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HAVERGAL COLLEGE
Being a leader takes
commitment and reliability,
especially when people are
depending on you.
—Stephanie Fung, member of the Grade 12 Senior Year Presidents
Talking about leadership directly helps
broaden the definition for the students
and encourages them to see themselves as
leaders. “We talk a lot with our girls about
the fact that sometimes girls themselves are
quite hesitant to call themselves leaders,”
says Martin. “It’s almost as if they feel like
it’s bragging or being too sure of themselves
or it will separate them from their peers
in a way they don’t want. We talk about
that tension.”
“It’s a conversation that starts as early as
Junior School,” says White. “We try as much
as possible to have the kids talk about what
it means to be a leader. We make it very
explicit in the teaching. Instead of just
saying, ‘Okay. You’re in Grade 6 now; you
need to be a leader.’ We actually talk about
what that means and we elicit answers from
the children,” says White.
She says one description that comes up is
that a leader is someone who tells others
what to do. “We try and unpack that with
them and we talk about the idea that being
a leader is not always the one standing up
on the chair and screaming and yelling.
It’s often the person who is quietly on the
side simply doing the right thing when
nobody is watching,” says White.
Besides having conversations around
leadership, Havergal also fosters informal
opportunities by encouraging students when
they come up with their own initiatives.
Jennifer Patterson, Assistant Head, Middle
School (Grades 7 to 8), recalls a recent
example of a Grade 8 student who wanted
to learn more about the situation in Syria
and took the initiative to research and run
an information session. “There were over
40 students who went to the room and they
couldn’t fit any more in. This is just a 12- or
13-year-old student who said, ‘I want to
know more about this. I think people will be
interested to learn and see what we can do,’”
says Patterson.
As another example of where an idea
sprouted informally but may become
formalized, Patterson points to a Grade
8 student executive member’s initiative
to create a week to celebrate kindness. “I
helped her through the process of creating
a proposal and bringing it to the Student
Council,” says Patterson. “I think when
the students generate the ideas, there’s a
tremendous amount of empowerment and
buy-in.” She says the Student Council loved
the idea, launched it last year and is already
talking about making it an annual event.
Other roles that combine the formal and
informal include team captains on sports
teams, the Welcome Committee (in both the
Junior and Upper Schools) and the Havergal
Big Sisters Club. And there are more than
80 clubs at Havergal, ranging in topic and
formality from model United Nations to
debating to the DECA business club, to more
light-hearted fare like film, cooking, origami,
Spanish or Mandarin. There are student
newspapers and magazines. There’s even a
Quiddich club. “The goal, of course, is we
don’t want girls to sign up for everything
and go nuts, but we do want them,
particularly in Grades 9 and 10, to just try a
lot of different flavours and see what clicks.
Many times you’ll see a girl who tries a club
in Grade 9 or 10 and then by Grade 12 she’s
leading it or co-leading it. I love it when that
happens because that’s a neat progression to
see,” says Martin.