A letter from the editors

Dear NT,

Before the start of this school year, we created a BINGO card with our friends for this year. A few wins, failed missions, and empty squares later, it’s June again. And a great year it has been.

Let’s start with this year’s wins. Word on the street is back. Graffiti extended home forms are coming back. And Jack Vanek never left. Our other wins are perhaps better saved for text group chats.

About the losses (because there were a few). For Elena, her first G2 road test…. But more importantly, Sophie’s grandmother is very upset with Elena for not finding Sophie a prom date. For Sophie, it was joining the rugby team without any idea about the physicality of the sport. Lucky for us, the wins outnumber the losses (in our minds, at least).

NT recommendations for a fantastic experience? Don’t take physics (from Elena, who’s going into engineering). Take physics (from Sophie, who’s going into social sciences). Sports and clubs are a must. Take a spare in grade twelve because it’s fun, not because it’s going to be productive (it’s not). Take your Airpods out and talk a lot and to a lot of people.

After the past 4 years, Elena walks out a proud Norsemen, a little less regretful she didn’t go to LP. Sophie leaves NT, shockingly, with friends?!

We’ve 0.5ed it all, giving the highlights to the Graffiti Instagram for all to see.

Editorial Board

EDITORS IN CHIEF

Elena Vlitas

Sophie Block

STAFF ADVISORS

David Silver

Jessica Bulgutch

SECTION EDITORS

Sara Kaboudvand | Logan Proulx

Malak Mohamed | Arissa Roy

Ruby Steinberg | Natasha Bernstein

Ava Reitmaier-Stone | Victoria Man

Constantia Pilnitz

Leila Schrenk | Krisha Mittra

Elizabeth Rosen | Jack Wolkove

Sarisha Panday

Luke Taylor | Grace Uy

Tai Vaughan | Ethan Cairns

HEAD COPY EDITORS

Ema Kazazi

Rowen Uy

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY HEAD

Baran Forootan

LAYOUT

Felicity Hughes

BUSINESS MANAGERS

Abby Harlow

Andjelina Illic

Isis Mullaj

Contact Us

Have a question, criticism, praise, or comment? Send a letter to the editors, and we’ll be happy to respond.

Email: ntcigraffiti@gmail.com

Instagram: @ntcigraffiti

Twitter: @NTCI_Graffiti

About Us

Your 2022-2023 Editor in Chiefs, Sophie Block and Elena Vlitas

Graffiti is North Toronto C.I.’s award-winning, student-led newspaper. Graffiti aims to amplify and represent the voice of the student body at North Toronto C.I. by creating a unified communications plaform that allows students to develop their skills in language, design, art, teamwork, and leadership. With every publication, Graffiti strives to maintain the highest integrity and provide readers with honest, relevant journalism that is grounded in truth.

Logan Proulx Section Editor

Joining the NT community in 2019, Ms. Mazzaferro has been a pillar of the administration, helping to keep NT spirited and structured. We’d like to celebrate Ms. Mazzaferro and her retirement by looking back on her career and her experience at NT.

Ms. Mazzaferro started her career in education after admiring the teachers who helped to inspire and motivate her during her formative years. She decided she wanted to follow in their footsteps and inspire change in others. “I saw the kind of impact that they made on my life and the lives of other students, and I wanted to pay that forward.” After graduating from teacher’s college at York University, she supplied for her old English teacher who she still kept in touch with. Around mid-October of that year, she received a call from a school named Albert-Campbell Collegiate Institute in Scarborough for a position as a Grade 11 english and Grade 9 music contract teacher. She accepted.

During her time as a contract teacher, Ms. Mazzaferro got a better sense of the values one needs to have in order to work in education. She continued to show empathy, grit, and passion for learning as she moved from school to school. Although each of the schools she worked at involved different challenges, settings, expectations, and responsibilities. She found that one thing was always consistent: the students. “One of the most valuable lessons I learned during my time as an educator is that students are all the same. [It] doesn’t matter what school you go to. By that, I mean kids are all the same wherever you go and depending on the circumstances and backgrounds that they’ve come from, that’s where they experience the barriers and challenges in their lives. They have the same worries, they have the same problems, they have the same things that make them happy”. She learned that all students share a common baseline, and the most valuable belief to go by as an educator is to value each and every student without prejudging them.

Ms. Mazzaferro joined the NT community in the 2018-2019 school year. The following year, schools were shut down. This meant her years at NT were a hectic mix of in-person and virtual instruc- tion. The shutdown presented her with an opportunity to reflect on the changing role of educators and education as a whole. “Now, there’s so many standards that continue to build on teachers and it will keep building and building. I don’t mean to say that educators are disrespected entirely, but I do think that there’s a general expectation of society as a whole that teaching is an easy job which I don’t think is entirely accurate.” Nonetheless, she says that it was very fulfilling to help NT’s administrative affairs post remote learning and ensure that things went back to normal.

“It was fulfilling in the sense that I was able to experience the craziness that was COVID-19, the lockdown, the virtual, everything, and you know coming out of it on the other side, her I am in my last year of my career, with no restrictions, with everything happening in the school. I’m glad I was able to help other students and myself. I was very humbled and grateful that I was able to survive.”

In retirement, Ms. Mazzaferro is looking forward to being able to sleep in and spend more time with her family. She also hopes to hone her musical skills in her two bands and keep her passion for performing alive!

We’d like to thank Ms. Mazzaferro for helping to make NT so inclusive. She has done so much to ensure that every student is heard, respected, and accepted. The school will not be the same without her. We wish her a happy retirement and we hope to see her soon!