Torch - Fall 2017

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FEATURE STORY

The Value of a Liberal Arts Education

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING Antonietta Mirabelli COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING ASSOCIATE Susan Pink

CONTRIBUTORS Mary Ashkar Cathy Atkinson Melanie Belore Suzanne Bowness Yvonne Chow Hailey Eisen Doug Flanders Jennifer D. Foster Debra Latcham Pearl Goodman Natasha MacParland Gillian Martin Carmen Martinez

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE TORCH The Torch is printed on Forest Stewardship Council-approved paper and mailed in a 100 per cent biodegradable bag that is also recyclable. Please help reduce landfill waste by disposing of it in your recycling box.

PRIVACY OF INFORMATION Havergal College is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. Havergal’s Privacy Statement is available at www.havergal.on.ca/privacy

Diane Peters Leah Piltz Susan Pink Steven Rathwell Dana Rippon Robyn Spector Sandra Sualim Karen Sumner Mekhul Verma THANK YOU

Canada Post Publication Number: 40050122

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Carol Tsang

The information contained herein may not be published without permission from Havergal College.

We would like to thank all members of the Havergal

community who participated in interviews, submitted articles, contributed photographs and reviewed articles.

Garth Nichols Emer O’Shea Rob Peacock

Table of Contents

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Principal’s Message Asking Big Questions

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Snapshots Photos of Life at Havergal

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School Profile Supporting an Inclusive Community

10 Message from School Leaders Academic Stretch and Challenge

13 Forum for Change

Exploring the Brink of the Known

14 Feature Story

Why a Liberal Arts Education Matters

20 Student Awards

Celebrating Student Success

24 Traditions

Past Becomes Present

25 Wellness

The Student Support Team

26 Student Experience

Experiential Learning at Havergal

28 HCPA

The Rewards of Volunteering

30 Old Girls

Celebration Weekend 2017

32 Community & Old Girls News

33 Annual Report 2016–17

64 Grad Profile 2017

Cover: A Senior Kindergarten student observes and traces the intricate details of leaves on a classroom light studio. Inside front cover: Students show their House pride at Upper School Gator Day.

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www.havergal.on.ca

A Christmas tradition that highlights Havergal’s wonderful student choirs.

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Principal’s Message

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Asking challenging questions helps girls develop a sense of integrity and builds character.

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Asking Big Questions By Helen-Kay Davy, Principal

and literature even more engaging. And questioning assumptions is critical for exploring and discovering. When students are presented with big questions early on, I believe they can inquire even more skillfully when they reach the Senior School. Just as importantly, they approach their studies and lives with stronger character—as individuals who understand how to look at different perspectives, hear what others have to say and respectfully question ideas and information. Before this school year began, our Grade 12 Prefects met and created a new school cheer, as they do every year. This year’s cheer displayed just how much our Senior School students take ownership over inquiry. They referenced Havergal’s First Principal Ellen Knox, who would ask students and Old Girls: “What are you going to do?” The cheer gave it a twist: “EK asked a question, and now it’s our turn.” In this issue of the Torch , we explore the value of the liberal arts. That value, and the value of all education, becomes richer with the use of thought-provoking questions. When we ask them of our girls early, they learn to take their “turn” later on and use questions as a powerful tool for lifelong learning.

If you visited Havergal’s Senior Kindergarten classroom this fall, you would have seen on display a very interesting project. “Who am I?” featured an inspirational quote and self-portraits drawn by the children, the result of a project that had them discussing identity. A few doors down, students in Grade 6 were debating Marshall McLuhan’s quote “Canada is the only country in the world that knows how to live without identity.” They created diagrams to trace the development of their arguments and ideas around this profound statement. Traditionally, you would present such deep and open-ended questions to students in Grade 12 or university, but our students tackled them with careful thought and creative results at our Junior School. Bringing these kinds of questions to younger students builds skills around inquiry, one of our core values at Havergal. Asking challenging questions helps girls develop a sense of integrity and builds character. No matter how young you are, you can think deeply and query the world around you. This kind of inquiry-based learning makes subjects such as history, math, science, social studies

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Snapshots

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1. Prefects cheer at Celebration Saturday. 2. Mothers of Grade 12 students celebrate their daughters’ final year at Havergal. 3. A U12 Basketball team member keeps possession of the ball at a home game. students peruse the fall 2016 Torch . 5. HOGA celebrates Susan Ditchburn Young Alumna Award recipient Dr. Fariha Khan (Class of 1998), left, and Old Girl Life Achievement Award recipient Catherine Lawrence (Class of 1977). 6. Grade 7 students bond at Camp Kilcoo. 4. Senior Kindergarten

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Snapshots

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7. Junior School students give back at Harvest Festival. 8. Grade 9 students at Muskoka Woods. 9. Old Girls reconnect at this year’s Reunion Weekend Cocktail Party. 10. Upper School students compete at Gator Day. 11. Grade 6 students assist at Prayers.

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Supporting an Inclusive Community

Alex Rozenberg Leads Havergal’s Student Body with Compassion

By Hailey Eisen

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School Profile

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“ Havergal has prepared me for everything that’s to come. It’s shaped me into who I am. not always fine, and that’s okay, too,” she says. “I get in my head a lot, but I have amazing friends and teachers here who always make me feel supported.” “The measure of a good life is who you have around you,” Rozenberg says. “And in that way, I’ve been so lucky.” Offering this type of support to the younger students at Havergal seems to come naturally to Rozenberg. “I especially love talking with the Grade 7s,” she says. Now that she’s in Grade 12, she wants to focus on helping students just starting at the Upper School to feel connected and part of the community. Having recently returned from a three-day overnight camp excursion at Kilcoo, where she had the chance to join the Grade 7 class, she says she now feels like they’re all best friends. Connecting older students with younger students is another one of Rozenberg’s mandates as School Captain. She wants to give back some of what Havergal has given to her. After 14 years at the school, she feels like she’s really part of an invaluable community. “I’m scared to grow up, but it’s also really exciting,” she says. “Havergal has prepared me for everything that’s to come. It’s shaped me into who I am.” From teachers who have pushed her thinking and inspired her to be a better writer and communicator, to exchange opportunities that allowed her to spend time in Australia and host an exchange partner here, to extracurricular activities such as a Water Awareness Project in Grade 6 as part of the Forum for Change, Rozenberg’s Havergal experiences have been enriching and life-changing. As she prepares to embark on the next chapter of her life, university and then beyond, Rozenberg has some profound words of wisdom for those who still have years of Havergal ahead of them: “Go into things with as much spirit and openness as possible. Know that it’s not always going to be easy, that you will be challenged and pushed,” she says. “Embrace those challenges, but don’t be afraid to ask for help. Use your voice and be as brave as you can.”

A lex Rozenberg may only be 17, but when she says she wants to change the world, it’s hard not to believe her. Full of passion and obvious inner strength, Havergal’s 2017–18 School Captain is very clear on how she wants to lead the student body this year. “I plan to lead with empathy,” she says. “I want to help create an open and welcoming community, where every student can see a place for herself and everyone feels like her voice is heard.” Over the past few years, Rozenberg has been working on finding her own voice. While she says speaking in public makes her feel a little nervous, she’s found Drama class to be instrumental in helping her overcome these fears. “Drama has helped me a lot as a person,” she says. “I’m pretty shy, but when I’m playing a different character I feel more confident.” Her most memorable drama experience to date was participating in The Laramie Project , which was staged last year in partnership with Crescent School. Based on the true story of a gay student in Laramie, Wyoming, who was murdered in 1998 because of his sexuality, the play had a significant impact on Rozenberg. “During the Upper School Prayers after the play, we discussed the lessons that came from it,” she recalls. In particular, the group referenced an Elie Wiesel quote—“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference,”—and what standing up to hate actually means. “You have to use your voice when you have the chance,” Rozenberg says. “We can’t be indifferent.” When she’s speaking in public as herself, and not as a character in a play, Rozenberg has found power in honesty and transparency. At the start of this school year, she faced her fears head-on when she spoke in Prayers about her own struggles with mental illness. “When you want to see something happen, you sometimes have to be the person to come right out and say it,” she explains. “I want to create a culture of inclusivity, where people can have open conversations and be okay with who they are.” Wise beyond her years, Rozenberg recognizes that we’re all on a journey, and that life isn’t always meant to be easy. “Everything is

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Message from School Leaders

Academic Stretch and Challenge By Seonaid Davis, Michael Simmonds and Kate White

and express themselves in new forms. You’ll see the repetition of “new” there. It’s a word that indicates stretch and a concept that lies at the heart of challenge. So how exactly do we go about it? The short answer: in all the ways made possible by the active imaginations of our school community! But of course, our teachers share sound approaches based on both research and experience. One of those approaches is to encourage our girls to ask and answer what we call essential questions. What is an essential question? It’s one that is complicated, open-ended and requires that students activate several lines of inquiry to start putting together some answers. The two examples below illustrate the difference between an essential and non-essential question: • How has diversity shaped Canada’s identity? • Where were the earliest European settlements in Canada? It’s not that the second question doesn’t matter; it’s that it is simple, closed and requires little thinking in either approaching or answering it. On the other hand, the first question generates another series of questions before any answers can even be contemplated, such as: What is meant by diversity? How can a nation have an identity? What is “Canada,” anyway? And so on. Some heavy mental lifting—and healthy stretching—is required! Here are a few essential questions that challenge students in our Grade 9 Geography course. Should cruise ships be allowed to travel through Canada’s Arctic? Why is British Columbia at high risk for an earthquake and is it prepared for one? Should Canada accept refugees? To get started on the cruise ship question, as an example, students would have to investigate the cultural, economic, environmental and ethical issues involved. Some discussion with their classmates, further prompts from their teacher, perhaps even conversations at home would also help to shape and test their thinking. Inquiry-based learning asks a lot of our girls. And essential questions pitched at the right level foster the mental elasticity needed to become flexible and powerful thinkers. Another way we challenge our students is to ask them to work with real documents and evidence. While a textbook can play an

From left: Kate White, Interim Head, Junior School; Michael Simmonds, Vice Principal School Life and Operations; Seonaid Davis, Vice Principal Teaching and Learning.

Ask our coaches and physical education teachers about the value of stretching and they will provide a clear and succinct rationale: with the right technique, a gentle stretch improves flexibility and stability, and enhances the overall health of the body. On the other hand, poor technique or overstretching can cause pain and damage. And not stretching at all, of course, leaves a body tight and with limited mobility. The idea of academic stretch is built on the same premise. The right amount of challenge increases mental agility and leaves the mind both stronger and more flexible. A more flexible system—whether physical or mental—allows for a greater range of motion and generates more power. With exceptional teachers as partners and guides, young minds gently stretched in the right ways at the right times become more supple, responsive, creative and powerful. We emphasize academic stretch and challenge at Havergal, from Junior Kindergarten through to Grade 12, because we want our students to make a difference in the world. That requires challenging them to try new things, think in new ways, step into new contexts

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Senior School students collaborate at a Saturday coding hackathon event.

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important role in learning, it is only one among many tools available to promote thinking and understanding. Introducing timely and relevant resources beyond textbooks generates a lot of interest and excitement for our students—especially when those resources reflect their local, immediate experience. In the Junior School, for example, our STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Coach introduces the Grade 6 students to the City of Toronto’s published biodiversity materials. These texts immerse our girls in the plant and animal life of their own city, making their learning highly engaging, especially as they grapple with the impact of urbanization, pollution, habitat loss and climate change on their non-human neighbours. Students use the biodiversity materials—which narrows in on topics such as butterflies, spiders, mammals and bees—to explore and measure the natural world around them. The value in using authentic documents that require the collection and investigation of real-life evidence lies in their variety, flexibility and immediacy—and, of course, in the essential questions that they generate. What should city planners do to reduce the loss of biodiversity? What is the impact of roads, population density, building design or conservation efforts on the city’s natural life? In exploring these questions, students learn a lot about environmental stewardship and civic responsibility while building a stronger bond with their community.

One question raised by these kinds of learning activities is how students communicate their understanding. To be sure, the classrooms, labs, green spaces and city locales our girls inhabit are not quiet places. They are filled with voices engaged in discussion, debate and, of course, disagreement. Long gone are the days when students learned silently and separately. Even the hallways of Havergal become lively learning spaces as students extend the open-ended conversations begun in class with each other and their teachers. Essential questions and real-world documents require plenty of interaction and discussion. “ While a textbook can play an important role in learning, it is only one among many tools available to promote thinking and understanding.

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Message from School Leaders

Gauss, Pascal, Fermat and other contests. At each level, students are challenged to solve a wide variety of math problems, along with their peers throughout North America. There are similar competitions available to our senior students in computing, chemistry and languages. As with any form of competition—debate, sports, robotics or Model UN—the math contests provide opportunities for students to explore their interests, test themselves and reach their highest level of proficiency. And just like good technique in muscle stretching, the best contests set the challenges at just the right level so that students can extend themselves to a suitable degree. This is the purpose of a great education, after all. Not a repetition of the same—a Groundhog Day of looping through the known and familiar—but steady advancement into new thinking, doing and being. That commitment to helping our girls step forward and up is evident in the academic challenges our teachers set. Assignments are designed to introduce new methods of inquiry, new ways of working with documents, new approaches to solving problems and new forms for expressing understanding, all of which deepen learning and develop global competencies. Global competencies transcend individual subjects, disciplines and careers, supporting success in all areas of life. Some examples are the ability to recognize multiple perspectives, communicate ideas and translate those ideas into action. A good intellectual stretch—with some mild discomfort of the new—also generates the kind of creativity, curiosity and independence that are the hallmarks of a healthy and engaged mind. We are happier when we are healthier: in this case, that means more intellectual mobility, flexibility and agility. Academic stretch and challenge help our girls develop the supple mental muscle that will power them into the future.

But to stretch our girls further, we also ask them to engage in quite a lot of written communication. It can be even more challenging for a student to express her understanding in writing than in speech. Writing has different demands of form, clarity and organization than discussion, as spoken language allows for repetition and changes in direction whenever needed to clarify a point. A written expression of understanding should be clear and complete on its own. It’s especially challenging when we ask students to write about their understanding in subjects not traditionally associated with written explanations. For example, our Grade 2 math students are using math journals, newly adopted this year. The girls are being introduced to note-taking in which they add explanations or comments to their math work. With this approach, they deepen their understanding of math concepts by writing about what they have learned during the lesson and reaching conclusions about the most important ideas. Through journalling, the girls are being asked to find clear language to communicate their understanding. Their teacher can then access their thinking and build on their understanding—and students have a document of their growth and progress. While math worksheets offer some basic practice of math concepts and processes, their limitation is that they do not provide opportunities for students to communicate their learning in language. The three of us “grew up” on math worksheets. But the research shows that explaining math thinking is a more challenging and sophisticated way to develop math skills. The addition of math journals allows our students to record their strategies and embed their learning, which helps them and their classmates to advance. While we’re on the subject of math, it’s worth mentioning the many ways that math competitions also stretch our girls. Students in the Junior School engage in the Caribou Math Contests. From Grade 7 to 12, our girls participate in the University of Waterloo’s

Grade 5 students solve math problems on whiteboards.

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Forum for Change

Exploring the Brink of the Known Inspiring activist allies through local and global experience programming

By Melanie Belore

The Forum for Change is excited to announce a new partnership opportunity for Havergal’s ever-growing international excursion program—a cultural immersion in Cambodia, where students will learn about Khmer history and culture in a country where reverberations from a tumultuous past are still felt today. On this learning journey, students will have a chance to interact with a number of non-governmental organizations, social entrepreneurs and community leaders in order to explore different models of development work, discover their complexities and learn about both challenges and stories of success. This is not your typical spring break trip. Havergal believes in the value of travel and experiential learning. Our commitment to educating global citizens means young people today must learn to navigate a world of increasing complexity. Preparing young women to make a difference in this world requires we educate better leaders: fostering the skills, knowledge and critical consciousness necessary to negotiate privilege in ways that promote a more equitable world. But why a Forum for Change excursion? What sets these experiences apart from the many other providers purporting they can provide young people with opportunities that will change the world? We design our Forum for Change excursions with language and curriculum in mind and not as service to a country or people our students are unfamiliar with. Our Global Experience Program (GEP) excursions are designed to enable our students to better understand themselves and the lived realities of the people they encounter through peer-to-peer relationship building, cultural immersion and—when appropriate—shared project work. These experiences challenge students to tap into their empathic abilities, test their assumptions of the world in real time and collaborate with others who may hold very different perspectives to their own. We hope participants feel compelled to dig deep into the big issues of our time, consider their root causes and discover the problem rather than the solution. It requires them to become activist allies in global citizenship. Whether it be weekly volunteering at one of our local community partnerships, experiencing the daily rhythm of someone else’s life on exchange or choosing to be immersed in another culture on a March Break excursion, this experiential learning, intentional partnership approach helps students explore the brink of what they know about the world and how they might make an impact.

New this year, Senior School students can learn about Khmer history and culture during a cultural immersion in Cambodia. “ “ We hope participants feel compelled to dig deep into the big issues of our time, consider their root causes and discover the problem rather than the solution.

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Feature Story

Wh y a Liberal Arts Education Matters

Building a Life of Independence and Impact

By Karen Sumner

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ecently, a Google employee stated in an internal memo that women are better suited to work in artistic or social areas rather than in the tech

industry—not because of bias, discrimination or embedded cultural expectations, but because of biological differences between the sexes. Many women working in tech fields reported they experienced a familiar exhausted-in-the-bones reaction to the memo. Here we go again , they thought, having yet another public debate about what work we are capable of doing .

abilities they need to engage in society in a meaningful and powerful way. And blaze trails, as required. William Deresiewicz, a successful author who earned degrees in biology, psychology, journalism and literature before joining the English Department at Yale University, offers this view: “Practical utility…is not the ultimate purpose of a liberal arts education. Its ultimate purpose is to help you learn to reflect in the widest and deepest sense, beyond the requirements of work and career: for the sake of citizenship, for the sake of living well with others, above all, for the sake of building a self that is strong and creative and free.” 1 Deresiewicz is pointing at the value of breadth before specialization. He is describing the wide and deep learning that sets habits of reflection, critical thinking and inquiry for life. It’s a narrow focus and some questionable reasoning that leads to that Google memo. Its author

of achieving a high level of proficiency. However, women only make up 22 per cent of Canadians working in STEM fields. That’s a steep drop from graduation rates. What do Google engineers or science majors have to do with a liberal arts education? After all, STEM careers tend to require narrow specializations. In fact, most professions do. And yet, by definition, a liberal arts education is broad, diverse and multidisciplinary, with engaged citizenry (rather than productive workers) as its ultimate goal. Not that a liberal arts approach fails to generate productive workers. It’s that the productivity comes by way of cultivating key capacities: thinking critically, offering reasoned judgment, solving problems and communicating clearly, to name a few. The short answer to the question is that a liberal arts education supports a STEM career—or any career at all—by equipping young women with the wide-ranging

In response to the memo, Susan Wojcicki, former Google employee and current CEO of YouTube, wrote in a Fortune article that “this was yet another discouraging signal to young women who aspire to study computer science.” She went on to say: “I’ve had my abilities and commitment to my job questioned. I’ve been left out of key industry events and social gatherings. I’ve had meetings with external leaders where they primarily addressed the more junior male colleagues. I’ve had my comments frequently interrupted and my ideas ignored until they were rephrased by men.” Wojcicki is pointing to cultural and social powers of exclusion, not inherent lack of interest or aptitude. According to Statistics Canada, women earn 39 per cent of bachelor degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). While they haven’t yet reached parity with men, there is no doubt that women are capable

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A liberal arts approach also equips our girls to participate fully in a civil society.

—Andrea Charlton

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A Grade 3 student writes in cursive in her journal.

key thinking skills,” Tulli explains. “We focus on a global approach. How can we understand a text? What is good writing? How do the different forms work? And literature is important, too. Studies show that exposure to fiction increases empathy and collaboration. As we enter into fictional lives and adopt many perspectives, our experience broadens and our minds become more open. Young people benefit from exposure to various points of view.” In the Senior School, Head of English and Drama Andrea Charlton builds on the literacy skills her students have been developing over the years. “Words matter. We can skim through a speech or written text and miss quite a lot of what’s being stated both on the surface and in the subtext, through suggestion or implication. Or we can empower ourselves by slowing down, reading carefully and unpacking what someone else wants us to consider. Our girls become more confident as they figure out how to do that. High-level literacy skills serve them in every part of their lives.” The Grade 10 English teachers introduce their students to a version of the hevruta (also spelled chavrusa or chavruta) approach to understanding texts, which

numbers and symbols. That may sound fairly basic, but what it demands in terms of thinking and understanding is not. Junior School Literacy Coordinator Nancy Tulli emphasizes the role literacy plays in a person’s ability to shape and share their ideas. “Communication is all about conveying thinking,” she explains. “The ability to do that clearly and well, in both spoken and written language, is especially important in these times of rapid change, when seeing even 10 years ahead is a challenge. We can’t predict what careers our girls might enter. Literacy skills are timeless and transferable and will allow them to navigate relationships and livelihoods in a new world.” Teaching for transfer is a priority for Tulli. In the Junior School, the basics are taught—reading, writing, grammar, spelling, exposure to many genres—with an emphasis not on telling girls what to think, but on teaching them how to uncover thinking in texts and express their own in writing. Being able to both see ideas and share them with others is then put to use in every subject and life context. “Teachers provide multiple and differing opportunities to acquire and demonstrate

may be a talented engineer, but much that is required to appreciate why women are underrepresented in the tech sector is missing. So are healthy skepticism, genuine curiosity and the ability to accurately synthesize relevant data points. A liberal arts education equips students with precisely those skills and habits of mind, among others. Its emphasis on breadth and diversity introduces students to new ideas and varied perspectives and encourages them to think beyond one field of study or mode of inquiry. Seonaid Davis, Vice Principal Teaching and Learning, puts it this way: “A liberal arts approach emphasizes multiple thinking frameworks. The big issues that shape our lives and the lives of those around the world can’t be addressed from only one stance. For example, our Grade 12 students are asked to understand and explain the Rwandan genocide. That requires several lines of inquiry—legal, historical, cultural, political. It’s not a single-perspective issue. Very little in our world can be well understood through a single lens.” At the heart of Havergal’s liberal arts approach lies a fundamental commitment to cultivating the ability to read widely, write clearly and work meaningfully with

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“We want to use math for a reason,” Shum explains. “Placing it in a context encourages students to strive for deeper understanding while ensuring they become both proficient and efficient. Of course, we focus on the how part—how to do things—but also on the why. What is the purpose of math? Why and where do we use it? Students are challenged to engage with math in both concrete and abstract ways and in relevant situations.” In Grade 7, for example, students are given a preloaded debit card (only mathematically, of course!) to use with a spending plan. With a finite amount of money, they learn about costs of goods, how to calculate percentage or quantity discounts, how taxes are applied and how to manage a budget. In Grade 8, students work with microloans (again, hypothetical), akin to those managed by the non-profit Kiva, which lends money to low-income entrepreneurs. In order to assess where and how to invest, students

“Obviously, literacy is of tremendous importance,” she says. “So is cultural currency, by which I mean understanding the texts that are part of our culture’s foundation and assessing their current impact in our world—like asking if Apple chose its name and logo from a story in the Book of Genesis . A liberal arts approach also equips our girls to participate fully in a civil society. They can engage in its debates, express their ideas and push back when power dynamics and philosophies become dangerous. That’s a position of strength.” Upper School Head of Mathematics Alex Shum agrees that Havergal has a responsibility to nurture engaged citizens. Connecting math to a context and purpose allows students to experience both its beauty and utility while also developing their capacity to think critically and communicate clearly.

comes from the rabbinic tradition of Talmudic study. Students work in pairs with a short piece—perhaps a sentence from a novel or a biblical story—and then discuss, analyze and debate what they see. They are challenged to land on all possible meanings and assess the various options carefully. “We’ve recently introduced more poetry into the curriculum,” Charlton explains. “A university professor I spoke with suggested that we bolster its presence. Poetry requires a slow and detailed approach while offering all kinds of interpretive possibilities. The more exposure the girls have to complexity, the more proficient they become with all texts. Part of Havergal’s commitment to literacy is to ensure that our graduates know how to interpret all kinds of materials with confidence and insight.” Charlton also fully believes in Havergal’s commitment to a liberal arts education.

Grade 10 students practise the hevruta approach to understanding texts.

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A Grade 5 math class.

mathematics is apparent in the choices our graduating students make,” Shum explains. “More than 90 per cent of our senior students take Grade 12 math courses and, among those, 85 per cent are taking more than two Grade 12 math courses, with about 40 per cent choosing to do so at the Advanced Placement (AP) level. From the Junior School straight through to Grade 12, our girls understand that mathematical thinking enhances their capacity to do so,” he says. “We live in an era of ‘truthiness,’ where what a person ‘feels’ to be true is often enough for them to build an argument, philosophy or ideology,” says Shum. “It’s an anti-fact stance. But facts matter, as does objective and perspective when assessing them. Mathematics works with other disciplines

paper towels are priced differently. She had to take into account numbers of sheets and lengths of rolls, the use of new or recycled fibres and degrees of absorbency. Yes, absorbency tests were conducted! She came up with a tremendous amount of data to study and synthesize. Wherever possible, math teachers call on students’ knowledge and skills from their other subjects, such as science with this example, but also art, music, geography, just about anything. The world is an interconnected place, and math is an interconnected field.” It’s evident that the value of math at Havergal extends beyond its immediate skill set or application. Math thinking plays an important role in all aspects of life. “The impact of having a robust understanding of

evaluate loan applicants and then work through the details of capital investment, interest rates and repayment schedules. In both grades, students are deepening their understanding of math concepts while learning a lot about the process of informed decision-making and the world around them. “We work together as a department to encourage students to apply mathematical lenses through which they can analyze and mathematics as a language with which to represent the world around them. Math connects fact to social meaning,” Shum says. “In Grade 9, every student designs her own research question that requires collecting and analyzing data mathematically. One student, for example, wanted to know why

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“ As a school, we want to develop strong math understanding, which increases girls’ confidence in themselves and in their ability to think independently. —Kathy Kubota Zarivnij

for developing many modes of inquiry: scientific, quantitative, social scientific, humanistic and expressive. In addition to providing that breadth, lessons are interactive and the classroom environment is one where students are encouraged to share their thinking, question assumptions and build informed conclusions. It is perhaps valuable to clarify at this point that the “liberal” in liberal arts is not about political leanings. It derives from the Latin word liberalis , meaning “befitting a free person.” The liberal arts help to develop the skills and knowledge a person needs to be a free and active member of society. That includes having the capacity—and the confidence—to question, evaluate and offer alternatives to any assumptions that encroach on that freedom, such as that women are not biologically suited to certain careers. Ultimately, a liberal arts education provides a solid ground upon which to stand in a fast-changing world. It focuses on developing the ability to adapt, collaborate, reason, argue effectively, communicate clearly, judge fairly and employ what Davis calls “multiple thinking frameworks.” It empowers girls and young women through its breadth of inquiry to have opportunity and choice in their future lives. Possibilities may narrow as personal preferences and individual talents come to the surface. But a life liberalis carries on.

“As a school, we want to develop strong math understanding, which increases girls’ confidence in themselves and in their ability to think independently,” explains Kubota Zarivnij. “We have a lot of tools at our disposal to do that. For example, teachers record on the board the ways in which students are addressing problems and developing their understanding—in real time as a lesson unfolds. It makes their thinking visible so they can reflect on it and build on it. That approach is called bansho in Japanese.” “We also have students engaged in note- taking,” continues Kubota Zarivnij, “where they record the board notes generated during class. That’s a lot different than just recording their answers. Documenting their thinking helps them to remember the connections they made; of course, they can look back later to prompt themselves. That’s the last stage of what we call three-part lesson design. The first part is a quick activation of each student’s ‘math mind’ to get her ready for some math work. The second is the problem- solving stage itself, when students create meaning and use their reasoning to find solutions. The third is consolidation, when there is time to reflect on their learning and record their thinking. Overall, it’s an effective approach to strengthening each student’s mental math muscle.” Taken as a whole, Havergal’s approach to numeracy and literacy lays the bedrock

within a liberal arts approach to help students understand the value of data, have the skills to sift through it and curate its most important points. Literacy and numeracy share the same goal of developing thinking and understanding in both specialized and broad terms.” Kathy Kubota Zarivnij, Havergal’s Coordinator for Mathematics Professional Learning, Innovation and Research, shares the view that mathematical thinking improves a student’s capacity for interpreting and understanding situations across disciplines and topics. “Mathematics is a language,” says Kubota Zarivnij. “It requires precision, critical thinking and creativity to acquire it. And it is helpful to use it—to apply math skills, knowledge and strategies —with any problem we face. A math outlook can help to provide clarity and push us to ask and answer questions that might not come up otherwise. And those questions and answers can join with other perspectives to find a useful solution.” Kubota Zarivnij works with teachers and students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 to improve student achievement and perseverance in math and to embed professional math learning within the school. She wants all students to believe that they can succeed in math and supports teaching strategies that leverage girls’ interests and deepen their engagement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS | FALL 2017 • TORCH 19

Student Awards

Havergal Student Awards 2016–17 The Havergal community congratulates the following students for their achievements during the 2016–17 school year. Special awards ceremonies were held on Monday, June12, for Junior School students and on Tuesday, October 10, for Upper School students as a way to honour and acknowledge the many award recipients at Havergal.

JUNIOR SCHOOL GRADE 6 PRIZES AND AWARDS The Hulbert Holmes Award: Katie Sievenpiper & Abbey McKee The Ismay McCarrick Award: Caroline Vandermeer & Sarah Hunt The Mohan Award: Emma Wagman The Laurene Watson Award: Olivia Zhang The Levy, Revell, Wilkinson Award: Claire Radin

Physical Education—Recreation and Healthy Active Leadership: Madeline Tanzola Social Sciences—Economics: Selina Chow Social Sciences—Financial Accounting Principles: Selina Chow & Naomi Leftwick Technology Education—Communication Technology: Erica Chan Technology Education—Computers and Information Science: Sydney Corbett & Kendra Tam The W. G. Charlton Prize for Creative Writing: Sarah Zhao UPPER SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPS The Wendy J. Thompson Scholarship—Grade 7: Leila Agil, Hope Hardy & Leyao Xiao The Wendy J. Thompson Scholarship—Grade 9: Casey Morris, Emerald Ngo The Wendy J. Thompson Scholarship—Grade 11: Aaliyah Green Havergal House Scholarship—Ellen Knox: Tiffany Cirillo Havergal House Scholarship—Kate Leonard: Janet Chen Havergal House Scholarship—Marian Wood: Julia Arbutina Havergal House Scholarship—Edith Nainby: Joy Hu & Samantha Newman Havergal House Scholarship—Catherine Steele: Julia Morassutti & Sophy Wu Havergal House Scholarship—Mary Dennys: Katelyn Cai & Katherine Fitzpatrick Havergal House Scholarship—Margaret Taylor: Serina Woo Havergal House Scholarship—The Havergal College Merit Scholarship: Samantha Newman UPPER SCHOOL SPECIAL AWARDS The Robin Urquhart Beddis & Jean Macpherson Urquhart Scholarship: Mostin Hu Havergal College Parent Association Prize—Grade 7: Julia Zigelstein Havergal College Parent Association Prize—Grade 8: Rachel Turnbull Havergal College Parent Association Prize—Grade 9: Rachel Meyerowitz Havergal College Parent Association Prize—Grade 10: Noelle Lim Havergal College Parent Association Prize—Grade 11: Alexandra Drope Old Girls’ Prize—Grade 9: Lauren Douglas Old Girls’ Prize—Grade 10: Olivia Nadalini Old Girls’ Prize—Grade 11: Carolyn Svonkin The Debating Prize: Hillary Mak The Student Innovation Award: Selina Chow The Middle School Award for Leadership: Zoë Mohan The Class of ‘56 Mary Dennys Torch Award: Anne Broughton The Havergal Award for Exceptional Academic Standing: Selina Chow The New Girl Cup (presented at Final Prayers): Olivia Guy & Tina Tian The Principal’s Scholarship—Grade 7: Sofia Al Hussan The Principal’s Scholarship—Grade 9: Oluwanifemi Abiola

PRIZE FOR HIGHEST GENERAL PROFICIENCY Grade 7: Zoë Mohan Grade 8: Sienna Wall

Grade 9 (Class of 1937 MacDonald Memorial Prize): Swanee Douglas Grade 10 (Class of 1937 MacDonald Memorial Prize): Deisha Paliwal & Clarissa Yu Grade 11 (The Luella Gertrude Lovering Memorial Prize): Selina Chow UPPER SCHOOL ACADEMIC AWARDS The Ancerl Prize for Music: Denise Lee & Noelle Lim The O’Rorke Middle School Music Award—Band: Allison Hall, Alexandra Marley & Margaret McKee The O’Rorke Middle School Music Award—Strings: Emma Danniels The O’Rorke Middle School Music Award—Vocal: Nadia Salem Dorothy Bevan Prize for Junior Mathematics in Grade 10: Mia Xing Dorothy O’Dell Memorial Prize for Mathematics in Grade 11: Tina Tian Class of 1937 Proficiency Prize in Science: Selina Chow Dorothy Symons Scholarship in Canadian Studies: Amanda Hacker The Louise Cholette-Rees Award: Rebecca Grant Constance Pudan Prize for French in Grade 11: Ariana Seyedmakki & Anaïs Mortazavi Zadeh The Yale Book Prize: Natasha Verhoeff SENIOR YEAR ACADEMIC PRIZES The Arts—Band: Madison Wong The Arts—Strings: Arielle Silverberg & Mostin Hu The Arts—Grade 10 Visual Arts: Katherine Barr, Beryl Chen & Sophia Zhang The Arts—Grade 10 Visual Arts, Non-Traditional: Selina Liu & Ainsley Robertson The Arts—Grade 11 Visual Arts: Audrey Chan Languages—Advanced Placement French: Selina Chow Languages—Latin: Caroline Cui & Ellen Zhang Languages—Mandarin: Audrey Green Languages—Spanish: Faustine Leung, Natasha Verhoeff & Isabella Xu Mathematics—Advanced Placement Calculus and Vectors: Sherry Xie

Mathematics—AP Advanced Functions: Sherry Xie Mathematics—AP Data Management: Selina Chow Mathematics—Data Management: Danya Assaf

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Upper School Honour Roll and Award of Distinction To achieve a position on the Honour Roll in Grades 9 to 12, students must attain several grades in the 80s: Grades 7 and 8—six subjects out of eight in the 80s; Grades 9 and 10—six subjects out of eight in the 80s; Grade 11—five subjects out of seven or eight in the 80s. To attain an Award of Distinction, a student must have the same number of grades as noted above in the 90s. (H = Honour Roll; D = Award of Distinction)

AGNES HANSEN HOUSE Lauren Anderson – H Osuare Atafo – D Rachel Auwaerter – H Claire Barclay – H Katherine Barr – D Ceinwyn Beattie – H Kristen Borland – D Emma Buckles – H Madeline Campbell – D Catherine-Rose Campione – D Elizabeth-Anne Campione – H Kaitlyn Chin – D Katherine Cook – H Zhi-Xian (Andrea) Cui – H

CATHERINE STEELE HOUSE Rachel Aceto – H Jaime Anderson – D Catherine Andison – D Emma Andison – H Skylar Banks – H

Trinity MacNaughton – H Donna Mahboubi – D Jala Malcolm – H Annika Margie – D Emma Margie – D Erin McQueenie – H Mia Morassutti – D Anna Carolina Moreira – H Senaida Ng – D Nana Ohene-Darkoh – H Claire Rhamey – H Danielle Roth – H Alexandra Rozenberg – D Lauren Rozenberg – D Sarah Saunders – H Emma Seger – H Anna Shinn – H Kendall Simon – H Ava Siskind – H Bailey Tarder-Kadaner – D Linh (Alex) Tran – H Marlowe Venier-Falk – H Kaitlyn Wagman – D Michelle Wang – H Yuru (Sherry) Xie – D Chen (Mia) Xing – D Nuo (Isabella) Xu – D Katrina Ai Qi Yeung – H Sarah Zhao – D Julia Zigelstein – D

Taylor Kim – H Eileen Kong – H Kaitlyn Lee – H

Naomi Leftwick – D Kyla Leong-Poi – H Laura Lui – H

Madelaine Battista – H Mackenzie Birbrager – D Davis Blakely – D Andrea Bongers – H Taylor Bowes – D Catherine Carty – D Devon Carty – H Beryl Chen – D Melanie Cheung – D Sarah Cummings – H Jenna Dale – D Elizabeth Farkouh – D Hanna Farkouh – H Isabel Farkouh – H Emma George – D Emily Hong – D Arriette Kim – H Rachel Kim – D Emma Laslavic – H Leandra Laslavic – H Maria Li – D Noelle Lim – D Natalie Lo – D Sarah Lum – D Allison MacGregor – H

Meagan McCarthy – H Sheena McKeever – D Shanti Mehta – D Anaïs Mortazavi Zadeh – D Ainsley Robertson – D Victoria Robertson – D Ashley Romundt – D Kathleen Ross – H Elizabeth Schnekenburger – D Laura Seidelin – D Corie Shyba – D Evelyn Silverson-Tokatlidis – H Amy Stewart – D Hannah Tahami – H Claudia Velimirovic – D Angela Peña – H Julia Quarin – H

Dina Curtosi – D Amy Edwards – H Ann Elliott – D Phoebe Ferguson – D Taylor Ferguson – H

Emily Frank – D Jessica Frank – D Sierra Gibson – H Skye Gibson – H Olivia Guy – H Megan Hoffer – H Renée Hogarth-Rosmus – D Erin Howard – D

Isabella Vettese – D Yi Ning Wang – D Anna Wellner – D Jiayan (Jessica) Yu – D Yixing (Elina) Yu – D

Miao (Lexie) Hu – D Kimrandeep Johal – D Jasmine Kanani – H

Ellen Zhang – D Anna Zufferli – D

TABLE OF CONTENTS | FALL 2017 • TORCH 21

Student Awards

ELLEN KNOX HOUSE Emily Burrows – H Victoria Burrows – H Yue Xin (Natalie) Cao – D Sydney Corbett – D Alejandra Croda Fernandez – H Carling Davies – H Abigail Diduck – H Theresa Genua – D Tess Gillanders – H Sasha Guy – H Carrington Hay Kellar – D Catherine Jia – H Jasmine Joy – H Stephanie Karmitz – H Maya Khalili – H Samantha Lee – D Alexandra Marley – D Lauren Marley – H Noa Marley – H Samantha Marley – D Sara Marley – H Caroline Martin – H Sydney Meek – H Rachel Meyerowitz – D Caroline Cui – D Alexa Daniel – H Meghna Katyal – D Simran Katyal – H Natalie Ashgriz – D Nina Ashgriz – H Danya Assaf – D Shijia Bi – D Tiffany Boughner – D Emma Cardinale – H Lauren Cardinale – D Renee Chan – D Ellie Chisholm – H Hope Clubb – H Laura David – D Jacqueline Fell – D Elia Gross – H Lara Ground – D Zi Shan (Shirley) Guo – H Madeline Heldman – H Rebecca Henry – H Alexandra Hunter – D Risa Iiyama – D Alexandra Jones – D Emma Kalles – H Moriah Kalles – H Emily Kellner – H Brianna Kerr – H Daniela Krcmar – D Soleil Krcmar – D Michelle Wing Yan Lai – D Tsz Yin (Charmaine) Lau – D Nicole Miehm – H Brooke Mitchell – H Carson Mitchell – D FRANCES RIDLEY HOUSE

EDITH NAINBY HOUSE Lucy Anderson – H Christina Au – H Karen Au – H Yuexin Bao – D Nellianne Bateman – H Kylie Black – H Erica Chan – D Julia Cheng – D Kiara Cheng – D Selina Chow – D Lindsay Cunningham – H Margot Dent – H Claire Dirks – D Osemudiamen Elimimian – D Kate Gilchrist – D Margaret Gilchrist – D Sarah Graham – H Alison Hacker – D Amanda Hacker – D Sara Hodaie – H Hailey Ip – D Hana Jamal – D Arushi Katyal – D Chae Young (Chelsea) Kim – D Antonia Knoth – D Rebecca Lawrence – H Denise Lee – D Megan Buitendag – H Madison Cameron – D Catherine Chen – D Vienna Cimetta – D Danielle Colussi – H Abigail Copeland – H Clara Copeland – H Chelsea Dumasal – D Carolyn Elia – H Jaqueline Elliott – D Nelia Fadavi – H Catherine Feng – H Arianna Forgione – H Anthea Fu – D Allison Hall – D Madeleine Hall – D Ella Harrop – H Alexandra Jucan – D Theodora Jucan – D Michelle Koshy – D Gwen Lawrence – H Claire Lee – H Kwan An (Joyce) Li – D Martha MacDonald – D Taylor Machado – H Meghan Maguire – H Amelia Majewski – H Paige Manning – D Jillian Menikefs – D Julianna Botros – H Katerina Busuttil – H Amanda Chan – H KATE LEONARD HOUSE Elizabeth Andersons – H Sarah Andersons – D Jacqueline Bai – D

MARY DENNYS HOUSE Cloe Borba – H Anjali Borschel – D Tierney Carnella – D Audrey Chan – D Anna Chen – D Tara Cohen – H Alexandra Couch – D Taylor Ellis – H Hannah Feeney – H Ava Foster – D Annalise Gabor – D Sarah Gale – D Sophia Gong – H Abigail Henn – D Olivia Hodgson – H Mostin Hu – D Lauren Hunter – D Alexandra Hutchison – H Bianca Iddiols – H Emma Jazvac – H Joanna Lee – H Faustine Leung – D Haojia (Selina) Liu – D Katherine MacGregor – D Marshall MacKay – H Morgan MacKay – H Maclaren Morrison – H Jacqueline Newsome – D Chereen Ng – D Toluwalope Ogunfowora – D Ameesha Paliwal – D Deisha Paliwal – D Brooke Pardy – D Jae Young (Penelope) Park – H Jee-Won (Sophia) Park – D Emilia Parsi – D Sydney Peters – D Zoë McDonald – H Leah Michaeloff – H Jessica Riad – H Joyce Riad – H Emily Saric – H Emma Rose Schimmel – D Abigail Schneider – D Danielle Stavropoulos – H Joanne Stavropoulos – D Megan Stellato – H Emily Su – D Megan Troop – H Samantha Tso – D Shirley Wang – H Zihan (Kayla) Wang – D Caroline Watt – H Erin Wong – D Grace Pettingill – D Amara Phillips – H Ellery Procter – H Jossia Rana – D Kailey Reynolds – H

Avery Nadalini – D Olivia Nadalini – D Taylor O’Driscoll – H Charlotte Orcutt – D Isabelle Ortner – D Mary Osler – H Megan Osler – D Rebecca Osler – H Ayse Ozsan – D Georgia Pickersgill – D Taylor Poulton – H Adelaide Pryde – H Jamie Rokin – D Olivia Roland – D Rebecca Smith – H Sarah Smith – H Shannon Smith – H Michelyn Smith-Munger – D Amy Soetikno – D Elizabeth Sterling – H Madeline Tanzola – H Leah Thompson – H Emily Uba – D Olivia Wall – H Sidney Wilson – D Yishi (Isabel) Yang – H

Qiange Lu – D Kate Lunau – H Olivia Marotta – D Lauren Mattan – H Alyson McCarvell – H Victoria McCarvell – H Margaret McKee – D Gillian McKenzie – H Kayla McMillan – H Alexis Neal – H Kennedy Neichenbauer – H Alexia Neilas – H Annie Pawliw – H Sophia Pawliw – D Jena Ravindran – D Cadance Shearer – H Han (Grace) Shen – D Nadia Shirtliff-Hinds – H Kaelyn Soon-Shiong – D

Katherine Stock – H Stephanee Storr – H Abigail Stout – H Alexandra Stout – D Kendra Sturdee – D Sierra Vilanez – H Summer Vilanez – D Jennifer Walker – H Sienna Wall – D Jessica Wang – H Lucy Wang – D Olivia Wilson-Lall – H

Arianna Yu – D Clarissa Yu – D

Melissa Wong – D Sabrina Wong – D Emily Zaltz – D

Anna McCracken – D Marley Melbourne – D Mackenzie Morrison – H Jordan Murrell – D Adrianna Neretlis – D Elena Neretlis – D Caroline Pennock – H Cassandra Reale – H Kyunghyun Ryu – D Nikita Sennik – D Caragh Shea – H Annalisa Simonetta – D Kelly Sun – D Carolyn Svonkin – D Alexa Swales – D Galila Tegene – H Catherine Thomas – D Charlotte Turk – H Emma Turk – D Natasha Verhoeff – D

Zoë Mohan – D Seher Moosabhoy – D Clare Morneau – D Madeleine O’Brien – D Seeyeon (Stephanie) Oh – H Alexandra Panos – D Katherine Pirie – D Yifei (Faye) Pu – D Aditi Pundit – D Anushri Pundit – D Grace Rao – D Jaimie Rao – D Madison Rao – H Maya Rao – H Victoria Robertson – H Hailey Rockandel – D Delaney Sharp – H Megan Sharp – D Sarah Sharp – D Ruoyun (Elisa) Shi – D Aicha Sommer – D Sydney Veres – H Taylor Veres – H Chuhan Wang – D Emma White – H Lisa Wight – H Emma Grace Wilson – D Zhi Ying (Hannah) Zhao – D Miriam Tam – D Rachel Tam – D Katie Taub – H

Madison Wang – D Elizabeth White – D Emily White – D

Alexis Yam – H Kailee Zhou – H Madison Ziedenberg – H

Jacqueline Wong – D Madison Wong – H Karan Wu – D Carolyne You – D Abigail Zewdu – H Juliana Zhang – H

Abby Lechtzier – D Sasha Lechtzier – D Emilie Lu – D

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