHAN, event coordinator at the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, was recently involved in naming the Toronto branch of their ‘Hockey for Heart’ program after David McMaster, former BSS hockey coach. For more information, visit www.hockeyforheart.com.  In 2003, BSS established the David McMaster Memorial Bursary Fund and the David McMaster Hockey Achievement Award through the generosity of David’s many colleagues, friends, and the families of the girls he coached, as well as the players themselves. The Bursary and Award encourage current and prospective members of the BSS hockey team to pursue their passion for sport. To honour David or another staff member by making a donation to BSS, please visit www.bss.on.ca.

2004

Kate WHITELAW is working in New York City at the US Council for International Business on climate change and corporate human rights policy.

2005

5 Year Reunion Save the date! We are celebrating our five-year reunion at BSS on September 23 to 25, 2010. For more information or to update your contact details, please be in touch with one of the 2005 Year Reps: Stephanie CORK (happy_clumsy@hotmail.com), Safia HAQ (safia.haq@gmail.com), Sarah KAWAGUCHI (8sk21@queensu.ca), Karen WILTSHIRE (karenw_28@hotmail.com), Sara MEHLENBACHER-MOFFAT (sara.mehlenbacher-moffat@mail.mcgill.ca), and Alison SHORT (5as8@queensu.ca).

2006

Tanya KOLOLIAN graduated from Queen’s University in the spring and spent some time backpacking in Europe with Laura REISMAN and Katherine ANGUS. In August, she plans to move to South Korea for 12 months to teach English overseas, before starting Teacher’s College in September 2011 at Queen’s University. Pictured here (from left) are Katherine, Laura and Tanya at the Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge, France.

2007

Molly ALLGOOD ran with the Olympic Torch in Waterloo on December 27, 2009. She writes, “It was just such an unbelievable experience. It became my Olympic experience; I have dreamed of being on the Olympic hockey team, but I injured my back during the summer of ‘08 and since then I haven’t been able to play hockey for the University. Not sure I will be able to play at that level again, so no more Olympic Hockey for me, at least as a player. However, I am always hopeful and continually training and strengthening.”

A group of Old Girls gathered together to bid farewell to Alex LINDS ’07, who was leaving on an exchange to England for the semester. From left: Ellen WILDER ’09, Robin HACKER-TEPER ’09, Samantha NADAL ‘09, Jordana LINDS ’09, Alex LINDS ’07, Lauren RAUSCH ’07, Danielle ARONOVITCH ’07, Broke THEISSEN ’07.

2008

Madelaine EDMONDS writes, “The Don Quixote Award provided me with the opportunity to travel to Europe and study Photography and the Italian language before heading off for university. At the moment I am based in the UK just outside of London studying at the Arts University College at Bournemouth in my second year of the BA (Hons) Photography programme. For the past three months, I have been undertaking a work placement at Sprüth Magers, a leading contemporary art gallery in London which has complemented my studies and allowed me to begin networking in the art world. I am finishing off second year and am excited to complete my degree next year. I am so grateful to BSS and all of the opportunities, such as the Don Quixote Award, that the School provides for its students.”

MARRIAGES

Carol SWANSON Chitwood ’81 married Martin D. Chitwood in Casa Loma on November 21, 2009. Sonia SWANSON Moore ’81, Carol’s twin sister, was the Matron of Honour. Carol and Martin now reside in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jennifer WALLACE ’96 married Chris Moad on November 7, 2009, at the Rosewater Room in Toronto. Jenn and Chris spent their three-week honeymoon travelling through India and loved every minute of it!

Melania MACCISE ’98 was married to Luis Lomelin on October 17, 2009 in Xcaret, México.

On March 6, 2010, Melissa DI DONATO ’99 married her best friend, Ryan Joseph Attard. The couple was married by long-time family friend, Father Danielle Bertoli, before heading to Eagle’s Nest Golf and Country Club to celebrate with their family and friends.

Chell STEPHEN married Elijah Ocean in Jefferson, Maine, in the woods on Broken Acres Farm on September 6, 2009. In attendance were BSS Old Girls Katie SMEENK ’02, Simone SUPERINA ’02, Lisa GRASSA ’03, Caitlin IMRIE ’02, Quinn SIMPSON ’03, and Vanessa GRAVINA ’02.

BIRTHS

Another Pitter Patter for the Patersons. Maximilian (Max) Paterson was born on January 27, 2010, to Scott Paterson and Tamara BAHRY Paterson ’91. Adeline (Grade 7) and Catherine (Grade 6) are thrilled to have another baby brother.

Shann COULSON Sutherland ’92 and Joel Sutherland are proud to announce the birth of their son, Coulson Andrew Sutherland, on December 21, 2009, in New York City at NYU Langone Medical Center. The picture is of proud older sister, April, holding her new brother.

Wendy KENNISH ’87 and her husband, Bernie Marcotte, are pleased to announce the birth of their third child, a daughter, Madeleine Anne Blake Marcotte, on August 18, 2009. She is welcomed by her big sister Claire (6) and big brother Tim (4).

Liza OVERS ’84 and her husband, Paul Goddard, are thrilled to announce the arrival of their second child, Michael David Paul, on December 22, 2009. Big sister, Sophia, adores her new baby brother and can’t hug and kiss him enough.

Gillian WOOLLINGS Dalton ’95 and Stephen Dalton are so excited to announce the birth of their second child, Bennett James Dalton, born March 11, 2009. He is a little brother to Grace Patricia Dalton (4 yrs) and the nephew to Michelle WOOLLINGS Magee ’88 and Lori Ann WOOLLINGS Costello ’91. Stephen and Gillian have moved to Aurora, and Gillian has taken an extended leave from her job at IBM to raise their children.

DEATHS

Elizabeth (Betsy) WATTS Carter ’35 died peacefully on March 1, 2010, in Ottawa at the age of 92. She was predeceased by her sister, Barbara WATTS Edmonds ’38, who was also a graduate of BSS.

Jean AITKEN Lyles ’37 passed away on March 23, 2009, surrounded by family and friends on her beloved island of Bermuda. She was 91 years old. She led a full life that included 55 years of marriage to A.C. Lyles, Jr., three children, and a career as a Navy wife that spanned three continents. She was active in community and church affairs in all the places she lived and maintained a lively interest in current events until the end.

Barbara MCCLELLAND Mabee ’38 passed away peacefully at home on December 11, 2009. Her family described Barb as elegant, gracious, independent, fun-loving and a woman who treasured her many friends. Barbara was a cherished BSS Old Girl Veteran; Old Girl relatives include nieces Sandra MCCLELLAND ’78 and Heather MCCLELLAND Willey ’81.

Marjorie RUTLAND Livingston ’38 passed away in Toronto on January 14, 2010, in her 91st year. After graduating from BSS and then the University of Toronto, Marjorie served with the Wrens during WWII. She was married in the BSS Chapel in 1945. Marjorie will be fondly remembered by family and friends. Her daughter, Virginia LIVINGSTON ’69, and late sister, Virginia RUTLAND Ross ’40 are BSS Old Girls.

Betty BLACKWELL Robinette ’38 passed away in her 91st year surrounded by her devoted family after a long illness. As an example to all, Betty lived life to the fullest. She was thoughtful, charitable and had an amazing, outgoing personality. She was a long standing member of the Jr. League of Toronto and then later the Big Sister Association (now Youthlink). She worked tirelessly at the Big Sister Thrift Shop for many years. In 2008, she received a 70 year pin from Youthlink for her contribution over the years. In her 60s she took up oil painting and produced some fine work. Many of her friends and all her family own a “Betty Robinette” painting. Betty had many close friends and over the years enjoyed playing bridge twice a week. She was also passionate about her flower gardens and was an accomplished cook. She is survived by Old Girl relatives, daughter Ginny ROBINETTE Jennings ’67, and granddaughters Katie ROBINETTE ’90, Alison ROBINETTE ’92, and Julie ROBINETTE ’97.

Mary Ellen MULLIGAN Prendergast ’42 died at home on October 22, 2009, following a long illness borne with courage and dignity. Following graduation from BSS (she was Head Prefect in her final year), she attended the University of Toronto and went on to become a teacher. Before marrying, she taught at several schools, including her alma mater. She married in 1949 and raised five children, two of whom (Ann PRENDERGAST ’71 and Clare PRENDERGAST ’73) attended BSS. Mary was a very active volunteer with leadership positions at the ROM, the West End Creche and other organizations. She is greatly missed by her husband of over 60 years, Dr. W.F. Prendergast, her five children, four grandchildren, and her sister, Flora MULLIGAN Agnew ’46. Her nieces, Sarah AGNEW ’73 and Elizabeth (Biz) AGNEW ’78, are also BSS Old Girls; her great niece, Michelle Agnew (Class of 2012), is a current student at BSS.

Barbara Anne KELK Abel ’44 passed away quietly on March 12, 2010, in North York. She was predeceased by her Old Girl relatives, sister Suzanne KELK Hutchison ’51, and mother Audrey KIRKPATRICK Kelk ’1917.

Molly Elizabeth DAVIS Logan ’54 passed away gently at home in Cobourg in the comfort of her family, on February 14, 2010. Molly was forever grateful for her gift of life and cherished each day. Molly enjoyed painting in her small studio, a wonderful outlet for her creative nature. Writing gave Molly pleasure; she wrote her life story to be a gift to later generations. Molly was blessed to have many close friends who, together with her children, lovingly helped Molly overcome some of the hurdles in her life’s journey. Molly lived her life with grace, dignity, humility and an innate certainty of purpose.

It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Finola SHANKAR ’93 on February 16, 2010. Beloved daughter of Dhiru and Eithne, loving wife of Rene Marroquin, devoted mother of Ciamha, dear sister of Gauri (Jane) and Deirdre SHANKAR ’91 (Jason), and doting aunt to Zachary, Jacob, Jessica, Dermott, Darby and Bronwyn.

Maya Datta, a much loved former BSS math teacher passed away in March 2010, while in India. Mrs. Datta joined the faculty at BSS in 1968 in her first teaching job. In 1977, she became Head of the Math Department and remained in that role for 12 years. Mrs. Datta was responsible for the establishment of Advanced Placement Calculus at BSS. She was admired for her high curriculum standards, and fondly remembered by students for the countless hours of extra help she gave while tutoring. Mrs. Datta contributed a great deal to widening the cultural and ethnic persity of BSS. Following retirement in 1998 after thirty years as a member of faculty, she worked as a consultant in the Admissions Office, and served as a wonderful international ambassador for the School. Students, staff and parents loved and respected Mrs. Datta; in 2004 she was honoured at the BSS Heritage Dinner.

Katherine E. Wicks, BSS Headmistress from 1976 to 1981, passed away peacefully on April 26, 2010. Miss Wicks was educated at Alma College in St. Thomas, the University of Toronto and the University of Wisconsin. During her time as Headmistress, Miss Wicks most notably worked to improve academic salaries, to update the fee structure for day students, and to make significant curriculum enhancements. Photo courtesy of the BSS Museum and Archives.

Notes

Val Stock Speaker: Devin CONNELL ’01

The Val Stock Memorial Speakers Series was created in 1996 by the Stock and Sievwright families (the late Georgia KNOWLES Stock ’49 and Barbara KNOWLES Sievwright ’45, as well as Barbara STOCK ’86, Julia SIEVWRIGHT ’77, Georgia SIEVWRIGHT ’75, and Erica SIEVWRIGHT Allen ’80) in memory of former Canada Packers CEO, Val Stock, who believed strongly in promoting women in business. The series is intended to enhance the curriculum for BSS students and focuses on Business, Law, Entrepreneurship and Economics. In April, Devin CONNELL ’01 spoke with the Grade 11 and 12 Business students at BSS about her entrepreneurial pursuits. Devin recently opened a bakery in midtown Toronto: Delica Kitchen serves up hearty sandwiches, along with soups, salads and sweet pastries (www.delicakitchen.ca). Last year, Devin and her mother, Linda Haynes, released a cookbook called Two Dishes, which gives a mother and daughter’s distinctive takes on a similar theme: one using timeless techniques, the other embracing an improvisational, budget conscious approach. The recipes range from tempting comfort food and last-minute snacks to elegant brunch and dinner party dishes, all complemented by gorgeous, full colour photography throughout.

Greg Mortenson Visits BSS

During our time at BSS I trust those funding our enrolment may have remarked, ‘If you don’t thank me now, you’ll thank me later’. One might passively or doubtfully have responded during the challenging essay and exam filled times as I did. But just six years into my Old Girl status, I find an immeasurably grateful, demure smile slipping onto my lips with the thought of Deryn Lavell welcoming me into the Drawing Room to shake hands with the man who has comically, yet quite accurately, been called my ‘Michael Jackson’. Greg Mortenson, as is shared with us in Stones Into Schools, has established over 130 schools through the Central Asia Institute in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan with an elevated focus on girls’ education as a method of promoting peace. Greg brought this simple yet remarkably impacting truth to the BSS gymnasium to offer us all, especially the young girls and boys from BSS and the neighbouring schools, a glimpse into a ‘world apart’, and to understand the power of a single voice, certain of a basic right we can all share. Greg’s immensely gentle and humble approach to each interaction is ever present, whether it be speaking to a crowd of 500 or patiently listening to the story of how Three Cups of Tea helped my own educational mission to the Philippines gain momentum. I extend tremendous appreciation to Greg Mortenson for sharing a moment of his journey with us, to BSS for exposing all those bright young minds to the potential capacity of their actions, and to my parents for giving me the gift of BSS and all those that have followed because of it. By Elisabeth PILON ’04

Dish it Out, Help Haiti

Julia BELLUZ ’02 and Adriana POLICARO ’02 organized an event in Toronto on January 28, 2010, to raise money for Haiti’s disaster relief. Funds raised were donated to the Humanitarian Coalition, a network of Canadian NGOs dedicated to a united response in cases of humanitarian crises. In addition to collecting over $3,000 for the cause, which was matched by the government, these Old Girls worked in conjunction with New Circles, a Toronto clothing bank that counts Haitian refugees among their top four needed groups. New Circles was founded by social worker Cindy GARDINER Blakely ’68 and offers new and gently used clothing at no charge to families and inpiduals of all ages living in poverty, while ensuring they receive a dignified, inpidualized and productive shopping experience. BSS is proud of its Old Girls who value and acknowledge the needs of others to work towards improving our local and global communities.

Grad Panel Day On February 23, 2010, we were delighted to have a group of Old Girls from the Classes 2006 to 2009 drop into the School and share their university experiences with our Grade 12 class. Our Old Girls did a fantastic job answering questions about academic life living situations; extracurricular involvement; work life balance, and more. In addition to sharing their valuable perspective on the important transition from high school to university life, participants demonstrated that one’s relationship with BSS continues well after graduation from the School. Our alumnae contribute their support to our current student body in many different ways; we were so pleased to have an overwhelming response from Old Girls who were interested in participating this year, and we look forward to doing it again in the future.

Hill Speaker, Marina ENDICOTT ’76

Over the years, BSS has hosted an increasingly perse group of outstanding Canadian writers. These have included novelists, dramatists, poets, journalists and memoirists. This year’s Hill Speaker was award winning author and BSS Old Girl, Marina ENDICOTT ’76. Ms. Endicott’s latest novel, Good to a Fault, was released in 2008 and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean, and was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize. Good to a Fault was also selected for CBC’s Canada Reads 2010 competition.On February 18, 2010, Ms. Endicott gave a reading for guests in the BSS Student Centre. A wine and cheese reception and book signing followed. The Hill Canadian Authors Fund was established in 1985 by Harry and Alverna Hill in honour of their four daughters, Meredith HILL Robitaille ’76, Megan HILL ’78, Marta HILL ’81 and Paisley HILL Garvey ’85.

Denim for Dreams

On April 19, staff dressed in denim and made a donation to the BSS Endowment, to raise awareness about Scholarship and Bursaries. Prizes were awarded to staff members with the most outrageous outfit; the best vintage attire; and the outfit comprised of the most articles of denim clothing. Together, 117 staff contributed $1,076 toward the Endowment and learned as a community that a healthy Endowment makes a difference in the life of our School.Last year, many girls were passionate about attending BSS. In some cases, had we been able to extend offers of admission with promises of financial aid, we are confident that those girls would have chosen to come to BSS. The Endowment creates greater access so that, as a School, we continue to embrace persity both locally and globally. Photo: Maria Dias and Liz Woolley.

Historical Author, Alison Pearce

Alison Pearce, former principal of the BSS Junior School, published a book last summer enitled The Pearces of “Little Ireland” Tyrconnell 1809-2009. The 650-page book provides insight into the heritage and legacies of the four founding families and other early settlers of the Talbot Settlement Pearce, Storey, Patterson, and Backus families  and also features numerous historical photographs. Alison is a great-great granddaughter of John Pearce. Information was gathered in the Elgin County region through local people and historians, the libraries of London, St. Thomas and Dutton, the Elgin County Archives and the local churches and cemeteries. July 2009 marked the bicentennial of the settling of the four families under Colonel Talbot in 1809; a reunion was held to celebrate the family’s heritage, and a commemorative stone was unveiled at the Pearce Homestead. Two previous family reunions, in 1909 and 1959, also paid tribute to the first settlers of the Talbot Settlement. Alison moved to London ten years ago where family research was made easier by living close to her Elgin County ‘roots’. She can be reached at alpearce@rogers.com.

BSS and UCC in New York City

On February 4, BSS and UCC alumnae in the Tri-State region gathered at the home of Daniel F. Sullivan, Consul General of Canada in New York. In attendance on behalf of BSS were Sarah Kavanagh (Chair, Board of Governors), Deryn Lavell (Head of School), Liz Woolley (Faculty) and Jill BLAKEY ’02 (Development). We were so pleased to connect with this dynamic group of Old Girls, who are involved in a wide variety of industries: fashion, finance, education, the arts, journalism, politics, and international development, amongst the mix. This was the second alumnae reception hosted in conjunction with Upper Canada College. We are fortunate to have incredible ambassadors for BSS living and working all over the globe. Our US Foundation Board was established with the purpose to fundraise, to bring together US-based Old Girls, and to act as ambassadors for BSS, and is headed by Lisa STEWART ’88 in Washington, DC. To get involved with our branch activities, please contact development@bss.on.ca.Corrections: Please note the following corrections to the BSS 2008/09 Annual Report, Sustainability and Growth.

LANGTRY SOCIETY BENEFACTORS · $10,000–$99,999Liz Lundell and Guy Burry Sarah and Thomas Milroy **PATRONS · $5,000–$9,999Richard and Jennifer Bradlow CONTRIBUTORS · Up to $999Margaret WHEALY Duncan ’46 ***Joyce CARTWRIGHT Lewis ’50 ***OLD GIRLSCLASS OF 1946Margaret WHEALY Duncan ***CLASS OF 1950Joyce CARTWRIGHT Lewis ***CURRENT PARENTS BY GRADECLASS OF 2012 ∙ GRADE 9 Peter Daniels and Eleanor Barlin-DanielsPAST PARENTSMargaret WHEALY Duncan ’46 ***Donors who have supported BSS consecutively are highlighted as follows: *5–9 years of giving • **10–19 years of giving • ***20+ years of giving

Request for Nominations!

Distinguished Old Girl Award 2011The Distinguished Old Girl Award is presented annually to an extraordinary Old Girl. This woman has made a difference in the lives of others by giving back to the community, contributing a great deal to her profession, showing tremendous leadership, or by leading through exceptional contributions to the arts. Recipients to date include Mary Louise DICKSON ’58, lawyer and champion for the rights of the disabled; Margot ANDREW ’79, founder of Camp Laurel for children with HIV and AIDS; Jalynn ROGERS Bennett ’62, respected leader in the Canadian business community; Bishop Victoria MATTHEWS ’72, the first female Bishop in Canada; Tara SUTTON ’88, award-winning video journalist; Dr. Joan WHITTEN Miller ’76, pioneering medical researcher and educator; Margaret WENTE ’68, celebrated columnist for the Globe & Mail; Valerie WHITTINGHAM Pringle ’71, broadcaster, adventurer and philanthropist; and Canada’s Olympic archery coach, Joan GALLIE McDonald ’62.

How to Nominate an Old GirlIf you know an Old Girl who has made a significant contribution to her profession, the community, or the arts, please consider nominating her for the 2011 Distinguished Old Girl Award.

Nominations should include the following information:

1. Why is this Old Girl worthy of consideration? Describe her outstanding accomplishments in any or all of the following areas: leadership, community involvement, personal accomplishments, and professional accomplishments.
2. Provide your personal perspective on the candidate. Please feel free to include any other supporting articles, links etc.
3. Your name, graduation year, contact details, and relationship to the nominee.
4. The name, graduation year, and contact details of the Old Girl being nominated.
5. It is important to be as specific as possible in order to best present your nominee. Decisions will be based on the information you provide. The deadline for nominations is December 1, 2010. A committee comprised of Old Girls, BSS faculty and staff will choose the 2011 recipient from the pool of candidates.Where to send your nomination: email us at development@bss.on.ca, send it by fax to 416 483 0949, or mail it to The Bishop Strachan School, Attn: The Distinguished Old Girl Award Committee, 298 Lonsdale Road, Toronto, ON M4V 1X2.

2000 Rendy NG writes, “I was admitted as a solicitor of Hong Kong in November 2009 and am now practising as a M&A (mergers and acquisition) and funds lawyer at Baker & McKenzie. Continuing my commitment to community service, I am also sitting as a committee member of the Hong Kong Law Society’s Pro Bono Committee, implementing new programs to increase opportunities for law students and lawyers to serve on pro bono legal matters for the community. Here is a photo of me with Connie NG ’01 and Cora LAI ’01 at my solicitor qualification ceremony in November 2009 in front of the Hong Kong High Court. Connie and Cora have been very supportive of me over the years and attended the ceremony with joy.”

Reflections on the Don Quixote Award By Jenny SMITH ’04

The Don Quixote Award for the Pursuit of a Dream was established by Michele WATT Cassidy ’75 in honour of the leaving class of 1975. Ms. Cassidy passed away on July 2, 2000 and throughout her lifetime she always believed it was important to follow one’s dreams. I am deeply grateful for the truly life altering opportunity that the Don Quixote Award afforded me. In the summer of 2004, the Award enabled me to travel to volunteer with children living in the impoverished outskirts of Cusco, Peru. It was an experience that had a profound impact on me not only because there were homeless children who lived as orphans on the street and children who were coping with deafness and other conditions with no treatment or accommodation to their needs, but because of the strength of the human spirit I witnessed everywhere despite conditions that most of us as Canadians can only imagine. For me, this was the start of a very great interest in international matters related to health and the well being of people in general.Last year I graduated from the University of Nottingham with degrees in science, medicine and surgery and once again I took the opportunity to serve in a developing country. I travelled to rural Malawi in Africa to volunteer at Nkhoma Hospital. Patients often come near death after long trips on foot so there is a high loss of patients and holding dying babies really puts life in perspective and makes a lot of our every day concerns seem pretty mundane. The Hospital, which dates back to 1889, has 230 beds and an ever increasing demand from the population of Central Malawi. The country is ravaged by hunger, poverty, HIV/AIDS and malaria and the Hospital counts on volunteer help to shore up their two staff doctors. I quickly assumed a great deal of responsibility in the Hospital, which does not have full facilities, and where the staff is continually improvising to deal with situations. I was often in charge of the Paediatric ward with many very ill children suffering from meningitis, TB, HIV and communicating with the few words of Chichewa I picked up (one of my favourites, “chifuwa” meaning cough). While the resources were extremely limited, I was continually astounded by the perseverance and strength of the Malawian people. I left Malawi knowing why it is called ‘the warm heart of Africa’ and knowing I would return. Currently, I am employed as a doctor in a hospital in London in the UK where I have completed the first year of my two-year medical residency. I often think of the nurturing environment at BSS, and I will always be grateful for the transformative opportunity the Don Quixote award gave me to follow my dreams.Before she died, Leslie BOYD Ryan ’75 and Vicki WELSTEAD Lilleyman ’75 promised Michele they would steward the Don Quixote Award, giving BSS graduates the opportunity to fulfill their dreams. For the past ten years, Leslie and Vicki have visited the School to make a presentation to the leaving class where they share information about the award and invite the grads to apply. The award is open to any member of the leaving class and presented at Closing Ceremonies. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Don Quixote Award for the Pursuit of a Dream. Our girls dream big and their thoughtful, well-crafted applications reflect their soaring ambitions. It is always an exciting, but very difficult decision for the jury to make. With more capital, more than one deserving graduate could be given the award and the opportunity of a lifetime. To learn more about the Don Quixote Award please contact Sharon Howell, Director of Annual Giving and Donor Relations at 416 483 4325 ext. 1874 or showell@bss.on.ca.

The BSS Magazine is published three times a year by The Bishop Strachan School Community.

Chair of the Board: Sarah Kavanagh

Head of School: Deryn Lavell

Director of Development: Moira Dossetor

Director of Marketing and Communications: Rachel Yeager

Associate, Old Girl Relations and Alumnae Programs: Jill BLAKEY ’02

Executive Editor: Sharon Gregg

Managing Editor: Darby Briggs

Editor: Rachel Yeager

Assistant Editors: Moira Dossetor, Catherine Marostica

Copy Editors: Jill BLAKEY ’02, Suzi Leonard, Sarah Scandrett, Elda Scott

Art Director: Stephen Gregory

Photographers: Caitlin CRONENBERG ’02, Alexandra Hazisavvas, Garry Madlung, Emma MCINTYRE ’97

The Link Editorial Guidelines

• Submissions to Old Girl News are encouraged. Please send your submission to Jill BLAKEY ’02 at jblakey@bss.on.ca. We will accommodate as many as space will allow and ask that you try to keep content to approximately 50 words. Photographs are also invited and will be published depending on available space.
• Letters: We’d love to hear what you think about any of the articles in The Link. Please send letters to Sharon Gregg at sgregg@bss.on.ca. We will run as many as we can and letters will not be edited, though we ask that you keep them to approximately 50 words.
• Corrections: Every effort is made to ensure accuracy but from time to time, errors occur. Please send any errors you notice to Sharon Gregg at sgregg@bss.on.ca.
• Old Girl Portal: The Link is posted on the BSS website (www.bss.on.ca), and on The Thread (thethread.bss.on.ca). Some items that are time sensitive and cannot be accommodated in The Link will appear on The Thread.

Hong Kong: Skype Conference

On March 4, Deryn Lavell, Head of School, gathered with the Friends of BSS in Hong Kong and arranged a Skype video-conference between our Old Girls in Asia and their beloved teachers in Toronto. Thanks to advances in technology, our Old Girls were able to reconnect with Cathie Pfaff (English), Debbie Piotrowski (Music), and Liz Woolley (Canada, Business and World Studies) from across continents. We are grateful to our Friends of BSS in Hong Kong for their continued support and enthusiasm for BSS. To get involved with our branch activities, contact development@bss.on.ca, or join the “Friends of BSS (Hong Kong)” Facebook group to stay in touch with our community in Hong Kong.

Art and Activism on Wheels

Art and Activism on Wheels

Award Winning Artist Iain Baxter& Brings His Travelling Gallery to BSSOn April 22, iconic Canadian contemporary artist, Iain Baxter&, brought his unique take on art and the environment, in the form of the ECOARTVAN, to BSS.

A glassed-in cube van running on biodiesel fuel, the ECOARTVAN travelled around Toronto throughout the spring, visiting schools and libraries. The interior of the van featured artwork inspired by Mr. Baxter’s long-standing interest in the environment.

Lauded as “Canada’s first conceptual artist,” Mr. Baxter, 73, a Governor General’s Award winner and recipient of the Order of Canada, built the travelling gallery to “introduce a new generation to the power of contemporary art and its ability to stimulate awareness and positive social and environmental change.”

Mr. Baxter addressed the Grade 4 students, as well as the Senior School art classes, who were enthralled by the unlikely sight stationed on the School’s lawn.

Old Girls’ Events Calendar September:Harvest Reunion 2010: Celebrated years end in 0 and 5…

September 23 Harvest Reunion: Old Girl Boarders’ Evening

September 24Harvest Reunion: Old Girls’ Cocktail Party for celebrated years 0 and 5

September 25 Harvest Reunion: Family Day and Harvest Games

For more information, contact Jill BLAKEY ’02 at 416 483 4325 ext. 1871, or email development@bss.on.ca. Stay tuned for details about these events posted online at: thethread.bss.on.ca.

BSS Student Recruiting

BSS continues to attract talented young women to our school, locally, nationally and internationally. To assist in our recruiting efforts, our extended BSS community, which includes Old Girls, Current and Past Parents and Students, act as ambassadors on our behalf. Should you be interested in attending any of our events during our travels, or would like to recommend a prospective family, please contact the Student Recruiting Office directly at 416 483 4325 ext. 1220 or studentrecruiting@bss.on.ca.

The evening, hosted by the dynamic duo of Deryn Lavell, Head of School, and Sarah Clark, 2010 Head Girl, began in the Student Centre, which was abuzz with animated conversation, punctuated by music from the BSS Jazz Ensemble. Over 260 parents, Old Girls, staff, friends, Governors and Trustees both present and past gathered in the Russell Hill Gym to enjoy dinner and a stirring version of ‘I Believe’, featuring the powerful vocals of Mr. Frew and the BSS Jazz Choir, accompanied by composer and pianist Mr. Moccio. BSS Music Teacher, Debbie Piotrowski, worked with the jazz choir for weeks prior to the event, helping the girls put their own creative spin on the now iconic song. The girls were thrilled to be a part of this special tribute and to work with such well respected Canadian artists.

Long-time friends and collaborators Mr. Frew and Mr. Moccio engaged guests with their stories of the impressive musical journey behind the song ‘I Believe’, as well as personal, and often humorous, stories of risk-taking and boldly following what seemed like impossible dreams. The evening ended with a special video thank you to Mr. Frew and Mr. Moccio by our Grade 6 Student Council and Art Council. Student leaders went grade by grade through the Junior School, asking the girls what they believed in. These thoughts and insights became the lyrics to their very own composition of ‘We Believe’, which was recorded and filmed by Junior School students.

Thank you to all those who helped celebrate our incredible BSS community.

As a gesture of gratitude, BSS hosts the annual Old Girls’ Luncheon for its more senior alumnae. On April 13, eighty Old Girls from the Classes 1930 to 1960 gathered in the Great Hall on a beautiful spring day to reconnect and celebrate lifelong friendships that began at BSS. Following lunch, guests were shown a video clip from the Veterans’ Day oral history project filmed last fall by BSS student Emma Hughes (Grade 12).

One of the BSS values is to ‘honour the past, live in the present, and plan for the future’. Legacy bursaries, such as the Old Girls’ Association Bursary and the Barbara JONES ’39 Bursary, celebrate these enduring, multi-generational relationships with the School, by enabling the daughter or granddaughter of an Old Girl to attend BSS in the future. A number of our guests who attended the luncheon have granddaughters at the School, and forty of our current parents are Old Girls.

Thank you to all of the women who joined us at the April Old Girls’ Luncheon this year; we were so pleased to see you!

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The Link Editorial Team

“It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want.” Aristotle

The bow and arrow is perhaps one of the oldest surviving links to our earliest ancestors. In fact, evidence suggests that it might have been invented as early as 50,000 BC. It was, in its time, a weapon of mass destruction, as well as the means to hunt food and protect one’s family. The ability to wield a bow and arrow was shared by people across the planet throughout time, and remains to this day, an elegant symbol of the past.

Archery was part of the Olympic games as early as 1900 and right from the start, it was a sport that welcomed women. Archery’s presence at the Games came and went, and after a 50-year absence, reappeared for good at the 1972 Olympics.

For world-class archer and this year’s Distinguished Old Girl, Joan GALLIE McDonald ’62, the bow and arrow came into her life at summer camp. Not one for the whole “arts and crafts” camp scene, Ms. McDonald, a fervent athlete, sought the sports offerings and came across archery. Or perhaps archery came across her. In any event, it was a marriage made in heaven. Tassles were handed out as young archers passed successfully through all the stages and by age 16, Joan had earned her first gold.

Ms. McDonald was born in Toronto and raised in Lynn Lake, Manitoba, a mining town 800 miles north of Winnipeg, population 500. Her father, who was a mining engineer, shared her perfectionist tendencies or, as she puts it, ‘obsessiveness’. He imbued in her a desire to do things the right way and to perform with precision, not a bad combination for a future archer. Her mother, a strong, competent woman, took care of the home, which included home-schooling her three daughters and managing the radio for the community that connected the tiny enclave to the outside world where groceries came over the ice once a year.

In Grade 6, Ms. McDonald was sent out of the remote town to the more congenial environs of Balmoral Hall in Winnipeg. Here, sports were highly prized and Ms. McDonald, who marvels that her parents might have detected these leanings in her, found herself in the kind of atmosphere that fed her predilection for athletics. Academics weren’t the first thing on her mind, but ever the practical one, she knew she had to maintain a 70% average to enjoy the privilege of playing sports, so she maintained a 70.1% average, and played basketball.

Her family moved to Toronto in 1958 when she attended BSS. At the time, BSS did not offer the range of sports and athletics it has now, and the absence of it drove home how much Ms. McDonald needed sport in her life. The swimming pool became her athletic haven and she played basketball, even though at the time it was ‘girls’ rules basketball’ which meant covering only two thirds of the court, an affront to her ‘do it right’ mentality. Her parents also found an archery school nearby and took her there two nights a week, allowing her to keep up with what she’d learned at camp.

While attending two all-girls’ schools in the 1950s and 60s, Ms. McDonald observes with the benefit of hindsight, that even though feminism was still a distance from becoming part of the public consciousness, and even though the BSS basketball rules dictated playing only two thirds of the court, and Balmoral Hall was teaching girls how to iron men’s shirts in Home Economics, Joan McDonald and many girls like her, had begun questioning these assigned roles for women. In these schools, they could find their voices in an environment that gave girls freedom to excel and express themselves. When asked if her rejection of these stereotypes for women (she refused to iron the shirts), was enabled by the all-girls environment, her response was, “I’m sure of it.”

Describing her childhood in Lynn Lake, Ms. McDonald reveals the origins of her strong, independent nature. “We spent hours in the bush, and learned to look after ourselves in that environment. We were on the tree line and the high winds in winter would harden the surface of the snow. Ptarmigans, snowbirds, get trapped underneath and you could hear them flapping, trying to get out. My sister and I regarded it as our raison d’etre to rescue the Ptarmigan. If there was a storm, we’d wait for it to stop so we could go out and rescue the birds.”

Now, you can’t take a girl who had grown up rescuing Ptarmigan under tundra and expect she’ll be content ironing men’s shirts.

After graduating from BSS, Ms. McDonald spent a restless year travelling and trying to figure out her future. All the while, she kept up with archery. With several competition wins, she knew she was good, but the sport hadn’t yet become her passion. Everything changed after she broke the Canadian record at the 1962 Canadian Championships in Vancouver. She finally fell in love with archery, her greatest passion to this day.

But given the tenor of the times, she followed the expected course for women and took a job in the secretarial pool, or ‘ghetto’ as she calls it, with the anachronistically named temp agency, Manpower. In this way, she could arrange not to work in the summer when she needed to compete.

She also married her long-time boyfriend from their BSS/UCC days and settled into the role of wife and mother of two boys, David and Christopher. She’d kept up with archery but mostly as a hobby while she busied herself with the domestic duties that defined the role of wife in the 1960s. However, the rosy picture ended with the demise of her marriage and the desertion of her husband, leaving her with the responsibility of raising two sons on her own. Partly for her own sanity and partly because her passion for archery could no longer be ignored, she returned to shooting and tried to figure out a way to survive.

“I cannot, in hindsight, figure out how we survived. We were beyond poor. I was terrified because in those days, [1973], there was no hope for kids from divorced families, according to all the literature.”

Ms. McDonald tried everything possible to stay home with the boys. But she needed money. She struck a deal with a figure skating coach to provide room and board for skaters who were coming in from all over Canada to train. They would help with the kids at night, and she could go out and work.

According to Joan, “archery saved my soul” during those rough and tumble times. She and her sons created a practice target inside their house, where the arrow would start at the kitchen and pass through the dining room, giving her a seven metre shot. Mercifully, no one strayed in the path of the arrow during practice time.

When archery had returned to the Olympics in 1972, she had just given birth to David. In 1976, she went to the Games as an alternate, claiming that she didn’t make the team because she ‘wanted it too much’. “It’s a mental game,” she explains. “My head was focusing on outcome and not process. Everything you do in your life is process.” This is a theme that pervades Ms. McDonald’s approach to winning and what she tries to impart to her students as the mindset you need to succeed.

In the intervening years leading up to the 1980 Games, Ms. McDonald would practice like a Trojan, and her boys would be right at her side as she prepared for her big moment. She was at the top of her form and proud to be representing Canada as the Olympic archery team was assembled, and she a star on it.

Her dreams of winning gold as a world-class archer were dashed when the Canadian team, along with 64 other countries, boycotted the Games in 1980. Politics and public opinion conspired to use the Olympics as the territory on which to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Countless athletes’ hopes were extinguished along with Joan Macdonald’s only opportunity to compete at this level.

Athletes devote their lives to their sport, undergoing grueling training regimes and a single-minded focus that engulfs them in the lead up to the Games. One could not imagine how it must feel to have the Olympics in sight and then pulled out from under you. “It’s something you never get over,” says Ms. McDonald.

She didn’t make the team in 1984. As she explains, “it wasn’t that I was getting poorer, but the others were getting better.” After this experience, she made the decision to retire from competitive sport. But Olympic dreams still haunted her and as she watched the Canadian Olympic team go off to Seoul in 1988, she thought, “How am I ever going to get there?”

Her solution was to turn her talents to helping others. She began by creating a much-needed practice centre for archers. Then, in 1990, she spotted a teenaged boy at a tournament who had, “$5,000 worth of equipment and 10 cents’ worth of technique.” But there was something about him and soon, they began working together. Rob Rusnov opted to stay with Ms. McDonald to continue his training rather than go away to university, and with that, she officially became a coach. In 1996 they went to the Olympics together.

“We weren’t prepared,” she says of that experience. “The Olympics are an animal like no other. Until you’ve done it, you can’t know. We knew we had to be better. We had been waiting, relying on the ‘system’ to help us, and there isn’t one.” And though Rob Rusnov didn’t win in 1996, the journey cemented for both of them, a lifelong friendship, and confirmed her passion for coaching.

She is now the personal coach for more than 30 archers. Since 1999, Ms. McDonald’s archers have consistently held top spots in Canada and internationally. She has been head coach at three more Olympic Games and six World Target Championships. As the Federation of Canadian Archers Ontario Regional Coach, she also trains the trainers in preparation for head coach positions with various teams. And she has returned to BSS to coach girls who want to learn archery, providing for them not only lessons in technique, but lessons in life.

“Can’t is a big word. Get rid of it. If you don’t believe in yourself, the word ‘can’t’ will win. The most important thing is being aware of how you feel, honouring that, and believing in your ability to succeed.”

Joan McDonald might not have won gold at the Olympics, but she has grappled with loss and disappointment, got back up, and found a way to keep moving forward. More remarkably, she found a way to pursue her passion while giving back to her community and helping young people achieve their dreams. If the Olympics were handing out medals for resilience, spirit and compassion, there is no doubt Joan McDonald would win gold.

Since its establishment in about 1910, the BSS uniform has undergone several transformations. Although some elements have endured, changes in school colours and social conventions have modified uniform regulations over time. When the School began in 1867, girls did not attend wearing a uniform. Guidelines for students’ dress is first mentioned in the 1868 Prospectus, “Strict simplicity and economy in dress, as well as a general moderation in expenditure, will be enforced with a view to both the moral benefit of the Pupils, and a saving of expense to their parents.” Early photographs show girls wearing either dresses or long skirts and a blouse. By 1898, boarders were requested to bring only three winter dresses, with one or two extra to wear in the warmer months and a white dress which was required to be worn to the closing concert.

The most enduring and recognizable part of the BSS uniform, the middy blouse, is an accident of fashion. At the beginning of the last century, these blouses had become stylish and photographs show students wearing “middies”, as they were called, in a variety of colours, paired with a dark skirt of their own choosing. Beginning in 1911, an Outfit List is mentioned in the School’s prospectus and reflecting societal norms and the reserved nature of the School. This earliest uniform consisted of a white middy blouse with a blue collar, a loose scarf-like black tie, a mid-calf length dark skirt, black stockings and black shoes. Staff meeting minutes from this time indicate that this uniform was mandatory only for Drill (exercises performed as a group) and were worn on the days of Drill instruction. Within a few years, it had become the regular day uniform and remained essentially unchanged for the next 50 years.

In the early days, uniforms were manufactured by an official source and purchased through the School. A 1926 letter from Headmistress Miss Walsh reprimands a parent for having her daughter’s middies made at home. Although these middies were “completed with the BSS monogram on the sleeve, all copied apparently by some maker in St. Catharines…no one is authorized to make the school uniform except ‘Dresses, Ltd.’” The 1938 Pupil’s Register Analysis Form lists a charge for middies, skirts and sweaters, along with the expected charges for piano lessons, telegrams and School supplies. Later on, students purchased their uniforms in downtown Toronto from Northway’s and then from Simpson’s stores.

In 1938, and then again in 1954, a summer uniform was introduced for wearing in the warmer months. The 1938 version consisted of a matching blue cotton shirt and skirt with large white buttons running down the front. This uniform was unpopular with the girls, and in 1954 an updated summer uniform was brought in; a light blue blouse and dark blue skirt “not less than 3 inches below the knee” that came in a wrap-around or a zippered style. It was worn with blue socks and, although regulations called for brown oxfords, Old Girls report they continued to wear their black shoes as this looked much more fashionable.

Although blazers have been a part of the uniform since the 1920s, they were considered an optional item until the 1960s. The first blazers were made of black wool embellished with red and white striped piping on the lapels, cuffs and pockets. By 1941, Headmistress Miss Lowe reported to Council that the black blazers would no longer be worn as they were made in England, and would be both expensive and difficult to acquire during the war. Prefects’ white blazers are also evident from the 1920s but were often passed from girl to girl rather than purchased annually by the new prefect.

Social changes in the 1960s and 70s ushered in several uniform changes. In a 1961 letter from Headmistress Miss Griffith to parents, she indicates that “The uniform must be brought up to date in light of the times and development of fashion.” The expensive second summer uniform was disbanded and the new uniform was introduced the following year: gray flannel skirt, pearl gray middy blouse, and maroon tie which could be worn with the school blazer, a gray sweater or a matching gray suit jacket. In 1972, another uniform was ushered in. BSS students now wore long sleeved gray blouses, a gray box-pleated skirt and a striped gray and maroon tie. When, by 1974 the manufacturer could no longer supply this blouse, the students were polled and they overwhelmingly voted to return to a middy blouse. This new version of the middy was made of “white drip-dry sailcloth, middy style with a burgundy trim on the pocket and collar” and was intended to be tucked into the skirt.

A separate gym uniform was not introduced until the late 1960s. Before this time, girls changed only their shoes and stockings to white socks and white canvas shoes and exchanged their black tie for a coloured version for Form Games. The 1918 Outfit List includes a “Ferris Waist for athletics and drill”. This corset, manufactured for both children and women, was considered healthier than the traditional heavily boned version, while offering support for athletic pursuits such as tennis and golf. The summer uniforms included matching shorts intended to be worn for games, but photos from the 1940s and 1950s also show girls playing sports in their regular uniforms, having only removed their ties and changed their shoes and socks. In 1968 a separate gym uniform was launched, consisting of a crested white short-sleeved blouse, a short pleated gray skirt and an optional maroon sweatshirt. Shorts and track pants were not worn for gym until the 1980s.

Patterns in school regulations are evident from the School’s records and such examples are evidence that girls continue to express their individuality through minor adjustments in their uniform. In 1874, school authorities state that “excessive trimmings in dress will be prohibited and all unnecessary etceteras, as well as any extremes of fashion or style”. Similarly in 1927, “all extremes of fashion must be avoided, e.g., short sleeves, low neck, short skirts”. In 1999, girls were directed to “wear modest and appropriate attire on ‘grub days’”and in 2003 “underwear should be an appropriate colour for wearing under a white blouse”.

Jewelry is an ongoing issue that is mentioned in many letters to parents. A document from 1901 requests that, “All showy or expensive articles of jewelry be left at home” and from 1970, “No jewelry, other than school pins, school rings and small gold ‘keepers’”. Although skirt length and footwear cause continued problems, girls’ desires to sport new fashion trends can be seen in additions to uniform regulations. The 1986 Senior School Handbook directs that “Noticeable nail polish and cosmetics are not to be worn”, and by 1999, this had evolved to, “the Uniform does not include visible make-up, visible tattoos and body piercings, wild hair colours or nail polish”.

While the BSS uniform has undergone several transformations during the School’s history, certain key element, such as the middy collar, the School crest and the white prefect’s blazer are now considered institutional traditions. They maintain our institutional memory and are an important link to our past. Future versions of the uniform will most likely continue to include these elements, modified only as new textiles and additional demands and requirements of our students arise.

Sue ALLEN Dutton ’79 is a BSS Archivist. Photos courtesy of the BSS Museum and Archives.

A mass of forest green and red tartan has settled onto the hardwood floor of the Great Hall. These are the colours of the Matthews Hall uniform. Junior school students have travelled from the London, Ontario, independent school to hear from the student leaders at BSS. Each of the students in the group, who have come from Matthews Hall, is an ambassador in their school community. Their trip to BSS serves two purposes: to build community with another independent school and to learn some new ways to practise leadership.

They wait patiently in Great Hall until Grade 6 students Katrina Marsden, Avery Domi and Alexa Meretsky arrive. The girls have prepared short speeches about their leadership roles. Alexa is an Academic Advisor, Avery is on the Sports Squad and Katrina is a Global Ambassador. They share ideas and initiatives with the Matthews Hall students, outlining their roles in the School.

“My leadership job lets me talk to people around the world,” says Katrina, “and help them do things to improve other’s lives.” Leaders from the Senior School also speak with the students before they are taken on a tour of the campus.

Janet Frame, Associate Head of Matthews Hall, takes notes throughout the assembly. There are many things for the leaders of each school to learn from each other, including ideas for school spirit days and ways to organize leadership groups. “I think they will be inspired,” she excitedly says of her students once the assembly has ended.

The Grade 6 leadership program at BSS is relatively new. Two years ago, Grade 6 teacher, Judy Garay, approached Patti MacDonald, Assistant Head, Junior School, about the leadership curriculum in place. Ms. Garay felt it promoted more listening skills than leading skills. “They were being told to put an announcement together or do this or do that,” says Ms. Garay. “We didn’t feel they were actually learning any leadership skills.”

Ms. MacDonald agreed, and the Junior School began researching models from different educational institutions in order to form a new approach. The result is an inquiry based program that puts the onus on the students to plan and execute initiatives. Instead of being told what to do, the girls decide what to do for themselves and their interests and queries are what guide them.

Each of the 44 Grade 6 students holds a leadership position in the Junior School. There are 11 leadership groups (four girls to a group) and they were formed in order to emulate the values and aspects of BSS. These include Academic Advisors, Arts Council, Student Council, Sport Squad, House Spirit Leaders, Global Ambassadors, Environment Council, Junior School Ambassadors, Wellness Council, Community Guild and Media Information and Technology Leaders, affectionately referred to as the MITs.

Though each girl belongs to a group, she is often involved in activities with other leadership groups. For instance, the Academic Advisors and the MITs paired up to create The Spool, a website inspired by The Thread, a website for BSS parents. The Spool is meant to be a resource for the Junior School students just as The Thread is a resource for their parents. “The website we made has most of the things we worked on this year,” explains Alexa. “Homework tips, past and present, calendar, book reviews, student work, pictures and jokes!”

Only in the second year of practice, the new program is still being refined and tweaked, but Ms. Garay already sees a lot of positive results. “I’ve noticed a change in the Grade 6s because it gives them an opportunity to step up and come up with ideas and develop initiatives, and they’re enjoying it,” she says.

Each group has one or two teacher mentors who help guide the girls in their endeavours. The mentors meet with the girls once a week and once a month there is a leadership session held for all 44 students.

Because the students are the driving force behind the leadership initiatives in the Junior School now, each year will be different from the next. There is a general structure laid out at the beginning of the school term, but it is not set in stone–it’s all part of the beauty and difficulty of this particular approach to fostering leadership. The Grade 6 girls have really begun to grow and develop a strong sense of community and responsibility over the past year.

“This year, actually, the whole program started to take on a life of its own,” explains Ms. Garay. “This group of Grade 6s is just all over this. There are so many initiatives and so many ideas going on.”

Senior School prefect Brooke Freeman held a workshop with the whole group of Grade 6 girls that aimed to help them explore the meaning of leadership. Together they brainstormed a myriad of good leadership characteristics and qualities. Among them were empathy, being approachable and listening. The girls were then challenged to narrow down their long list to just one single most important quality.

“Their most important attribute for a leader that they’ve decided for this year is knowing when to step up and when to step back,” says Ms. Garay, who thinks their choice is “actually really cool” because it demonstrates a difficult concept to grasp: leadership isn’t always about being the one in the spotlight.

“While it’s okay to work yourself and do all the things that you have to do, part of leadership is that whole piece about stepping back and empowering other people, because if you do things for people all the time they’re not going to get it,” Ms. Garay explains.

An example of stepping back and giving others an opportunity to lead can be seen in the Junior School Ambassadors. These girls give tours of the School to parents and girls interested in becoming a part of BSS. Instead of this responsibility falling on just the four girls who are the Ambassadors, they have begun to teach other students how to tour the campus. Developing this type of effective and communal leadership in the girls of BSS is essential.

“Educating women in leadership is what’s going to change the world,” says Ms. Garay. She refers to the works of Nobel peace prize nominee, Greg Mortenson, and “The Leadership Gap” by Marie C. Wilson, as examples of experts who highlight the importance of female leadership. “We need a balance of male and female leadership,” says Ms. Garay. “Women need to be in there.”

On any given day, in the wee morning hours, walk around BSS and you’ll see signs of life field hockey and soccer teams training on the field; volleyball and basketball drills echoing through the gyms. The pool is filled with girls moving swiftly through the water girls at all stages of their BSS careers, training for the Bishop’s Cup (which they have dominated for ten years), and helping one another get better, faster, stronger.

Track and field, hockey, badminton, archery, skipping, gymnastics it all adds up to a winning athletic program that keeps the student body strong, focused and confident. What keeps everything moving? BSS’s excellent team of dedicated coaches about 40 people who push students past what they thought was possible. There’s an old joke: those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach phys ed. Whoever said that obviously never met the coaches at BSS.

To hear the BSS coaches talk about sport is to hear them tell their stories of family and friendship, camaraderie and teamwork. They speak with true admiration of the students they feel lucky to coach, and with enormous gratitude of the coaches who made a difference in their lives. For Senior School Athletic Director Katie Flynn and Student Services counsellor and soccer coach Sharon Djordjevic, that means some of the women who are now their peers. Both women were student athletes at BSS before they became teachers, and their coaches are now their colleagues.

It’s part of the life cycle that makes BSS such a strong community; young students who grow up and become mentors, then alumni, then parents or teachers of the next generation of young, promising BSS girls. That spirit is a huge part of the School’s sport community, which is about more than just amassing trophies (although, they do have plenty of those, too).

Pinky McAllister has coached generations of BSS students in her 35 years as a teacher and coach at the School. What makes Ms. McAllister proud? Having a former student, who she’d seen excel on the swim team years earlier, pick up her own daughter from swim practice. “We both started crying.”

BUILDING A STRONG ATHLETICS COMMUNITY

Building a thriving athletic community also means offering a variety of activities that appeals to all students, says Ms. Flynn. “Not everyone wants to play team sports, so we have a lot of individual sport as well. There’s something for everyone. We try to give as many girls as possible an opportunity to get involved.”

In addition to helping individual students reach their goals, the coaches and teachers at BSS are also helping the sports program grow not only in the number of teams available to students, but also the number of sports offered. Ms. McAllister’s current passion? The new skipping team, which has grown from five girls in the first year to more than 30 girls, spanning Grades 4 to 12.

“I’m loving it; I’m absolutely loving it,” Ms. McAllister says. “It’s amazing how skipping can build speed and power. Three minutes of skipping is equal to about 10 minutes of jogging. And it helps students develop agility and coordination, too.”

Ms. Flynn says that the variety is a real strength. “It’s not always about being on a championship team; it’s giving the girls experiences that make them feel good about themselves and teach them about sportsmanship and working with other people, whether it’s a coach or teammates or their opponents. Success isn’t just about winning, it’s about helping students reach their own goals.”

Those individual goals, and helping students meet them, is what makes coaching so satisfying, says math and business teacher and gymnastics coach Ann Shen. “One year, I had a student who had never done gymnastics before. At first, she was so scared of just getting up and walking on the beam that I had to hold her hand the whole time. But by the end of the year, she could complete a full beam routine, and started competing. The look of accomplishment on her face at the end of her routine is really why I’m still coaching.”

TEAMMATE TEAMWORK

But ask any coach, and individual achievement is only part of the equation. It’s also about teamwork and camaraderie.

Ask soccer coach Sharon Djordjevic. “Sports really has two main functions for me. First, I love the competition. But the second reason is purely social. And that’s why I continue to be so involved. The relationships you build with your teammates are a huge reason I stayed in sports. You build bonds, and these are some of the most important friendships you make.”

According to Ms. Djordjevic, that balance is essential. “My philosophy is that no matter how much someone is going to play on my team, I try to make everyone better and make sure everyone has a positive experience. I make my students work hard, but we also have a lot of fun.”

What makes her proud? When even injured girls are so committed to their team, they turn up to practice to watch. “They want to be there.”

Ms. McAllister says that seeing that teamwork in action has been one of the most memorable experiences of coaching. “Watching the swim team has been one of the greatest rewards. What I love is that the Grade 12 students help coach the Grade 5 students, and everyone competes together. It’s like a big family: everybody helps each other.”

LIFE LESSONS

Sport is more than about success, ultimately, says Director of Outdoor Education, Linda Leckie: it’s about life. Ms. Leckie, who’s been coaching at BSS since 1988, has seen how teamwork can have an impact on every aspect of her students’ lives. And she’s had a lot of chances to witness this: “I think I’ve coached almost everything except skiing and basketball,” she laughs.

What does she want the students to take away from their experience? “I want them to learn to be passionate about something, and to learn some of the life skills that you get through sport, like taking responsibility for yourself, being organized, being prepared and focused, and working together.”

Ms. Leckie has seen these life skills in action, and no example could demonstrate that more than the death of hockey coach, Dave McMaster, in 2003. In addition to dealing with the tragic loss of a trusted coach and mentor, the hockey team was just about to leave for a major competition: the Confederation Cup in Newfoundland. “It was incredible to see how the girls rallied and worked together through the experience,” Ms. Leckie says, recounting the incredible leadership she witnessed as the older girls helped their younger teammates. That’s enough to honour the memory of a coach, but the team did one better: they won the tournament, Ms. Leckie tells me proudly.

CROSSING THE FINISH

For swim coach Andrew Moffat, the most enduring memory of his coaches was knowing someone was rooting for you. “You knew that they believed in you and wanted to see you succeed.” He says it’s been incredibly rewarding to be on the other side of the coaching experience. “When a swimmer works hard, progresses and sees the results of her hard work, it’s so exciting to see them achieve that. Their performances really make me proud.” Moffat, like many other coaches, balances his athletic schedule with academics (he also teaches math at BSS). But he gets something quite unique from coaching that makes it meaningful. He hopes his students leave the field with a passionate and positive attitude. “The most important thing is a love of being active and getting involved. You carry that with you though life.”

This is how Ms. Flynn puts it: “I just feel proud that the coaches are willing to step outside of their classrooms to give the girls these experiences, and they’re so dedicated and devoted. They really go above and beyond. I feel really grateful.”

Because, ultimately, the results are bigger than the outcome of individual races. Ms. Flynn has not only watched her own students get stronger and the BSS program grow and thrive, but she has watched as women’s sport in general reaches greater and greater heights. “We’re just taken more seriously now; I think we’ve really proven that we’re just as capable as any boys’ program. We can make it happen.”

The concept of Service Learning was born around the same time as a man who would prove to be one of history’s greatest proponents of self-sacrifice, non-violence and service to others. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Charlotte Fleming, Director of Service Learning at BSS, refers to this quote by Gandhi when articulating the importance of service learning. She wants the girls to discover themselves, stating “authentic, meaningful experience deepens the learning and growth that takes place.” Ms. Fleming has the responsibility of integrating service learning even more deeply into the lives of the girls at BSS.

This is Ms. Fleming’s second year as Director of Service Learning, a position formerly referred to as Director of Community Service. With the change of title has come a philosophical switch throughout the School, not away from volunteering but rather to including reciprocal relationships and promoting student involvement in all aspects of service from concept to completion. This approach necessitates that students take on leadership roles and learn how to foster successful and functional group dynamics.

Ms. Fleming and her fellow faculty members hope that by developing an atmosphere of service learning within BSS they will instill three main components of the educational approach into the core of courses and programs. These components involve personal growth, academic enhancement and hands on community service.

“The idea of service learning is what we’re hoping the program will evolve into,” explains an enthusiastic Ms. Fleming. “Ideally, each of the initiatives will connect something from class to something within our community and then to reflection and personal growth in the students.”

BSS has a rich history of volunteerism during World War II, girls volunteered at veterans’ hospitals in the city. Now a large part of the organizational and planning onus has shifted to the girls. This immerses them in projects and allows them to claim ownership of their own actions and initiatives. There is an emphasis on providing every girl with the opportunity to take on leadership positions in order to foster their leadership skills through practical applications.

The service learning experience begins in the Junior School where developing reciprocal relationships with other communities, near and far, is of the utmost importance. Many of the service learning endeavours that the Junior School students undertake are inspired by Roots & Shoots, a program of the Jane Goodall Institute. According to a statement on their website, Roots & Shoots is all about “making positive change happen for our communities, for animals and for the environment.”

The girls at BSS took this approach to heart and developed three groups: one to focus on animals, one to focus on people and another to focus on the environment. They take on the responsibility of the entire process, from deciding where they want to help, to organizing a plan, and finally to following through. The girls must learn how to lead others and how to work together to accomplish a common goal.

A three-year (and counting) partnership with the Anglican ministry at Flemingdon Park is a part of the focus on making positive change and relationships with people, and the relationship began with a simple question: “What do you need?” Reverend Helena of Flemingdon Park initially asked for help with the Thanksgiving food drive that has now become an annual service learning opportunity for the students. This year, the Junior School girls organized two home-cooked dinners for the Flemingdon Park community. And they didn’t just cook; they shared the meal with community members and also shared stories, laughs and thoughts.

Patti MacDonald, Assistant Head of the Junior School, has seen the girls have life altering experiences during their service learning endeavours. This year, one Grade 6 student (who has been involved with the food bank at Flemingdon Park since her Grade 4 year) was meeting with Reverend Helena when a woman had to be turned away from the food bank. It was an emotional experience for the student to realize that, even when someone needs to eat, they can’t always find instant aid.

“I’m convinced now that for this one girl specifically, her life is going to be different,” says Ms. MacDonald of the Grade 6 student. “She’s going to look at her role in society differently having had that experience and so that’s our goal for all of the girls to find ways to allow them to have that personal moment where they see the potential for them to save the world.”

It’s the combination of awareness and a passion to make change with the ability to create action and lead others in action that is the key to effective service learning. The Junior School students are involved in a program that balances service with leadership. They have reached far beyond the GTA in their quest to improve the world and improve themselves by becoming heavily involved in the ACACIA Female Leadership Initiative, a program that not only operates under the umbrella of the Jane Goodall Institute, but is co-founded by Julia Coburn, the daughter of Junior School Administrative Assistant, Ellen Palmer. ACACIA believes in nurturing leadership, stating on their website that the program “connects people to people, ideas and resources in order to create effective future leaders, build understanding and facilitate sustainable solutions to problems locally and internationally.”

As part of their involvement with this program, the BSS girls are pen pals with Nganza High School students in Mwanza, Tanzania. They share their experiences involving service learning and community volunteering with each other, and also discuss cultural similarities and differences.

At a BSS assembly this year, the recipient of the 2009 Jane Goodall Youth Leadership Award, Shadrach Meshach from Tanzania, answered the girls’ questions about Roots & Shoots and other volunteering initiatives. The girls from younger grades, the ones who have yet to become pen pals with a Nganza student, were abuzz with questions, wiggling their fingers at the end of raised hands for Meshach to take notice. They wanted to know, “How long does it take for a letter to reach Tanzania?” “What’s different there?” “Why do they need our help?” “Do you like Canada?” Their excitement was palpable.

Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head of the Senior School, believes the next crucial step for service learning at BSS is forming the connections between service learning and the curriculum, a development that is already taking place at the Middle School level.

“What we want to do is actually shift and say that it’s not just about giving back, as many girls assume, but it has more to do with what the girls themselves are willing to learn. What do you learn when you’re involved in these things?” explains Dr. Terpstra. The shift Dr. Terpstra speaks of is from seeing oneself as a giver, to seeing oneself as the receiver in a volunteer position. “Girls need to realize that their presence on projects actually may detract from [the project itself] but other people are willing to work with [them] in order for [them] to learn and be a change in the world,” she says.

The focus of the service learning experiences for the Grade 7 girls is, ‘What am I doing and what is my attitude towards certain things?’ This year, as part of that focus, and also as a demonstration of the connectedness of their studies, the Grade 7s were taken to an organic farm and experienced what it was like to work there. The experience exposed them to a part of their community that many of them were unaware of. It also gave them an opportunity to learn about environmentalism, the food supply, agriculture and the impact they have on the food chain in society. That’s geography, sociology, science and some wholesome hard work all rolled into one.

The Grade 8 program takes the next step after self-realization and turns to the theme of social justice. The girls are encouraged to figure out what they are passionate about and to follow through on that in some manifestation, and though it seems an easy charge, it can be tricky to find a specific calling, no matter your age.

“A lot of girls don’t know what they’re passionate about yet,” says Ms. Fleming, “or what impact they can actually have.” She explains that it’s only by doing that they can discover what truly motivates them. “One of my goals is to make [service] exciting and then leave them.”

When you speak with the students, it seems Ms. Fleming has achieved her goal. Alexandra Sisam, Service Learning prefect, says the reason she relishes her position is because she gets to help people fall in love with volunteering. Having taken on the responsibilities of prefect, Sisam has had an opportunity to become a leader in her school community and she uses her role to inspire others in the area of service. “I want to be able to provide girls with the opportunities that they need to get involved,” she says, “because it is really fun and rewarding.”

Sisam works with the Service Learning Council to organize and promote different service learning initiatives throughout BSS, including GAS days (Go and Serve) and long term volunteer opportunities. She hopes the girls will not only have fun volunteering, but will learn something too. “I believe that service learning helps people to be thankful and appreciate what they have,” says Sisam.

In Grade 9, the service learning component focuses on stewardship the responsibility one has to protect and support a community. At this age, the girls begin to be more financially responsible, perhaps earning their own money, and they begin to make their own purchases and social decisions. Focusing on stewardship is about educating them as to the repercussions their decisions may have on things such as the environment or socio-economic atmosphere of a community.

Though Grades 10 and 11 have yet to have specific curricular implementation of service learning initiatives, those students are still being exposed everyday to the philosophy of benefiting themselves by benefiting others.

It’s these connections that create awareness and an understanding that will hopefully fuel the girls to be socially informed and responsible. “I do feel that service learning is essential to development of youth,” states Ms. Fleming. “It is important that our girls learn the skills associated with service work because meaningful service experiences contribute to the development of our girls into responsible and empathetic citizens. The girls are our future leaders.”

The Horizons program helps BSS students develop as leaders through tutoring. For the past five years, BSS girls have regularly visited other schools in diverse Toronto neighbourhoods to provide one-on-one tutoring. This year the program was expanded from Grades 9 to 12 to include Grade 8 also. These students work as literacy coaches, working on puzzles, alphabet games and the like, with kindergarten students. The older girls visit schools on a regular basis alternating weekly between facilitating discussions on global issues and leadership and providing one-on-one tutoring and mentoring. Pairs of a BSS girl and a student from another school will often be given a task to complete which requires them to work together and learn from each other. There are four separate Horizons programs that run throughout the year, one of which involves BSS students interested in robotics. Last year they introduced the students at one school to computer programming, robot building and presentation skills in order for the group to compete in First Lego League, a world wide Lego-based robotics competition.

BSS prides itself on creating an environment that fosters intelligent, successful women who will be positive contributors to society. As the current ad campaign states, “With the right education, girls who want to change the world become women who do.” This is not a witty slogan in the eyes of the School’s faculty and staff, it is a true goal; one that can be consistently and constantly achieved. Incorporating service learning further into the educational experience is just one way of obtaining that goal.

“We’re really taking the notion of citizenship and global citizenship very seriously what does it mean to be a citizen of the world, a citizen of Canada and a citizen locally, and in what ways do citizens have roles and responsibilities?” says Dr. Terpstra. Trips abroad are an intense service learning experience and there are several opportunities for every student at BSS to take part. For seven years the School has been running an annual trip to Jamaica. The trip is open to Grade 11 and 12 students. Ms. Fleming, the main coordinator of this and the other service learning trips, never tires of seeing the girls learn while travelling. “A highlight for me is that we are all growing together through these experiences. It is incredible to watch the girls discover themselves through the service of others and that I get to be a part of their learning and grow with them,” she states.

Grade 12 student, DeeDee Tardiff, went on the trip to Jamaica last year and found it to be an invaluable experience. “I’d like to think that I have always been socially aware, but this really opened my eyes and let me see first hand the poverty in the world and the amount that other people really need our help; whether that help comes in the form of time, money, or even awareness,” she says.

BSS girls also travel to Ecuador during March Break, in partnership with the Me to We program. Me to We aims to “provide youth the unique opportunity to not just visit a community but to get to know the people, the issues and to be a part of the work that is being done to provide youth with worldly understanding.”

“Every year I’d say girls come away from the trips with a new outlook and appreciation for their own lives,” says Ms. Fleming.

Although the international trips are intense experiences in service learning, there are opportunities to be involved in service learning initiatives nearly every day at the School.

BSS has created a reciprocal relationship with the Russell Hill Retirement Residence. The communities come together to enjoy a walking club and BSS girls have undertaken the creation of scrapbook memoirs of the lives of individual Russell Hill residents.

Monthly, girls are encouraged to Go and Serve at GAS day. Each month a different community establishment or cause is benefited. There are many non-profit organizations that partner with the School so that girls can get involved, including Out of the Cold, Right to Play and Churches on-the-Hill Food Bank.

Ms. Fleming emphasizes that the initiatives being undertaken focus on reciprocal relationships. “We are giving them these opportunities to let them know what’s out there and make them more aware and more responsible,” she says. “The reciprocal relationship is the key so they’re learning and they’re learning about themselves and about the people they’re interacting with.”

Ms. Fleming is currently consulting with a University of Toronto professional on developing more curricular connections between service learning and academia at BSS. Integrating the approach of service learning into the curriculum is not something that happens overnight. Instead, it is a process that Dr. Terpstra believes involves asking and answering an important question: “What’s an authentic way to make it all come together?” Ultimately, service learning initiatives like the ones currently in effect and in development at BSS create a wildly rich environment for leadership, growth, awareness, knowledge and self-confidence attributes that make an empowered and successful woman.

One of the distinct advantages of attending BSS is its network of incredible parents, present and past, staff and faculty, and, of course, Old Girls. This community is comprised of some of the most talented, interesting, and successful people in Canada. For our girls, that means access to the kind of learning that happens beyond the classroom. Learning from the people who have had the experiences, who know the pitfalls, and who can guide young students towards their goals, is an invaluable opportunity for BSS girls.

We have an incredibly generous community, whose members are willing to give their time and energy to offer our girls the insight and encouragement they need as they begin to form an idea of themselves in the future. Our Old Girls are an outstanding resource in this respect, not only for the value of their experience, but for what they symbolize to our students: girls really can do anything. And BSS girls have gone on to such great heights in a vast array of careers. Our current students can look at them and see themselves in those shoes. A dream becomes a possibility when you can see others who have achieved theirs.

That’s why this year’s Distinguished Old Girl, Joan GALLIE McDonald ’62, is so special. She epitomizes the pioneering spirit and inspiring focus of a female athlete competing at the elite levels of her sport. But she’s also dedicated her post-competition life to coaching others, helping them to achieve their dreams. Whether it’s working with tomorrow’s Olympic stars in archery, or working with young people who are interested in learning the sport simply because of its grace, skill and illustrious history, Joan McDonald imparts the wisdom of a winner. She brings a Zen sensibility into her coaching, helping students experience the mind body connection and understand the essential role that their attitudes and thoughts play, whether they win or lose. As she claims, the ability to master the sport of archery, like mastering most things in life, comes from having the right attitude, respecting ourselves, and making room for error that doesn’t disable our enthusiasm to keep moving forward. In short, she is helping students develop the all important trait of resilience, one of the most critical aspects of success in anything we choose. Joan’s work with the students at BSS has made a real difference in their lives, whether they choose to go on in archery or not.

And that’s what is so important. People like Joan, or the BSS coaches you’ll meet in this issue of The Link, and the girls themselves who spend time helping others and providing support for one another; they are what make BSS so unique. This is an essential part of what we can provide our students and something they will take with them as they pursue their dreams and goals.

Of course, I hope they’ll also bring it back to the girls coming along behind them, so that we can keep strong the spirit of mentorship at BSS.

by Rachel Hahn

by Deryn Lavell

What do we want for our daughters? Do we want them to get into the top universities? Travel the world? Have fulfilling lives as parents and partners? Find happiness and fulfillment? All of the above?

I’d bet the answer is, all of the above. There is nothing more gratifying than having a daughter come home from a busy day at school, bubbling over with happy energy and a vivacious spirit that is eager to learn and laugh, and joyfully explore life. When that happens, we know she is happy at school and we believe that will translate into an eagerness to learn and desire to work hard.

Ages seven and eight are a fast-changing, exciting time for girls and for the parents and teachers nurturing them and watching them grow. They are rapidly developing maturity, confidence and independence, and learning to be responsible for themselves. They begin to stretch themselves by taking risks. And at BSS, they are meeting new classmates, making new friends, and starting to think about community, and their role in it.

In the BSS Junior School, there are two Grade 3 classes, each with 20 students. The school day goes from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm. For the Grade 3s, a good part of their morning is spent in their classroom with their teacher doing activities related to math and literacy, and the afternoons are spent delving into inquiry experiences, both within the classroom and with the specialist teachers.

Grade 3 is an important consolidation year in school. Around this stage, students shift from skills like mastering the mechanics of reading, to understanding the ideas in the material. They are also learning to use the tools they’ve developed thus far to communicate their ideas in their writing. In the Junior School classrooms, the students’ ideas and theories are central to the learning that happens at school.

Once the students have settled into their newly formed communities, all Grade 3 students at BSS set goals for themselves: an academic goal and a social goal which provide a basis for the girls to be thinking about themselves as learners, and and where their strengths and challenges lie. An example of an academic goal might be ‘to increase my understanding of what I read when I read chapter books’. A social goal might be ‘to play with different girls at recess rather then playing with the same group of kids all the time’. Or, ‘to listen more carefully when other people are talking’.
Students, parents and teachers work together to define strategies school strategies and home strategies to help them achieve their goals, and those goals aren’t a secret.
Students self-assess and work collaboratively with their teachers and classmates to improve in their specified areas. “It’s important that everyone in the community knows what you’re working on so that they can help you work on it,” says Patti MacDonald, Assistant Head of the Junior School. “It goes back to the idea of transparency and that we’re all here learning, and we’re all different and helping each other. If everything is a secret then you can’t help.”

Interestingly, Grade 3 is an entry year at BSS, which is not the case for many other independent schools in Toronto. As such, focus on community becomes a very important one, and it’s the job of everyone in the Grade 3 community to integrate a whole new
group of girls who come from a variety of schools, backgrounds and experiences, and welcome them into the BSS community. “That part of the program is amazing with BSS, for the new families that come in; They really work hard on helping them transition into
this new environment,” says BSS Grade 3 parent, Lucinda Kogan. Teachers are deliberate about building community in the classroom helping the existing girls to welcome the new girls into the culture of learning at BSS, and supporting everyone to feel confident and secure in taking risks. Having a safe haven is imperative and critical for students at this stage to move forward. “It’s about being in an environment where it’s not a risk to do something that might have been risky in another environment,” says Ms. MacDonald. “We want them to feel comfortable but we want them to bring with them all of those experiences that then enrich what’s happened here. The new diversity of ideas that comes in, of experiences, of personalities and potentials for friendship, are huge.”

The classroom becomes a learning community full of students with a common mission around learning. “In Grade 3, it’s the students’ mission to try and understand community. The way one student understands it right now will be completely different from the way another student understands it because we’ve all had different experiences, but it’s through our work together that we’re all going to understand it better it’s collective cognitive responsibility,” says Ms. MacDonald.

Emphasis is placed on developing a community where girls are engaged intrinsically in the process of learning. “It’s about wanting to learn for learning’s sake, not learning because ‘I’m going to get a sticker’ or because ‘I want to get an A’,” says Ms. MacDonald. “When students focus only on getting an A, they will choose the easiest book to read to ensure they get the best grade. At BSS, we want students to challenge themselves. The motivation really needs to be in the learning.”

Empowering parents to become partners in their daughter’s learning experience is critical at all grades, but communication between the School and parents increases in Grade 3, especially since there are parents who are new to the Reggio-inspired approach in the Junior School. “One of the biggest pieces of parent education that we do is around helping to support girls to become autonomous learners and to know themselves as learners,” says Ms. MacDonald.

When children are learning a new, more complex concept, take long division as an example, it can be difficult for parents to watch their daughter grapple with her homework, especially when it’s something she doesn’t know how to solve. Parents are invited to attend workshops given by teachers that explain the approach to teaching and learning. “They really showed us how the girls are learning math,” says Mrs. Kogan. “You actually had to sit and do a problem together as parents so you could thoroughly understand it, and it was amazing. When you understood the teacher’s approach, you really got it. They’re trying to help the parents help their girls become independent, in the sense that, [homework] is their responsibility in Grade 3.”

“We try to help parents understand ‘that’s why they call it a problem’,” says Ms. MacDonald. “The solution is not immediately apparent. It’s hard for parents to watch their children grapple, without providing them with the answer that the parent knows. So we do a lot of work in helping parents understand what their role is and what the teacher’s role is in helping to scaffold girls in solving problems and feeling successful in solving those problems.” When students encounter something new, they are confident; they know which tools to use to approach that situation, and, perhaps equally as important, believe that they can do it. They understand that it’s ok if it’s difficult; with the right tools and the right resources, they’ll be able to thrive.

This summer was a very difficult one for all of us, with the sudden loss of a beloved student and community member, Emma Federer, one of our brightest lights. The BSS community came together to grieve and share our many fond memories of this lovely, spirited young woman who was taken from us far too soon.

Emma’s family has faced their loss with awe-inspiring grace, and they continue to help us cope by sharing Emma’s life and memory with the School.

One of the most enduring ways the Federers have undertaken to honour Emma is with the creation of a very special award at BSS that we’ve named ‘Emma’s Gift’. This fund is the result of the many contributions made by the BSS community, family and friends, in memory of Emma.*

This is a unique award reflecting the enormous spirit and sense of purpose embodied by Emma, as well as the mission and values of BSS that were so much a part of Emma’s own beliefs and way of life.
Each year, BSS students will be invited to submit proposals they would like to carry out the following year. The projects focus on one or a combination of three categories: enhancing school spirit, supporting Athletics at BSS and Service Learning. Proposals must directly benefit the girls and be something that takes them beyond what they would normally do in the course of their regular school work.

All who knew Emma would agree that she epitomized everything that is meant by ‘school spirit’. She had a zest for life and her community. She was passionately involved in many activities to make BSS more cohesive, lively and just plain fun. She instinctively understood the value of friendship and the power of activity to keep spirits high. She also seemed to know that high spirits helped tackle the rigours of a tough school program with greater ease, less stress and ultimately, more success.

Emma also loved sports any kind of sports. She was a leader in generating team spirit and participated in all forms of athletic endeavour. We believe, as she did, that sports are a vital part of life, bringing exposure not only to the physical and strategic challenges of play, but also the opportunity to learn about teams, leadership and competition.

Service Learning was another major component of Emma’s interests at BSS. She was committed to making the world a better place and that is a value we hope that all students at BSS embrace, not only intellectually, but in their hearts. That’s why participation in projects that provide exposure to the world as well as creative opportunities to develop solutions that benefit the broader community, either here at home or across the planet, are so important.

In many ways, these three areas that were so central to Emma’s life are in fact, the heart and soul of BSS. We have one of the finest academic programs in the world, but we also know that girls need to find their own voices and their own sense of purpose. These experiences are an essential part of that journey.

This issue of The Link, my first Head’s Report to the Community, is a celebration of the wonderful BSS community that we all share, and Emma was indeed the very embodiment of everything that makes it so special. As we recognize our donors and all of the parents, students, staff, Old Girls and friends that have made our School and our community what it is today, we celebrate our partnership. We know in our hearts that each and every girl at BSS can make a tremendous difference that has ripple effects far beyond the walls of our school. Buoyed by the spirit of those who have graced our halls, we look forward to seeing the great heights to which our girls will rise.

—Deryn Lavell
Head of School

*We look forward to recognizing the many generous donors to Emma’s Gift in our Annual Report for 2009/10. For more detail on Emma’s Gift, please see The Thread at thethread.bss.on.ca.

This was one of the goals under the Sustainability plank of Focus 20/20, BSS’s current Strategic Plan, now in its fourth year. The Link caught up with Janet Ainslie, BSS’s Assistant Head, Finance and Facilities, to see how the School is measuring up against our original objectives.

Q: We know that the economic climate out there has been challenging. How has this past year been for the School, from a finance perspective?

I am pleased to report that the School remains in a strong financial position. (Audited financial statement excerpts for the year ended June 30, 2009 are included in this issue of The Link.) Financially, it was a challenging year for all organizations. Heading into the 2009/10 school year, in the face of a grim economic climate, there was a lot of pressure to ensure that we had strong enrolment and that we could keep our community together, still be able to support exceptional students who were counting on financial aid, and keep current students in the School a big part of which meant keeping tuition increases as low as possible for 2009/10.

We were fortunate that, thanks to the School’s exceptional program and faculty, current students were retained, and through the hard work put in by our Admissions/Recruiting and Marketing departments, new enrolment was robust and we were able to maintain full enrolment levels for 2009/10.

Q: Did we have some people asking, in light of the economic conditions, why a fee increase at all?

We are fortunate to have a committed, passionate community who cares deeply about the School and this also means asking the tough questions. We had many discussions with parents about the fee increase. Thanks to the crucial support of the Finance Committee and the Board of Governors, who worked really hard to ensure that it would be minimal, the result was a low increase of 2.9%. The BSS program relies on its outstanding faculty and innovative and advanced curriculum, and the reality is we had to increase 2.9% to maintain our leadership in these areas. When we made the decision to keep the increase as low as possible last year, we recognized that a modest fee increase like this was not sustainable for the long-term. Nonetheless, we were committed to doing whatever we could amidst such challenging economic conditions.

We also felt a responsibility to continue to enhance the School’s program, consistent with the Strategic Plan. We managed to do it while keeping fee increases down to 2.9%, the lowest fee increase in over a decade.

Q: The lowest fee increase in over a decade is pretty impressive. How did we manage to do it?

We were able to maintain a low fee increase through cost control measures and savings initiatives we had already begun to implement. We were protected to some degree by our existing strong financial position with no debt financing, and we worked hard to meet full enrolment targets. Because the Foundation’s financial aid transfers to the School are made one year in advance, the financial aid for the 2009/10 year was already in place.

Q: In a dismal year for the markets, schools everywhere were watching the value of their endowments drop along with stock prices. How was our endowment affected by the economic crisis?

It was certainly a challenging year for the Foundation. If there is a silver lining in all of this, I would say that the past year served to reinforce how outstanding our Board leadership is. We have incredible finance expertise on our Board of Trustees and they worked hard to monitor performance and minimize the losses in the context of the unprecedented market conditions. As of June 30, 2009, the value of the Foundation’s investments stood at $12.7 million. To put it into perspective, the endowment experienced a negative return on investment of 12% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009 the total return on the S&P TSX equity index for the same period dropped 25.6%.

Q: What were some of the additional cost control measures BSS implemented?

Our push to green the School yielded significant savings related to an initiative spearheaded by our own students. BSS’s Environmental Council and the girls really took this on and as a result we ended up with over $100,000 in energy savings compared to the budget in the 2008/09 year and we continue to see these savings this year this works out to about $100/student, and goes right back into our program to benefit the girls.

BSS also continues to develop relationships to enhance operational efficiencies with our business partners. For example, consolidating food and housekeeping services has yielded a significant cost savings via a partnership with Aramark, which also paid for equipment and facility enhancements to facilitate these services.

Q: Where does BSS’s revenue come from, and where does that money go?

Revenue comes from tuition, as well as alternate revenue streams such as our Summer Academy and facility rentals. We are pleased with our initiatives to date to increase revenue generation, as outlined in the Strategic Plan, noting that revenue from these alternate sources has more than doubled since the start of the Strategic Plan.

Of course another critical source of support for the School is through fundraising. Donations from the BSS community, including our Parent Association, helps increase that margin of excellence in our programs, our facilities and through financial aid our girls.

As I mentioned, approximately 70% of the school’s expenses relate to faculty and staff salaries and benefits and the remainder to running the exemplary program and the building keeping the lights on and such! We are program driven so facility enhancements and expenditures are made based on program requirements.

Q: Does tuition cover the cost of running the program and the building?

In fact, it doesn’t. Additional expenses are funded by alternate revenues and donations, a significant portion of which comes from our very generous donors. Our endowment donors provide support that impacts the students year after year, which is a huge factor when running a school with an outstanding program like BSS’s. The reality is, we rely greatly on support from the BSS community, and couldn’t provide our students with the opportunities we offer without that support.

Q: Thank you for your time, Janet.

You are welcome. Should any members of the BSS community have questions or wish to discuss the School’s financial position, I encourage them to contact me at 416 483 4325 ext. 4205.

Click here to download a copy of the BSS 2008/09 Annual Report. (PDF file will open in a new window.)

Spirit. If I had to name one thing that has struck me most profoundly during my first year as Head of BSS, this is it the indefatigable spirit of our community. The girls and their projects, their ambitions and their challenges. They inspire me each and every day, as do the countless people who surround these girls with boundless support, enthusiasm and care.

This summer was a very difficult one for all of us, with the sudden loss of a beloved student and community member, Emma Federer, one of our brightest lights. The BSS community came together to grieve and share our many fond memories of this lovely, spirited young woman who was taken from us far too soon.

Emma’s family has faced their loss with awe-inspiring grace, and they continue to help us cope by sharing Emma’s life and memory with the School.

One of the most enduring ways the Federers have undertaken to honour Emma is with the creation of a very special award at BSS that we’ve named ‘Emma’s Gift’. This fund is the result of the many contributions made by the BSS community, family and friends, in memory of Emma.*

This is a unique award reflecting the enormous spirit and sense of purpose embodied by Emma, as well as the mission and values of BSS that were so much a part of Emma’s own beliefs and way of life.

Each year, BSS students will be invited to submit proposals they would like to carry out the following year. The projects focus on one or a combination of three categories: enhancing school spirit, supporting Athletics at BSS and Service Learning. Proposals must directly benefit the girls and be something that takes them beyond what they would normally do in the course of their regular school work.

All who knew Emma would agree that she epitomized everything that is meant by ‘school spirit’. She had a zest for life and her community. She was passionately involved in many activities to make BSS more cohesive, lively and just plain fun. She instinctively understood the value of friendship and the power of activity to keep spirits high. She also seemed to know that high spirits helped tackle the rigours of a tough school program with greater ease, less stress and ultimately, more success.

Emma also loved sports any kind of sports. She was a leader in generating team spirit and participated in all forms of athletic endeavour. We believe, as she did, that sports are a vital part of life, bringing exposure not only to the physical and strategic challenges of play, but also the opportunity to learn about teams, leadership and competition.

Service Learning was another major component of Emma’s interests at BSS. She was committed to making the world a better place and that is a value we hope that all students at BSS embrace, not only intellectually, but in their hearts. That’s why participation in projects that provide exposure to the world as well as creative opportunities to develop solutions that benefit the broader community, either here at home or across the planet, are so important.

In many ways, these three areas that were so central to Emma’s life are in fact, the heart and soul of BSS. We have one of the finest academic programs in the world, but we also know that girls need to find their own voices and their own sense of purpose. These experiences are an essential part of that journey.

This issue of The Link, my first Head’s Report to the Community, is a celebration of the wonderful BSS community that we all share, and Emma was indeed the very embodiment of everything that makes it so special. As we recognize our donors and all of the parents, students, staff, Old Girls and friends that have made our School and our community what it is today, we celebrate our partnership. We know in our hearts that each and every girl at BSS can make a tremendous difference that has ripple effects far beyond the walls of our school. Buoyed by the spirit of those who have graced our halls, we look forward to seeing the great heights to which our girls will rise.

—Deryn Lavell

Head of School

*We look forward to recognizing the many generous donors to Emma’s Gift in our Annual Report for 2009/10. For more detail on Emma’s Gift, please see The Thread at thethread.bss.on.ca.

Ages seven and eight are a fast-changing, exciting time for girls and for the parents and teachers nurturing them and watching them grow. They are rapidly developing maturity, confidence and independence, and learning to be responsible for themselves. They begin to stretch themselves by taking risks. And at BSS, they are meeting new classmates, making new friends, and starting to think about community, and their role in it.

In the BSS Junior School, there are two Grade 3 classes, each with 20 students. The school day goes from 8:30 am until 3:30 pm. For the Grade 3s, a good part of their morning is spent in their classroom with their teacher doing activities related to math and literacy, and the afternoons are spent delving into inquiry experiences, both within the classroom and with the specialist teachers.

Grade 3 is an important consolidation year in school. Around this stage, students shift from skills like mastering the mechanics of reading, to understanding the ideas in the material. They are also learning to use the tools they’ve developed thus far to communicate their ideas in their writing. In the Junior School classrooms, the students’ ideas and theories are central to the learning that happens at school.

Once the students have settled into their newly formed communities, all Grade 3 students at BSS set goals for themselves: an academic goal and a social goal which provide a basis for the girls to be thinking about themselves as learners, and and where their strengths and challenges lie. An example of an academic goal might be ‘to increase my understanding of what I read when I read chapter books’. A social goal might be ‘to play with different girls at recess rather then playing with the same group of kids all the time’. Or, ‘to listen more carefully when other people are talking’.

Students, parents and teachers work together to define strategies school strategies and home strategies to help them achieve their goals, and those goals aren’t a secret.

Students self-assess and work collaboratively with their teachers and classmates to improve in their specified areas. “It’s important that everyone in the community knows what you’re working on so that they can help you work on it,” says Patti MacDonald, Assistant Head of the Junior School. “It goes back to the idea of transparency and that we’re all here learning, and we’re all different and helping each other. If everything is a secret then you can’t help.”

Interestingly, Grade 3 is an entry year at BSS, which is not the case for many other independent schools in Toronto. As such, focus on community becomes a very important one, and it’s the job of everyone in the Grade 3 community to integrate a whole new group of girls who come from a variety of schools, backgrounds and experiences, and welcome them into the BSS community. “That part of the program is amazing with BSS, for the new families that come in; They really work hard on helping them transition into this new environment,” says BSS Grade 3 parent, Lucinda Kogan. Teachers are deliberate about building community in the classroom helping the existing girls to welcome the new girls into the culture of learning at BSS, and supporting everyone to feel confident and secure in taking risks. Having a safe haven is imperative and critical for students at this stage to move forward. “It’s about being in an environment where it’s not a risk to do something that might have been risky in another environment,” says Ms. MacDonald. “We want them to feel comfortable but we want them to bring with them all of those experiences that then enrich what’s happened here. The new diversity of ideas that comes in, of experiences, of personalities and potentials for friendship, are huge.”

The classroom becomes a learning community full of students with a common mission around learning. “In Grade 3, it’s the students’ mission to try and understand community. The way one student understands it right now will be completely different from the way another student understands it because we’ve all had different experiences, but it’s through our work together that we’re all going to understand it better it’s collective cognitive responsibility,” says Ms. MacDonald.

Emphasis is placed on developing a community where girls are engaged intrinsically in the process of learning. “It’s about wanting to learn for learning’s sake, not learning because ‘I’m going to get a sticker’ or because ‘I want to get an A’,” says Ms. MacDonald. “When students focus only on getting an A, they will choose the easiest book to read to ensure they get the best grade. At BSS, we want students to challenge themselves. The motivation really needs to be in the learning.”

Empowering parents to become partners in their daughter’s learning experience is critical at all grades, but communication between the School and parents increases in Grade 3, especially since there are parents who are new to the Reggio-inspired approach in the Junior School. “One of the biggest pieces of parent education that we do is around helping to support girls to become autonomous learners and to know themselves as learners,” says Ms. MacDonald.

When children are learning a new, more complex concept, take long division as an example, it can be difficult for parents to watch their daughter grapple with her homework, especially when it’s something she doesn’t know how to solve. Parents are invited to attend workshops given by teachers that explain the approach to teaching and learning. “They really showed us how the girls are learning math,” says Mrs. Kogan. “You actually had to sit and do a problem together as parents so you could thoroughly understand it, and it was amazing. When you understood the teacher’s approach, you really got it. They’re trying to help the parents help their girls become independent, in the sense that, [homework] is their responsibility in Grade 3.”

“We try to help parents understand ‘that’s why they call it a problem’,” says Ms. MacDonald. “The solution is not immediately apparent. It’s hard for parents to watch their children grapple, without providing them with the answer that the parent knows. So we do a lot of work in helping parents understand what their role is and what the teacher’s role is in helping to scaffold girls in solving problems and feeling successful in solving those problems.” When students encounter something new, they are confident; they know which tools to use to approach that situation, and, perhaps equally as important, believe that they can do it. They understand that it’s ok if it’s difficult; with the right tools and the right resources, they’ll be able to thrive.

Win ROGERS Burry ’54 has come into the city from her farm in Port Hope to visit her family. She waits for her granddaughter, Kate Burry, Class of 2010, in the Drawing Room at BSS. Like a dutiful grandmother, she has a purse full of photographs to share, but they’re not photographs of Kate, or Mrs. Burry’s other three grandchildren not exactly. The images she pulls from her bag are colourful creations, artfully crafted with diligent hands. These are Mrs. Burry’s quilts but they are like no other. In fact, she is known around the world as a great fabric artist.

The first photo she shows is of a quilt she made for Kate. She was tucking three-year-old Kate into bed one night when Kate said she was afraid of the dark. “Oh, Kate. Don’t be afraid,” she soothed. “You’ve got your guardian angels.”

“I’ve got 20 guardian angels but they’ve all gone on vacation to Florida,” Kate stated.

This was all the inspiration Mrs. Burry needed. She made her granddaughter a quilt unlike any other. A fabric photo of Kate is nestled into the roots of an enchanted tree and her eyes are lifted towards a celestial angel. In the background a castle is nestled in the hills, because, according to Mrs. Burry, everyone needs a castle to hold their dreams. She subsequently made all of her grandchildren quilts, and each is captured in a photograph tucked into her purse. She also makes quilts for friends and loved ones, to help them through difficult times and to remind them that they’re special.

Though Mrs. Burry did take the prize for sewing at BSS, she didn’t begin her foray into the fabric arts until her late 30s after her three boys were grown and out on their own. Right after graduating from BSS, she became a nurse at Sick Kids’ Hospital, where she completed three years of training and then married James Burry a month later. Three months after that she was pregnant and became a stay-at-home mother. It was how things were done in those days, she says.

“We were lucky we were able to stay home,” says Mrs. Burry of her and her friends. “All the neighbours stayed home; there were very few working moms, and we could get together at each other’s houses and put all the kids in the back garden to play and drink coffee it was really nice.”

Mrs. Burry was always involved with her children’s lives, whether as a Cub leader, choir mother or another volunteer position. She encouraged them to be individuals and true to themselves. “I tell the kids, don’t ever let anybody tell you you can’t do something because you can do it if you want,” she says.

She has taken her own advice and made a name for herself internationally because of her passion and talent for the fabric arts. Her reputation began to grow when she was invited to her first international show in San Francisco. She was 48 years old and had never travelled on her own before, but she bought a ticket and flew out to the coast, where her work was being shown alongside other amazing pieces of art. This began her globetrotting. Her shows and reputation have taken her all across the United States, Holland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and, of course, Southern Ontario, just to name a few places. She has seen her quilts hang between the work of artists she respects and reveres and she received a ribbon for her work while in The Hague.

It all gave Mrs. Burry a real sense of freedom. “Our generation got married, had kids, and stayed home,” she explains. “Suddenly I was being myself and being recognized as myself and travelling alone and it was really a liberating thing at a time when my kids had grown and they didn’t need me anymore.” She doesn’t show her work anymore (other than with the pictures in her purse). The pieces she makes are very personal and sentimental and she doesn’t want to risk losing them or having them damaged while being lugged around the world.

Mrs. Burry has always been a woman of great passion and love for others. As a student at BSS, she and her classmates were told not to wear kerchiefs because they were for cleaning ladies. Having great affection for her own cleaning lady, she took great offence to the statement. It was 1951 and it just so happened that (then) princess Elizabeth was visiting Canada with her husband, Prince Philip, and the evening paper that night ran a photo of Her Royal Highness waving from a locomotive, sporting a kerchief on her head.

She took the photo, pasted it on a Bristol board and wrote in red ink “Kerchiefs second rate?” and then put the Bristol board on the easel in the main hallway at BSS. “I didn’t hide the fact that it was me who put it there,” she says. “So that was a bit lippy on my part,” she laughs, “but to insinuate that [kerchiefs] were second rate, that really got me.” Of course, she was called to the principal’s office for this incident, but she laughs about it now.

Mrs. Burry has never shied away from speaking her mind or acting out her desires. Never much of an athlete, she would hide herself in the pommel horse during gym class, tucked away in the hollows of the contraption, listening to the thuds of her classmates above her head, and at times poking her finger out to incite a giggle or two. She did, however, win one athletic prize during her high school career: third place in a sack race. “That was a real talent!” she howls with laughter.

She continues to laugh while describing the award, a tiny pin, and the ordeal of having the dust from the sac poof into her face with every hop. Her family had suggested a while ago that she donate some funds to the athletic trophy case at the School an idea that seemed just too ironically ludicrous for her to swallow.

Instead, she and her family have set up a family Bursary Fund at BSS. Her sons, Donald and John, are an artist and musician, respectively. Her other son, Guy, is a businessman. The scholarship is relatively new and will be awarded to a qualified student in need of financial aid, with preference given to a girl who excels in the arts.

Kate has taken after her grandmother. She made her parents a quilt for their 20th anniversary, using photographs from their wedding and of herself and her younger brother, Owen. She has also made two bed-sized quilts. Outside of school, Kate is an accomplished figure skater, a talent that involves a high level of athleticism (which she didn’t get from her grandmother) but also an artistic flair.

Mrs. Burry stays in touch with her friends from BSS, particularly her close friends Judith BLACKEY Ridout ’54, Judith MORROW James ’54 and Mike (Margaret) LIND King ’54. They occasionally get together for lunch and good company. It was these friends, along with a few others, that really gave her a sense of belonging at BSS. “I had a really good gang of girls and we always had stuff to do,” she says. “Women are the salvation of the world we get each other through.”

Every school has its unsung heroes, those people whose substantial roles are mostly behind the scenes. BSS is no exception. Meet the IT Integrators, Roark Andrade, Vince Delisi and Edwin Burnett. These aren’t the people you call when your daughter drops her laptop or accidentally downloads a virus (though they are, undoubtedly, heroes too). This trio of tech gurus-cum-educators are responsible for the School’s seamless fusion of technology and teaching.

Once she enters Grade 9, every student carries her own laptop from class to class. Students in Grade 10 and up type their notes into a sea of school sanctioned grey PC laptops, many decorated with stickers in the tradition of 3-hole binders. This year marks the School’s foray into MacBooks, starting with the Grade 9s and eventually moving to every high school grade. Junior School girls have computer access too: one laptop per three students means everyone gets plenty of practice.

Not that they need it; after all, these kids have grown up with computers and are certainly tech-savvy. BSS isn’t teaching them how to use computers they’re teaching them with computers. The Integrators help teachers create lesson plans that use technology with both efficiency and innovation. They figure out what the best tools are for delivering that lesson, and they teach both the teachers and the students how to use them. They’re a regular classroom fixture. As consequence, many students know them by name.

The Integrators are tasked with helping teachers create a wide range of project-based lessons. They teach Grade 5 students how to use internet search engines and library resources and take notes on different ancient civilizations. They even taught them how to use Google Earth to strip away the buildings and show them what the world would have looked like in ancient Rome or medieval Europe.

One Grade 6 project recently developed by the team asks the girls to create documentaries about First Nations in order to learn about their culture. The girls write, shoot and edit the films themselves. “Some of this technology has only been around 10 or 15 years,” Andrade says. “A video editing suite used to fill an entire room. But these kids have it on their desktops. It’s effortless for them. We give them guidance and tips, but they already have a good handle on the technology.”

The Integrators have helped change the traditional landscape of the classroom as well. Every classroom is equipped with an interactive white board, which has the potential to free an entire generation from the unpleasant scrrrrrape of chalk on a blackboard. It also allows teachers to present their lessons in a more interesting and engaging format as well as download new software as it becomes available.

Most of the Integrators’ work is more subtle. Staying on top of the latest and greatest in scholastic technology is no easy task, and research is a large part of the job description. “Technology has an evolving definition,” Andrade says, “We have to keep up with it.” The trio travels to IT conferences where the search for new approaches to integrating technology into teaching are just as important as the gadgets themselves. They’re all tech geeks at heart, and they admit to loving this part of the job. “The School is happy to feed our addiction to technology,” Burnett says. “We never get told ‘no’ when we want to try something new. All ideas are welcome, and we get the freedom to explore them.”

Every decision is made with the girls in mind, Delisi says. All new ideas are tested before being spread to the whole school, which helps reveal potential glitches before they happen. He is currently conducting a survey on the interactive white boards. “I want to know if the kids are using them, or if this is just something the teachers are excited about,” he says. “It’s always about what’s best for the girls.”

Their initial white board testing led them to purchase two different brands. The older classes get Canadian-built SMART boards, which can detect the touch of fingers and hands as well as specially-designed pens. But the team discovered that when young children write, they tend to grip their pens in their fists and drag them across the surface. Or they simply touch or lean against the board itself, which confuses the computer. The remedy? Instead of scrapping the project, the younger classes get Promethean-brand boards, which can only detect the pen. Delisi is also pushing to get younger students working with handheld devices like the iPod touch, which are much more manageable for tiny hands than laptops. Another project in the works involves the school theatre: the Integrators are looking at software that will allow the girls to operate sound and lighting for school productions while sitting in the audience.

Of course to make classroom technology appear seamless is a challenge in itself. Thankfully each Integrator brings his own diverse background of experience and expertise to the job. Delisi’s career has taken him from public to private school, mixed with a stint in the business world. This includes a decade of teaching high school math and another 10 years as a teacher at the Country Day School in King City, Ontario. He’s also spent 10 years working for digital and analog technology expert Texas Instruments, where he got a taste of the potential that new technology can offer a teacher. He’s noticed that each generation is more tech-savvy than the last, even within the School. “A senior student came to me for some extra help with her video editing while I was in a Junior School class. She was amazed to see the younger kids working away with such dexterity.”

Roark Andrade is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and is a self-described “semi-practising artist.” He honed his video and design skills while working at Autodesk, which specializes in 2D and 3D design software for manufacturing, engineering, media and entertainment. He’s also spent time at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s studio school, where he taught students the elements of design. “I love how technology can be such a big part of art,” he says, “It’s dynamic. For example, you can use video to document and express any number of things.” He also loves that a typical day at BSS can offer the chance to interact with students of all ages, and there’s something new to tackle every day.

Burnett, the third member of the tech trio, is the only one who currently also teaches his own class. His background is in media, which gives him a competitive edge when it comes to getting the most out of new technology. He brings that media experience to his role at BSS where he helps teachers develop curricula using emerging software. He also liaises with other schools, including colleges and universities, to tap into fresh ideas and shared experiences.

The Integrators’ work has a trickle-down effect on students. This year the School is plastered with posters promoting a student-run entrepreneurial venture, born in the classroom and inspired by technology. Because each girl has to carry a computer networking cable to access the internet, a group of students decided to glam up this ordinarily bland accessory by selling cables in cotton-candy pink.

The hardest part of an Integrator’s job? From time to time a teacher waits until the last minute to call on the team, which leaves little time for strategic planning. “Planning is an important part of integrating technology into the classroom,” Burnett says. But he notes that this is happening less and less. “Teachers are now realizing how great it is to work with us.” How else can an instructor hope to engage a generation of students who were raised on technology?

“When it comes to technology, the kids are not only fearless, but they also expect it to do exactly what they want,” Delisi says. “To them, there are no limits for what technology can do for them.”

Thanks to the never ending construction on St. Clair, I’m running late for my interview with one of the most celebrated athletes at BSS. Face glistening with sweat, the stress of the road works reading like a road map of worry lines on my furrowed brow, I hasten into the foyer.

Sitting patiently on a bench is a petite girl with long auburn hair and freckles. “That can’t be her,” I think, “she’s not big enough to be the top ranked Under 18 Female Hockey Defenseman (or is it Defensewoman?) in Canada. Shouldn’t she be, well, more ‘strapping’?” But it is her. And she’s on time. As always.

Shannon Doyle can’t afford to be late. Ever. As a member of the Elite Performer Program at BSS, her life runs on a pretty tight schedule. “Monday I work out, Tuesday there’s 6:00 am practice with the BSS hockey team, Tuesday nights I practise with my Junior Team the Aeros, Wednesday is game day with BSS and the Aeros, Thursday another morning practice with BSS and an evening practice with the Aeros. And on Friday, my parents pick me up after my 4:30 pm workout and take me home for the weekend where I play more games or take private hockey lessons.” In total, Shannon plays on four hockey teams the BSS Bobcats, the Aeros (Junior Team), Team Ontario Red (a Tier One Team), and the Under 18 Canada Team. Yet she still manages an extremely demanding Grade 12 course load and is a Boarding School Ambassador. Feeling exhausted yet? Cause I know I am.

None of it fazes Shannon. It’s all just another day at the rink. “Now that I’m in Boarding, my schedule is a bit easier. When I first got to BSS in Grade 9, my Dad and I would commute four hours a day going back and forth between Toronto and my hometown of Baldwin. Last year, Tuesday was ‘Death Day’ because I had no time to do any work at night.” So why does she do it? “I love the game.” Yeah, she really, really must.

Funnily enough, it was figure skates that Shannon laced up when she first hit the ice. “My Mom put me in figure skating because that’s what girls did,” she smiles. But beneath the sit-spins and salchows beat the heart of a hockey player. “I picked up skating really fast so my coaches stopped paying attention to me and I got bored. So when I was six, I asked if I could play hockey instead. Plus I wanted to be like my brother Ryan.” In the beginning, Carol and Frank Doyle were worried Shannon would get hurt playing hockey with boys. But her agility and speed soon proved to be a huge asset. “Starting in figure skating gave me an edge over the guys because I could skate rings around them. That’s why they put me on defense I was the only one on my team who could skate backwards.”

The Doyles’ fears about injuries soon came true, however. “When you reach a certain age, guys are just physically stronger than girls. When I was 10, a larger boy fell on me and I broke my leg in seven places. Another time, two guys fell on my ankle. The tendon pulled the bone out of place so now I have two screws in my ankle.” Cool, I think to myself, my fascination with the macabre rearing its ugly head. “Even though I was the lead hitter on my team, (atta girl!) I switched over to an all-girls team in Grade 8.”

So how does a female hockey player from Baldwin with two screws in her ankle end up at BSS anyway? It’s all part of the School’s goal of celebrating diversity and talent in its student body. Clearly, there are no cookie-cutter girls here. “BSS recruits hockey players to help develop the team and replace some graduating girls with younger players,” Shannon explains. “When they approached my parents and me, we were really excited. We saw it as a great opportunity for me to come to an amazing school. It was an opportunity I wouldn’t have had otherwise.” Before accepting her outright, Shannon was invited to skate with the BSS team. “I guess they liked what they saw because they took me and another girl that year.” And clearly, she needed academics as much as athletics. Shannon cites English and Philosophy as favourite subjects.

Still, it must have been daunting coming to an all-girls independent school. “I was anxious at first. I never pictured myself coming to a school like BSS.” And how is BSS different from other schools she’s been to? “Obviously the beautiful facilities,” she says. Yes, sprawling green playing field, a gorgeous old stone building, an art room that looks like it’s straight out of Harry Potter, what’s not to love? “But the teacher support is really what’s amazing. You’re not on your own. Of course, they have high standards and expect you to get your work done. But there’s a huge support group here.” And if Shannon is feeling really overwhelmed, she can always turn to Sarah Crump, Elite Performer Coordinator at BSS. “Ms. Crump is amazing. She’ll help me organize my schedule and talk to my teachers if I’m feeling like I can’t get everything done in time. When it’s really hectic, she’s great at relieving some of the stress.” And what does Ms. Crump think about Shannon? “Shannon embodies what it means to be a leader. In Boarding she is a good friend to many and makes everyone, especially the new Boarders, feel at ease,” she says. “She’s a responsible, caring and passionate young adult who’s well respected within the School and the community. We’re proud of her success in hockey and her ability to balance all that comes her way with a positive attitude.”

As for other support in Shannon’s life, there’s tons of it. Her good friend Adrienne Crampton also plays defense for the Bobcats so she knows what it’s like to juggle. “Adrienne and I push each other to do well. There’s a bit of friendly competition between us. And since she understands what I’m going through, I can vent to her and vice versa.” When it comes to family, they couldn’t be more supportive. “My Mom quit her job so she could drive me around to games and practices if my Dad couldn’t. Before I started Boarding, my Dad would wake up every day at 4:30 am to make me breakfast and get me to BSS.” Speaking of breakfast, this pint-sized powerhouse never misses it. Or any other opportunity to eat, for that matter. “With all the training I do, I eat all the time. I’d be obese if I wasn’t in hockey,” she laughs.

Besides all the teacher/friend/family assistance, what keeps a girl of 17 so motivated? “Passion for the game,” she replies without hesitation. Anything else? “I want to become the best for myself. And to be able to pay my parents back. They’ve dedicated all their time giving me the opportunity to be the best I can. I want to give back to them.” Part of this is the reason Shannon is going to university in New York when she graduates this year. Colgate University in Hamilton, New York on full scholarship, to be exact. “I’m going to major in English or Philosophy. They have a Division One Hockey Program at Colgate. And it’s close enough to home that my parents can visit me on the weekends.” Sorry? Drive all the way from Baldwin to New York on the weekends? “They’d miss seeing me play,” she smiles. Time to rack up a few more kilometres on the old odometer, Dad.

For Shannon, the ultimate goal is to get to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. “The Olympics is everything for women hockey players. There is no NHL for women. The Olympics is it.” And once that goal’s reached, because really, once you’ve met Shannon you know there is no other option but reaching it, what’s next? “English teacher or a Philosophy Professor. But my Dad also suggested that I could become a university hockey coach so I’m thinking about that.”

Is there any time in her whirling-dervish life to relax, I wonder. “Nope. I never just sit around and watch TV.” Not that she minds. “Hockey is my release. It’s my sanctuary. When I’m on the ice, I don’t stress about math homework or any problems I’m having. The only thing I have to worry about is hockey.” And although there’s no time to veg in front of the TV, Shannon is determined to watch at least some of the Olympic coverage this year.

With our time almost at an end and Shannon with a million things to do before she goes to class, I ask what her philosophy is. I’m pretty sure she’ll have one. She does. And it’s this: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Something tells me that if Shannon had been responsible for the construction on St. Clair, it would have been finished months ago and I wouldn’t have arrived late. Or sweaty. As for boys? “No, there’s no time for that either. Which makes my Dad happy. He even encouraged me to go to an all-girls university!”

On a brisk December afternoon, at a coffee shop near the School, I meet Toni in fine form. She’s multitasking from her BlackBerry, co-ordinating airport check-ins with one son in Halifax and another in Scotland. Within 24 hours, the whole family will meet up in Thailand for the holidays, and knowing Toni, not a detail will be missed.

Susan rushes in, fresh from the winter cold. It’s a busy day, sandwiched between the holidays and the bustling success of this year’s Deck the Hall event. She’s quickly out of her parka and into a hot cup of coffee, laughing and smiling and chatting away with Toni, sunny as a summer day; like she carries her own weather system.

With this much juggling and this much charm, the parent association co-chairs are like a very grounded Cirque de Soleil.

Their volunteer CVs are as long as your arm. Between them, they have fifteen years of girls’ Bingo nights and Christmas sales, of jobs as treasurers and class reps and, of course, school ambassador, welcoming new and would-be new parents into the BSS fold.

Which is apt, since if the pair talk about one thing with a rosier glow than they have for volunteering, it’s how much the School has given both their daughters and themselves.

“BSS is a unique school in the sense of community: whether it’s the teachers, the administrators, the maintenance people; everyone comes together as one,” says Toni.

For Susan, her volunteer career at BSS started ten years ago, as soon as her elder daughter, Meredith, started Kindergarten. “I didn’t know anybody and it was an easy way to meet people,” she says.

Her first task? Planning a Bingo night for the girls after school. “It was really cute. It was just a social event for the little girls and we had a little budget for Bingo daubers and loot bag prizes,” she says.

When her younger daughter, Evelyn, was interviewing to join her big sister, Susan decided the time was right to kick it up a notch. “So I decided to sign up for the toughest committee, which is the Deck the Hall Christmas sale,” she laughs.

“I was treasury secretary because I was the last one into the room as you can tell, I’m always a little late and they were like ‘we need a treasurer, thank you.’ And that’s how I really got dug into the whole volunteering scene.”

For Toni, life as a BSS volunteer started five years ago when her daughter, Sarah, came to the School in Grade 7. “We’d just moved back to Canada from New York and London, and the kids had never lived here before,” she says. “BSS was Sarah’s choice. She was 12, she walked through those doors and she just knew right away. And so did I. The School just has an atmosphere of community, friendliness and warmth.”

“It is amazing what you can get out of volunteering,” she says, and glistens at the memory of this year’s Deck the Hall. “The camaraderie, the spirit, the connection with other people is incredible and when new parents come to volunteer, generally they will come out next year.”

Getting new parents involved in the volunteer activities of the School has been a big priority for both women.

“It’s important to us to let new parents know that this is not a closed group; it’s a welcoming one” Susan says. “So we try to be at all the events so that we can meet people and they can see that we’re having a lot of fun.”

“Our parent community at BSS is a dynamic presence in the School,” says Patti Pilon, Director of Parent and Community Relations. “Toni’s and Susan’s extraordinary leadership empowers and engages their team to work together toward the goal of meaningful involvement. And their sense of humour as well as their incredible enthusiasm and dedication really makes it a pleasure to work with them!”

Among their proudest accomplishments? Helping build the endowment fund with the money raised from Deck the Hall. “For a long time, there was a bricks and mortar aspect to parent fundraising,” Susan explains. “We’d give a seminar room or a fireplace but we were really pleased when the Board started building the endowment.”

“Sometimes ‘endowment’ seems like a vague term; it can be easier when you can see what you’re giving like helping build the library,” she says. “But the Board really supported the vision, which is to have a great endowment to help girls come to BSS or stay at BSS who wouldn’t otherwise be able to.”

On a personal level, both Susan and Toni also feel that volunteering has helped them show their daughters the importance of giving back. “We talk about how important it is,” Susan says. “My older daughter is at that age where she’s just starting to ask more questions and get more involved in volunteering, like for The Stop food bank. She’s starting to understand that especially when you live in a world of privilege it’s important to give something back.”

For Toni’s daughter, Sarah, volunteering has become an important part of her life. Not only has she volunteered in Argentina and in Ecuador, she also volunteers locally, and is currently the Head Girl. “She sees that you have to want to give back,” Toni beams.

Toni and Susan seem like old, old friends, and it’s hard to believe that they barely knew each other when they signed on to co-chair the Parent Association executive two years ago.

“We were suddenly thrown together, and it’s a very intense relationship,” says Susan. “Luckily everything worked out very well.”

“Susan’s just very level headed,” Toni says. “I like people who are honest and straight because you know what you get. And she’s nice. And fun.”

“I’m going to cry,” Susan says. “You know when you meet someone and there’s a connection? It’s like I knew when we sat down that there’s nothing I can’t say to her. What I like most is Toni’s commitment to the School. She wears her heart on her sleeve. It’s amazing. I’m more cynical.”

“No, you’re not,” Toni interrupts. “She’s not.”

“And I really like that she’s so enthusiastic,” Susan continues. “It makes me want to be a better volunteer.”

“Vice versa,” Toni says. She turns to me. “It’s funny. We’ve started finishing each other’s sentences now.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do next year,” Susan says. This will be their last year as co-chairs, and with Toni’s daughter set to graduate, she won’t be at the School nearly as much. “It’s going to be the most depressing year ever.”

“Me too,” says Toni. “I’m OK with it; I know it’s time. I may come back and be a Parent Ambassador. But I’ll miss Susan. I’ll miss the people.”

The conversation has hit a melancholy note. They both sigh. We switch to a cheerier subject: food. Both love to cook. Suddenly, Toni brightens.

“I know. We could go into business together,” she says. They’re back in committee mode, planning a sandwich catering business. “Let’s do that,” Susan says. You can already see how they’d artfully keep the circus in motion.

BSS is approaching the final year of its current five-year Strategic Plan called Focus 20/20, which trained the School’s gaze on three fundamental priorities: People, Program and Sustainability. Within each of these areas, a series of goals and action plans were developed that fine tuned the respective priorities and assembled the School’s resources and organizational structure around the plan’s implementation. It’s a Herculean task not only to achieve the goals set out in the plan, but the process itself requires enormous effort in both research and creativity.

“Strategic thinking is a vital part of bringing a diverse organization like BSS together so that the entire weight of our team’s talent, experience, and intelligence can be focused on aligned objectives rather than scattered in different directions, watering down our full power,” says Deryn Lavell, BSS Head of School. “The basic thrust of this exercise is to articulate a vision and build a plan that will help get us there. Without that, we simply wouldn’t know where we’re going, so how would we know when we got there?”

As BSS comes to the close of the Focus 20/20 plan and looks forward to celebrating its success in bringing the School forward in its ongoing quest to give students all the tools they need to achieve their dreams and goals, the leadership will soon be gearing up for the next phase in its journey. The lessons learned over the past five years, the goals achieved and the changing environment will be examined to provide direction for the future.

“First and foremost we need to have a well articulated and researched vision,” says Ms. Lavell. “That’s the single most important thing. It’s our destination.”

According to Ms. Lavell, the success of the current vision and plan is what will determine where we go from here. She and her team, together with active leadership from the Board of Governors, will build on what’s been accomplished, and, with a thorough examination of the changing needs of students for the future, a new strategy will emerge.

“It’s like constructing a building,” says Tony Gaffney, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Board. “You might change architects and refine the vision, but you don’t re-engineer the foundation if the structure is solid. You build on your strengths while being responsive to the changing times.”

“What gets us in trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know that just ain’t so.”Mark Twain.

Educator Karl Fisch sums up the challenge: “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented yet, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” If there is anything one can predict with certainty, it’s that any prediction will seriously underestimate the human capacity for ingenuity. Among some of the most stunning predictions (in hindsight), ever made was in 1959 when IBM executives informed the future founders of Xerox that, “The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000 at most.” Or, Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation claiming in 1977 that, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

In light of what we now understand to be the nature of technological progress, which is one of the single biggest drivers of the overall transformation of the world economy, we cannot safely predict the specifics of what the change will look like, so we have to re-think the ‘tools’ our students need, not in terms of what knowledge they possess, but rather, in terms of how they think. According to John Naisbitt, author of popular business and consumer trend books, “In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, let alone for the rest of your life. The most important skill to acquire now is learning how to learn.”

“Changing the course of history is easier than changing a history course.” Ian Jukes, Educator

A major difficulty for many schools is simply keeping up with the demands of technological advances and all that implies in terms of a student’s worldview and frame of reference. A dilemma is unfolding because, despite the addition of computers, a great many schools look basically the same now as they did in the 19th century. Education is in the middle of a massive transformation and the challenge for educators is breathtaking.

“BSS has been fortunate that we have the support of a visionary Board and a community of thoughtful parents who are engaged in and aware of the challenges we face,” says Ms. Lavell. “We all want the same thing to give BSS students a clear advantage as they enter this very complex world. For that to occur, we know we have to stay at the forefront of technological advances as a learning tool, and have a culture of innovation that seizes new ideas that will give our girls a relevant, real-world experience as part of their learning process.”

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a consortium comprised of private and public sector representatives in the United States ranging from Apple Inc. and CISCO Systems executives to the U.S. Department of Education. These industry leaders say they’ve seen the future and it is a mix of six core competencies that will be required to move the emerging knowledge economy forward. They claim, “accelerating technological change, rapidly accumulating knowledge, increasing global competition and rising workforce capabilities around the world make 21st century skills essential.” And they are urging educators to get on board with their thinking.

In a nutshell, their ‘Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning’ are:

1.    Emphasize Core Subjects.

2.    Emphasize Learning Skills.

3.    Use 21st Century Tools to Develop Learning Skills.

4.    Teach and Learn in a 21st Century Context.

5.    Teach and Learn 21st Century Content.

6.    Use 21st Century Assessments that Measure 21st Century Skills.

[Learning for the 21st Century]

This is a tidy summary by some of the world’s most respected business and industry leaders of what will be required of students as they emerge into a changing workforce. Depth of knowledge, a passion for lifelong learning, digital literacy, global connection and making learning relevant and meaningful by taking school into the real world, are all key ingredients in each of these six categories.

And this theory is being supported by the business community from whom much has been written about the fact that today’s leaders have to be able to operate in many cultures and be sensitive to global issues. As a result, a whole new set of skills need to be present that weren’t on the radar even just 10 years ago. In a recent New York Times article, Canada’s Rotman School of Management, led by Roger Martin, author of The Opposable Mind and a vocal advocate for what he calls ‘integrative thinking’, was touted as a business school that was changing the game for MBA programs across North America. The reason? Mr. Martin realized some time ago that the new economy was demanding an entirely different way of thinking about problems. If innovation was the key to a successful knowledge economy, than learning in silos by subject area would be the antithesis of success. His MBA students, who tackle problems using real-world situations, multi-disciplinary approaches, and mix it up the way liberal arts might do things, are being recognized as uniquely qualified to lead in today’s economy.

BSS has also been operating on these principles for some time, having long ago evolved its program to embrace what used to be called, ‘the whole girl’ approach that put as much emphasis on character, creativity, instinct and emotional I.Q., as it did on academics. BSS was among the pioneers in implementing the laptop program and now it is moving to Mac platforms, which is but one of myriad ways the School tries to stay current with digital literacy. BSS also led the way in the Junior School by introducing the Reggio-inspired approach that has as its basis, a belief in harnessing the learner’s own power and using the world around us to creatively learn new concepts and solve problems.

Now, the Senior School is implementing the same kind of ‘integrative thinking’ model proposed by Mr. Martin that encourages cross and multi-disciplinary learning along with real-world situations and collaborative, creative group learning. What the world of education is now billing as the next challenge acquiring 21st century learning skills seems to be echoing the approach BSS has been pursuing for some time already.

“In fact, our own approach for girls’ learning here at BSS is now accepted as a way of approaching problem solving that is in high demand for the modern workplace in most disciplines, whether it’s science and medicine, politics or business,” says Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head of BSS’s Senior School. “That’s not to suggest that this is a gender issue, but rather it is the evolution of the 21st century skills needed by both genders to succeed in today’s environment, and they just happen to coincide with what we’ve discovered are quite natural ways that girls learn.”

Does this give girls the upper hand in today’s highly competitive, creative economy sweepstakes? The answer is yes…and no. Although women are currently outperforming their male counterparts in a variety of academic programs, the expected corresponding success in their professions has yet to reflect that reality. For example, a recent Catalyst Canada survey showed that for the 2006/07 academic year, women made up 46.7% of law school students, but only 34.4% of all lawyers were women and just 18.7% of all partners were women. This may simply be a gap in time that will eventually correct itself as the numbers suggest, or it could be a reflection of other issues that continue to cause difficulties for professional women such as balancing their roles as leaders both in the family and professionally.

Regardless, both the sheer volume of women emerging from universities in North America across all disciplines, and the changing environment of work that is revolutionizing the economic base in the developed world, mean that there is little room for lingering inequities. The western economy will depend on full participation of both genders at all levels if it is to achieve the necessary capacity.

The future looks bright for the girls at BSS today, thanks in part to the vision and foresight of a series of creative and innovative Heads and the committed Governors who have put in place successive Strategic Plans that have anticipated the future and created an educational environment that is now light years ahead of most and firmly entrenched in the heart of what the experts are calling for today. Whatever name you apply to it 21st Century Learning, the Reggio-inspired approach, the whole-girl approach it all adds up to BSS.

“Thanks to my predecessors and to the leadership from our Boards, BSS is now primed to harness the incredible work that’s been done to become a leader in the whole 21st century learning movement. We are creating a continuum of learning that begins in the earliest years and moves seamlessly through the Middle and Senior Schools, deepening the learning process and filling our girls not simply with knowledge, but with wisdom, compassion and visceral, instinctive understanding,” says Ms. Lavell. “Our next strategic vision will drill further down into the key areas we need to focus on to take our approach to collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning and teaching to a whole other level. I plan to continue blazing that trail for our girls and hopefully, for students everywhere who can learn from what we’re doing. I know I can count on the vision, expertise and commitment from our Board of Governors and the entire BSS community as we build this dream together.”

Strategic Plan is a fairly mundane phrase that fails to properly describe the level of creativity, thought, courage and teamwork that go into creating one. Even more incredible for BSS has been the ability to achieve its ambitious goals and carry the School forward, despite all the challenges for education these days, not to mention, a tough economic climate. Ms. Lavell says the School is on track to complete its current Plan commitments by next year the fifth and final year of the Plan and there will be much to celebrate. At the same time, she and her team, alongside the Board of Governors, are already beginning to look ahead.

April 13

Old Girls’ Luncheon (Class of 1930-1960), 12:00 pm at BSS

April 21

Heritage Dinner, 7:00 pm in the Russell Hill Gymnasium

MAY.

May 1 – 5

Branch Reunions in the UK

May 12

Distinguished Old Girl Award Dinner, 6:30 pm at BSS,

honouring Canadian Olympic Archery Team Coach, Joan GALLIE McDonald ’62

May 27

Toronto Old Girls’ Pub Night, 5:00 to 8:00 pm at the Fox & Fiddle

SEPTEMBER: Harvest Reunion 2010: Celebrated years end in 0 and 5…

September 23

Harvest Reunion: Old Girl Boarders’ Evening

September 24    Harvest Reunion: Old Girls’ Cocktail Party for celebrated years 0 and 5

September 25

Harvest Reunion: Family Day and Harvest Games

For more information, contact Jill BLAKEY ’02 at 416 483 4325 ext. 1871, or email development@bss.on.ca. Stay tuned for details about these events posted online at: thethread.bss.on.ca.

February 10   
Lunar New Year Celebration

February 19   
Deadline for submissions to The Link Vol. III (Summer Issue)

APRIL
April 13   
Old Girls’ Luncheon (Classes 1930-1960)

April 20   
Heritage Dinner

MAY
May 12   
Distinguished Old Girl Award (DOGA) Dinner

May 27   
Toronto Old Girls’ Pub Night, 5:00 to 8:00 pm, Fox & Fiddle

Stay tuned for details about these events posted online at thethread.bss.on.ca.
Register online for BSS events at www.bss.on.ca or email development@bss.on.ca.

It’s been a busy fall to say the least busy, but also very exciting. As always in this dynamic school, there is constant change and renewal. This year you have welcomed me into the role of Head of School and it’s been a wonderful transition thanks to the warmth of our community and the skilled team I have around me. Sarah Kavanagh, the former Chair of the Board of Trustees, was elected Chair of the Board of Governors at the recent BSS Annual General Meeting. I could not be more pleased to be working with someone whose professional skill and inspiring success will be put to great use as we begin to think about a new vision and plan for the future. She certainly knows BSS and has already been an enormous contributor in her leadership role with the Foundation. And like me, Sarah takes over from an incredibly talented and dedicated predecessor, Kate Stevenson, who will continue to be a guide and advisor to all of us.

We are hard at work delivering on the fourth year of the current Strategic Plan and making great progress in key areas. Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head of the Senior School, has worked with her team to implement many innovations that create the structure necessary for transdisciplinary learning and teaching. We are following a model that promotes ‘T-shaped’ learning, where a student can stretch across many subject areas, while simultaneously developing a deep understanding of specific disciplines. This approach draws on all aspects of learning, challenging students to think critically and pull in a range of ideas and knowledge from other areas of study to solve a problem. Imagine a T and you’ll get the picture.

This is work that requires a big commitment on the part of the staff and teachers. They must create an environment that breaks down barriers between the subject groups that were once formed on the basis of a ‘silo’ concept. It is arguably easier for administrators to organize distinct subject areas and specific departments but we know that model is no longer in the best interest of the girls. When you start crossing the lines, you have to restructure an entire paradigm to accommodate a model that has, as its basis, less structure, more flexibility and a broader vision.

But it is absolutely necessary for our students, and the world they will enter once they leave BSS, that our program encourages a way of problem solving that harnesses creativity, analytical thinking, deep knowledge and even deeper instinct. To take a twist on a familiar phrase, we are developing the new ‘Renaissance Girl’. These girls have the kind of flexible intelligence that could make them a surgeon and concert pianist in the same breath.

This issue of The Link explores this theme of Renaissance girls and what it means at BSS. You will meet some of the many students who exemplify the ambition of our vision for the Middle and Senior Schools, and I’m certain you will be inspired by them. You will also meet ‘Renaissance Parent’ Anton Rabie, whose toy company, Spinmaster, is considered among the most innovative in the world, and Marina ENDICOTT ’76, Old Girl and author of the Giller-nominated novel, Good to a Fault. This entire community is populated with Renaissance people those who show us what is possible when you marry critical thinking with creativity, imagination and hard work.

I’m so proud to be among you and I hope you enjoy this issue of The Link. Please feel free to stay in touch by dropping me an email, or, better still, dropping by the School.

—Deryn Lavell

Head of School

BSS Old Girl and current parent, Kate BERGHUIS Stevenson ’81, has completed her term as Chair of BSS’s Board of Governors. In her role as Chair from 2005 to 2009, Ms. Stevenson was the driving force behind the current Strategic Plan. Highlights during her tenure include leading the Head’s transition from Kim Gordon to Deryn Lavell, promoting the Endowment as a critical foundation to a strong future for the School, overseeing the construction of a beautiful new Student Centre and renovation of the library into a state-of-the-art Learning Commons. Says Ms. Lavell, “Kate has been an amazing champion for BSS. Last fall, when global markets collapsed and the challenges BSS was facing became evident, I watched as the Governors, led by Kate Stevenson, and the Trustees, led by Sarah Kavanagh, efficiently and calmly navigated the School through rough waters. That BSS continued to go from strength to strength during this difficult period is truly impressive.”

Ms. Stevenson served on the Board of Governors for six years, and prior to that spent two years on the Board of Trustees. As ex-officio Governor and past Chair, she will become a member of the Head’s Advisory Committee. Says Ms. Lavell, “I’m thrilled that I will have the ability to continue to draw on her wisdom and experience.”

“As I take my leave from the Board table, I most certainly will continue to be part of this great community and a vocal advocate for BSS,” said Ms. Stevenson. “I happen to believe that it really is all about the people  my fellow Governors and Trustees, the School’s incredible Administration Team, the leadership of both Kim and now, Deryn, the faculty and staff, my fellow parents, the Parent Association, the Old Girls’ Executive, and above all, the students.”

Ms. Stevenson’s daughter, Willa, is in Grade 7. Her sister, Willa BERGHUIS Baynard ’84, was Chair of the BSS US Foundation, Friends of The Bishop Strachan School, from 2003 to 2009.

Succeeding Ms. Stevenson as Chair of the Board of Governors is Sarah Kavanagh, who previously held the position of Chair of the Board of Trustees. Ms. Kavanagh served as a Trustee for seven years. “I am very pleased to be able to pass the baton to Sarah Kavanagh,” said Ms. Stevenson. “She is an exceptional leader who will be a wonderful mentor and role model for our students, and for the senior team at BSS with whom she will work closely.”

Ms. Kavanagh is Vice Chair and Co-Head of Diversified Industries in the Investment Banking division of Scotia Capital. A passionate believer in girls’ education, she is also a vocal advocate for advancing women in business, including spearheading active recruitment and extensive mentoring.  In 2008, she was awarded the Women in Capital Markets Award for Leadership. Ms. Kavanagh is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Williams College. She has three daughters, Sally ’08, Allison ’09 and Caroline, Grade 11.

Taking on the role of Chair of the Board of Trustees is BSS current parent Blake Goldring. A Trustee since 2003, Mr. Goldring is the Chairman and CEO of AGF Management Ltd. Among other community involvements, he is an Honorary Colonel of The Royal Regiment of Canada and sits on the Boards of the Canadian Film Centre and the CD Howe Institute. Mr. Goldring is a graduate of the University of Toronto and INSEAD, and is a CFA charterholder. He and his wife Belinda have three daughters, Georgina ’09, Arabella, Grade 11, and Serena, Grade 8. Mrs. Goldring has also been a dedicated BSS volunteer and member of the Parent Association.

Says Ms. Lavell, “We feel very fortunate that we continue to have such strong leadership at BSS as we head into the future.”

“Wonderfully busy!” That’s how Mary Anne Ballantyne describes the excitable state she and her IT team find themselves in as they prepare for the opening of the new school year.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in the dog days of August school starts in just over a week and the Assistant Head, Technology and Innovation, has returned home after a day of final meetings with teachers and IT staff to take my two hour phone call; a request she handles with considerable aplomb.

“Yes, I have a lot going on right now,” laughs Ms. Ballantyne, who, in addition to heading up the IT department at BSS, also serves as director of CIO Canada’s Ontario Chapter, and as a board member of the CIS eLearning Consortium. After our phone call ends, Ms. Ballantyne will head to the kitchen to rustle up dinner for her son and daughter (she’s also a mom), but judging by the lightness in her voice all this busyness is leaving her completely unfazed. Ms. Ballantyne, it seems, is one of those rare breeds of women who not only revels in, but finds herself in, her work. “I love being involved in all of this,” she says. “What is exciting is to see this making a difference for our girls.”

“The teachers came back from summer with all these wonderful lesson ideas,” she says, turning the conversation back to the subject at hand the final set of meetings she’s been holding with IT staff and teachers over the past week. “My team and I have been meeting with them to make sure we can help them integrate their ideas into the program in the right way. At BSS, technology is threaded and infused into everything we do.”

Ms. Ballantyne came to BSS eight years ago from the Art Gallery of Ontario, where she held the position of IT Manager for 13 years.

It was during that time that she hit upon the magic combination that she enjoys in her current job namely, the opportunity it gives her to interact with people and to use her technological know-how in a managerial role. At the AGO, Ms. Ballantyne’s duties included developing the audio and visual support materials which complemented the gallery’s many exhibitions, as well as providing AV support to some 600 events.

At BSS, her role became even broader in scope. Although BSS doesn’t have a CIO, Ms. Ballantyne essentially serves that function as the top IT person on staff, she oversees and helps implement all IT-related systems and processes from education to administration.

“It’s really interesting work because is it gives me a very holistic view of the organization,” says Ms. Ballantyne. “I interact with everybody in the School from students to teachers, to the members of my team to the front desk. I’m able to develop processes that benefit the organization and to project manage from a bird’s eye view.”

When Ms. Ballantyne isn’t holding meetings in her office, you might find her roaming school hallways, making sure everyone is getting adequate support. “You can often find me walking through halls, popping into classrooms or working with the members of my IT team,” she says.

You’ll also spot her at the help desk the giant counter where IT staff spend a lot of face-to-face time with the girls. “It may sound funny, but we make sure there is lots of Kleenex on hand in case a student shows up with a laptop that has crashed. People are very attached to their computers and a crash can be very upsetting,” she explains.

The attachment BSS students feel for their Macs is not the only reason the School has continued the roll out of their Mac-based system this fall, but it is an important one. (As most readers are probably aware, the Junior School now runs fully on a Mac-based system. The Senior School introduced the Mac program to its Grade 9 students this September and will continue to roll out the program by adding one grade each year.)

“We went with Mac for several reasons, but the foremost is that we felt that it has the best learning tools for the girls,” says Ms. Ballantyne, explaining that Macs are highly user-friendly and that their applications dovetail nicely with the School’s unique approach to education one that favours critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. “Applications like iMovie, Comic Life and Garage Band”, she adds, “are extremely valuable when it comes to making business presentations in the post-PowerPoint world.”

The implications that the use of Macs could have on learning are certainly not lost on BSS girls. When students heard rumblings about the introductions of Macs to the Senior School last year, Ms. Ballantyne says they actually launched a campaign.

“They petitioned for the Macs and had a poster campaign around the School,” she says. The signs stated the girls’ reasons quite strongly, including the fact they felt Macs would enhance their creativity and ability to collaborate. “They felt their passion about this kind of tool would really make a difference in how they engaged with their work,” she says.

In Ms. Ballantyne’s office, the students’ fervour for all things Apple is still palpable: A poster from the great Mac campaign of 2008/2009 still hangs on her wall.

“The value of Mac integration,” says Ms. Ballantyne, “is already being seen in the Junior School, where the system has allowed staff to use cameras and videos to document and enrich programs. “Kids were able to look back at what they’d done over the course of the year or look at the learning that lay ahead. These tools also allow for greater transparency, so that parents can see what is happening in the classroom.”

An added benefit to teachers and students is that Macs can also run Windows-based programs like AutoCAD, giving teachers greater flexibility in terms of the tools they use in class. PCs can’t do both.

“We’re leading edge, but we’re careful not to be cutting edge,” says Ms. Ballantyne, underscoring the fact that the roll out has not been taken lightly. “It takes time to train staff appropriately, so we don’t want to adopt IT tools that are flash in the pan.”

Before Ms. Ballantyne used her computer-savvy to move into a managerial position at the AGO, she worked as a computer programmer for several years. While she says she valued the experience, it’s clear that working alone at a desk was not a place where she felt she ultimately belonged. “I like interacting with people,” she says.

But the idea that all careers in IT are lonely ones is a myth that Ms. Ballantyne is out to debunk. “There is this conception that [if you go into IT] you are going to sit at a cubbyhole somewhere and work alone in your silo,” says Ms. Ballantyne. Her message to the girls? Simply not true!

In the name of exploding that myth, one of the first requests that Ms. Ballantyne made of former Head of School, Natalie Little, when she first joined the BSS team, was to create an IT position on student government. She also spearheaded the creation of a council of girls who could help deliver curriculum on the ethical and effective use of technology to their peers.

Since then, the program has proven to be a huge success. Fourteen ICT (which stands for Innovation, Communication and Technology) Coordinators not only counsel fellow students on how to package and care for their laptops; they also lead sessions geared to parents, which help to demystify strange things like Facebook as well.

Showing young women that careers in technology can be interactive and fun, Ms. Ballantyne believes, is extremely important. “In IT,” she says, “a lot of women are being drawn to management and communications positions,” or what she likes to call, “the jobs that make the difference.” What’s more, an increasing number of CIOs are women. Says Ballantyne, “we’re seeing a lot of CIOs moving into positions as CEOs.”

*****

The Assistant Head, Technology and Innovation at BSS, Mary Anne Ballantyne is all about connectivity, and we mean that in the larger sense of the word. Not only is she responsible for the integration and infusion of technology in all aspects of the School, she also likes to reach beyond school borders to build educational alliances and opportunities with other schools and organizations.

To give you an idea of just what she’s been up to, we’ve provided thumbnail descriptions of three initiatives in which she’s currently involved and their significance to BSS.

The Ontario Chapter of the Chief Information Officer Association of Canada (CIOCAN) Ms. Ballantyne serves as the Director of CIOCAN’s Ontario chapter. An organization run by CIOs for CIOs, CIOCAN provides professional development and the sharing of best practices and networking opportunities to its members. Impressed with the level of the IT program and back office efficiencies at BSS, CIOCAN approached her about sitting on the board. The post allows her to network with CIOs from across the country, including the CIO for the Vancouver Olympics and the Toronto Transit Commission. She also uses her position to write white papers calling for the greater involvement of women in IT.

The BSS/UCC Shared Services Program BSS has recently started a shared services program with Upper Canada College, which involves the sharing of programs like food services, housekeeping and summer camps. Integrating and consolidating back-office IT programs is “an initiative the School is currently working on,” says Ms. Ballantyne. “We are looking for ways we can join forces in the back office that don’t touch education or the culture of each school.”

The Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario eLearning Consortium (CIS eLearning Consortium) This fall, the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario’s eLearning Consortium launched 16 online credit courses that are available to students at BSS and its 15 other partner schools. Ms. Ballantyne, who sits on the Consortium board, and the think tank at BSS, were largely responsible for this achievement. They spearheaded the creation of the eLearning Consortium under previous Head of School, Kim Gordon, in 2003.

Meet the new Renaissance girl. Not only does she excel in a broad range of subject matter from sports to science to singing in perfect pitch she’s learning to bridge the gaps between disciplines, ideas and people, with spectacular results.

This October, BSS Grade 11 student Katherine Snell had to perform an odd bit of magic: turn a scrap of paper into something dynamic and alive. And she had only two minutes to pull it off.

Welcome to the impromptu speaking event at the International Independent Schools’ Public Speaking Competition, held this October in Massachusetts. Participants have two minutes to concoct a speech, which they must perform without notes to a panel of discriminating judges. Faced with the same task, many adults would be so filled with fear that spontaneous combustion would seem an appealing alternative.

Snell had to find a brilliant idea. The paper’s only prompt: light bulb. The irony was not lost on her.

For Snell, the challenge was the fun part. Drawing on the instincts she’s honed as a debater, actress and journalist, and throwing in a little of the creative flourish she’s picked up playing jazz piano, she had wit and wisdom to spare. The judges agreed: next spring, Snell is heading to the World Championships in Lithuania.

Meet the new Renaissance girl. Not only does she excel in a broad range of subject matter from sports to science to singing in perfect pitch she’s learning to bridge the gaps between disciplines, ideas and people, with spectacular results.

Being a Renaissance girl today means more than just keeping up with your math and French while being able to run a four-minute mile: it’s about thinking collaboratively, drawing on the broader context that connects even diverse fields, and inventing new ways to see the world and solve problems. They will be tomorrow’s leaders, innovators and visionaries. It’s about holding a piece of paper that says “light bulb” which is supposed to represent an idea and coming up with a new approach for what that means.

Grade 12 student Gabrielle Singh Cadieux was also in Massachusetts, debating alongside her colleagues, including Snell.

Singh Cadieux is comfortable in front of a crowd, and found her feet and her voice at an early age. From the moment she joined the debating club in Grade 7, she found the experience enriching, “It was novel for me to speak in front of people and have people listen to me,” she says. For the past three years, she’s been a head of the Speaker’s Union. “It continues to fascinate me. It requires so many faculties. You need to speak well, analyze an issue and come up with solutions.”

What drives Singh Cadieux isn’t just that she’s good at it (although, she is) or because her parents did it (although they did). There’s something else at the heart of it: “It immediately felt like I was doing something meaningful,” she says.

And Singh Cadieux has no problem being persuasive and prepared when she finds something meaningful. As an eight year old who loved animals, she expressed her desire to become a vegetarian, prompting parental concern that the decision would have a negative impact on her health at such a young age. That logic had her beat, but only for three scant years. At 11, she presented her case again, thoroughly reasoned and backed by careful research. She’s been a vegetarian ever since.

This seems to be Singh Cadieux’s secret: a desire to lead and communicate driven by strong values. This passion ties together her diverse interests. She’s a member of the Chapel Guild and teaches at her church and she’s logged hundreds of hours of community service. She also is actively interested in science, having spent last summer as a full-time student researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children. She speaks passionately about the responsibility of science to fuel positive social change.

Now in her final year, she’s only begun to decide how she will affect that change. “Real change is made by people who aren’t the face of public policy. It’s made by scientists, researchers and writers; people in the ranks,” she says. “I think I can make a better contribution that way.”

She’s applied for an eclectic range of university programs. “I’ve applied to study journalism,” she says. “I’m interested in how it can influence the perceptions and awareness of the world. I want to write about things that people should think more about.”

But she’s also won over by the underlying logic of things. “I’ve also applied to study natural sciences and chemical engineering,” she says. “What fascinates me about chemistry is that it deals with the tiniest components of the universe: what makes up the universe and how it works. Understanding these forces means we can gain some control over the fabric of the universe, and be able to realize things that never existed before in material form.”

Turning good intentions into good works is Alexandra Sisam’s specialty. The Grade 11 student has been volunteering since she was in Grade 4, when, having finished her swimming lessons, she decided to help the instructor with smaller kids. Her zeal for service was born.

Like Singh Cadieux, Sisam draws not only on academic excellence, but also on faith for inspiration. Now, in addition to serving on her church’s social justice committee, she’s the Service Learning Prefect at BSS, helping other students discover a similar passion for giving back.

Social justice work has meant Sisam has had to face fears, misconceptions, and even cultural barriers that others shy away from. Instead, she’s met each new situation with enthusiasm. Often that’s meant working with people from communities far different from her own, both in Toronto and abroad.

When she was in Grade 6, Sisam started volunteering through her church for Out Of The Cold, a program that provides food, shelter and support to the homeless. This will be her fifth winter volunteering for the charity, helping prepare and serve food to the hungry. Sisam says it’s one of the highlights of her year.

“At first I was a little scared, because that was always the impression I was given about the homeless, that they were threatening,” she says. “But they were so nice, and their stories were amazing. I learned so much from them.”

You can hear the affection in her voice as she talks about one homeless man, who sang her a song he wrote. “Every year, I see him, and he says, ‘Alex, do you remember my song?’”

Last March, Sisam travelled with other BSS students to Ecuador, in collaboration with Free The Children. Working alongside members of the community, Sisam and her peers helped dig trenches and make bricks for a new high school. She describes the trip as life changing. “You don’t have to always be the Queen Bee; you can be the worker bees and still make a difference or do something good in the world.”

So it’s not surprising that Sisam recently decided that she’d like to attend medical school and work with Médecins Sans Frontières, providing frontline medical care to those without access to the services the rest of us take for granted.

Now, Sisam is charged with instilling fellow students with the same humility, compassion and contagious energy that drives her.

“I really enjoy service, I want to help other students find out what they’re passionate about,” she says. “People are getting more and more enthusiastic every year.”

Volunteering isn’t the only discipline where Sisam’s ahead of the pack. She’s a swimmer, soccer player, cross-country runner and competitive alpine skier, too. She’s competed at the provincial level on the track and on the slopes, and now coaches the young Nancy Greene ski racers.

Whether it’s in competitive sports or social justice, Sisam is all about action, rooted in strength, focus and the determination to meet challenges head on.

Elizabeth Laushway: Well-orchestrated Harmony

Another student who handles challenge not just with grace but with glee is Elizabeth Laushway. She’s with the Toronto Children’s Chorus (TCC), stays in tune with the BSS folk, jazz and main choirs, has helped the School swim to victory as a member of the swim team, and is passionate about physics. What’s more: she makes it all sound easy.

Laushway joined the TCC in 2001, and now helps the celebrated chorus in a variety of roles. She’s the conductor’s assistant for the younger training choir, and, as head chorister, she speaks at concerts and workshops. But performing is her first love: singing in the choir’s busy training and concert schedule.

Music has found its way through both Laushway’s school, extra-curricular and even social life. In addition to singing in the chorus and at school, Laushway’s an accomplished pianist, immersing herself in the theory of how music works. And she’s beginning to combine these musical elements not just as a listener and performer, but as a songwriter, working on her own compositions for a band she started with friends.

On the academic side, Laushway feels attracted to science in the same way she is compelled by music. “I feel drawn to it. It all kind of makes sense to me. I like physics because it deals with motion, and how everything in the world works,” she says.

This summer, the chorus travelled to Europe Berlin, Prague, Leipzig and Vienna, where they performed with the Vienna Boys Choir at the infamous Musikverein. “The experience was incredible,” she says, but her description is as much about science as art. “The hall’s architecture is perfectly orchestrated,” she says. “So the sound travels to every place in the hall.”

The ability to make science sing? Hallmark of a Renaissance girl in action.

For Katherine Snell, our brave Grade 11 student charged with reinventing the light bulb, creativity and communication have been strong themes as long as she can remember. She recounts a classic story famous in her house from when she was a preschooler. She tried out different schools, but dismissed each one. Finally, her mother asked her why she was unhappy. “Because, mummy,” she said, “nobody wants to have a conversation with me.” The other kids wanted to play with toys, but Snell all of three years old wanted more intellectual stimulation.

She’s is in better company these days, although her idea of conversation is much broader. Name a type of creative expression and she does it, from piano to photography to writing to drama. No matter what the medium, she’s constantly communicating ideas and engaging in a vivid discussion about the world through art.

This year, she’s the editor of The Beat, an online magazine designed to give BSS students the opportunity to voice their own opinions. And she’s in the upcoming BSS/UCC production of Hamlet. And, of course, she has the world public speaking championships next year in Lithuania.

For the competition in Massachusetts, Snell also participated in the dramatic reading event. Her choice was both bold and daunting: a monologue from Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad’s powerful play Scorched. The play navigates themes of war, hope, history, pain, abuse and despair, forcing Snell to occupy a dramatic role far removed from her own experience.

But being able to connect, psychologically, and translate a character’s emotion and experience thrills Snell. “Immersing yourself, feeling so close to others’ experiences is very powerful,” she says. “I was practicing the piece in front of some friends, and I just broke down. That’s when I knew I could do it.”

For Snell, drama is more than being on stage. “I like the psychological and philosophical meaning behind theatre,” she says. “I was so compelled by looking at theatre from a social point of view. It’s socially relevant. That’s something that will continue to find its way into my life.”

So, just how did she spin the light bulb speech? She suggested that we ditch it as the cultural symbol for an idea. Genius, she argued, isn’t about flipping a switch. It’s something that needs time and patience and the right conditions. She posited that a flower would make a much better symbol: something that we nurture, that grows, and that, ultimately, blossoms.

Sounds like the dawn of a bright new Renaissance.

It was a rich childhood fantasy  the distended realism of youth allowed the tendrils of the dream to wrap the imagination up ever so tightly. Marina Endicott would fall asleep at night, tucked in by those dream tendrils, making a list of everything she would need to make her vision come true.

She would sneak into the library in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, when it was nearly closing time. She would hide in the bathroom while the librarian or security guard made a final sweep of the building. Then, she alone would be in the library and have all of its treasures to herself. She planned what food to take, the right flashlight to bring everything to the last detail. And though the fantasy would lull her to sleep most nights she never, in reality, rested her head down for the night in the Yarmouth Library. Though she has, in a way, made it through the night there; her award winning novel, Good to a Fault, rests on the shelves now.

As a girl at BSS, she never quite thought of herself as a writer. Despite feeling as if she could do anything in the world as a BSS graduate, she subconsciously dismissed writing.

“Even with the sturdy sense of possibility that I’d gotten from BSS, writing is not a sensible career to go into,” she says. “I was always working in other art forms to support my writing habit.”

Though not a writer from the get go, at least not purposefully, Ms. Endicott was always the creative type and set high standards for herself. She came to BSS shortly after moving to Toronto and attending C.W. Jefferys Secondary School. She spent all of Grade 12 and 13 at BSS, during which time she enjoyed many of her classes, including Greek, drama, history and English. She took a course in Grade 12 that, in retrospect, had a profound impact on her life trajectory by dispelling her prejudices towards Canadian literature.

“I’d never before considered Canadian literature to be worth reading. I thought it had to be old to be good,” she explains with a hint of a smile and gentle reproach of herself in her voice. “We read several Canadian plays and I’d never seen a Canadian play before,” she adds a rather profound realization for someone who made a living for many years in Canadian theatre.

After graduating from BSS, Ms. Endicott studied acting at the University of Waterloo. After graduating, she returned to Toronto with the intention of making a living as an actor. Although constantly busy, participating in a touring children’s theatre and many other theatrical endeavours, she wasn’t where she wanted to be.

“I wasn’t terrifically successful, but I worked a lot,” she laughs. “I wasn’t making a whack of money but I was working all the time.”

It was a satisfactory and enjoyable living, but Ms. Endicott had fallen in with some fellow thespians with lofty ideas. Barbara Barnes, Mike Myers and Ms. Endicott packed their bags and hopped across the pond to England where they expected to find fame and success.

“We gradually came to think that…Canadian theatre wasn’t really up to us and we should go to where we believed that the theatre would be, I don’t know, more intellectual I guess.” She giggles in the retelling of her youthful idea.

The only snag in the plan was that England didn’t seem all that impressed by the Canadian intruders. For a while, each of the friends struggled with landing work, but Ms. Endicott, in particular, found herself taking mind-numbing office jobs to keep financially afloat. She was comforted by the familiarity of another BSS girl living in London at the time, Beth Lang.

Being an artist and being deprived of an outlet (regular theatre work) and being stunted by mundane office work, Ms. Endicott took up an activity that flexed her creative muscle and channeled her artistic inclinations. Often while pretending to be productive in the workplace, she began to write short stories. Born out of boredom and necessity, many of those stories went on to be included in her anthology, Coming Attractions, which was nominated for the 1993 Journey Prize.

Though Ms. Barnes was able to make a name for herself, and still lives and works in London, after two years abroad both Ms. Endicott and Mr. Myers repatriated. He went on to work at Second City and is now internationally known as a Canadian funny man.

She, like her other two friends, continued to pursue a career in theatre. She was offered a job with the Saskatchewan Playwrights’ Centre and took up as a dramaturge a position that incorporated her writing and her theatrical knowledge. A dramaturge works closely with writers and helps provide research and editorial direction. She believed that she had found her life-long career and remained with the Saskatchewan Playwrights’ Centre for seven years. It was during her time in Saskatchewan that she met and married Peter Ormshaw, a poet and aspiring RCMP officer, though she wasn’t sure he was entirely serious about his law enforcement pursuit. At first she laughed when Peter revealed his career goals to her, but she quickly took him seriously as he applied and was accepted into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Peter’s first posting was Mayerthorpe, Alberta.

Neither of them had ever experienced small town life before Mayerthorpe: population 200 right next to an Indian reserve and along a far-reaching and deadly highway. Ms. Endicott couldn’t even get The Globe and Mail in town and the only writing opportunities she could seize were with Mayerthorpe’s local newspaper. “I’m sure we will write about it but we haven’t yet acquired the necessary perspective, I don’t think,” she muses of that period of her life.

It was during this time, in 2001, that her first novel Open Arms was published and became a finalist for Amazon.ca’s Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was also during this time that Peter was the first arresting officer for what is now infamously referred to as the Mayerthorpe Incident. On March 3, 2005, four RCMP constables were shot and killed in Mayerthorpe in what was the worst one-day loss of life for the RCMP in 100 years. “It was a very rough time for all of us,” says Ms. Endicott.

Though difficult and emotionally taxing, she took the experience and created a long poem titled “The Policeman’s Wife, Some Letters” which was short-listed for the CBC literary awards in 2006.

After five years in Mayerthorpe, Ms. Endicott and her family, which had grown to include son Will and daughter Rachel, moved to Calgary where her writing continued to take off while she taught at the University of Calgary. She now lives in Edmonton and teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta. Her latest novel Good to a Fault was released last year and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean and was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize. Like her poem about the Mayerthorpe Incident, her inspiration for Good to a Fault came from a painful experience.

Ms. Endicott’s sister and fellow BSS old girl, Alexandra ENDICOTT ’82, died from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000. One of the main characters in Good to a Fault also suffers from the cancerous disease. Though painful, Ms. Endicott refers to the ability to use the experience in her writing as “a privilege.”

“Having gone through that kind of heightened experience, you have material that is difficult to work with, but it is worth the effort; it is worth going through that again in imagination to be able to say, ‘this is what this is like.’” It has been rewarding for Ms. Endicott to hear from readers that they too have lost loved ones to cancer and can identify with the characters in the novel.

Not all of her inspiration comes from emotionally difficult places. The opening scene for Good to a Fault was created after she witnessed a fender-bender in downtown Saskatoon.

“I think it’s a pretty eclectic soup that everyone draws their inspiration from memory and experience and imagination,” she says.

Ms. Endicott is currently working on her third novel a story about a sisterly singing vaudeville act touring Canada around the turn of the century. It’s set for release in 2011.

There are about three additional novels percolating inside her head slowly forming and solidifying until it’s their turn to be put to paper. She still uses acting techniques to encourage both herself and her students to get creative juices flowing. For her, acting and writing are still close relatives.

Ms. Endicott has become a Canadian novelist and a prized writer, although she still finds defining Canadian literature a tricky task. It is a task she has become more acutely aware of in the wake of British Giller Prize judge, Victoria Glendinning, writing unflattering prose in the Financial Times about Ontario cottages being an apparently “prime setting for emotional turmoil they sit, brooding, on Muskoka chairs,” and adding that Canadian novels are mostly collaborative efforts, “often about families down the generations with multiple points of view and flashbacks to Granny’s youth in the Ukraine or wherever.” Her comments offended many in the Canadian literary community, Ms. Endicott included.

While acting as a juror for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize this year, she was exposed to almost every piece of fiction created by Canadians in 2009 so far. With that experience in mind she decided the qualifier that makes Canadian literature Canadian is the nationality of the writer and nothing more.

“The diversity of Canadian writing defies definition,” she writes in an email. “I am unable to find consistent patterns of plot or style or world-view or even obsession.”

Ms. Endicott very eloquently counter-points each of Glendinning’s jabs and concludes, quite sensibly, “we do sit in Muskoka chairs, as often as we get the chance, but is that such a bad thing?”

–

Marina Endicott is this year’s BSS Hill Canadian Author.

In April of 1994, right after his final exam at The University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, Anton Rabie and two friends Ronnen Harary, Mr. Rabie’s best friend since sleepover camp at age 11, and Ben Varadi, his friend from Ivey launched the business that would eventually become Spin Master, the third largest consumer toy company in North America.

Initially, the three friends didn’t set out to be toy makers. “We kind of bumped into the toy industry,” says Mr. Rabie. “When we started the business 14 and a half years ago, we didn’t say ‘we want to be in the toy industry and we want to develop product.’” In fact, the business began by marketing a single product, The Earth Buddy essentially a head-shaped mound of earth and grass seeds, covered in pantyhose, that sprouted “hair” when watered. “The company started by just saying ‘Hey, here’s an opportunity with The Earth Buddy, and we believe in it. Let’s just produce it and market it and take advantage of this opportunity,’” says Mr. Rabie.

After The Earth Buddy, the company began marketing devil sticks (the popular juggling product), branding them Spin Master Devil Sticks. They liked the name Spin Master so much “We’re all about marketing and putting a spin on things,” says Mr. Rabie that it stuck, and they kept it as their company’s official moniker.

Spin Master has grown exponentially since then, both in profit and staff. The company currently employs over 800 people worldwide, in offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Mexico, Paris, Hong Kong and London. In the last two or three years alone, says Mr. Rabie, the company has doubled in size. Expanding a company so fast in such a short time can be dicey business, but Mr. Rabie’s guiding principle is to find the very best talent for his team and it’s worked. “Our whole thing is hiring experts that have spent over 10,000 hours doing the job at a best-in-class company,” he says, “and having them come in and take ownership and take charge.”

Throughout Spin Master’s expansion, Mr. Rabie’s role has changed considerably. In 1994, when the company was just starting, he was focused on sales and certain aspects of marketing. More recently, though, he’s moved into human resources. “After five or six years I realized that I was naturally handling the people side of the business,” he says. “About four years ago I took on my CEO role… I’m about 90 per cent out of sales and today I spend my time on every aspect of people.” Officially, Mr. Rabie’s title is President and co-CEO. Managing the people side of the business means that he, along with a strong support team underneath him, is in charge of recruiting, training and development, and, he says, “making sure our people wake up and feel great about themselves and produce great results.” On top of that, he still oversees all the business outside of the United States from a sales and marketing perspective, plus he handles all acquisitions. Oh, yes, and he’s just taken on the company’s philanthropic projects.

It’s a very demanding job. With three young daughters, Carly, 6, Lexi, 4, and Samantha, 3, Mr. Rabie makes finding balance between career and personal life a priority. Aside from cutting out a lot of personal, extra-curricular activities, he’s also homed in on certain areas at work where he’s best suited. “I’ve been very, very focused on not getting distracted by all the stuff that’s not my unique ability. I’ve become more focused on where I add value and I’ve taken myself out [of certain areas],” he says. Overall, he has cut down his workload by five per cent a significant number for any CEO. “I work less, and I’m more focused on having quality time on the weekend with the kids,” he says. “And, I’m a time management freak.”

It wasn’t a difficult decision to enrol Carly and Lexi at BSS’s Junior School. “We love the Reggio Emilia approach,” says Mr. Rabie. “We like the idea of an all girls’ school so they can focus more. We [had] heard great things about the School, and we think the School’s got great facilities.”

As to whether or not he’s got two budding entrepreneurs at BSS, Mr. Rabie says it’s too early to tell. But he does admit that having children is very useful and interesting for the co-CEO of a toy company, even though he’s not involved on the product side of the business. “Just watching the dexterity of kids at different ages…I’d say the greatest thing for me is just to take a look first-hand at the development of a child their motor skills, and their physical and cognitive development [it’s] very helpful,” he says. “So it’s a big plus.”

If his children do decide to go into business, they’ll have a successful role model to emulate. Anton Rabie, Ronnen Harary and Ben Varadi seem to have found the secret to success. While the toy industry has taken a hit with the economy he estimates the industry’s sales have dropped about three or four per cent Spin Master has flourished. “Our toys have been on fire, so our company’s been growing. We’ve had the biggest growth we’ve ever had through the recession,” he says. “So we’re kind of in a unique situation.”

According to Mr. Rabie, the key is knowing the marketplace. “Walking retail, and knowing everything that’s going on in retail, is essential. It’s also critical to know the history of toys what’s worked and what hasn’t worked historically.” The third tenet of success, he says, is being able to recognize what constitutes breakthrough play patterns. “I take my hat off to my partners,” says Mr. Rabie. “They have the ability to spot breakthrough technologies which translate into breakthrough experiences for the consumer. We call them category busters.”

One of the company’s major coups has been Bakugan Battle Brawlers (a combination action toy, trading card game and board game), the product of a partnership between Spin Master, Nelvana Enterprises, Sega, TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec. Spin Master found the product, came up with the vision and solicited the partners, says Mr. Rabie. “The whole thing was championed through us every aspect.” In 2008, Bakugan was the number one growth property in the toy industry, and in 2009 is still the fastest growing boy’s action brand. Bakugan is also a television show that airs on The Cartoon Network and Teletoon among other international stations.

Spin Master wasn’t expecting Bakugan to be such a worldwide phenomenon, but Mr. Rabie has a few ideas as to why it was. “The actual product is so innovative,” he says. “There are three elements to the whole thing: one is the product, two is the collectibility/game play…. and then the TV show. All three of those are hitting at the same time.”

They’re still a little young, and not the target gender for Bakugan. So what are Carly and Lexi’s favourite toys? “They love the Liv dolls, and they also love the arts and crafts,” says Mr. Rabie. Liv dolls, launched in July 2009, are four fictional high-school friends who have their own web site and back stories more realistic examples for young girls than, say, their Mattel counterpart.

And yes, the Rabies practise toy loyalty in their home. “We don’t allow Barbie into the house,” says Mr. Rabie. “And…” he hesitates, “we’ll leave it at that.”

It’s become almost cliché to claim that education in the Internet age is a challenge. Pace of change, globalization, so-called knowledge economies, new demands on the workforce, climate change, shifting populations and more, create an environment that is both bewilderingly complex and yet offers fertile ground for innovation and bold ways of thinking.

What is obvious to most, is that schools as we knew them will soon be relics of a time gone by. But in this transition to a new paradigm, there is no blueprint for what the new school will or should look like. That’s why leaders in education are faced with the momentous challenge and opportunity to shape something brand new. It takes vision to imagine a world that doesn’t quite exist yet, and enormous courage to move towards it.

BSS Head Deryn Lavell is sitting at the apex of that movement. Overseeing one of the most respected and dynamic schools in North America, she has the opportunity to harness that foundation to make BSS a leader in innovation and among the first to truly align itself with the oncoming demands of a new age in education.

SG: The first days in office, as it were, can be harrowing, but can also provide perhaps the best chance to see the landscape most clearly before becoming too immersed in the busy day-to-day pace that is typical of BSS. What are you seeing as you step into this role?

DL: It’s interesting because even though I’ve had plenty of time at BSS in my previous roles, (as Junior School Principal and Assistant Head, Institutional Advancement) this is a whole new way of seeing the School and the perspective is quite fresh and exciting from this vantage point. And I do want to seize upon this window of opportunity to stay fresh and keep my eyes on the bigger picture.

I’m seeing first, that BSS is clearly on the right track. The work of talented former Heads like Natalie Little and Kim Gordon, and the support of our Boards of Governors and Trustees, have brought this school to the right place at the right time. That is not only a relief to me, but also very exciting, because it means that we’re not in a position of having to do remedial work to bring us to a place where great advances can be made. We’re standing on the precipice right now.

As I look down that path ahead, I am looking first, outside the School, and outside of education altogether. I’m looking at the most innovative areas of the economy, the emerging work force and the needs of a troubled world, to see what kind of leader will be in demand. We’re seeing it everywhere now, the impact of technology being one of the most significant drivers, that people who can harness both hemispheres of the brain who can think critically and creatively at the same time, as well as employing and trusting instinct these are the leaders of the future.

We’re seeing what it takes to imagine a YouTube or a Facebook. We’re seeing what the economy’s leaders are looking for and it isn’t what it used to be. It’s all about creating value and not just making money. It’s about being able to work collaboratively across cultures and across the planet. It’s about understanding one’s role as a contributor to great ideas and an innovator as opposed to a taskmaster. It’s about being able to invent your way out of trouble, whether that trouble is climate change or rampant disease or poverty. Invention, original thinking, transformations these are the watchwords. Traditional notions of success, things like climbing ladders, getting ahead, making money, hierarchies and corner offices, these are becoming outmoded. Of course we want our students to have the right tools to be successful in their careers, but it’s not just about making money. It’s about making a contribution. We are not as self-focused and I think that’s a great thing.

SG: How does that impact BSS? How must the School change to empower its students this way?

DL: Well, it’s no simple task, for BSS or any school. We have to decide what works from the traditional way of doing things and keep and enhance those; and we have to know what is no longer in the girls’ best interests and have the courage to let that go. It’s never as easy taking things off the table as it is putting them on.

We are fortunate to be where we are already, with the Reggio inspired approach in the Junior School, which is ideally aligned with the needs of the world I’ve described. The Reggio approach is all about sparking young minds to harness their imaginations, creativity and intelligence to learn and discover. This is how we move from the obvious to the deeper, more nuanced level of inquiry.

The Senior School and Middle School are also poised to deepen learning this way with an emphasis on cross-discipline learning and the dismantling of structures that imposed artificial borders among subject areas. We’ve globalized ourselves in a sense. We’re also pursuing this idea of T-shaped learning where the learner can stretch across many disciplines and areas of discovery that can feed into the vertical line of learning where one goes deeper in a specific aspect. This is a crucial way of learning because it is, in fact, the kind of thinking that engenders creation and invention. You need the depth of knowledge and understanding, but also the ability and discipline to continue investigation across a broad spectrum of inquiry.

So the stage is set in a way. Now the job is to truly realize what we’ve started. We have to map out what these strategies will look like in the next few years and build that structure. The goal is to create opportunities through a student’s experience here that will empower her imagination and deepen her learning to a level that goes beyond the formed thought, and digs right into her values, her biases, her emotional responses.

SG: It seems the possibilities are endless. How does all this work in actual fact? I mean, with the realities of budgets, a tough economy, and as we all know, the fact that BSS is a very busy place and the job of the Head of School is no walk in the park how do you find the time and resources to strategize a new vision and plan to keep it all moving forward?

DL: I’m so excited by the possibilities that I just can’t stop thinking about it. I believe that developing a vision for the future is only possible if you throw off the restraints and let your imagination fly. I want everyone around me to contribute to that process. To get the best result, our team and our community will be called upon to really examine the possibilities and imagine a future for BSS that will take us all to the next level. We are rooted in a great tradition and must continue seeking the best ways to deliver on our promise to the girls, that their experience here will give them all the tools they need to achieve their dreams and goals. That kind of creative energy is infectious and people will make the time to engage in something like this.

Of course in the end, what we need is a real, tangible, workable plan. When we start forming these free wheeling thoughts into ideas that can manifest, we start matching them against the realities of our school to see where the opportunities and gaps are. Only after we’ve gone through this exercise, can we make a cohesive plan of action.

But you can’t realistically get to the finish line without first unleashing our brains to imagine the possibilities, without constraints and the ‘yes, but’ temptation we all have to point out why something can’t work. Let’s imagine it can for a moment…then see where that takes us.

SG: How will you go about the process of investigation for some of these ideas?

DL: What I’d like to do is put together what I call ‘BSS R&D’, a research and development group whose focus is to go out and explore the ideas and check them against a test of feasibility. Their task would be to find out why something can work, not why it can’t. After we’ve investigated and researched, we will begin the architecture of a plan of action.

We have another year to go to implement the current Strategic Plan and we will have a lot to celebrate. We’ve accomplished so much as a consequence of having this plan and that’s what has set the stage for the tremendous opportunities that lay ahead. The restructuring of the Senior School to really allow for all the benefits of cross-discipline learning and the evolution of the Middle School program are shining examples that have us poised to do amazing things in the future. At the same time, since nothing stands still and waits its sequential turn, we have to be building on this success and creating a new vision and a way of moving forward. That’s my job this year.

SG: That sounds like an incredibly fascinating job and you seem to be virtually erupting with energy and ideas. Is this what you’d hoped your career would be about?

DL: I came into the teaching world with a desire to engage young learners and also, to be a learner myself for the rest of my life. I’ve never enjoyed or wanted anything more than the opportunity to use my mind and continue to explore new ideas. The career I’ve had, and this position is without question, its pinnacle so far, has given me the life I’d dreamed of. I couldn’t be happier or more fulfilled than walking through those doors in the morning and looking around the noisy, busy halls of BSS, bursting with the energy of the girls.

SG: So we’ll be hearing a lot more on this from Ms. Lavell in the coming months I expect?

DL: Oh yes. A lot more indeed!

Amoryn ENGEL `90 is best known for her work as a social columnist for the National Post. Her job, to many, would read like a dream: attend glamorous parties on the Toronto scene, meet fascinating and important people, and pose on the red carpet for professional photographers. Yes, the work may be tiring and one could never be ‘off’, but isn’t everything made easier with complimentary champagne? With a job like Ms. Engel’s, one might make the mistake of assuming that the closest she gets to philanthropy is attending charity galas. One would be wrong: this is exactly where she proves her mettle and challenges the notion of cause célèbre. She not only reports on charity galas, she Chairs them: under her leadership, the 2009 LG Innovators Ball for the Ontario Science Centre raised over $350,000 to support community access initiatives. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002, it wasn’t enough to ‘be there’ for her mother during her illness. Ms. Engel got on a bike, rode 200 kilometers from Toronto to Niagara Falls and raised over $50,000 in donations for cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. It is this same attitude that pervades her work at BSS. She not only demonstrates her commitment to her alma mater by serving on the Board of Trustees, she shows the depth of her Old Girl commitment by supporting the School financially. And in typical fashion, her donation is not merely a donation, but a challenge.

As a member of the Board of Trustees, Ms. Engel is well aware of the School’s continued efforts to ensure the best students of all backgrounds are able to attend BSS. Originally, she discussed making a one-time donation of $100,000 to the BSS endowment, knowing that this would generate funds for financial aid in perpetuity. At some point she realized that her objective was to motivate an entire group of people her fellow Old Girls to fill a gap and meet these needs. By making her gift a Challenge Gift, she hopes to encourage other alumnae to come forward and meet the needs of our community by ensuring that we preserve, protect and nurture our most precious resource our amazing girls from down the road or around the globe. Ultimately, Ms. Engel shares the same vision our Head of School, Deryn Lavell, does: we want exceptional girls to be able to attend BSS, regardless of their family’s financial situation.

Ms. Engel’s challenge gets to the heart of all things BSS Old Girls. For every gift of $500 or more an Old Girl makes, she will make a gift of an equal amount to BSS. In total, she will contribute $100,000. If Old Girls meet this challenge, the BSS endowment our key arm in securing financial aid stands to gain $200,000 in donations. Her only stipulation? That gifts are designated to financial aid, including the Old Girl Bursary, class or named bursaries.

We met up with Ms. Engel at this year’s Harvest Reunion, and asked her to tell us more about her Challenge to Old Girls.

What motivated you to make a gift to BSS?

I had such an incredible experience while I was as BSS. It definitely helped to shape the person that I am today. I would love for other girls, who may face financial barriers, to be able to enjoy the same experiences and enduring friendships.

What impact do you hope your gift will have?

In a perfect world a school like BSS would be open to all young girls regardless of economic circumstance but obviously that is not realistic. I would love for local girls who would never consider looking at the School because of lack of finances to give it a hard look. There are so many undiscovered leaders out there. I think it is also good for the girls at BSS to have their lives enriched by girls from different backgrounds.

Why a challenge? What do you hope to advance by designating your gift as a challenge?

I would love to inspire other Old Girls to give back to this great community. It would be incredible if we could double my gift, but this cannot be done without other Old Girls’ participation. The School has evolved so much since we were roaming its halls but I think that the message remains the same: BSS girls can do anything and BSS Old Girls can do anything. I’m confident we can do this.

As an Old Girl and Trustee, you have a unique view of BSS. If you had to name one reason to support BSS, what would it be?

I have two boys. People always ask me why sit on the board? Why donate money to the School when you don’t even have a girl? The answer is that I wouldn’t be the person I am today had it not been for BSS. I’m not saying that I didn’t have my challenges while at the School but if I could give just one girl the chance to experience what BSS has to offer that would make it all worth it. Imagine the possibilities? Sometimes you have to look outside your own little world.

What are the most important things or skills that you gained from your time at BSS?

I always felt supported by the School and that I could do anything that I put my mind to. My teachers instilled a great amount of confidence and fostered tremendous pride, leadership and team spirit. Nothing could ever replace the enduring friendships that I share with my friends. I’ve always really put myself out there and gone for it.

Clearly, you value volunteerism and supporting your community. Is this something you learned at BSS?

BSS was always good about instilling good values in its students but I think that the School has come a long way in that regard. The leaving class gifts are a wonderful example of how the School is teaching the girls to give back. Hopefully that cycle of giving back will continue going forward. For myself I like to give a third of my time to charitable endeavours. Charity really does help make the world go ’round.

What advice would you offer a BSS student who is heading off into the larger world?

Ask a lot of questions of a lot of different people and listen carefully to those answers that you receive. Do your research before making any big decisions whether it’s which university to choose, which job to accept or which school to send your child to. Knowledge is power.

What are your fondest memories of BSS?

The ones that I can mention? My best friends then are still my best friends today, Chapel was always such a wonderful way to regroup in the mornings, art class with Mr. Zeifman and drama class with Angie (Angie Silverstein). The teachers really inspired us, supported us and encouraged us.

Amoryn ENGEL `90 leads a glamorous life as society columnist by night. By day, she is no different than any other parent or Old Girl. She is a wife, mother of two young boys (William, age 6, and Harrison, age 3), and a passionate believer in the power of community involvement. She is one of our many volunteers and supporters that collectively bring our mission, Girls Can Do Anything, to life. What is vital is that she recognizes the power in numbers. One person can make a difference, but true impact comes with the power of people. With a legion of supporters, BSS hopes to increase the number of opportunities that exist for young women to attend our School. We are inspired daily by our Old Girls’ accomplishments. It is our sincere hope that Ms. Engel’s Challenge Gift will in turn be an inspiration.

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For more information on the Old Girls Challenge, please contact Sharon Howell, Director of Annual Giving and Donor Relations at showell@bss.on.ca or 416 483 4325 ext. 1874.

Next September, BSS will celebrate special reunion years ending in 0s and 5s. please start thinking about how you will reconnect and celebrate with classmates, and stay tuned for details

- Jill BLAKEY ’02

Tania Kitchell ’89

Lightness Series, Cloud Kite, 2007 (Chromira print, 49 x 36)

BSS faculty member and Old Girl Tania Kitchell studied at Institut des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastique and Parsons School of Design in Paris, France. Ms. Kitchell has exhibited widely across North America and Europe. Solo shows and group exhibitions include: And the Fair Moon Rejoices, Boston Centre for the Arts (Boston, 2009), Sunshine, James Harris Gallery, (Seattle, 2008), Lightness, Diaz Contemporary (Toronto, 2007), We Can Do This Now, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre (Toronto 2007). Ms. Kitchell’s work is included in important public and private collections such as: William and Ruth True Collection (Seattle, Washington) and The King County Public Art Collection (King County, Washington).

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Sharon Epstein

Shin-Parochet (ArkCurtain) (Digitally printed with fabric dye, stitched on velvet, 12” x 5.5”)

BSS art teacher Sharon Epstein is a founding member of the Textile Studio Co-op at 401 Richmond. The processes in her art include drawing, painting, collage, screen printing, digital printing and stitching. Her recent work explores the ritual and symbolism of Judaism and is influenced by the colors, richness and layering inspired by her travels in India. Her printed and stitched textiles have been exhibited in Britain and North America and are in the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles.

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Stephen Zeifman

Aqua and Lime (Medium archival digital photographic print, 11” X 17”)

Since 2005, BSS art teacher Stephen Zeifman has produced a series of photographic images examining aspects of Newfoundland architecture. He is a painter as well as a photographer and has started the Mill Road Studio, an art school offering classes in drawing, painting and printmaking, in Port Rexton, Newfoundland. For more information visit www.millroadstudio.com.

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Paul Toth

Gnomon 1 (Rapid prototype sculpture, 8” diameter)

Paul Toth, Head of BSS’s Art Department, works in many media, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, video, and a range of digital art forms. Interested in organic, mineral, and architectural structures, he has turned his attention to working in 3D digital modeling and printmaking.

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Ellen Wright

Running in the Family Body, 2009 (Charcoal on paper, tissue paper, photocopy transparencies, multi-media, 175 x 200 cm)

This work by BSS art teacher Ellen Wright explores memory as situated in her physical self. Memories as spoken narratives were recorded in conjunction with videos. These small video/audio pieces play within a pattern on a drawing of her mother’s wedding dress. The memories were generated through highlighting family physical similarities and from sifting through old family photos. Relationships of family as experienced through genetic, biological links as well as through physical similarities and situational memories were explored. The use of the Augmented Reality technology allowed the memories and narrative connections to be present but hidden within the drawings until activated by the viewer and the computer.

Atsmon Ganor

Still from Multiple Heads, 2004 (Computer animation projection, Noga Gallery, Tel-Aviv)

New to BSS’s arts faculty this year, Atsmon Ganor has an Art Teaching Certificate from Beit Berl College School of Art, Israel, and an MFA from the Visual Arts Program of York University. His artwork includes paintings, computer animations, and drawings in different scale and media, from small pen drawings to monumental wax wall drawings. Mr. Ganor has exhibited in various galleries and museums: the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Muhka, Antwerp, The Jewish Museum, San Francisco, and The Art Gallery of York University. He has published two books of art and is currently working on a new computer animation piece and a series of words printed on pillowcases.

Marilyn Westlake

Graffiti No.1, 2009 (Photograph, 13” x 19”)

Marilyn Westlake has a wide background in both education and photography and has taught the Grade 11 and Grade 12 Photography program at BSS since 2004. She is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers and a graduate of York University. She has continued her studies at Ryerson Image Arts and the International Center of Photography in New York. Since 1982, Ms. Westlake has practised both commercial and fine art photography and exhibited her work in Canada, the US, most notably in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Mexico. In 2004, Ms. Westlake collaborated with award-winning book designer Margot Boland to produce the first book about the Toronto/Mexico photographer Reva Brooks. www.marilynwestlake.com

Upcoming information sessions include the Bahamas and Cayman Islands.

Rachel Hahn is a Toronto-based freelance writer and journalist. She has worked in the broadcast, print and magazine industries. She is currently interning at the Canadian Writers Group.

Cathy Marostica is the Associate, Communications and Stewardship at BSS, and a former secondary-school English and Drama teacher.

A Los Angeles-based writer and filmmaker, Leah Cameron is currently completing an MFA at the American Film Institute. Leah has written for EnRoute, Toronto Life, Creative Screenwriting and The Globe and Mail.

Megan Griffith-Greene is the editor of Shameless magazine, and a researcher at Chatelaine. She is also a founding editor and designer of The New Pollution new music review, and a past editor of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Her writing has appeared in THIS Magazine, The Walrus, and Chatelaine.

After working in the Toronto magazine world for two years, Julia Le Conte moved herself and her one-stop writing and editing shop to New Zealand, where she currently resides. She remains Editor At Large for the Canadian quarterly, Lifestyle magazine.

Back in the fall, it felt like it would be the longest good-bye on record, but time has simply flown by, and here we are at the end of another spectacular academic year at BSS and my tenure as Head.

I hope I have had the chance to see many of you personally, not only to say good-bye, but also to express my gratitude for my time here the undisputed pinnacle of my professional life. When asked what makes a great school, I have always said the people. BSS boasts an amazing community surrounding each student with support allowing them to take risks, to be creative, to ask the tough questions, to make mistakes and ultimately to follow their dreams and goals. From the passionate teacher in the classroom, the skilled support staff, the visionary administrators, our diverse community of Old Girls, the talented Boards, to the nurturing parent community, our girls are surrounded with promise and commitment. Our strong community defines our success.

As I write this last letter, the 2010 Graduates are celebrating the announcement of their class leaders. The hall outside my office is alive with chatter and laughter, and although I can’t see them, I know there is hugging. I will miss this the most. There is something quite wonderful about being around girls, especially BSS girls.

I’m so pleased that my last note to you in The Link is an issue with this year’s Distinguished Old Girl, Valerie WHITTINGHAM Pringle ’71, as its cover story. Valerie and I go back a ways as she has been an active and supportive member of the BSS community for many years. But nothing can bond people in quite the same way as climbing a mountain together. When Valerie invited me and others from BSS to get involved, make the climb of Mount Kilimanjaro and contribute to the women’s centre in Tanzania, it was a golden opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up. It was a tough challenge and only with gallows humour, a supportive group egging us on and the sheer willpower to see it through, were we able to make it. Valerie’s spirit, toughness and determination were awe-inspiring for all of us.

It is during moments like that, when you push yourself beyond your limits and step entirely outside your comfort zone, that you get this incredible opportunity to take in thoughts, feelings and ideas that you might never have otherwise contemplated. To say these are ‘growth’ experiences sounds cliché, but the truth is, this adventure, like so much of my life at BSS, taught me many lessons and made me appreciate in a whole new way the incredible gifts I’ve been given.

I know as I look back on my life, BSS will stand out as one of those life-changing opportunities and a gift that has, quite simply, made me a better person. What more could anyone ask of a job?

To say I’m grateful does not do it justice. I’m so excited for Deryn Lavell as she prepares to take over this summer. She is a woman I both admire as a colleague, and truly like as a friend, and I know she will get as much out of this experience as I have. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and as I say good-bye, it is only as Head, because my relationship with BSS and all of you will endure.

I hope everyone has a wonderful summer break and I look forward to seeing all the exciting developments as Deryn takes the helm. I wish all of you the very best.

Sincerely,

Kim Gordon

During her tenure as Junior School Principal, Ms Armstrong made an enormous contribution to BSS as a champion of the Reggio-inspired program. Under her watch, the program not only flourished, but has emerged as a leader in Reggio-inspired learning, and served as an inspiration for many other schools in Canada and internationally. The dedication of Ms Armstrong and her team helped establish BSS’s growing reputation as a leader in Reggio-inspired learning. In her role as Principal and as President of the Ontario Reggio Association, Ms Armstrong was instrumental in developing a relationship with Reggio Children Italy. BSS’s program has been described as “one of the best examples of the development of this approach,” according to their President, Dr. Carlina Rinaldi.

Joining Ms Armstrong on her move to Switzerland are her husband, Eric Cockshutt, and their children, John, who graduated from St. Andrew’s College this spring, and Hanna, who has just completed Grade 4 at BSS. Says Hannah, “What I will miss most about BSS is the background. I’ve been here for so long and made so many good friends. I’m excited to meet new friends, and new people it’s an international school, so maybe I’ll meet people who live in China, Australia, or London, England! I hope my BSS friends would like a playdate in Switzerland I would take them on a tour of the chocolate factories!”

We wish the Armstrong-Cockshutt family all the best as they embark on their exciting Swiss adventure

Ms MacDonald, an educator with twenty years of experience, has been with BSS for the past two years, working closely with Ms Armstrong and helping to evolve the Reggio-inspired program.

Prior to joining BSS, she was with The School at Columbia University in New York, a new elementary school developed by Columbia University that is now perhaps the most socially and economically diverse school in that country. In her role there, Ms MacDonald taught Grade 6 math in addition to chairing a number of priority administrative committees, including Mentoring and Hiring. She also helped design and implement professional development programs at the Klingenstein Center for Independent School Leadership at Columbia and was an educational consultant for the Harlem Academy. Her experience in these culturally and economically diverse schools brings a vital perspective to BSS that enhances our worldview and helps us understand what we can do to continue offering a vibrant, textured, and real-world environment in our School.

By Rachel Hahn

It’s not uncommon that the average workday for Eleni Gicas will conclude late into the evening. Before calling it a night she checks her email one last time and shoots off a reply where needed. Then she rises from her desk and walks out her office door. She takes a few steps down the hallway and allows herself to “park the car” to put aside until tomorrow what may still need to be addressed. “Parking the car” is a term she uses with the girls at BSS to help them compartmentalize.

Ms Gicas has learned to park her car quite quickly because, after only a few paces, she is already home. An enviable commute to work, she lives in the Dean of Residence apartment attached to the boarding facilities at BSS. At the end of this summer she will be celebrating her first year on staff with BSS and her first year in her new home. Though living and working all in the same place might drive some people mad, Ms Gicas wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love it, I really do,” she says. “I think that’s what helps me get through a typical day.”

“Typical” for Ms Gicas means being accessible to the 78 boarders any time of the day and night for reasons ranging from conflict management to homesickness. In addition to this, she performs her more mainstream duties such as developing a residential curriculum and planning educational and fun events. Though it sounds like enough to overwhelm, Ms Gicas handles it with ease.

“If it’s in your core and you really are passionate about it, I think it comes easy, it comes really easy,” she says with her bright and genuine smile.

Ms Gicas’s various personal and educational experiences, which include, amongst other impressive credentials, a Master of Science in Education and an MBA, all meld together to make her ideal for the role of Dean of Residence. When the position became available, BSS was looking for someone to further develop the residential curriculum, which required both a knowledge and understanding of business, education and programming. Ms Gicas possesses strength in all these areas.

With my business background and my passion for education bridged together it made this really good connection… I think that’s why they hired me,” she laughs.

Ms Gicas taught physical education and also worked as a guidance counsellor before coming to BSS. Her passion for physical fitness flourishes at BSS as she coaches the volleyball team and integrates fitness into the boarders’ weekly schedule.

Before becoming a teacher, however, Ms Gicas worked as an activities director for children aboard a cruise ship an experience that still inspires some of her work today. If living and working with six and a half dozen girls sounds like a challenge, imagine being an activities coordinator for 500 kids on a cruise ship. Some of the most rewarding experiences Ms Gicas had during her time as the activities coordinator were when she could take the children to experience other cultures by visiting schools or sharing meals with locals in Jamaica, Mexico, and other countries. She also used her time aboard the cruise ship to volunteer, another passion of hers. She reached out by donating leftover food or clothing to the communities she visited.

“I’m [glad of] the sensitivity that I’ve established and grown to all the various cultures and understanding of all the cultures and ages,” she says.

Multiculturalism and diversity is an everyday reality at BSS, especially for the boarders. A map of the world in the residence hallway is crisscrossed with colourful gimp that makes the connection from a smiling face to a geographical place. Kazakhstan, Nepal, Mexico, Taiwan, Barbados, Ghana and many more countries are marked with a pushpin tying them to a BSS girl. Ms Gicas beams with excitement when she looks at the map. She points at her girls and the creative embellishments they’ve drawn next to their home countries.

“We’re a quilt from all over the world we’re so diverse and so multicultural here”, she says. She embraces the assortment of cultures, languages and ethnicities that comprise BSS boarding.

“What is really important about BSS is that they don’t focus on the similarities, they focus on the differences,” she explains. “By focusing on differences rather than similarities I think it promotes acceptance and respect by understanding how unique everybody is.”

Ms Gicas has reflected this belief in some of the new programming she has brought to the residence.

Mmmonday’s is a program that takes place every Monday and is intended to educate and connect the girls; it stands for movement, meditation or mayhem. A Monday night will always involve the girls eating together and connecting with their School families as well as engaging in an enriching activity.

“We don’t just try and sit there and have dinner,” explains Ms Gicas. “We’ll incorporate an activity. If it’s a diversity workshop staff will prepare a workshop or we’ll bring someone in.”

Past Mmmonday’s have featured a Police officer speaking on safety and a group promoting Black History Month and African American culture. Recently Ms Gicas invited an etiquette expert in to speak with the girls about international rules of propriety.

Her only regret from the past year is that she didn’t find the time to be directly involved with volunteerism and charity. However, the spirit of volunteerism is still very alive in her and has rubbed off on some of the girls. Near the beginning of the school year she was approached by two students who wanted to host a fundraiser for Right to Play an international humanitarian organization that promotes sports and play programs in disadvantaged communities. She gave her full support to the students and was delighted with the outcome.

“Although I didn’t get to volunteer I got to promote the concept of volunteerism,” she says.

DREAM (Defy Reality, Everyone Always Matters) was a benefit concert hosted by the boarders on March 6. Ms Gicas is proud of the event’s success and hopes it will become a tradition. She is also pleased with the appropriateness of the organization the girls chose to endorse.

“What I loved about the charity that they picked is that it specifically appeals to so many countries around the world and we as a community have that diversity already within the community… We’re so diverse and so multicultural here that it definitely made that connection,” she says.

For Ms Gicas, seeing the girls embrace their differences and extend compassion and help to others is one of the most satisfy parts of her job.

“I would love for the girls on the volunteerism side to realize that you don’t necessarily have to do it because you’re going to be compensated for it but because you’re getting something out of it just by doing it. It’s innate.”

In the coming year Ms Gicas plans for more changes and developments to the residential curriculum all focused on promoting the spirit of education and diversity.

- Joan SMALL Westrick ’43

by Julia Leconte

On Friday, March 6, The Bishop Strachan School played host to the first annual DREAM fundraiser. On stage performing were bands, solo acts even a ballerina. A raffle dished out great prizes, from Britney Spears tickets to Microsoft products. There was even a marketplace where various companies and organizations purchased $50 tables and sold their wares.

A few weeks later, DREAM organizers were still counting money, but had raised close to an estimated $3500 for Right To Play. The night was a great success.

The event wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of DREAM co-head and co-founder, Dana Shum. Dana, 16, and her friend, Shirley Huang, both had brilliant ideas at the same time. “For a couple of weeks I was telling my roommate that I had this great idea, that boarding should have a variety night or a coffee house,” says Dana. When she found out that Shirley was having the very same thoughts, they decided to team up. “We came up with the name, we came up with the cause. We wanted to represent boarding because it’s underrepresented at BSS, and also we wanted to give back to the community.”

Because the boarding community is so diverse (78 girls from 25 separate countries) Dana, a Grade 11 student, and Shirley, who is in Grade 12, wanted to give back to the world, not just one place. Right to Play was a perfect fit for their inaugural benefit (DREAM may change its selected charity every year), because it provides sports equipment and play opportunities to children in disadvantaged parts of the world.

DREAM stands for Defying Reality. Everyone Always Matters. It’s a sentiment that Dana embodies on a daily basis. “Dana is very approachable and she shows diligence and patience. Based on those characteristics, girls generally jump onto her philosophies and anything she puts her hands on basically turns into gold,” says BSS’s Dean of Boarding, Eleni Gicas. Although there isn’t a formal mentoring program, the boarding community looks up to Dana. “They really take to her. Just the way she speaks to girls it’s in such a pleasant manner, she really knows how to engage girls, whether they’re quiet, or outgoing like herself,” says Ms Gicas.

Ms Gicas worked closely with Dana on the DREAM project, and applauds her for being driven by the concept of DREAM, as opposed to the numbers it generated or its popularity. “Her dedication was so forthcoming and so wonderful when it came to this project,” says Ms Gicas. “We just developed what we called Teflon skin, and because she was able to grow that layer of skin, she saw this through. If she didn’t have the maturity and capability to do so, she couldn’t have.”

When she isn’t mentoring her peers or organizing groundbreaking benefit concerts, Dana also sits on residence council, helps plan for Black History Month, keeps up terrific grades and gives support to her younger sister, Christabel, who is in Grade 8. “Having my little sister here is perfect because even though we don’t really see each other much, I know that I’m not alone and I know that she’s not alone and it just gives us that extra comfort.”

The sisters started at BSS in September 2007. It was sad to say goodbye to their family in Ghana, but Dana has embraced the BSS boarding community (just as it has embraced her) wholeheartedly. She credits teachers and counsellors for helping her transition into the School seamlessly. “The support never dies in boarding and also the boarding staff is phenomenal…it’s more like a family to me.”

Dana says that at any time of night she can ask a Grade 12 student for support, just as many of the younger students lean on her. “Most of the time I just tell them to cherish the times they have in BSS because they won’t come again,” she says.

Dana appreciates the experience in diversity that boarding provides. “What’s really special about boarding is the fact that 78 different girls from so many different backgrounds can get along,” she says. “We don’t always get along, but we learn to accept each other and I think that’s what’s really great, because you don’t only learn about living with people or accommodating other people, you learn a lot about yourself and how you can make yourself better for other people, and how you can make yourself better for yourself.”

Dana is very ambitious, but also goal-oriented and extremely focused. In the short term, she’d like DREAM to be continually successful. “I hope everybody at BSS can support DREAM next year so that we can raise more money for a charity, because there are a lot of people that don’t have the luxuries in life that any of us have here, and it’s just unfair.”

Her attitude towards charity shows her maturity: “I think that people, even if they’re not supporting DREAM, should support something they feel very strongly about. No matter how big the problem might be, if they chip in a cent they’ve done a little something. If they plant a tree, they’ve done something,” she says.

In the long-term, after university, travelling the world is definitely a priority. As well as buying a house in Italy with her best friends, Dana hopes to return home to Ghana someday.

“It’s always been my dream to go back [to Ghana] and start a home for kids who don’t have homes, or kids who are running away from a hard life. They could sleep there, they could come and get some food and a warm bed, and then hopefully I could start a school for those kids,” she says. “And that’s my long shot, far-away dream.”

Long shot? For Dana, probably not.

By Rachel Hahn

A man, middle-aged and dressed business casual, sips at a latte in a Toronto Starbucks. He has a wife, three daughters, and a good job. On the surface he is like any of the thousands of Starbucks customers who have sat in that very same chair, but he possesses something that makes him different. He was in Hong Kong for the historic 1999 handover, he has been lost in Tokyo, he was a commuter on the trains of England and he has slept in an African mud-hut. What this man has is a global passport Keith Walter is a citizen of the world.

Travelling is in Mr. Walter’s blood. Born to missionary parents in Zimbabwe, he moved back to Canada with his family when he was young. His mother originates from Australia and his paternal great grandparents were immigrants to Canada. Mr. Walter finished high school in the prairies and then went to U of T when his parents returned to Africa. When Mr. Walter graduated from U of T he went to work for Manulife Financial and married his university love, Cheryl. Though he could have settled down, he chose to pursue the life of a globetrotter. Together, they moved to England where he worked full time and earned his MBA while his wife gave birth to their first child, Jayne. “That was a pretty hectic time,” he laughs casually.

The family decided to move back to Canada and settled in the Waterloo area. Both of Mr. Walter’s other daughters, Robyn and Carly, were born there. It didn’t take long, however, for his traveller’s itch to become irresistible to scratch. “We got the urge again,” he says. “The travel bug.”

It was 1997 when the family moved to Hong Kong where they stayed until 1999 when Manulife opened a Tokyo branch and Mr. Walter moved there with his family. “We used to joke about the miles that our kids were putting on,” he says with a smile. In addition to living around the world, the family went on trips frequently because travel around Asia is efficient and affordable. “Basically every opportunity we got we would fly somewhere.”

After five years of living in Japan, the Walters returned to Canada. It was a decision that the family made in the best interest of the girls. “I made the call in 2004 to come back because we got to that very tricky age with our children where it was now or never,” Mr. Walter explains. “So, that was the time and we decided to come back and we were able to get all three of them into Bishop Strachan.”

Though the Walters were able to expose their girls to a variety of countries and cultures while they were growing up, they still hadn’t taken them to the one place Mr. Walter wanted them to visit most, the land where he was born: Africa. “I had made it a goal to at some point in time take the kids to Africa because it’s my birth place and because it’s so meaningful to me and my family,” he says. The perfect opportunity to take the girls to Africa arose out of a position Robyn had garnered at School. “The other piece of the puzzle is that Robyn was appointed as the Social Services Prefect…and one of the key recipients of the fundraising at Bishop Strachan is this orphan age in Swaziland Zama Zama.”

BSS has been supporting Zama Zama since 2004 and has donated nearly $50,000. Zama Zama is a unique project born out of a need that founder Johannes Shongwe identified. Helen Strasser, a teacher who worked at BSS for many years, funded Mr. Shongwe’s education. He became a teacher himself and worked at a school in Africa. While working at a school, his attention was grabbed by a group of children not the children in the classroom but their young brothers and sisters.

“The little kids who were brothers and sisters of the students would just come and spend the day sitting outside the school because they have no parents,” explains Mr. Walter. “Their parents have usually died of AIDS…. Technically the older kid has the responsibility of looking after the little kid, a kind of surrogate parent.”

When Mr. Shongwe was teaching the eldest children, the two and three-year-old siblings would be waiting outside of the school all day because they had no where else to go, and in his mind this was unacceptable. He turned to the community for help, and together Zama Zama was created a place for the children to receive care, at least one meal a day, shelter and some basic education. Mr. Shongwe’s ultimate goal is to expand the school with a dormitory so that children who don’t have a safe place to go home to at night can live at the school.

Mr. Walter and his family flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, and then had a driver take them into Swaziland, where they slept the night in mud huts in a park. The next morning the driver took them the rest of the way to Zama Zama, where they were greeted with cheers and waving Canadian flags. All of the children, and Mr. Shongwe, had come out to give the Walters a warm welcome. The family spent half of their day with the people of Zama Zama and had the opportunity to give them gifts brought from Canada, ranging from sports equipment to clothing to money.

Though seeing poverty first hand can be an abrasive experience, Mr. Walter was not greatly surprised by the standard of living the children had; rather, he was awed by the power of positive thinking. “What is striking is what Mr. Shongwe is doing about the problem… The striking thing for me was not seeing the poverty. The striking thing for me was seeing one individual with enough courage and gumption to actually make a difference,” he says.

Mr. Walter realizes that half a day isn’t long to spend anywhere and he didn’t intend for the family vacation to be focused solely on volunteerism. Instead, he wanted the experience of visiting Zama Zama to enrich their trip and he encourages other families to follow suit. “I would certainly encourage other people to look for that opportunity to take one day out of your vacation to do something that’s a little out of the ordinary not just sit on the beach for seven days in a row.”

Ultimately, Mr. Walter wanted to share with his family and educate his girls about the world and the people in it. “What I was hoping was that all three of them would have that sense first of all that it matters what you do matters. Secondly, that a small amount can make a big difference, and thirdly, that every now and again it’s good to shake yourself up.”

Mr. Walter’s passion for humanity around the globe is so innate to his character that he doesn’t seem to realize how profound an impact his way of life has had on those around him. “Keith has such a heart to help,” says Mrs. Walter of her husband. “Because he grew up in a home with missionary parents he was used to that ‘giving’ side of life. Since knowing Keith he has taken on many leadership roles that involve helping kids, raising money, teaching others, sharing meals with homeless street guys in London, and many others. Nothing seems beyond him and he does his ‘giving’ without fanfare.”

Mr. Walter has not only successfully shared his passion for giving with his family but he has also passed on the idea of being a citizen of the world. All three of the Walter girls believe they are global citizens. “Global citizenship is like citizenship in any other country you can either be born with it or work to gain it. I myself was born a global citizen,” says Jayne.

Robyn studies international relations at U of T and believes that the family trip to Africa influenced her greatly, particularly in her choice of education. For her, being a global citizen is an everyday thing. “A global citizen is one who knows that country borders are only lines to contain governments, not themselves. As a result, they know that their responsibilities are to all people, everywhere. This should translate into their daily lives and the decisions that they make. I personally strive to be a global citizen because I know that my responsibilities extend beyond my own self-interests.”

Carly, the last Walter at BSS, has learned a lot from her father. She believes in giving back to the community and not to take anything for granted, but most importantly she has learned how small the world really is. “From living and travelling in different countries it is obvious to me how connected the whole world is, so it is important to know about our own global community,” says Carly.

With his two oldest daughters in university in Toronto and his youngest still at BSS, Mr. Walter doesn’t have any immediate plans for another international relocation just yet, but the possibilities are endless.

By Sharon Gregg

Valerie WHITTINGHAM Pringle ’71, BSS Distinguished Old Girl, is hoisting herself up a high fence. One long leg, punctuated by a boot-clad foot, rests on top of the backyard gate as she eases herself over and leaps onto a side porch with the agility of a cat burglar. I watch meekly from the ground below murmuring small clichés of encouragement. “Atta girl, Val,” I say.

“I’m in!” she brightly proclaims as she emphatically bangs the side door shut…perhaps too emphatically.

You see, after a sunny, tea-soaked chat with this most celebrated BSS Old Girl, I am ushered from the spacious home she shares with husband Andy Pringle and various young people at various times, into the chill air of an early spring day to say our farewells. Call it force of habit, but I was pulling the door shut behind me when Ms Pringle tried politely, but forcefully, to stop me. “No!” she pleaded. But stubbornly, I pressed on. “No, no, I wouldn’t want to bring the cold air in,” is what I might have been thinking. By the time the penny dropped for me, the hard click of the automatic lock, like the sound of a trigger engaging on a gun, echoed against the silence of the great outdoors.

Still smiling, but now through chattering teeth, Ms Pringle used my phone to try in vain to round up a relative or two who might have a key to let her back in her house.

Hence, the fence leaping incident and my enduring mortification. I recount this story here not to punish myself further, but because her handling of the situation was vintage Pringle. Determinedly optimistic, cheerful in spite of the frustration, a woman of action looking for solutions to a problem, and finally the person for whom things just seem to turn out well.

Mulling over events on the way home, I couldn’t help but wish I had an ounce of Pringle in me that indefatigable spirit, the sunny disposition that seems to say, “everything will be all right,” the brainy-but-fun girl who clearly seems to have it all. And by her own observation, she does. And for that she’s eternally grateful.

“I’m generally pretty cheerful and I’ve just always had energy,” she claims. “It’s a gift. You don’t question it. I take nothing for granted; I have no regrets. I don’t wait for a life changing moment to reconsider what I might have done. I’m very lucky I try to live a healthy life and I have this great family, my husband, my kids.” And two huge chocolate Labs who thump their tails on the floor in unison as if to say, “Hear, hear!”

During a lengthy and illustrious career as a broadcast journalist, Ms Pringle has interviewed the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Jean Vanier, Margaret Thatcher, Oprah, June Callwood, Leonard Cohen, Queen Noor…the list goes on and contains the world’s most influential thinkers, artists and leaders.

She has made documentaries, travelled the world telling stories of the people and places she sees, climbed mountains and has been a high profile fixture on the Canadian media scene for as long as I can remember.

After graduating from BSS in 1971, Ms Pringle went into the Radio and Television Arts program at Ryerson University, which was then Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, or “Ry-High” as the university-bound snobs liked to refer to it. On the surface, it seems an odd choice for such an accomplished student from a family of big achievers with shiny degrees from name-brand universities. Her husband, who was her boyfriend at the time, (yes, they’ve been together that long), asked how she would explain to their future children why their mom didn’t have a university degree. He was teasing, of course. And the teasing went down the line with her father who, on hearing the news, wryly inquired, “What are you going to study? Hairdressing?”

Ms Pringle readily acknowledges that back then Ryerson was not the place good students tended to go. But she had a seminal conversation with Charlie Hawks, the guidance counsellor at BSS, who asked the bewildered Ms Pringle, “What are you interested in?” to which she immediately responded, “News and current affairs shows”, to which he replied with another question, “Why not study broadcasting?” Like many things in life, when you are confused about which way to go, the answer is often so simple, so straightforward as to seem somehow wrong. Surely it must be more complicated than this or I wouldn’t feel so stressed! But, in fact, when Ms Pringle went to visit the RTA program at Ryerson, the die was cast and she knew, with certainty, she was in the right place.

“I loved Ryerson. I had so much fun there and I learned so much. It really put me where I am today and I’m still involved with the school.” In fact, in 2004, the Pringles made a donation to her alma mater enabling Ryerson to install the Andrew and Valerie Pringle Environmental Green Roof on the George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering. The roof, covered with day lilies, has environmental, energy and research benefits for the school. Needless to say, because Ryerson was able to attract students like Ms Pringle, it has grown to become one of the most powerful and prestigious universities in Canada. So, Ms Pringle graduated from university after all.

After Ryerson, Ms Pringle secured a plum job in radio on a news station in Toronto, working with none other than Andy Barrie, an icon, then and now, in radio broadcasting. Ms Pringle considers him to be one of her earliest and most influential mentors who put her on the air when the male-dominated brass at the station thought her voice was “too shrill”.

She made the leap to television with an offer to audition for CBC’s new daytime current affairs program, MIDDAY, where she became a host and cut her teeth on television news. After that, it was an eight-year stint co-hosting the popular morning show, Canada A.M. on CTV, where her energy and charm cheered Canadians struggling through their first cups of coffee on dark winter mornings.

After waking up day after day at 4:30, raising a family of three and tending to her dozens of volunteer gigs from Boards, to fundraising, to being the keynote speaker event planners crave to add luster to their black tie dinners, Valerie Pringle was tired. Even she, with the seemingly boundless energy, had run out of steam and it was time for a break to consider a different path.

“I left not knowing what I wanted to do,” she says. “I’d never done that before; just leave a job without having someplace to go, but I knew I needed a break and sometimes you just have to stop and figure out what’s next.”

According to Ms Pringle, she’s still figuring it out. While she describes the current period as one of transition, since she left Canada A.M. over eight years ago she’s made multiple documentaries and several television series, such as the travel show Valerie Pringle Has Left the Building, and Canada’s version of The Antiques Roadshow. She has hosted talk TV shows, like the outstanding Test of Faith on Vision TV, and made films while trekking to Everest Base Camp and with a group from BSS, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro last summer. It’s been quite a fruitful period of transition, and while the broadcasting landscape in Canada gets gloomier with each passing year, she still manages to get projects made, and still believes in the possibilities.

“I’ve sat in a teeny tent in Iglulet with five generations of women; I’ve swum on the Great Barrier Reef, I’ve interviewed Prime Ministers, even childhood heroes like Captain Kangaroo and Lucille Ball, and on top of that, I have people who come up to me and say ‘Hi.’ I’ve been given the absolute gift of being part of people’s lives. It makes you weep. What did I do to deserve this? It’s a swell career.”

Swell indeed. Right now she’s working on an idea for a new series she wants to do about the Great Lakes, that glorious, shamefully ignored body of water Canada shares with the United States. She’s out beating the bushes looking for funding to produce a project that is clearly a passion of hers.

And passion is what it’s all about for Ms Pringle. She looks to her heroes like the formidable Canadian legend of kindness and community activism, June Callwood, and sees what they did right into their 80s, through sickness and health, constantly striving to make the world a better place, and to her it says, ‘OK, so what should I be doing?’

Naturally then, when she organized a group trip to Mount Kilimanjaro last year that included BSS Head, Kim Gordon, and other BSS Old Girls and students like Penny BELL ’68, Claire WUNKER ’08, Brooke Freeman and Brittany Durham, she would not organize such a journey without having some payback involved for those less fortunate than she. As the driving force behind the Umatu project, she raised over $180,000 to build a resource centre for women in Tanzania who are HIV positive, and the participants on the climb pitched in with the actual build. “They [the Tanzanian women] are amazing, courageous women who have fought the stigma of AIDS to ‘come out’ to help themselves and their community learn how to live positively with HIV. It was the most memorable and rewarding part of the trip. I never cried on the mountain. I cried when I left them.”

Her lifelong passion to give back and her tireless work with vital non-profit organizations like the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Canada Post Foundation, which has made mental health a central focus, and her role as Chair of the Board of the TransCanada Trail, give her a different focus that feeds her curiosity to learn and her energy to do. She claims that husband Andy, an investment banker and stalwart fixture in philanthropic circles, has been a big influence on her own desire to get involved. For Ms Pringle, these opportunities offer new learning experiences both in terms of the issues involved, such as mental health, which appeal to the natural born journalist in her, as well as learning about organizational structures and how to get things done within them. “I’d never really had that experience before, where I had staff or budgets or HR issues. So it’s just great to be learning all this stuff now. As a broadcaster, you don’t get to see much of that side.”

Ms Pringle attributes her years at BSS as among the most formative as she came of age in a world that believed in the power of women and gave them plenty of opportunities to work in leadership positions where they could have the experience without having to compete with boys to get them.

“Time at BSS made all the difference in the world. The friendships I made there are one of many lasting things. We call ourselves The Kanastas, this group of BSS women that I still get together with regularly; usually it was to smoke and drink, but now we’re too old for that! The other thing that was so significant was all the leadership stuff, because all the positions had to be filled by girls and you had to step up to the plate. So I ended up being co-head of debating, co-editor of Prism, working on the newspaper, being the House Head… Like anything in life, these are muscles that need to be flexed and you need practice. Everybody’s nervous at any new job, but those were the first steps I took where I tried to be responsible for something and it made things so much easier after that.”

BSS ran through the family veins with her mother Joan EBBELS Whittingham ’41 going from the Junior School right through, and her sisters Megan WHITTINGHAM Malcolm ’68 and Lorna WHITTINGHAM Lang ’76 attending. She knew she’d also get to go at some point but assumed it would be for the final two years because of the costs. But BSS made financial aid available that helped Ms Pringle get in a third year and she believes that made a big difference in terms of her ability to take advantage of all that BSS had to offer and cement relationships with the girls who became lifelong friends. Her mother-in-law, Phyllis ANDERSON Pringle ’42, and daughter, Catherine PRINGLE ’99, are also Old Girls.

To the students today at BSS, whether they aspire to journalism, filmmaking or brain surgery, Ms Pringle believes that life, no matter the challenges, is beautiful. “You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t get overwhelmed by how far it is to go. It’s good to have dreams. You start. You find a job. You just never know. People who thrive in this world have learned to adapt to change.”

And as she smoothly cleared the top of the fence, landing gracefully on her feet, there was the picture of someone who had learned to adapt to change.

This photo display entitled, “The World Has Always Needed the BSS Old Girl,” was created to commemorate the spirit embodied in the many initiatives of the BSSA, as well as the individual achievements of countless Old Girls through the years. This commemorative exhibit features one ground breaking Old Girl per decade beginning in the 1900s.

Did you know that one of our Old Girls set nine world records as a speed car driver at Brooklands race track in London, England, in the 1930s? Or that another ran a displaced persons’ camp in Germany on the grounds of the Henckell Trocken Winery following WWII?

In the future, we would like to make this a living canvas and we’ll be coming to you to ask for your recommendations on ground breaking Old Girls. If you have any suggestions for Old Girls who could be featured, please email your suggestion to Sue ALLEN Dutton ’79, at sdutton@bss.on.ca.

1900-1909

Mary Evelyn WRINCH 1893

According to critics, a Canadian artist unjustly neglected, who, in 1908, actually went further North via canoe, and earlier, than Tom Thomson and group, not only painting small panels but large canvasses on the spot. In 1924, she became the first woman Vice President of the OSA. She stopped painting and turned to woodcuts in 1928. Exhibited in England, France, South Africa, Australia and the U.S.

1910-1919

Lady Daisy POCOCK Simpson 1886

Stage name Lena Ashwell. Her father was determined that his daughters should be able to earn an independent livelihood. An actress-as-activist, she won her place in the front rank of leading Edwardian actresses and was highly regarded by George Bernard Shaw. She brought theatre to the trenches during WW1, using it to cure shell-shock.

1920-1929

Emily FERGUSON Murphy 1895

Social activist, author and first female judge in the British Empire, she was one of five women who carried the Persons Case to the Privy Council of England, where, on Oct. 18, 1929, the decision was handed down that the word ‘persons’ in section 24 of the BNA included female person. Her words continue to inspire us:“We want women leaders today as never before. Leaders who are not afraid to be called names and who are willing to go out and fight. I think women can save civilization. Women are persons.”

1930-1939

Kay DEFRIES Petre ’23

Toronto-born, world-record-setting race-car driver, renowned as Britain’s most famous speedcar racer before the war. Kay set nine world records at Brooklands. She later became news reporter for the ‘Daily Graphic’ and then motor-correspondent for the Kemsley papers during the war years. Much later, she was employed by Austin as part of its design team. No wonder the Mini is such a hit with women!

1940-1949

Charity LAWSON Grant ’31

Brave to the very end, Charity is remembered by her nephew Andrew Ignatieff as ‘fiercely competitive, opinionated, tough, proud and brittle’. She sacrificed the comforts of life in Canada to run a displaced-persons camp in war-torn Germany (located on the grounds of the Henckell Trocken winery!). In addition to receiving and settling immigrants arriving in Toronto, and earning a Masters in Social Work, Charity also became Dean of Women at University College, University of Toronto.

1950-1959

Beatrice “Trixie” WORSLEY ’39

Beatrice is Canada’s female Computer Pioneer, earning her PhD from Cambridge: “A skilled mathematician and unquestionably Canada’s first female computer scientist, she found a successful calling in a profession dominated by men” (Campbell), and may have faced discrimination and limitation of opportunity. Her friend, OG, Madeleine ARMOUR Bain ’41, revealed that she thought Trixie was “discriminated [against] because of her sex. . .[but] she is a good ad for our slogan ‘Girls Can Do Anything’”.

1960-1969

Veronica TENNANT ’64

The youngest person to enter The National Ballet of Canada, Tennant made her debut in the principal role of Romeo and Juliet. As Prima Ballerina, her virtuoso performances earned a place for Canada on the world stage. She partnered with the greatest male dancers of her time Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Veronica Tennant won international celebrity for her dramatic intensity and superb technique in dancing every major classical role.

1970-1979

Dr. Elizabeth ASHTON ’68

1977 Horsewoman of the Year, Elizabeth Ashton has represented Canada around the world, participating in three Olympic teams, and captaining the Canadian Eventing team to a Gold Medal in the World Championships in 1978. She has been president of Victoria’s Camosun College since 1994, and is considered to have played a vital role in post-secondary education in BC and Canada. Among her many citations are also two commemorative medals given to her, most recently for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee in 2003.

1980-1989

Dr. Brenda GALLIE ’63

In the early ‘80s, Dr. Gallie and her collaborators showed how the RB gene was lost in all retinoblastoma*tumor cells, leading the way to the identification of the RB gene itself and many other important cancer genes, such as breast cancer genes. In 1999, Dr. Gallie developed a charitable, certified, clinical service of optimized genetic testing for retinoblastoma families worldwide. *retinoblastoma: a hereditary cancer that causes life-threatening tumours in infants

1990-1999

Bishop Victoria MATTHEWS ’72

Elected as first woman bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, Bishop Matthews has confronted many challenges in her professional life including the resistance in the Church to female priests. She has dealt with such opposition with intelligence, sensitivity and a willingness to compromise in pursuit of the larger goal. Bishop Victoria Matthews is a pioneer for women, a visionary for the Anglican Church, and a deeply compassionate human being. Early in 2008, Victoria was elected the Bishop of Christchurch in New Zealand.

2000-2008

Deborah MCCRACKEN ’99

In 2005, Deborah founded The Olive Branch for Children in Tanzania, providing nurturing, safety and education for orphans. Her initiatives include establishing several Montessori schools; a mobile clinic which assists 1,000 people per day; a permanent clinic with a catch area of 65,000; an agricultural project which grows food for 1,500 people; and more recently, a hospice dedicated to children born with HIV. Her love of Africa and compassion for the plight of its children were ignited in 1996 during a BSS exchange with Durban Girls College, South Africa.

BSSA 100th Anniversary Display created by Andrea Mozarowski, Associate, Communications and Stewardship. With special thanks to the BSS Museum and Archives and to OG Sue ALLEN Dutton ’79 and Erica Frail for their assistance with this project.

By Andrea Mozarowski

At BSS, we cherish our tradition of celebrating legacy families. The stories of each generation weave the “basic fabric of the School”, according to Judy Elizabeth CLARKE Colbeck ’72, who is deeply proud of her connection to BSS, dating back to her Great-grandmother, Amy SIMPSON Prevost 1890. “From 1883 to 1972, four women connected by consanguine and marital ties have attended BSS from the days of Wykeham Hall to its present location on Lonsdale Road.” In 1999, Elizabeth’s daughter, Chevon Clarke CRAGG Spacie graduated and became the fifth generation of BSS Old Girls in this family.

These women have carried with them important stories made up of pivotal experiences lived at The Bishop Strachan School. Chevon characterizes her three best friends, BSS graduates, as the pillars of her life. The considerable legacy Elizabeth carries encompasses both her matrilineal connection to the School, as well as her desire to honour the memory of a remarkable educator.

Today, Elizabeth Clarke, who has co-founded a thriving international logistics transportation firm with her husband, Leslie Colbeck, attributes her appreciation of other cultures, as well as the strength of her relationships with customers and agents globally, to the extraordinary vision of her BSS geography teacher, Mrs. Nadine Hooper Deacon.

Recently, Elizabeth shared with us a life lesson, learned at BSS, which has served her well. She recalled a field trip to Elliot Lake (between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie) which Mrs. Deacon led in 1971.

Back in the 1970s, Mrs. Deacon believed that a good education should show her students a side of life that was real; one that people were living. Ms Clarke effortlessly recreated a vivid picture of Mrs. Deacon: “I’m taking my girls into this unbelievably male-dominated wilderness environment and we’re going to learn not only about the geography of the Canadian Shield and what defines Northern Ontario, but also we’ll go down into the mine shaft to experience, in some small way, the truth of how other people live.”

Elizabeth further recalls that she went for a walk with a boarder from Bermuda. They made their way into a forest, unlike any forested area they had experienced in tamer landscapes closer to the city: “We walked into the forest. It just closes in on you. You turn around and you cannot see where you’ve just come from because the forest is so dense. It was a lesson in survival. We had to make it out before sunset. We found a logging road and some people who drove us back into town. In those days, those were country neighbours, which city girls had never experienced.”

Ms Clarke corresponded with Mrs. Deacon until she passed away in 2007. She attributes the deepening of her love of geography, which she passed on to her son, to her BSS geography teacher, who coached her, inspired her, and took Elizabeth under her wing.

“She didn’t endanger our lives or make us vulnerable, but she opened our eyes, so that we could see that there was another side to life. One part of your education is getting out into the world. She took us into the world.”

“I’ve carried this story with me. It was a monumental moment in my life, learning to survive, even for an afternoon, but surviving in the dense bush of Elliot Lake no less.”

Elizabeth’s mother and Chevon’s grandmother, Teddy WILSON-PREVOST Clarke ’37, passed away peacefully in her ninety-fourth year, on February 12, 2009.

Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when said to someone you have relied upon over a great expanse of time. After 15 years as a Governor on the BSS Board, the School bids a fond farewell to a dear friend and neighbour, the Reverend Canon Milton Barry. This May, Canon Barry retires from nearly 20 years of presiding over the Grace Church on-the-Hill parish. He and his wife Shirley are relocating to enjoy life in Peterborough, Ontario.

Canon Barry quickly became committed to both the Grace Church and BSS communities soon after joining the church clergy in 1991. Although the church and the School have always been neighbours, the friendship was undeniably deepened under his guidance. In 1994 he became a member of the Board of Governors at BSS and has been one of its longest serving members.

Canon Barry has always been there for me during my time as Head of School,” says Kim Gordon. “He brings a vast wisdom to Board discussions, never failing to provide support and genuine concern in trying times. We are extremely fortunate that, despite his retirement, he will remain as the Bishop’s representative on our Board.”

After a decade and a half, the ties that bind BSS with Canon Barry are surely deeper than friendship they’re family. His daughter, Catherine Hant, is the current Director of Admissions (and incumbent Vice Principal of the Junior School). Catherine has witnessed her father experience his own ‘learning’ through his journey with the School. He has made a personal and life-long commitment to education. His Anglican faith notwithstanding, Canon Barry embraces all kinds of diversity and believes strongly in equal rights. Today, the School’s community represents that of many different backgrounds and Canon Barry has wholeheartedly accepted BSS’s mission and values.

How lucky we are to know someone so terribly hard to say goodbye to. Canon Barry, we wish you well, and look forward to seeing you in your new role on our Board.

At the time, Young was compared to other Canadian literary luminaries such as Robertson Davies and Mordecai Richler; however decades later their work could be found in bookstores, libraries, and on university reading lists while Young’s work had all but disappeared. “I think one of the reasons her work was gradually almost forgotten was because she not only stopped writing in 1969, but she completely dropped out of public sight,” said Young’s daughter, Valerie YOUNG Argue ’57. “Even before she stopped writing she had increasingly avoided interviews, turned down autograph sessions and refused to be photographed.”

In the early 1990s, Suzanne Morton, a history professor at McGill University, was recommended The Torontonians by a friend who had picked up a copy at a second hand bookstore. She quickly recognized its importance and by 1992 had added it to her own course reading list. Copies of the novel were hard to find, so she, along with Nathalie Cooke, Associate Dean of Arts at McGill, set about having it reissued.

“I remember receiving the unusual phone call,” said Ms Argue. “It was Nathalie, and she asked if I was the daughter of Phyllis Brett Young. When I said I was, she replied that she had been trying to track me down for two years.”

In 2007 and 2008 respectively, The Torontonians and Psyche were reissued by McGill-Queen’s University Press. “Mother would have been thrilled to know this was happening,” said Ms Argue, who has since had the opportunity to present The Torontonians, as well as Psyche, at readings and author events in the novel’s namesake city. “I think most writers’ novels are very dear to their hearts and part of themselves. My mother, like most writers, wanted people to read and enjoy her books.”

Since being reissued, The Torontonians has been added to other Canadian university reading lists. “Since [Young’s] father was a professor at the University of Toronto, I think she would have been pleased to see that it’s been picked up by a number of universities in Canada,” said Ms Argue.

Phyllis BRETT Young died in Toronto in 1996.

August 28

Old Girl Class Notes submission deadline for the Fall issue of The Link

SEPTEMBER

September 24 to 26

Harvest Reunion 2009: Celebrating years ending in 4 and 9

Thursday September 24

Old Girl Boarders’ Evening

Friday September 25

Choir RehearsalChapel ServiceOld Girls’ Cocktail Party

Saturday September 26

Family Day and Harvest Games bring your family!

BSS Run for the Cure and Pancake Breakfast

Old Girls’ Basketball Kids’ Play Area

For reunion inquiries, please contact Jill BLAKEY ’02 at 416 483 4325 ext. 1871, or email advancement@bss.on.ca.

We look forward to Branch Reunions throughout the year in:

Calgary

Florida

Hong Kong

London, England

New York City

San Francisco

Vancouver and Victoria

Washington

Stay tuned for event details posted on The Thread at thethread.bss.on.ca.

Register online for BSS events at www.bss.on.ca or email advancement@bss.on.ca

Should you be interested in attending any of our events during our travels, or would like to recommend a prospective family, please contact the Admissions Office directly at 416 483 4325 ext. 1221 or admissions@bss.on.ca.

Admissions Office

T: 416 483 4325 ext. 1220

E: admissions@bss.on.ca

W: www.bss.on.ca

While we don’t exactly have shareholders in the technical sense, we do have a community that financially supports our activities through tuition, donations, and volunteering time and expertise to help us be the best we can be. That’s why we believe it’s important to keep you informed about our progress on the strategic plan as well as provide you with our audited financial data. We are accountable to you and want you to take an active role in understanding how your investment is being used in the service of educating your daughters. Our mission is to provide your daughters with a superior academic and life experience during these most formative years. Achieving that means setting the bar higher every year, reaching beyond the tried and true and tackling new ideas and ways of doing things that keep BSS on the cutting edge in education circles, and delivering on our promise to you. You will see in this issue of The Link, our progress to date as we reach the halfway point on the strategic plan. You’ll also meet some of the people behind our success, the drivers of our innovative approaches that extend throughout the School. The 2007/08 Annual Report is also included that will give you the financial statements as well as an opportunity to see how vital your donations to the School have been. We’ve put a spotlight on the Rogers family who have, throughout many years and generations, provided stalwart support, innovative ideas and incredible loyalty to BSS that continues with the appointment of Martha Rogers ’90 to our Board of Trustees this year. I’m pleased to give you this snapshot of how we’re doing at BSS and invite any comments or questions you might have. Enjoy!

For more than 140 years, BSS has been empowering, educating and encouraging girls. It is, quite arguably, the best girls’ school in all of Canada and much of this credit is due to the School’s skilled and committed leadership. Behind the scenes and after hours, the dedicated members of the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees propel the School forward in terms of support, strategy and financial oversight.

Kim Gordon, Head of BSS, can’t emphasize enough how important the Boards are to the functioning of the School. “Having these Boards allows me to have Bay Street financial experts, marketing gurus, entrepreneurs, and lawyers at my fingertips. I have access to the top talent in Canada and North America who I can turn to for their expertise, and all of it, pro bono. They’re always just a phone call away and the generosity they’ve shown, both of their time and their talent is extraordinary.”

Kate BERGHUIS Stevenson ’81, Chair, Board of Governors

The Board of Governors, chaired by Kate BERGHUIS Stevenson ’81, has three main responsibilities: to hire and support the Head of the School, to oversee and approve the School’s mission and strategy, and to maintain financial oversight of the School’s operations. The Board of Trustees, chaired by Sarah Kavanagh, is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the health of the BSS Foundation in a fundraising capacity, as well as managing the Foundation’s investment growth strategy and its disbursements to the School.

Kate Stevenson has nearly 25 years of experience as a senior finance executive for large, multinational corporations. Sarah Kavanagh is Vice Chair of Investment Banking at Scotia Capital. On average, they each spend at least four days of every month working for the BSS Boards. Both Boards have multiple subcommittees devoted to ensuring the School is in a position of strength to achieve its goals. Bruce Rothney and Ruth Woods, both Vice Chairs of the Board of Governors, also volunteer similar amounts of time to the Boards and various subcommittees. All members of the Boards contribute their time, talents and often show incredible leadership in the School’s fundraising activities.

“It’s a commitment to be on the Board,” says Ms Woods. The Boards are self perpetuating, which means members are often on the lookout for new volunteers, and selecting Board members requires much consideration in order to diversify the Boards’ talents. “They can’t all be lawyers,” she laughs. It is also important to select people who have, in other ways, demonstrated their dedication to BSS. It is a demanding volunteer role and Board members need to be willing and able to carve out the time required from their busy lives.

There are many issues that the Boards tackle and this year especially presented a host of challenges such as managing budgets within the context of an increasingly tumultuous economy and major leadership changes in the School with the announcement of Kim Gordon’s retirement. “I’m particularly proud of how smoothly the transition between Kim as outgoing Head and Deryn Lavell as incoming Head has been handled,” says Ms Woods who, along with Board member, John Barford, managed the Head selection process. BSS has a history of effective succession planning and smooth transitions of key staff, including the Head’s position. The importance of a strong and talented Head of School cannot be underestimated, and Ms Stevenson agrees that the process was an accomplishment to take pride in. “Managing the Head succession process was undoubtedly the activity that will have the greatest impact on BSS for years to come,” she writes in an email, adding that “we are exceptionally fortunate to have such a talented internal candidate to take over from Kim.”

Ms Stevenson says that BSS is unusual among independent schools in this regard. “Attracting and cultivating top talent, and to have chosen two Heads of School in succession from our own ranks is a rare feat,” she writes. The strength of the staff and Board members ensure BSS is a standout school on the continent, as does the reputation of the academic and co-curricular program yet another aspect of BSS’s vision and mission that the Board is involved in stewarding.

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Bruce Rothney, Vice Chair, Board of Governors

Bruce Rothney is, in his words, “fully engaged” in BSS. All three of his daughters Mackenzie, Stephanie and Katelyn are enrolled at the School. Part of the reason he enthusiastically volunteers on the Board is because he wants only the best for his girls. “The passion stems from your hopes and aspirations for your daughters to get the best education they possibly can. That’s really what drives me,” says Mr. Rothney.

“UCC and the other great boys’ schools have always had a unique advantage and a unique place in society, and, in my own mind, I think that hasn’t been as much the case with the girls’ schools. I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Rothney explains.

“It’s time for the world to wake up and really create a balance and an attitude that says…girls can do anything if we create the right institution. If Ms Gordon drills into us to teach girls in the way that they naturally learn more effectively, and then really unleash that power, I think it’s almost an unstoppable force.”

This passion for quality girls’ education contributes to the program strategy that the Board oversees. A recent programming accomplishment has been ushering in the Reggio-inspired approach in the Junior School. “The Reggio-inspired program, in my view, has created a renaissance school which is unlike most others in Canada, if not North America,” says Mr. Rothney.

One of the most important responsibilities of the Board of Trustees is to manage the School’s endowment. Managing the investments and various other monetary concerns of any institution in the current economic climate is a delicate and difficult thing, but BSS is more than prepared. “Certainly this economy has impacted both the Boards,” says Ms Woods. “We have contingency plans in place. We’re managing our costs at as low a level as we can and are making sure that we’re deferring capital expenditures that we wouldn’t otherwise have to make,” she explains.

“As Governors, we are very sensitive to the hardship that families of all shapes and sizes are going through with the economy turning very sour and the capital markets turning incredibly sour,” says Mr. Rothney. In times like these, he says, there are two main areas of focus for the Board: to be very thoughtful about expenditures and to continue providing financial aid as much as possible. A result of the Board’s efforts was reflected in the very minimal tuition increase recently announced (2.9 per cent). “I think the 2.9 per cent is really good evidence of us trying to be extra cautious and careful about raising costs and tuition prices when everybody is feeling the pinch,” says Mr. Rothney, adding that it is also of the utmost importance to maintain the quality of the School’s programming. “We want to make sure that we don’t deliver a less than fantastic product which people are obviously expecting and deserve.”

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Sarah Kavanagh, Chair, Board of Trustees

Ms Kavanagh, too, is quick to point out that often improving the School through program changes is not necessarily a costly endeavor. “Some of the kinds of changes that we think are innovative and improve the program may not cost a lot. They might be about teachers doing things a little differently, collaborating, or designing interdisciplinary programming,” she says. Alternately, the types of projects that are being delayed or interrupted are large capital projects and extensive fundraising plans for the endowment, which instead will remain an ongoing priority for the School as a driver of overall fundraising initiatives. For example, having a larger endowment would enable BSS to achieve its goal of increasing diversity and making the School more accessible to a variety of girls.

According to Deryn Lavell, who is currently the Assistant Head of Institutional Advancement, “the importance of the endowment is more evident now, in these tough economic times, than ever before. The School is committed to doing everything possible to help its families in need through bursaries and financial aid.”

Ultimately, the Boards of BSS are prepared to meet an uncertain environment with thoughtful, intelligent planning based on their collaborative approach and immense experience. “We’ve been thinking about the worst thing that could happen to us and have planned for it. We have a plan. We’re not expecting the worst, but we’re planning for it,” assures Ms Woods. “The great news is that we’re not seeing any change in the number of people interested in the School,” she adds. “We don’t see any foreshadowing that enrolment is going to be down. Our admissions numbers are extremely strong and we expect to have the revenue that we need. If unusual attrition happens, we have plans in place for how we would manage the School through a time when enrolment was down slightly.”

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Ruth Woods, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees

Though prudent planning is necessary in any economic climate, Ms Stevenson notes that, “BSS still has a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives of each of its students. With the School in excellent financial shape and continuing to invest in its strategic priorities, it is in a strong position to distinguish itself in today’s uncertain environment.”

Ms Gordon practically beams when she discusses the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees, and rightly so. Even in a time of market turmoil they continue to plan and strategize ways to make the School better than it was the day before. In essence, these behind-the-scenes strategists are always looking ahead and always seeking improvement. “I’ve been so blessed to have had the support and talent of the people working with me on these Boards,” says Ms Gordon. “I have felt supported from day one and they have never let me down, no matter what the challenge. They are a very big reason why BSS is so strong and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.”

“In the near term, supporting our Head transition is our top priority,” writes Ms Stevenson. “Over the longer term, without a doubt, building the endowment will be the key to our success in ensuring that we have access to the very best talent. Great schools have great endowments. It’s my dream that every deserving girl could have the opportunity I have had with a BSS education. It’s as simple as that!” She adds, “With a culture committed to the best way to motivate and teach girls, our leaders, faculty, staff and community are all bound by the goal that our students graduate with the confidence to pursue their hopes and dreams with passion.”

Settling in to the too-squishy sofa in Kim Gordon’s office, we take position for the ‘final interview’, but the door constantly swings open with eager visitors parents, students, Old Girls, staff, all dropping by to say hi or deliver a problem on the doorstep of BSS’s unflappable leader. In good humour and with the deftness of a Cirque du Soleil performance, Ms Gordon balances three problems with two hello’s, four ‘we’ll deal with that laters’ and finally, a plea to close the door so we can begin our chat.

This is the typical day in the life of Kim Gordon, BSS Head for five years and VP of Curriculum for six years before that. Her energy is infectious without being disorienting. She stands at the centre of the ongoing storm of activity at BSS, her manner neither calm nor flustered, she dives in to the chaos with enthusiasm, giving new meaning to the term ‘multi-tasking.’ She’s always thinking, always quick to connect the dots. Every day on the job she takes in a tsunami of information that gets synthesized and redistributed as a coherent plan. And all of that performed on three-inch heels.

Running a $23 million organization, which BSS is, is as complex a job as any CEO position in a large company. Long gone are the days when the title ‘Head of School’ evoked images of the pleasant former academic enjoying languid teas and chit chats in leafy quadrangles. Today’s Head must be adept at managing large, complicated budgets and organizational structures. She must be thoroughly immersed in cutting edge technologies, curriculum breakthroughs, and brain research, while being the go-to person for the big fundraising challenges, manage the School’s public relations, be highly skilled at troop motivation, problem solving, strategic planning, sales, marketing, and…you get the picture. The days begin at dawn and last until well past sundown, and for much of the past 11 years, would continue with the other fulltime job Ms Gordon had as the mother of two delightful young women, Kelly and Christie, both Old Girls who have gone on to enriching careers and lives of their own.

Now as the ever-vibrant Ms Gordon contemplates a new chapter, saying farewell to BSS and welcoming life with future husband Marv MaGee in California, one cannot imagine this woman ever contenting herself with sailing and golf. No, there will be more yet. But in the meantime, she has much to feel proud of in the life she’s led to-date.

SG: What are you most proud of in your tenure at BSS?

KG: The team. I will take credit for recognizing and nurturing great talent; but the rest is up to them. And boy have they come through. My Senior Admin Team consists of professionals who are at the top of their respective fields. They work together collaboratively, but have strong individual viewpoints that they’re not afraid to voice. They are creative, passionate and just so, so smart. I have been incredibly lucky to have such talent around me and because of that, we have such a depth of talent, skill and commitment that reaches right through all aspects of the school. That’s why BSS is so strong.

SG: Any job, no matter how great, has its frustrations. What have been the biggest for you during your time here?

KG: We don’t have the capacity to do everything we want to do. It’s a problem of our reach being greater than our grasp. It is frustrating when you have to dampen the enthusiasm of hard-working, innovative colleagues because we don’t have the resources to carry out their dream. We’ve had to make tough decisions, stay true to our strategic plan, respect our resources, both human and financial, and put some great ideas on hold. That’s never something that would sit well with me.

SG: Were you born for this? Was education in the blood or was it something you stumbled into?

KG: Oh I was definitely born for it. I used to hold phys ed classes at my house when I was a kid. The neighbourhood parents loved me! I love teaching and learning and this career has given me ample opportunity to do both. At BSS I’ve really been able to mentor other educators and administrators in ways that have been incredibly fulfilling for me. At the same time, I’m in a place that breathes learning and opens the door to new challenges all the time. I think I share with most educators, the passion to see the growth and development of the young, fertile minds around us. The difference we can make in the lives of our students is both awesome and daunting. It’s a big responsibility and I take it very seriously.

SG: How do you think BSS differs from other independent schools? If I were a parent in Toronto contemplating a school for my daughter, I’d have lots to choose from. Why BSS?

KG: We are fortunate in this city to have such choice in education and there are many top quality schools with great strengths. That makes it tough for all of us because we know that there is another choice just down the street. It certainly ensures for parents that we are all working very hard!

I think BSS shines as a beacon of innovation. There is a distinct “BSS way,” that sets us apart. We are a culture that is not afraid to try new things, that is as gutsy and assertive as it is warm and nurturing. Everything we do has the BSS twist on it from adapting the Reggio approach to our Junior School, to getting technology like our 3-D printer into the hands of our students to learn sophisticated engineering and industrial design just as they do it in the professional world. We see no limits and we take chances. We’re not always on the money, but wherever we land, it’s bound to be a few feet further than if we’d played it safe.

SG: You mention innovation a lot. Another favourite word of yours is creativity. You’ve often said that you need creativity as a basic life skill to be successful in the future economy agreeing in many ways with the thinking of academics like Roger Martin, Richard Florida and others who talk of intellectual and emotional flexibility as the keys to success as our economic base moves from industrial towards knowledge. What innovations or initiatives have you authored to make BSS an environment that celebrates and inspires creativity?

KG: Creativity in schools has been defined in the past as the ability to make art. We put areas of learning in silos so there were divisions among skills required to do math or science versus literature, history or art. What that did is it robbed students of the opportunity to apply a creative mind to problem solving of all kinds and made things like math formulaic. That alienated a lot of girls from those subjects because they are not linear thinkers. Unleashing creativity in girls and celebrating it as a highly prized skill that is not necessarily just linked to the arts, encourages them to tackle math and engineering problems with enthusiasm…and great success.

So when we implemented the Reggio-inspired approach in the Junior School, I knew that would revolutionize learning approaches for girls at the earliest stages, planting the seeds for the kind of creativity that would support them throughout their academic careers. They learn how to think about problems using their own curiosity and imagination to figure out solutions. Just look at the documentation coming out of the Junior School and you can’t help but be amazed at what these young minds are capable of.

Putting technology in the hands of our students when we introduced the laptop program during my tenure as VP Curriculum, was without question, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced, but one that clearly paid off because we enabled girls to get really comfortable with technology and to use it as a tool to expand learning. Their level of computer literacy now is remarkable and we were ahead of the curve on that initiative. The explosion that’s happened since with the software programs we use in film studies and other art courses, as well as the technology in robotics, engineering, math and science, is just breathtaking and BSS students are running with it to the point that they are well beyond the skill level of most of their peers going into post-secondary levels.

SG: We are facing some tough economic times now and for the foreseeable future. As Deryn Lavell prepares to take the helm on your retirement in an environment that could be even more challenging than usual, what advice would you give her and the BSS community?

KG: Well first, I am even more thankful that we had the good sense to hire Deryn for this job because we are going to need her energy, savvy, and breadth of experience to help navigate these waters. She has the skills to guide BSS through, and I know I’m leaving the School in a position of great strength to weather the storm. We’ve had an upward trajectory of admissions stats over the past several years; we’ve built a realistic budget that gives us the room to stay true to our culture of innovation and growth without jeopardizing our financial stability; and perhaps most important of all, we have a Board of Governors and Trustees that represents the best and the brightest across a variety of professions giving us a constant and very reassuring source of knowledge from which to draw. I can’t say enough about how wonderful these Boards have been for me and I know they will be there just as powerfully for Deryn.

So with that, I’d advise Deryn to dream big. The trouble our economy is facing will pass, but BSS has been around for over 140 years and has a long journey ahead. I know she’ll keep her eye on the prize and continue to push forward with an exciting and dynamic leadership style that will inspire everyone to be their best. That’s what BSS needs right now.

SG: What will you miss most about BSS?

KG: Well it certainly won’t be the long hours! Without hesitation it will be the people. I work with extraordinary people whom I respect and genuinely care about. Many have become personal friends it was a Board member who introduced me to my fiancé, for goodness’ sake! The community, from the students to their parents, the teachers and staff to the admin team, the Old Girls who stay in touch and the Boards whom I’ve loved working with, it is such a family and I will truly miss that.

SG: What does your future hold? You’re getting married this spring, moving to California with your husband. Your daughters are grown and launched into their lives with great success. And you’re leaving a career you’ve had since you started out over 35 years ago. That’s a big part of your identity. All this change must be a bit nerve wracking?

KG: It is. No question. I’ve had many a sleepless night as I turned over all those thoughts in my mind. But I have learned in my life that change comes at you, whether you want it or not change that can mean redefining your whole life. I’ve done it before. I can do it again. I’m not afraid of it because through it, I’ve discovered aspects of myself I might never have known. It’s growth and that can only be good.

So, as I look to the future I know that I will be with a wonderful man and partner for life and that’s irreplaceable. My daughters have had a good start to life and the rest is up to them, though my mothering days are far from over! And my career with BSS has been the jewel in the crown, one of the best things that ever happened to me. But it’s a tough, demanding job and I think a leader ought to know when it’s best for the organization to bring in new blood and new energy. That time is now and whatever happens down the road for me, I know I’ll have done the right thing at the right time for BSS and myself. I kind of like not knowing precisely where the path will lead. I’m looking forward to sleeping past 5:30 am and having some time to read, and think and pursue new learning. It’s exciting!

SG: I say you’ll be bored in two weeks.

KG: That’s probably true! But I’ll give it three…then we’ll see.

Over the past few years, BSS had been looking for a way to incorporate time for formal group discussion into Senior School teachers’ busy schedules. Monthly staff meetings, where the entire faculty was present, were not proving to be effective mediums for in-depth examination of issues across the curriculum.

“In these large, group meetings, teachers weren’t able to have substantive conversations about real issues in the Senior School,” says Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head, Senior School.

“Some of my colleagues and I attended a conference in the U.S. called Best Practices for 21st Century Learning, and heard about schools who had abandoned afterschool meetings and moved to daytime meetings,” says Sian Jones, Vice Principal, Academic Program.

The result was the formation of Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, implemented in the Senior School this year. PLCS are heterogeneous groups of ten to fifteen teachers across departments and grades. PLC groups meet bi-weekly to discuss curriculum, exchange ideas on assignments and evaluation, and even visit one another’s classrooms to share methodologies and best practices.

“It’s a good way to hear varying viewpoints on issues around the School,” says Rita Gravina, Head of the Learning Commons and Canada/World Studies teacher. “We can bring a topic of discussion that we feel is useful. It’s a good way to discuss educational issues that are hot at the moment. And I like hearing how various departments are responding to the issues that the School is dealing with.”

The end goal is to build a tightly-knit group of teachers who can be open and honest, and can grow together to build a common understanding of each other’s teaching practice. Says Ms Jones, “one of the struggles with education is that teachers are in the classrooms, behind doors, working alone. That’s how school life is scheduled. Having time to converse with colleagues, and to work with colleagues, is not a natural part of a high school system.”

According to Jan Sullivan, Vice Principal of Student Life, “a lot more can be accomplished in a meeting with a small group, and curriculum issues can be examined much more in-depth.”

Adds Ms Jones, “there is a huge difference between the conversations we would have had in our staff meetings versus the conversations we have in the PLC. I hope that people feel that’s valuable.”

Students also benefit from the PLC model because, as Ms Jones puts it, “the more their teachers are talking to each other, the more streamlined their learning experience will be.”

In a high school where everyone is divided up by subject and discipline, the structure is not built for teachers to collaborate. Says Ms Jones, “that’s just how education has been for such a long time at the high school level and at the university level. So it’s really a shift for those people to think about putting together the skills and the knowledge that’s common and enables the kids to come together to build something even bigger.”

By Rachel Hahn

He is a household name that is synonymous with business titan, a man of vision, a dreamer and a doer. It’s hard to resist the allure of his underdog story: A five-year-old boy loses his father and the family business, leaving him with almost nothing but a burning desire to reclaim the prestige and success once attached to his name.

That is the Ted Rogers the public knows, infamous for his work ethic. However, for those who were a part of Ted’s family and Ted’s community he was much more than all that. He loved to give and he loved to joke. “People want to make him into something else, but in the end he was just a guy who thought he was a little dorky,” says Ted’s youngest, Martha. He was a man who would leave a mess in the kitchen after making a late night snack (usually his favourite a peanut butter and banana sandwich). He would spend hours playing with the kids in the family pool. He loved Hallowe’en, family, travel and business, and his love of these things came easily and naturally.

Ted was an innate entrepreneur. While boarding at UCC, he strung a wire from an antenna on the roof down into his dorm room and attached it to a small TV, which he charged his schoolmates to watch. Compassion was also in Ted’s nature. When his father-in-law passed away in the 1990s he wanted to comfort his beloved wife, Loretta, and decided that wearing some of his father-in-law’s clothes would do the trick. He donned an outdated powder-blue suit and bold shirt, both with extreme 70s lapels, and gladly wore them to work and around the house. Despite his children’s cries about the fashion crisis being committed, he insisted it made Loretta feel better.

Loretta was his match in many ways. Married in 1963, the two were supposed to spend three weeks on a honeymoon in Kenya. Predictably, Ted had to cut the trip short for business reasons and promised he’d take Loretta away for a full month in the following year to make up for it.

“Which month?” Loretta had asked her new husband.

“February,” he replied.

“That’ll now cost you six weeks for choosing the shortest month,” she quipped.

Her next move was to pick their destinations and she selected them with the question in mind, “Where can’t he live on the telephone?”

They went to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti, all about a 12-hour time difference from Toronto, so Ted couldn’t talk to the office all the time. Ironically, it was this trip that got Ted started in cable.

The entrepreneurial Ted and the compassionate Ted were not two different manifestations of one man. They were not even two sides of a coin. They were traits that truly existed, all rolled into one with no discernable separation. Family, philanthropy, community and career were all part of one full life. “He wanted to be in the thick of things. What he would hate is if he was in the study with the doors closed,” explains Martha. “It wasn’t work to him. He loved it and that concept is strange to a lot of people. A lot of people divide [work and home] but it wasn’t divided with him. He would find that a peculiar statement.”

Education was one of Ted’s passions and he gave of his time and money to many educational institutions including Ryerson University, University of Toronto, UCC and, of course, BSS, where all four of his children (Lisa, Melinda, Martha and even Edward) attended, as well as his sister, Ann, and currently his grandchild, Chloe.

Loretta served on the BSS Board of Trustees for 27 years and headed many capital campaigns to improve the School. “I was there forever,” laughs Loretta, about her time with the Board of Trustees. She wanted to be involved in giving her children a quality education. “When you have four kids, you do want the best education you can get, and BSS was always very highly rated,” she says.

Among the many projects the pair was involved in at BSS, was the new Junior School built in 2003, and the Rogers wing, which officially opened in 1988. The wing houses a 250-seat theatre, two libraries, science labs and classrooms. The BSS fitness room named for the Rogers children is another project of Loretta and Ted’s. The family also established the Edward S. Rogers Family Scholarships that are awarded annually to one Grade 9 student and retained (if specific criteria are met) until that student leaves BSS.

“He just really believed that everyone has a right to education it shouldn’t be if you can afford it or not and he hated that concept,” says Martha. “Education should be a right for all people and he really did believe that you can reach your full potential if you have it. So the idea that only certain people got an education; he hated that. It didn’t make any sense.”

Ted’s business sense and passion for BSS combined with the idea of a beneficial partnership. He believed strongly that BSS and UCC should collaborate and he found an eager ear with Kim Gordon. Early in her tenure as Head, Kim met with Ted to discuss the business side of the School. “He challenged me to look for opportunities to work smarter and said there were untapped opportunities and cost savings in a potential back-room partnership with UCC,” writes Ms Gordon in an email. That initial conversation put in motion a partnering that will continue to blossom. “Four years later we share a strategic vision with UCC around sustainability and several goals to tap opportunities for shared services. Mr. Rogers’ advice will continue to impact the future of our two schools,” says Ms Gordon.

Creating opportunities for people was an important part of life in Ted’s eyes and is part of the reason he gave so willingly to education and also to the health care system. “For people to do well in life you need an education,” explains Loretta. “It opens up a lot of opportunities for careers and whatever else, and if you’re going to do anything you need your health.”

Ted’s life was shrouded in health problems, whether they were his own or his family’s. His father’s sudden death due to a ruptured aneurysm shook Ted to the core. His mother was very ill for the last years of her life and eventually died of cancer. Ted, himself, was almost completely blind in one eye since a very young age, and suffered from several ailments throughout his life, requiring dozens of surgeries. It was this close contact with sickness that instilled in Ted the belief that everyone deserves healthcare whether they can afford it or not. “It would physically pain him to hear of people who had medical problems and couldn’t see a doctor or couldn’t afford it,” says Martha. She tells the story of a cleaning staff member at Rogers whose wife had cancer and they couldn’t afford the operation for her. Ted paid for it and was applauded by his peers, to which he replied, “Why are you applauding me? If my wife was dying and someone could have helped her I would have done anything.”

It’s that attitude that Martha is most proud of. “A lot of people help someone if they know them…but that’s where it ends. His definition of people wasn’t exclusive to those who worked at Rogers or if you were a family member or if you were a friend of his daughter. It was literally anybody and I loved that about him. There was no ‘us and them’ perception. It was ‘we’re all one,’” she says.

Ted left this earth on December 2, 2008, at home with family at his side. He kept his winning spirit through it all, recalls his sister, Ann. Their last conversation, which was about whom he’d see in heaven, brought him a smile and a laugh. “All you have to do, Ted, is look at mother and say, ‘Is it all right, mom, or do you think there’s anything else I should have done?’” Ann said. “As for your father, you’ll be thrilled to see him and to meet him and to get to know him because you’ve built a company bigger than he did.” Re-telling the story of the last laugh shared between her and her brother brings a smile to Ann’s face and a soft glaze of tears to her eyes.

That December night Ann said good-bye to her brother and walked home in the sleet. By the time she had sat down, the phone rang. It was Melinda and all she could say was, “he’s gone.”

Ted’s funeral was attended by hundreds of people from all walks of life: businessmen and women, family members, politicians and friends. Loretta asked that in lieu of flowers people give to the Loretta Anne Rogers Critical Care Centre at Toronto Western Hospital. It stands as a testament to the amount of respect Ted earned as a businessman and an individual that about $2.5 million has been donated in his name so far with large amounts given by competitors, such as Shaw Communications and Bell.

BSS has changed a lot over the past few decades, both in programming and in capital. Ted, along with his family, deserves a lot of credit for those positive changes. Unlike many businessmen, Ted defined value not by monetary amounts but by how much something is used and by how many people. By improving the facilities and fiduciary capacity at BSS, he and Loretta were able to make it more accessible for more girls and that legacy outlives Ted Rogers.

1963 Engagement

Ted Rogers, his stepfather and Ron Turnpenny

Ted and family at the Rogers Centre, May 2008, his 75th birthday party hosted for and by the Rogers employees: Melinda '89, Lisa '86, Ted, Loretta, Martha '90, Edward and son in law, Eric Hixon

Ted and Loretta Rogers at BSS Heritage Dinner, 2006

Ann GRAHAM '62 with Rogers Scholarship recipients at Prize Day

As the Old Girls’ Association celebrates its 100th anniversary, we are happy to report that the current Old Girls’ Executive (OGEC) is working to keep the Association going strong for another 100 years and beyond.  The OGEC is designing programs that we hope will bring our national and international alumnae networks closer together.  This year, the OGEC is developing outreach programs to increase Old Girl participation in various school events, promote mentorship among Old Girls, and make a meaningful contribution to the school’s ambitious endowment growth strategy.

Our Committee includes Old Girls from the Class of 1948 to the 2002/03 double cohort, who all share a fondness for the School and commitment to preserving its traditions.  Keeping Old Girls involved in the School remains one of our primary objectives.  The 170 Year and Decade Reps are an important part of this outreach initiative, as they help us keep in touch with the School’s over 4,000 Old Girls.

The School hosts a number of Old Girl events throughout the school year, which are regularly attended by Old Girls of all vintages.  This year, over 200 Old Girls attended the Reunion Weekend, which also celebrated the Old Girl Association’s 100th anniversary.  A record number of Old Girls attended various events over the weekend, and we are always striving to increase those numbers.  Old Girl registration online (which is currently at 2,620) is an important part of our communication efforts so please login to The Thread now (thethread.bss.on.ca) and update your contact information.  Increasing the number of Old Girls registered is one of our key initiatives, so please encourage your friends and classmates to let us know where they are and what they are doing.

In addition, maintaining and growing our constituents’ participation in the School’s annual fundraising efforts remains a key part of our mandate.  Old Girls have traditionally been very strong supporters of the School’s named bursary program, and we would like to see this trend continue and grow.  As part of the 100th anniversary celebration, we have launched a campaign to grow the Old Girls’ Bursary by $100,000.  With more than 4,000 current Old Girls, we can achieve this goal.

- Stacey YUEN ’98

I am pleased to report that BSS remains in a strong financial position. The School enjoyed a very successful year in 2007/08, ending with a surplus of $1.6 Million before transfers of $1.44 Million to surplus invested in capital assets. Total revenue increases of $1.93 Million resulted primarily from increased fee revenue of $1.73 Million from increases of 5.9% in day fees and 4.2% in boarder fees, combined with an increase in day students, as a result of higher acceptance on offers for the Senior School. As well, there was $199,000 in additional revenues from interest income and alternative revenue streams. Total expenses increased $974,000 (4.7%) due to increases in faculty and staff salaries and related benefits, and other operating expenses pursuant to the strategic plan.

The School appreciates the work of the Foundation to provide endowment funds to help support bursaries, scholarships and awards for outstanding students. This year, the Foundation funded $456,000 for this purpose, and transferred an additional $436,000 for other designated purposes, including Head’s Discretionary and Academic Enrichment funds, as well as $424,000 collected on pledges from recent capital campaigns.

In 2008 the School renovated the library space to build the new Learning Commons. These renovations were funded by the operating surplus in 2007/08, together with $50,000 donated by the BSS Parent Association, thanks to their fundraising efforts. The Parent Association also continued their support for the endowment by directing a further $20,000 to the Parent Association Bursary.

Should any members of the BSS community have questions or wish to discuss the School’s financial position, I encourage you to contact me at 416 483 4325 ext. 4205.

Download the BSS 2007-08 Annual Report (PDF document).

It was December of 1979. Mrs. Duarte, our English teacher, was explaining some facts about our reading assignment. She was one of the few teachers that had knowledge of my background and understood my stressful situation: I just had arrived from Venezuela and spoke almost no English. She had recently married to a Spanish man, so she knew what a language disadvantage felt like, among other things.

As the class fluently progressed, something from the corner of my eye caught my attention; I slowly turned to face the window.

I was dazed. There were these small white messages from above slowly falling in a feather-like fashion and kind of dancing around each other. In Venezuela there’s summer all year long with a rainy season that lasts a couple of months, so my knowledge of the snowing process was probably obtained from text books. That’s why until this moment, I thought that snow was supposed to fall like the rain falls in Venezuela: straight, speedy and fierce, rather than heavenly, gentle, and captivating. I felt miserably privileged because I couldn’t share this amazing experience with the friends that I had just left behind and missed so much, due to the fact that I was privileged enough to be able to move to Canada to learn English.

The time froze. So much wandering was going on inside my head. The sight was so beautiful, and strange. After I finally figured out the kind of precipitation, it took me a while to switch to reality and feel my chair again, in this very, very uncomfortably silent classroom. Because I’ve always been a polite person, I quickly resumed my attentive English-speaking student’s posture, but obviously it was too late: everyone was staring at me. Through my embarrassment I managed to look at Mrs. Duarte with my “please remember I’m a disadvantaged student” eyes, hoping for her to soften the inevitable complaint. To my relief, she just smiled, my classmates acted naturally, and the lesson continued.

I’ll never forget this day.

- Ingrid PONCE McNaughton ’84

- Diana WALKER MacKay ’87

May 6

Distinguished Old Girl Award (DOGA) Dinner and Grande Finale of the 100th Anniversary of the Old Girls’ Association (6:15 pm at BSS)

May 26

Old Girl Pub Night

AUGUST 2009

August 28

Submission deadline Fall Issue of The Link

SEPTEMBER 2009

September 24 to 26

Reunion Weekend (celebrated years end in 4 and 9)

Stay tuned for event details posted on The Thread at thethread.bss.on.ca.

Register online for BSS events at www.bss.on.ca or email advancement@bss.on.ca.

Every Wednesday morning, the six Assistant Heads at The Bishop Strachan School come together with Head of School, Kim Gordon, to strategize, problem solve, share successes and challenges, and to obtain perspective and feedback. Individually, the Assistant Heads are incredibly focused women, heading very different departments with a singular common goal: to provide the best education possible for the students. Collectively they represent three branches of BSS’s strategic plan: People, Program and Sustainability.

Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head, Senior School

People

BSS is a unique place. It has a large full-time staff, including over 100 teachers. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For any school, succession planning and smooth transitioning of staff is important, but for an institution as comprehensive as BSS, it’s vital. These issues, among many other priorities, are top-of-mind for Barbara McLean, Assistant Head, Human Resources and Professional Growth.

“Professional growth is everything from the orientation component at the hiring, all the way through to teacher evaluation, performance reviews and the mentoring program,” says Ms McLean. “You need to be sustaining the level of expertise. Part of it is hiring the right people, and then making sure that the skills are there,” she says. Ms McLean sites Ms Gordon as a prime example she was already at BSS when she was named Head. Similarly, when Deryn Lavell left her role as Principal of the Junior School, Jennifer Armstrong, who was Vice Principal at the time, was promoted to Principal. “You have to grow your own talent in many areas. Our teachers at BSS are much farther ahead of the curve than they are at many other places,” says Ms McLean. “They step into leadership positions and they have an opportunity to grow and develop.”

Clearly BSS has laid a strong foundation of talent, but it’s not always easy to find the right candidates in the first place. “There is not a shortage of teachers from a demographic perspective,” says Ms McLean, adding however, that there are few teachers with the necessary skills to fulfill BSS’s standards. To that end, it’s even more important to cultivate the School’s existing talent. The Junior School follows a Reggio-inspired program an approach to learning that isn’t common in many North American institutions. Promoting from within someone who is already familiar with the approach and its principles is beneficial to the School, and to the students.

For Ms McLean, the weekly meetings with the other Assistant Heads are an efficient way to make informed decisions and keep everyone on the team up to speed on the different areas of the School. She says that, although for any given issue some individuals are more involved than others, it’s valuable to have everyone present. “There are many, many decisions that affect different portfolios, so it’s a great opportunity for us to minimize the requirements for individual meetings. Meeting together as Assistant Heads means that we know what the next steps are and [you’re making] a much more informed decision.”

The Assistant Head model isn’t brand new; rather, it’s new terminology for a system that was more or less already in place. “I’m not sure that it was a huge change as much as a formalizing of what was actually happening,” says Ms McLean. “The Assistant Head organization really formalized the people who were running the organization with Ms Gordon. It really just brought everything under one umbrella.”

It’s not difficult for Ms McLean to pinpoint exactly what drives her. “There are two questions that we ask a lot: Is this in the best interest of the girls, and is this teaching them what they need to be successful in the future?” she says. “Then we think, how does this impact the staff? And what do we need to do for the staff?”

Program

Jennifer Armstrong has been with the Junior School for seven years (four years as Principal, aka Assistant Head, Junior School) and has seen it completely revamped based on the Reggio-inspired approach, which, she explains, is based on three central tenets: transparency, reciprocity and relationships. “And those three things are ultimately what the Assistant Head team is all about,” she says. “It has been really exciting and an intensive period of growth and development for all of us, but it’s also about recognizing what this School is in context with the community; what is its relationship with the bigger institution?” says Ms Armstrong. “How do these all interconnect and how do we all focus our energies here on the children? That’s been seven years of work.”

Needless to say, the other five Assistant Heads have been massively helpful when it comes to seeing the bigger picture. “It’s easy to get swallowed by minutia,” says Ms Armstrong. She likens the Assistant Heads to a group of critically thinking friends. “If you have an idea or a problem, you have this incredibly intelligent group of people who are still committed to the same strategic objective with their eyes and expertise,” she says. But Ms Armstrong notes that focusing on the grand scheme doesn’t mean losing sight of the human aspect of what they do. “Our daily business is dealing with kids and their families. To have those discussions with that group of people keeps reality on the table.”

Just as Ms McLean focuses on transitioning teachers and staff, Ms Armstrong is concerned about a fluid transition as her students go on to attend the Senior School. “The level of connectivity is important; there’s no hiving off the Junior School,” she says. “You can hive it off physically but it’s not a separate silo. In a big institution, the voice of the Junior School could be drowned out. “But not at BSS. Ms Armstrong credits the Assistant Head team, which she says is very committed to staying connected. “That’s the biggest difference. In the past, we all proposed ideas and all had responsibilities for certain things. We got feedback and went back and worked on it ourselves. Now we sit around the table to create the first idea together. That’s a much richer way of moving forward.”

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Barb McLean, Assistant Head, Human Resources and Professional Growth

It’s a philosophy that the Assistant Heads try to pass on to the classroom level, and, for the girls, it’s definitely working. “We’re actually modelling for the girls,” says Angela Terpstra, Assistant Head, Senior School. “One of the things we are really strong about is teaching leadership, and what leadership is really about is how well you delegate and motivate; how well you understand from the smallest detail to the larger picture.”

This is Ms Terpstra’s fourth year at BSS. She came as Principal of the Senior School, a position that has since been renamed Assistant Head, Senior School. The titles may be new to BSS, but are actually common in other institutions. More important is the functionality that they represent. One of Ms Terpstra’s guiding principles is to make sure people are listened to, and that their “highest priority needs are being served.” The team of Assistant Heads helps facilitate that.

“Above all, one thing we do when things get overwhelming is constantly remind ourselves of why we’re here we’re here for the girls,” she says. “That’s where it all starts.”

And the girls are certainly doing their parts, too. When Mary Anne Ballantyne arrived at the School seven and a half years ago, one of the first things she did was lobby for an IT prefect and an IT council. Today, the council is in full swing and taking on myriad tasks and responsibilities. “They’re an amazing group of girls,” says Ms Ballantyne, Assistant Head, Technology and Innovation. “They’re not only training and helping other girls around the School, but they’re definitely leaders in terms of ethical use in technology. One of the things they’re working on right now is a code of ethics.”

Ms Ballantyne’s role is multi-faceted. She manages a department that supports the School in terms of pure technical support, and also develops technology-based programming alongside teachers in the classroom. She’s also in charge of all the databases and the data management. Ms Ballantyne is very focused on the education aspect, and making sure that BSS is not at the bleeding edge, but at the leading edge, of teaching and learning and using technology to enable that. “Technology”, Ms Ballantyne says, “plays a role in everything BSS does, right down to the nuts and bolts.”

And helping the IT aspect of the School to remain free of technical difficulties, is the team of Assistant Heads. They’re “a smaller team of senior people who report to [Ms Gordon], who can work at a more strategic level, and help carry out a very ambitious strategic plan,” says Ms Ballantyne.

Sustainability

The third branch of that aggressive plan is sustainability. Leading its charge are Janet Ainslie, Assistant Head, Finance and Facility, and Deryn Lavell, Assistant Head, Institutional Advancement.

Ms Ainslie tackles sustainability in terms of one of life’s most practical aspects: dollars and cents. “As you hear about the program initiatives and people initiatives, my challenge is to be able to fund them,” she says. One of the things the strategic plan hadn’t anticipated is the current economic climate. A major coup for Ms Ainslie has been her ability to dramatically lessen the School’s increase in fees this year. “Over the last decade, we’ve increased our fees, on average, six per cent, and some years as high as nine per cent,” she says. “We knew that was not sustainable at a time when we want diversity in our student base.”

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Deryn Lavell chats with BSS boarders

The struggle lies in continuing to advance the curriculum at the pace that the School is accustomed to and at the pace BSS’s leaders would like and to maintain and improve the School’s physical facilities, all without putting financial strain on families during these difficult times. Rolling back fees at a time like this would jeopardize the quality of the School, but increasing them at the rate they had in the past isn’t realistic either.

Luckily, with an incredibly talented team, Ms Ainslie has managed. “We are pleased that we were able to keep the increase to 2.9 per cent for 2009/10,” she says, adding that the success is a reflection of the team of Assistant Heads and the teams who report to them. To achieve this feat, Ms Ainslie and her team found alternative revenue streams, such as renting out some of the School’s facilities during off hours. They’re also planning for the future. “[The Board’s Finance Committee] has been pushing us to make sure that we’re doing scenario planning and contingency analysis, and that we also network with other schools to compare strategies,” says Ms Ainslie. “My sense of fulfillment comes from taking my business experience and making this a great experience for the girls. At the end of the day, I’ve done my most to ensure that the families get value for their money, and that I’ve helped to make this a great place for the girls.”

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Janet Ainslie with members of her Finance team: Irina Klenkin, Susan Douglas and Olya Beaupre

Ms Lavell will replace Ms Gordon as Head of School in the summer of 2009. But her current role in Institutional Advancement is certainly not without its challenges. “Part of our strategic plan was to raise our endowment to unprecedented levels, and we set a target of an additional 15 million over and above what we have now,” says Ms Lavell. That plan included reorganizing a number of departments in order to synergize effectively. “We’re starting to get a much better, coherent model together that can help us to really reach our goals,” she says. “What it’s allowed us to do now is really be able to focus on our families even before they get in the door from that first inquiry right through to when they’re Old Girls”.

But, like Ms Ainslie, Ms Lavell is also reacting to the economy. “In fact, an opportunity has arisen in that we are able to look at how we are sending the message about our endowment to our community,” she says. “We’re widening our lens a little bit. The endowment will always be the engine that drives us, but we need to be sure that during these times we’re sensitive to the families and cultivating our relationships, while still driving forward with the strategic plan.”

It’s that kind of flexibility and innovation that define BSS. “As an institution we understand the incredible rate of change in the world,” says Ms Lavell. She stresses the importance of “taking a good look at what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and asking yourself what are the next practices out there?” As a team, those are things that the Assistant Heads examine weekly.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have really strong teams within teams at this School,” says Ms Lavell. “The idea of having the Assistant Heads for a senior executive is that each Assistant Head oversees significant areas of the School. It’s a wise crowd as opposed to working in a silo.”

So what keeps these six women going? Easy. “Our students are at the heart of everything we do,” says Ms Lavell. On a recent trip to Calgary, she met up with an Old Girl who was an executive with a very big Canadian company. “She said ‘all the leadership skills I brought to this position I learned from BSS.’”