Health and Wellbeing:
Integral to Belonging By Tracy Howard, Director of Student Success and Post Secondary Counselling and Swetha Srikanthan, School Social Worker
When alumni are asked what comes to mind when they reflect on their time at HTS, the word community is often shared. Community is what creates belonging and fuels self-worth and happiness, and is shown in the strong sense that HTS students have of being a part of something much bigger than just themselves. According to the Cambridge dictionary? “A sense of belonging is one of humanity’s most basic needs”. Through the lens of the Student Success Department—including Student Success counsellors, Student Success coaches and our HTS social worker—a sense of belonging and a state of happiness cannot be viewed separately from student “success” as it relates to character, engagement and academics. Central to our individual and collective roles is the creation of an environment where students feel welcome, Noor, Audrey and Siara spending time in the George Rutherford Library.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Victoria Doobay ’06 By Colin Darling ’17, Alumni Relations Coordinator
8 Corridors
Arriving at HTS in Grade 4, Victoria Doobay recalls feeling nervous having left an established friend group at another school behind. However, she was immediately struck by how kind everyone was. And being the self-described “empathetic kid who always wanted to cheer her friends up”, she fit right in. As she made her way through school, she leaned heavily into the community and opportunities that her HTS education offered. The support of that community allowed her to think critically about herself within the broader world, as well as developing a questioning curiosity. She vividly remembers the events of 9/11 and how pivotal that moment was
for her family, many of whom are Muslim. For her, it represented a paradigm shift that pushed her to confront her own identity as she went off to major in psychology at McGill University. That curiosity and innate caring nature led Victoria to continue her McGill studies in the School and Applied Child Psychology program where she took a multiculturalism class which changed her philosophy forever. “I knew that I was interested in identity and diversity work, but didn’t have the language for it,” Victoria notes. Within that class, students were tasked with keeping a journal that catalogued their awareness of their own biases and identity. Victoria remembers feeling challenged
