Setting the Right Example

Taking an active role in the community helps create meaningful connection

GROWING UP IN Calgary, Stephen Libin learned two key ideas: the value of attending a Jewish day school and the importance of being active and contributing to the community.

“My parents were heavily involved in the Jewish community growing up and so volunteering and engagement were always around me as a kid,” says Stephen, a litigation partner at Dutton Brock LLP in Toronto. “When we joined Bialik, I got involved pretty quickly.”

It’s been nearly six years that Stephen has been participating on the Board or in committee work at the school, where his sons, Dean (Grade 6), Warren (Grade 3), and Joey (SK), attend the Viewmount Branch. Most recently, he’s chaired the Board’s Governance Committee. He finds it rewarding for the community connection, as well as for the practicalities of supporting his family’s biggest investment. Giving back to Bialik reinforces the larger school community as well as the education it provides to his sons.

For Stephen’s wife Robyn, who is a tax accountant, the decision to enrol Dean for JK in 2015 was made based on the school’s values. A positive school tour helped them see the culture and community that their children would be exposed to, and now all three boys are loving Bialik.

“They are excelling,” says Robyn. “We don’t speak Hebrew well, but the fact that our children can learn it, sing songs at home and are excited about school performances, is wonderful.”

It was Bialik’s strong emphasis on teaching about Jewish culture and history that they sought. While the Libin children benefit from being part of the Bialik community, each of the boys is also provided an appropriate level of challenge to develop academically and socially in their own unique way.

“There are so many areas within the school where they love learning and want to show us,” says Robyn, who recently toured the new Viewmount Discovery Den. Warren is particularly excited about the STEM Learning Commons, where he’s learning about hydroponics and growing plants.

Stephen says the whole family has a lot of pride in being part of the Bialik community. Whether it’s the boys representing the school in Caribou math contests or at a cross-country meet, or Robyn seeing teachers, students and other families looking out for one another at school drop-offs and pick-ups, he describes the community as very caring. Likewise, Stephen cares about what he’s teaching his sons.

“One reason I got involved on the Board is what I call ‘leadership by example’,” he says. “If I take these active roles in the community similar to the way my parents did, I teach the kids through my actions.”

Robyn adds that they also see this concept play out in the school. “With Dean in Senior Division now, he’s quite busy. He has lots of presentations and tests, and he has learned to get involved and advocate for himself. We feel the whole Bialik community wants success for all the kids.”