Black & Gold Magazine

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THE MAGAZINE OF SHAWNIGAN LAKE SCHOOL

EDITORIAL NOTES

During a recent interview with a prospective communications employee, I related that everything we do at Shawnigan, in communications and in advancement, boils down to one thing: building the experience for students. Sometimes, our jobs may seem to impact students’ lives less directly than the lessons that happen in the classroom. However, in doing our best work, we provide a framework for growth and for dreams.

In my role as a House Director, I get to live vicariously through the energy and achievements of my students on a daily basis. This connection provides an instant and quite tangible reward that motivates me throughout my workday. “Communications may not always come with that instant feedback,” I remember saying in the interview, “but it’s an essential part of developing and growing the Shawnigan experience.”

A few days later, I was drawn into a speech given by Will Harris ’19 (Duxbury), who said, “I’d like to dedicate this to everyone in chapel, for showing so much kindness, even though you may not notice the impact it can have on others.”

At one point in his life, Will felt that he had to internalize his feelings so as not to drag others down with him. “I thought I could persevere alone,” he shared. “At Shawnigan, you do not need to persevere alone. The School has a huge support system filled with some of the most caring individuals I have ever met. The support the boys in my House, staff, students, and everyone else on campus has shown me has been immeasurable and priceless.”

So much of this issue of Black & Gold is about the opportunity to grow up in this inspiring place, supported by teachers and students alike. Many of our staff members also work over the summer at Shawnigan camps to give kids a week or two they can tell stories about their entire lives.

It is my hope that anyone who supports the School in any way can feel a part of the stories in the following pages. No matter who you are, or what your contribution is, you are making a difference and creating magic.

– Maureen Connolly

EDITOR

STORY EDITOR

PICTURE EDITOR

DESIGN

Maureen Connolly

Jon Zacks

Arden Gill

Maureen Connolly

WRITERS

CONTRIBUTORS

Christina Chant Richard Lamont Jay Connolly Lindsay Loomer

Jon Zacks External Relations & Advancement Office

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PREFACE

A note from Richard “Larry” Lamont

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Shawnigan life – frozen in time

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BOOKSHELF

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ALL RISE

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A SCHOOL WITHIN A SCHOOL

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THE WALK

Andrea Carballo’s identity forged through literature

Model UN helps bring out the voices of the future Shawnigan’s springboard to success

Jim Holland wanders with purpose

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Opening doors of opportunity

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CAMPUS

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EMERGING ARTIST

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LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD

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ALUMNI NOTEBOOK

School’s out for summer Inside the workshop with Carolina Mees 30 years of Shawnigan co-education

Updates from our graduates

The Wolf Moon – captured from the Shawnigan Observatory on January 20, 2019.

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FROM THE HEADMASTER

PREFACE Relocating from the fjords of Norway to beautiful British Columbia was always going to be both a challenge and an adventure for the Lamont family.

At our reception for supporters in Victoria as part of the February 2019 Board Retreat, I was asked by an Executive Director of a nonprofit organization that empowers people living with a barrier or disability why I had made the decision to shift from UWC Red Cross Nordic to Shawnigan Lake School.

I had in my own professional journey stepped onwards from Marlborough College, a large co-educational boarding school in the UK, to take on the ‘rektor-ship’ of Red Cross Nordic. As part of this role, I was privileged to work alongside a deliberately diverse student body (with more than 85 nations represented on campus), with many students selected from conflict and post-conflict countries, including a group of remarkable individuals with injuries who participated in our Survivors of Conflict Program. As part of my education, I learnt about not only the impact of the education we delivered but, more importantly, about the resourcefulness of these students and the impact they had on those around them.

In answer to the question posed at the reception in Victoria, I explained that the single most defining reason the Lamonts chose to apply and accept the position at Shawnigan Lake School was its commitment to providing more than 40 per cent of students on campus (and their families) with financial assistance. This annual support from the School’s Foundation, made possible by the generosity of our supporters, places us at the top of Canadian independent schools in terms of financial aid and supporting access.

As you will read in this magazine, I too was a recipient of a bursary when a student. To this day, I appreciate the opportunity and support it provided me at a crucial time in my school education.

Our aim at Shawnigan is that, whatever a child’s background, he or she can explore our web pages and submit an application to Shawnigan. Our responsibility as educators is to develop access to create diversity within our student body – and to promote understanding and respect for cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity.

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The articles in this issue speak to the vibrant and diverse community we currently have here at Shawnigan and that we seek to develop going forward – from students and staff of international backgrounds to the evolution of the Prep program as a distinct school within a school, from spiritual journeys abroad to the impact of Model United Nations, and from summer programs on campus to the celebration of differences.

We also take time in this issue to celebrate 30 years of co-education at Shawnigan. We continue to discuss internally whether our community is fully and truly co-educational in spirit and action – a critical conversation that needs to happen on a co-educational boarding school campus every academic year to ensure a level playing field is created and maintained.

Shawnigan is blessed to have roughly 40 distinct nationalities represented among our students and staff. We strive to provide a diverse, global educational experience in which students find themselves among roommates, classmates, and friends from around the world. The enrichment of their learning and development, not to mention their lifelong network, is one of the wonderful elements of a Shawnigan education.

To celebrate this valued diversity, we launched an International Flags Project with the intention to acquire a flag for every nation currently represented at our School. As part of this, we shall invite students to share their nation’s culture, language, history, and unique qualities with the School community throughout the year.

At the same time, we cherish and instil a lifelong love in our students of the people, the place, and the heritage of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and Canada.

My compass throughout the past two terms has been my commitment to ethical decision-making – and I recognize that I am, in part, forged by the Nordic region and its commitment to the promotion of trust, openness, gender equality, inclusion, and much more.

Shawnigan strikes me as a school stepping confidently forward from a period of consolidation and development and, at the same time, challenging itself to be relevant, purposeful, and of service in a changing world.

I trust you will enjoy the stories within this edition of Black & Gold.

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MOMENTS SHAWNIGAN IN PICTURES

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SHAWNIGAN

Bookshelf

WITH ANDREA CARBALLO

STORY BY CHRISTINA CHANT

The Bogotá of Andrea Carballo’s childhood was a war zone. A battleground for rival drug cartels and government forces, the city was plagued by conflict.

With parents who were Costa Rican and Brazilian civil engineers, Carballo and her family moved from Costa Rica to the remote jungles of the Dominican Republic, and then on to Colombia. “At the time, it wasn’t safe to be outside or play outside. The threat of kidnapping as a foreigner was very real – even our school bus was flanked by SUVs full of Marines,” Carballo recounts.

If the threat of violence imprisoned Carballo inside her home, it was books that set her free. “There was a squash court inside the house that we rented and we would roller skate and play in there, but you can only play so much. The TV offered only two channels and the programs at the time were run by the military and they were terrible, so we read – we read tons.”

Carballo was fortunate to attend a progressive international school run by passionate teachers where reading was strongly encouraged in class and through the summer. Her mom would buy every book on the Scholastic Book Club list, and Carballo’s love of reading steadily grew.

“A lot of the Scholastic books we had at home were things like The Baby-Sitter’s Club series,” Carballo shares. “It was fun literature but not necessarily good literature. My first experiences with good literature came from school.”

Evolving from a necessary activity to escape boredom, one of her first literary adventures came from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, which was read to her class by a much-loved Grade 4 teacher.

“It had the same kind of memorable impact on me as the Harry Potter books had on my own kids,” she shares. “We would sit there after lunch and our teacher would read. It presented such a different world. There was so much there about the theory of time that we learned about. I’ll never forget our teacher holding up a piece of paper and saying, ‘Time is like a piece of paper – it’s flat and goes on like this. But what if you could fold it and you were able to move from here to here?’ I think that you could read that book four or five times and there’s still so much you could take away from it.”

By the end of Carballo’s middle school education, when the violence in Bogotá was at its height and the threat of kidnapping was overwhelming, Carballo’s parents relocated back to Costa Rica so their children could enjoy normal teenage lives.

“Because I’d never lived in Costa Rica until those high school years, Carlos Salazar Herrera’s collection of short stories, Cuentos de angustias y paisajes (Tales of anguish and landscapes), was pretty special to me,” says Carballo. “It’s so beautifully written and illustrated, and makes you understand

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the country and culture of Costa Rica. It helped give me an insight into my own identity.”

Continuing her international school education, she read the full canon of English literature in her AP English class, and then went on to university to complete a degree in Spanish language and culture, during which she immersed herself in the works of Latin American authors including Gabriel García Márquez, Isabelle Allende, Rosario Castellanos, and Octavio Paz. “Right now, I find it hard to read Spanish literature because it reminds me of home and that makes me sad,” she reveals. “My dad has Parkinson’s disease – he can no longer work, so he reads all day. He always gives me recommendations and keeps me up to date with Latin American and Spanish literature. I do read them, but it does hurt.”

Nonetheless, if she could spend one day as any literary character, it would be as one of Isabel Allende’s strong female characters, such as Eva Luna or one of the female protagonists from The House of the Spirits.

“Isabel Allende represents one of the first times a writer made a big deal out of the strength and softness of Latin American women. I also identify with the genre of Magical Realism – to me, it is very much what I think life is like,” she reflects. “I think, as hard as it was, there must have not been a more important time than being in Chile during the war and understanding what the people went through. If I could experience a brief moment of life in a particular political time and climate, it would be through the eyes of one of Allende’s characters.”

From books about Argentina’s grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and los desaparecidos to Nadia Murad’s The Last Girl, Carballo’s choice of more challenging reads are often focused around women and women’s rights. Murad, a Yazidi, won a Nobel Peace Prize for her account of her kidnapping and enslavement

by ISIS. “I think it’s important,” Carballo explains. “If I’m going to read tough stuff, I like to read something meaningful about women. I can relate to it more. I couldn’t stop reading The Last Girl, but, at the same time, it was a tough one to get through.”

Another challenging read she has on her bucket list is Man’s Search for Meaning, the seminal 1946 book by Austrian psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl. In the book, Frankl chronicles his experiences in the camp and his ultimate discovery of the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even in suffering.

Many of Carballo’s lifelong friends are of Jewish descent, the grandchildren of men and women who had fled Europe during and after the Second World War and settled in Colombia.

“So many of my friends’ grandparents had their numbers tattooed on their wrists,” she says, referencing the tattoos that

identified inmates of Nazi concentration camps. “Because I grew up in that community, even though I’m not Jewish, it’s something that feels close to home. I’m going to have to be in a good frame of mind to read that book. Everyone says it changes your life, but it’s a difficult one.”

Balancing out her literary explorations of the darker sides of human nature and existence is a deep-rooted love of lighter reads and, above all, good humour.

Now a Spanish teacher and Renfrew House Director, Carballo loves visiting Shawnigan’s library and asking the librarians to find her something funny. “We deal with such tough stuff sometimes that we need a bit of humour,” she says. “I love writers and books that transport you to a different culture or place, like Alexander McCall Smith’s books set in Scotland and Botswana, and Michelle Obama’s Becoming, as well as Kevin

Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems – I find those books really fascinating.”

If there’s one book that occupies the top of Carballo’s reading list for anyone and any occasion, it’s Miguel de Cervantes’s classic satire Don Quixote. Published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel and is the most influential book in the Spanish literary canon. Over 400 years after it originally appeared in print, the book still regularly tops lists of “best literary work ever written.”

“I know it’s a big one, but it’s a book that’ll make you cry and laugh,” explains Carballo. “It’s a book about books. It has every type of literature in it that came before – poetry, ballads, epic stories, chivalry – and it was really the first book that had a rounded character, someone who progresses and changes. It questions what it is to be sane and what madness really is.”

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Rise STORY BY JON ZACKS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

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IT’S THE FALL OF 2012, AND MADELINE TORRIE IS NERVOUSLY SCANNING THE ROOM.

She’s in a large conference centre in Montreal, amidst 200 other excited teenagers. Torrie is part of a Shawnigan contingent that has travelled to the annual Secondary Schools’ United Nations Symposium (SSUNS), though right now she’s surrounded by strangers. This committee is simulating the World Health Organization, and Torrie has been tasked with representing Colombia. She’s spent weeks researching the country, and its response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in particular. As of yet, however, she hasn’t spoken.

After each session, Torrie convenes with Paul Klassen – a social studies teacher and the director of Shawnigan’s Model UN program. He knows that she’s done her homework, and he gently reassures her.

An audience like this can be intimidating, but the time has finally come. The committee is back in session, and Torrie raises her placard. Called on by the chairperson, she stands and articulates Colombia’s position, and then sits back down, her heart racing.

Seven years later, Torrie can still remember speaking for that first time. She still remembers the “high five” she shared with Mr. Klassen afterwards. She also remembers a note, passed to her by a delegate she didn’t know. It read: “You’re awesome. Great job.”

Beyond encouraged, Torrie was hooked. She spoke several more times while in Montreal and made the most of her first Model UN experience. “After I did that, I felt like I could speak in front of any crowd,” she recalls.

Bringing her newfound confidence back to Shawnigan, Torrie became a fixture of the School’s Model UN program. She dedicated countless hours to the fine art of public speaking. She worked tirelessly to help organize Shawnigan’s own conference (ShawMUN). She also continued to present in public, even winning the regional Hector McIntosh Public Speaking Competition.

Academically, Torrie was thriving, though she saw herself as a bit of an anomaly. While many of her peers focused on science and math, Torrie was set on the liberal arts, and took every possible AP humanities class. She loved the social sciences, and she loved to write. By the time graduation approached, she knew that she wanted to do international law. After considering programs in the UK, she eventually committed to the International Relations program at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College.

After finishing her undergrad, Torrie continued on her chosen path, moving to the U of T’s Faculty of Law – widely considered the most prestigious law school in the country, and alma mater to former Prime Minister Paul Martin as well as four of Canada’s nine current Supreme Court Justices. A few months into law school, she began applying for summer

Photos of Madeline Torrie ’13 (Groves’) with Ryan Gan ’14 (Duxbury), Josef Thomas ’14 (Lake’s), Joe Han ’13 (Copeman’s), and Liam Brister ’13 (Ripley’s) are by Stephen Lane.

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internships in The Hague, the Netherlands – home to the International Court of Justice. She applied for several that fascinated her, including bodies investigating war crimes in Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. Ultimately, she decided to work with the Special Tribunal on Lebanon, a body created to prosecute those responsible for the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The tribunal combines elements of international law and Lebanese criminal law, and saw her working directly in the judges’ chambers. More recently, she contributed to the International Human Rights Clinic at the U of T, doing research for a Supreme Court of Canada case involving a British Columbia mining company and three Eritrean refugees who claim the company was complicit in their abuse by the state.

Working for a UN Criminal Tribunal is a long way from the Model UN conferences she did in high school.

She didn’t learn about Lebanese law, nor become an expert on the Middle East, while at Shawnigan. And Torrie is the first to point out that the experience of Model UN probably more closely resembles the work of a parliamentarian than a law student researching the application of the Act of State Doctrine.

However, there is one thing she learned in Model UN that has powered her journey so far: she learned how to learn. “That’s totally the kind of thing that Model UN teaches you,” Torrie acknowledges. “It’s not so much the topic of the conference or your committee or what country you’re representing. You’re learning how to research and how to be versatile, which is what law is about too.”

For Paul Klassen, that’s exactly the point. “It’s not necessarily about waving the values of the UN,” he insists.

“It’s about building confidence.” Klassen sees Model UN as a way to teach individual and group skills that may not always get as much attention in the classroom. For him, Model UN is about researching and public speaking. It’s about being able to work with other people. It’s about building consensus.

“Being able to work with strangers is an important skill,” he says. “And it can mushroom into something much larger – into life skills that apply to fields beyond law or politics.”

Klassen has seen countless young people discover themselves through Model UN, just as Madeline Torrie did nearly a decade ago.

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Klassen has a fresh crop of eager students in Model UN this year. Some of them are seniors, taking on larger roles in leadership, while others are taking their first nervous steps into an intimidating new environment.

One of the new recruits is Nnenna Onwukwe, who first arrived at Shawnigan last year. Originally from Mozambique, Nnenna’s family immigrated when she was six. She grew up in Fort McMurray, and became a Canadian citizen two days before the start of the current school year.

Like Torrie, Nnenna is interested in international relations, and may explore a career in law or diplomacy. She is passionate about helping others, particularly those less fortunate – whether they’re in Canada, Mozambique, or elsewhere. Towards the end of her Grade 10 year, Nnenna decided she was ready for a new challenge that would push her out of her comfort zone. She also knows that if she wants to make a difference in the world, she’ll need to be able to make her case. “No matter what type of career you go into, you’re going to need to be able to speak in public,” she says.

For her first conference, Nnenna travelled to SSUNS, and she too remembers the first time she stood and spoke. When in Montreal, Nnenna participated in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, 1947. Her task was to represent a Hindu man during the partition of India and Pakistan. “It was a great way to start my Model UN career,” she smiles. “If I could go back and talk to myself when I was preparing for SSUNS, I would say ‘don’t worry, you’re going to have lots more debates.’” She adds, knowingly, “I already feel more confident.”

Following SSUNS, Nnenna contributed to the Shawnigan House of Commons – a one-day parliamentary simulation for Shawnigan Grade 10s. This time around, she stepped further outside of her comfort zone, working to keep boisterous peers in line, and even helping to lead debates.

For Klassen, Nnenna’s biggest attribute is her willingness to take risks – whether it’s leaving home to attend boarding school or speaking a second language in a Model UN committee. Her next assignment is rapidly approaching, as Nnenna prepares to lead a committee during ShawMUN 2019. “I’m going to be a chair for a crisis committee, which will give me a totally new perspective on how things work.”

Nnenna is still finding her feet, and she remains a little nervous at times. But she’s doing her research, hoping to be as prepared as she can for the moment the gavel hits the table and her heart begins to race.

“No matter what type of career you go into, you’re going to need to be able to speak in public.”

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From curricular classes to fine arts to chapel . . .

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. . . Shawnigan encourages each and every student to raise their hand.

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Awithin SCHOOL a school STORY BY CHRISTINA CHANT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

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ON A COOL FALL EVENING IN NOVEMBER 2018, AN EXCITED GROUP OF STUDENTS AND STAFF GATHERED IN THE WARM SURROUNDS OF HARTL HOUSE FOR A PIZZA PARTY CELEBRATING THE INAUGURAL PREP SCHOOL PIN PRESENTATION.

“It felt like we were coming back to our home,” shares Damon Kwok, an alumnus of the Prep School program who is now a Grade 10 student in Lonsdale’s. “Prep will always feel like a home to me – it’s just like a family.”

While this happy event was primarily designed to celebrate the achievements and success of last year’s Prep cohort of 15 students, on a broader level it represented an official recognition of the Prep’s evolving identity as a separate and distinct and, at the same time, integral part of the education on offer on campus.

The pin idea originated with Damon, who approached Head of Prep Programming Kimberly Edgson last year to ask about developing a Prep pin for alumni of the program.

Following a vote amongst the Prep students to choose the best design, Damon then worked alongside Shawnigan’s graphic arts instructor Maite Urzua to oversee the production of the pin, from design concept to reality.

The significance of Damon’s request, and the sense of pride and achievement therein, is not lost on Edgson.

“That was my greatest accomplishment last year – and it really had nothing to do with me,” she smiles. “The fact that Damon wanted to pin his Prep experience to his chest was the greatest tribute he could have offered me.”

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When Edgson joined Shawnigan’s Prep in 2017 as Head of Prep Programming, she was pursuing a long-held professional and personal passion. The role represented a natural transition from her work linguistically supporting international students in the main school, where she had already had the opportunity to work closely with former Prep students. However, when she came on board at the Prep, though the program was operating well, a significant key to greater success was missing.

“A student who is connected learns better and faster,” she explains. “But when I joined the Prep, it had been operating as a deliberately separate entity, and interactions between the Prep students and the main school were limited.”

This deliberate separation was part of the original plan. The original Prep vision was the brainchild of Chad Holtum – now Deputy Head of School at Glenlyon Norfolk, then Shawnigan’s Director of Enrollment – who saw, just ahead of time, the boom that was about to take place in the international boarding student market. Seeing the admissions team turn away talented, well-rounded students who lacked only the language skills to make them a perfect fit for Shawnigan, he pitched the notion of a separate program to provide an intensive year of language and cultural preparation before, readiness permitting and mission appropriate, students transitioned to the main school. In the fall of 2011, the Prep School opened, welcoming its first eight students.

In 2017, Edgson was tasked with a re-evaluation of the Prep as part of her new remit as Head of Prep Programming.

This review process, and the findings thereof, have been instrumental in bringing the Prep more clearly into the

Shawnigan fold, formalizing the increasing year-on-year integration that had been quietly taking place in the six years since its establishment.

For Edgson, this supported integration is key to the success of the Prep students. “The Prep is not just about language,” she explains. “It’s a pathway to Shawnigan’s rigorous program, yes, but we’re also looking at university candidacy. We want to make sure the students have options after high school.”

In order to instil this readiness, Edgson and her team of five employ a comprehensive and considered curriculum, marrying highly individualized experiences and a familystyle environment in Hartl House, with connections to the regular life and programming of Shawnigan. A Prep student’s experience begins with Admissions Associate Julia Pollock and continues with daily educational and residential support from specialist teachers and Prep House staff.

The largest difference between the day-to-day experience of a Prep student and a student following the regular Shawnigan curriculum is the academic day. Although Prep students are exposed to similar academic content, classes are all focused on English language development. Students in the main school also attend classes across campus, whereas Prep students only venture away from Hartl House for math classes.

Outside of the confines of the academic day, however, life in the Prep School looks more similar. Prep students join the larger community for breakfast and lunch in Marion Hall and for whole-school chapel services. They are fully integrated, within their respective age levels, for fine art, sport, interhouse events, and the Shawnigan Life and grade curriculum.

This year, they participated in Shawnigan Ski Week at Manning Park for the first time.

“Last year we had three Prep students in the musical, and this year there are two of our students playing at a high level in hockey and rugby,” says Edgson. “It’s an excellent recipe for success. The deeper the connections, the quicker the improvement. The decision to have dinner in Hartl House is a conscious one, though. We use our dinners for language and culture immersion. Marion Hall is loud and bustling, and it’s brilliant for breakfast and lunch, but our dinners are special. It’s just my family, the duty staff, and our students.”

Edgson understands that what the Prep students need is a safe and relaxing retreat, a place where they can unwind and just be kids. Their biggest challenge, she shares, is homesickness. “They’re tired – they’re working really hard.

Many of them are coming from circumstances that are so incredibly different and then they spend every day translating, learning, and working to establish new cultural norms,” she explains. “I’m blown away by their courage. I imagine my own children at age 12 or 13, going across the world without the requisite language and pulling off something incredible.

The Prep students cope and function so well, but even in that there’s an inherent challenge: we’re not always acutely aware of how much they’re taking on. I try to remind myself of that frequently – just how much they’re doing inside their heads on a day-to-day basis.”

The new vision of the Prep as a springboard to educational opportunities at Shawnigan and other schools also presents some challenges to the people navigating its course.

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“Originally, Prep housed mostly students from the same country, but now we’ve built diversity into our mission statement purposefully because it fosters immersion,” she explains. “However, that means we have to be aware of six or more different cultures and age and language groups, as well as a boarding house that is, by nature, co-ed. All of these factors add more challenges, but all that the students gain and enjoy by learning about one another’s cultures outweighs that. I feel like my job is the greatest job on campus.”

With seven years of Prep history to learn from and with a focused and passionate leader at the helm, it is clear that the future of the Prep program is bright. Edgson’s objective this year is to continue to solidify the purpose and place of the Prep within the wider context of a Shawnigan education, and to keep honing

her program to best prepare each successive year of students for what lies beyond the cozy confines of Hartl House.

While Edgson has only personally shepherded one year of graduates through the Prep, the parameters of her previous role at Shawnigan means she has been tracking Prep graduates through their further Shawnigan education and experience for several years.

“I’m very proud of their level of success,” she says. “And now we are just starting to see them graduate from Shawnigan and move on to their post-secondary education. This is an important time because how do you truly measure the success and impact of the program unless you see its graduates continue to progress and succeed as independent, accomplished young adults? They’re Shawnigan students and they love the School, but it’s not the goal to just get them here – it’s to get them ready for life.”

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Walk THE

STORY BY JAY CONNOLLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

Late on a cold afternoon in March of 2018, Jim Holland stood by himself in the small stone village of O Cebreiro in northwest Spain. The town proper consists of 15 stone buildings, including three small hotels to serve hikers on the Camino de Santiago, the 780-kilometre trail stretching from Spain’s eastern border to Santiago de Compostela in the west.

On this, his third pilgrimage along the Camino, Holland had set out from Leon, but halfway through the 300-kilometre trek, conditions turned difficult. He spent the day trudging uphill for 20 kilometres, through snowdrifts a metre high and a constant, biting wind. He was caught in an internal crossfire familiar to adventure travellers – the sense that he was not up to the challenges the day had set before him, and the attendant understanding that he had no choice but to meet them. By the time he reached O Cebreiro, the cold had chewed through his jacket and the wet had seeped into his boots. He needed a hot meal and a warm place to dry his clothes.

In the crowded village pub, he found tables jammed with young Spanish hikers – young people, he learned later, who had come to a wall in their lives and didn’t know what to do, and so they were walking. Holland fell into conversation with a young man named Reuben. “He was about 30, the same age as my youngest son,” he recalls. Reuben was a good-looking kid with a receding hairline and dancing brown eyes who wore his hair in a bun and travelled under the cover of a wool cape. “We

really connected. He was walking with his friends Pedro and Alberto. ‘All Spanish people,’ he told me, ‘feel an obligation to walk the Camino.’ We were all headed in the same direction, but that didn’t mean we would travel together the next day.” Holland laughs, the pupils of his eyes sparking as the unique culture of the Camino returns to him. “People size one another up,” he says. “Everyone wants to know how you’re walking – how fast, how far. They probably thought, ‘This old man won’t keep up with us!’”

Jim Holland – “The Rev,” as students call him – has served as Chaplain at Shawnigan Lake School since 2007. It’s an important but nuanced role – more so, given the nature of his congregation. A captive audience of adolescents demands value for time, particularly at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Jim Holland has won the trust of students and staff alike through his commitment to honesty, respect, generosity, and humour. In addition to his duties as Chaplain, he teaches two AP psychology classes and a senior elective in philosophy.

Jon Zacks, who co-teaches the philosophy course, describes Holland’s approach: “Rather than distributing information, Jim acts as a mentor, guide, and touchstone. He understands what motivates students and he knows how to bring out the best in them.”

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Holland never imagined himself working as a boarding school chaplain. Raised in Virginia, he found oppressive the constant conflict in his family of nine. At 14, he escaped to a seminary high school. “The Catholic Church,” he explains, “was more or less the final arbiter in our home when I was growing up, so it was important to me.” For the next 10 years, he tracked toward a career as a Roman Catholic priest, completing his MDiv at the Toronto School of Theology in 1978. As his studies drew to a close, however, he decided against life as a priest. “I had no theological conflict with the church,” he says. “I still attended services, and I worked for a while in the social justice office of the Archdiocese of Toronto, but I could not commit to the narrowness of the lifestyle.”

In 1982, Holland married Selinde Krayenhoff. Their sons, Isaac and Theo, were born in 1985 and 1989, respectively.

For the next 25 years, he worked in magazine publishing, first in Toronto, then in Oakland, California, and finally on Vancouver Island, where the couple ran Island Parent magazine from their cabin on Reid Island in the Strait of Georgia. The appeal of spiritual leadership never quite left him, however, and in 2005, he took vows in the Anglican Church of Canada and signed on as parish priest at St. John’s in Ladysmith.

A year later, Shawnigan teacher Ralph Fraser was visiting his sister on Reid Island. Over a beer one afternoon, he told Holland that Shawnigan was searching for a Chaplain. “You should apply,” Fraser said.

“What does the School chaplain do?” Holland asked.

“I don’t really know the whole picture,” Fraser admitted, “but you’d be perfect!”

Holland visited the campus and was invited by then Headmaster David Robertson to run a service. It was a good fit on both sides. Eighteen months later, Holland and Selinde moved to the campus. Long-time Shawnigan

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teacher Gary Dukelow recalls Holland’s early impact: “He immediately demonstrated a ‘feel’ for the culture of Shawnigan and addressed the most relevant needs of the community.”

In one of those early sermons, Holland articulated the approach that has made him so successful: “I am determined to be honest with you, to work hard not to say anything from this podium that I don’t truly believe myself,” he told the students. “[And] I am committed to … respect the many different backgrounds and traditions that you come from.”

Reflecting now on more than a decade as Chaplain, he has come to a clear sense of his role: “It’s my job to draw people into thinking about bigger questions – to ask themselves about the fundamental principles and challenges of our humanity.”

The community, for its part, has challenged the Rev to push himself. “Outside of my marriage,” he admits, “this is the place where I’ve grown the most as a person. Partly that’s a stage-oflife thing, but the culture here has also allowed me to develop as a person – mentally, physically, spiritually. It has forced me to learn much more about myself.”

Holland’s passion for adventure on foot came in part from a desire to walk the talk of Shawnigan Lake School. Early in 2014, he read Rachel Joyce’s novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, about an Englishman who walks a thousand kilometres to see an old friend. “I liked that the character wasn’t in particularly good shape when he started out,” Holland recalls. “I thought I could actually do something like that.”

The School’s emphasis on physical fitness and sport made him aware of a gap in his own experience. “I’ve never been on any sports teams – ever!” he admits. “I was inspired by the physical abilities and accomplishments of people at Shawnigan, but I

had no legitimacy of my own in that respect.” Nearing 60, he decided to test himself. In the summer of 2015, the Hollands walked from their campus home to Chemainus, then around Salt Spring Island and home again. “That was 90 klicks and a good introduction,” he says. “We loved it, but it was about us, about bonding.”

Satisfied that he could meet the physical challenges of long-distance walking, Holland booked a flight to Spain the following spring. “I’d heard about the Camino for years,” he says, “so I put the two ideas together and decided to take on the challenge for my 60th birthday.” In 29 days, he completed the 780 kilometres of the Camino de Santiago. “It was a profound spiritual experience,” he says. “The Camino isn’t about the individual walker – it’s about the millions and millions of people who have travelled that path. It’s rare that someone doesn’t come to it with an intention – a life issue to confront or a desire for change. And the Camino has a way of answering that intention. I’m not the kind of person who has a lot of mystical experiences, but when I walk on the Camino, most of the time I have the feeling of being in an expanded state.”

Opportunities also presented themselves closer to home. In the spring of 2016, Holland joined Bishop Logan McMenamie for 250 km of the Bishop’s Sacred Journey down Vancouver Island. McMenamie, the Anglican Bishop of British Columbia, walked from Alert Bay on northern Vancouver Island to Victoria in a symbolic gesture to “re-enter the land.”

As the group passed through First Nations territories, the Bishop asked permission to live and work in partnership and respect with the Island’s First People. “It was very moving,” Holland says. “At the Nanoose Reserve, for example, the chief was a woman in her mid-30s who spoke with immense dignity about her people’s deep sense of identity-in-place – of what it meant to be on that land as part of that tribe. People were crying as they listened to her. Afterwards, one of the bus drivers for the group said, ‘I feel like my understanding of the world has just changed.’”

In total, Jim Holland has trekked more than 2,000 kilometres on his adventures, not counting local forays. In the summer of 2016, he and Selinde walked 200 km along the Grand Canal in Ireland. A year later, he returned to Europe to tackle the 250 km of the Portuguese Camino, and in March of 2018, he flew to Leon to revisit the final 300 km of the Spanish Camino.

Walking has helped Holland discover his place in the world.

“For various reasons,” he reflects, laughing, “I had powerful

early experiences with being ignored. In a family of seven kids, everyone had to fight for attention, and that wasn’t really my way. As a result, belonging has always been my big issue. It’s a struggle for me to believe people want me in their group, but walking with others has given me that experience in a powerful way.”

The sense of belonging extends to his life at Shawnigan.

As a direct result of his example, a number of staff and former students have embarked on their own journeys along the Camino. “It was an incredible feeling to discover that my initial Camino walk had inspired this community. It was fundamentally important for me to feel the sense of physical challenge and accomplishment, but I thought it would end there, with me. It has given me a different experience, a different idea of myself, that I could provide an example to others.”

The day Jim Holland climbed the hill through snow and wind to arrive in the village of O Cebreiro was not his most difficult day on the Camino in 2018. A month earlier, the ‘Beast from the East’ swept through the region, bringing snowstorms and bitter cold. A couple of days after Holland met Reuben and his friends in O Cebreiro, the sequel storm pressed down. He remembers the treachery of the day: “I was on the top of a mountain when it hit – winds of 50 km/h driving the snow.

I fought through the storm for four hours. I had to cover my face and I could only look down. At the end of that day, I ran into a couple of young Spanish guys resting on a stone fence at the bottom of a hill – Reuben’s friends from the pub, Alberto and Pedro. “‘Jim!’ they exclaimed. ‘We were worried. We didn’t think you’d make it!’

“They had been unsure of my abilities, but when I survived the storm, they extended their acceptance and respect. We had a really amazing evening in Portomarin. Sometimes, the harsher the challenge, the deeper the bond. They had been calling themselves the Three Amigos, but they admitted me into the fraternity after that and called us the Four Amigos.”

The next morning, Holland stood with Reuben and looked between the buildings of Portomarin into the distance. Fifty kilometres to the east, the mountains were covered in snow. The two men paused in the clear light of a cool mountain morning to take in the view. “Look at how beautiful that is,” Jim Holland said.

Reuben turned to him, rested a hand on Jim’s shoulder, and said, “Yes – and we walked from there.”

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In total, Jim Holland has trekked more than 2,000 kilometres on his adventures, not counting local forays.

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The Magic Formula

In July of 2018, Larry Lamont moved into his new office at Shawnigan. As the School’s 12th Headmaster, Lamont had a few weeks to settle in before the return of the bulk of students and staff.

Passing the Sportsplex one evening, Lamont noticed an open door. He peered inside, and discovered a 6' 10" African student running through drills on the basketball court. With conversational French, Lamont struck up a rapport with the athlete. An instant connection was sparked, and Lamont was soon talked into joining the practice. His shoulder, he reports, is still recovering.

A native of Senegal, Sergio Pereira spent much of his childhood bouncing between his home country and neighbouring Guinea Bissau.

Back then, Sergio’s unchallenged love was soccer. The world’s favourite sport was his favourite sport, and woe to anyone who would try to convince him otherwise. As Sergio grew ever taller, his friends and family all tried in vain to get him onto the court.

“Everyone in my city said ‘Go play basketball!’” he grins. Finally, his soccer team gave him an ultimatum: his teammates wouldn’t let him back until he at least tried. “Okay,” he sighed. “But if I don’t like it, I’m coming back to play soccer.”

STORY BY JON ZACKS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

To the surprise of no one, Sergio was a natural. Within a few months, he was travelling around the world playing basketball, and found himself on a plane to Canada.

Admitted to Shawnigan on an all-rounder scholarship for Grades 11 and 12, Sergio made an immediate impression around the School. His distinctive stature and warm, charismatic smile helped him forge instant connections in Copeman’s House, while his linguistic abilities (he speaks Wolof and Mandjak – two languages of Senegal – as well as French, Spanish, Catalan, and now English) helped him flourish in the School’s language courses.

His academic growth has continued throughout his Grade 12 year, though for Headmaster Lamont, Sergio’s contributions to the 2018 summer camps remain the true testament of his Shawnigan experience.

Throughout July, Sergio worked with the summer program team, acting as a mentor and guide to wide-eyed youngsters from all over the world. When asked to contribute, Sergio didn’t hesitate. He enjoys working with kids, and wasn’t going to return home for the break. What began as a summer pastime quickly turned into a ‘win’ for everyone involved.

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“It was amazing to see the impact he had on the summer camps, and the impact the summer camps had on him,” Lamont smiles. The camps also gave Sergio the opportunity to give back to Shawnigan – an opportunity he made the most of. As an added bonus, his English was rapidly improving all the while.

Vancouver Island was enduring a historic heat wave that summer, with smoke from provincial forest fires pushing dark plumes into the local skies. While Sergio worked comfortably with admiring youngsters, another Shawnigan student caught Lamont’s attention for her tireless work behind the scenes.

The campus splendour had peaked on Closing Day 2018 – just weeks before Lamont’s arrival. Always a joyous day, this year’s celebration was extra special for Atoussa Farboud, who was awarded a Jim C. Marlow Scholarship

for “integrity, citizenship, sportsmanship, and leadership.”

As she finished her Grade 11 year, the award was a tribute to her hard work and dedication to all aspects of the School’s programming.

While Atoussa’s elder brother, Avasta, had finally convinced their parents to send him to Shawnigan in Grade 11, Atoussa made it in Grade 10. She came for the unique community she had heard so much about. And she came for the challenge that had been lacking elsewhere. From the outset, she made the most of the opportunity, excelling in the classroom, on the sports fields, in fine art, and in residential life.

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When she’s not working on her homework, she’s likely to be hanging upside down as part of her aerial gymnastics practice.

When she’s not running across the Shawnigan soccer fields, she’s often running errands on the family farm in the Cowichan Valley.

Atoussa saw first-hand how much Avasta had benefited from a Shawnigan education. After two years of her own, she knew how much she was flourishing. But receiving the Marlow Scholarship was about more than just validation. For Atoussa, it meant that not only would she be able to continue her Shawnigan journey, but that her younger brother Aslan would be able to come as well. “Having both of us here at once would not have been possible without this assistance,” she insists. And so, in her final year, the Farboud family has entered a new and final phase at Shawnigan, with Atoussa serving as a School Prefect, and Aslan racing through Grade 10.

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“Atoussa is a fantastic leader,” Lamont observes. “She’s full of good ideas, and she’s full of warmth and compassion.

She just makes such genuine heartfelt contributions to the discussions.”

Biographically, Atoussa tells a story not unlike Sergio’s – and a typically Canadian one. The child of Iranian and British immigrants, Atoussa was actually born in China, and lived in the UK from ages 2 to 7 before ultimately landing in Cobble Hill. Atoussa embraces her roots, and values Shawnigan in part for its multicultural tapestry. “I’ve always really valued different cultures, and I’m really curious about different cultures,” she says. Though she’s not particularly religious herself, she loves the School chapel, and has a deep respect for the different experiences people have had. “You’re bringing different perspectives,” she says, pointing to the boarding house and classroom experience. “It’s so valuable.”

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Awarding scholarships to promising students from across the world isn’t unique to modern-day Shawnigan Lake School.

However, revisiting the School’s financial assistance system has been an early priority of Larry Lamont’s tenure. In fact, in his final interview for the position, Lamont thought that insistence may have ruined his chances. Given his background of working with refugees and students with disabilities from conflict and post-conflict zones, Lamont stressed the value he places on accessibility. “If you want someone to increase the access and diversity of a Shawnigan education,” he recalls saying, “I might be the person for you.”

Lamont’s commitment to economic and cultural diversity may reflect growing trends in independent education, but it also stems from the story of his formative years.

Sent for schooling at England’s Winchester College, Lamont’s own education faced uncertainty when his physician father became unexpectedly ill. The family’s sudden financial instability meant tuition at his beloved school was challenged.The situation was resolved when Winchester’s Headmaster, in partnership with the school’s foundation, donors, and the British Medical Federation (BMF), stepped up in support.

Remarkably, Lamont never knew about the benefaction until several years ago, when his parents revealed their intention to leave behind some of their estate to Winchester and the BMF in the hope of supporting a family facing the kind of hardship that had been faced by the Lamonts. By that time, however, he had already seen first-hand the magic of deliberate diversity through his experiences working in schools in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and in Norway.

For Lamont, the magic of socio-economic diversity reaches beyond the students receiving scholarships. Of course, students like Sergio and Atoussa gain a formative educational experience that provides stepping stones to universities in Canada and

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beyond. It also gives them options for life after Shawnigan, and prepares them to take what they’ve learned and use it to become the community-builders of tomorrow – wherever their paths may take them.

But the magic also sprinkles over to their peers and teachers, who are exposed to other methods, philosophies, and perspectives. “The great lesson for staff and students, and also our local community, is the resourcefulness of these individuals,” Lamont insists. “Our students here, who might be predominantly from BC, are receiving an education in itself by having friends with backgrounds like Atoussa’s and Sergio’s.”

Lamont knows full well the impact that bursaries have on a school, and he knows that casting a wider net will inevitably lead to success. Approximately 40 per cent of Shawnigan’s student body receives some form of financial assistance. While Lamont would love to grow that percentage, he also has more pressing concerns. He wants to improve the accessibility of the application process, to ensure that money goes to families with the greatest need. He wants to extend financial aid to the Prep School and other programming. He wants to ensure that donors’ money is being distributed responsibly. And he wants to effectively publicize the process, so that any deserving young person can click on the School’s website and make it happen.

All of that means exploring communities close to Shawnigan – including First Nations communities – that may not have previously or consistently been on the radar. It means bringing in students who aren’t only interested in one aspect of the School, like star athletes or even high-performing academics. It means scouring communities locally and across the globe for students who share the School’s philosophy of a well-rounded education, and who are eager to embrace the Shawnigan community.

The great thing about this aspiration is that it’s so close at hand. The magic will work, through open doors.

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Campus STORY BY CHRISTINA CHANT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

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SCHOOL MAY HAVE BEEN OUT FOR THE SUMMER WHEN ALICE COOPER AND HIS BAND RECORDED THEIR HIT SONG IN 1972. THESE DAYS, HOWEVER, THE STORY HAS CHANGED. Instead of the quiet summer campus of yesteryear, Shawnigan’s grounds are now a hive of sport, art, and adventure. From aspiring wizards casting spells to couples exchanging vows, the scope of summer programming is expanding rapidly, with External Programs Coordinator Ronni Brown at the centre of it all.

Usually armed with a clipboard, cellphone, and an air of energetic purpose, Brown welcomed nearly 2,500 diverse program participants during 2018’s seven-week summer season.

The growth has been controlled but rapid, and 2019 promises to be even bigger.

While a healthy summer program is a contributing factor to the School’s financial sustainability, the motivation behind creating a rich and diverse summer program is much more nuanced. It is a strategic approach driven by community outreach, accessibility, brand awareness, and connections. The Shawnigan summer program, in essence, is about partnerships: internal partnerships between staff and students and different services, and external partnerships between Shawnigan and its local, provincial, and global participants.

It’s also about individual experiences and shared moments of personal connection and joy, and it is from these that Brown takes the most satisfaction.

“The summer is a special thing,” she shares. “People are coming here because they’ve chosen to be part of something they are engaged in and passionate about – and, because of that, it’s always really positive and fun. Anytime someone comes here, they leave having had this incredible experience.”

From large provincial organizations like BC Hockey, Rugby Canada, and Rowing Canada to the Indigenous group Thunder Rugby, the BC Summer Games, Mexico Rugby and a wealth of

Shawnigan’s own sports camps, athletics plays a large part in the typical summer season at Shawnigan. However, the way in which these camps run and the impact they have is anything but typical.

In a feat of logistical coordination, Brown is often able to bring complementary athletic groups onto campus at the same time so that they can either benefit from on-site opposition or enjoy a fresh perspective gleaned from crossover sporting activities. Last summer saw a rugby group from Magdalen College School, near Oxford, UK, gamely exchange grass for ice for an afternoon to try hockey for the first time. This coming summer will see a huge contingent of Canadian and American students sharing the campus with a rugby team from England’s Sutton Valence School, making for a trans-Atlantic collaboration with plenty of opportunity for scrums and scrimmage.

The support of external athletics during the summer at Shawnigan isn’t restricted to large provincial groups or established international teams. Last year saw Rugby Mexico’s breakthrough Women’s Sevens team acclimatizing and training at Shawnigan ahead of their Rugby World Cup Sevens debut.

Shawnigan also offers full sponsorship to Thunder Indigenous Rugby’s summer camp, an organization that promotes the game of rugby to Indigenous communities and runs an annual camp at Shawnigan for around 75 Indigenous athletes.

“Every group that comes onto campus is so excited and grateful, and making sure their experience is exactly what they want is what we work towards,” says Brown. “Groups that choose to come to Shawnigan do so because the environment is special. You’re removed from everything; everyone is present while they’re here.”

The unique environment and myriad facilities have benefited the School’s own summer sports camps, which have traditionally been focused on specific training in rugby, ice hockey, and squash. Now, the Shawnigan camps on offer are set to expand. Last summer saw the launch of a new range of

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Shawnigan-run community camps specifically designed for local children and teens aged 5 to 16.

In conjunction with intern Danielle Robb and alumna Megan Cholack-Briand ’16 (Kaye’s), Brown was able to successfully to plan and deliver three new camps – Outdoors, Multi-Sport, and Art – over the course of a three-week period.

As with everything else related to the summer program, this venture is only set to grow, with the goal for the summer 2019 season being a wide variety of week-long community day camps running throughout the full seven-week summer period.

Brown’s local community camps were also complemented

by Shawnigan’s new English Plus Program, a two-week residential English language program designed for students aged 10–16. This program, developed and coordinated by Head of Prep School Programming Kimberly Edgson and International Admissions Associate Julia Pollock, marks another new step, this time in the direction of curriculum-based summer camps with a strong academic focus. The trend of growth continues here too, with the 2019 English Plus program offering between 50 and 100 places divided between two- and four-week residential camp options. The possibilities, it seems, really are endless.

“People are seeing the potential for all these great things that we haven’t been able to do before,” explains Brown. “We’re also getting interest in the idea of co-curricular summer camps, like Robotics and Model UN. There’s freedom and space to explore options in the summer that don’t exist during the regular school year.”

That freedom also extends to opening the campus up to some novel camp offerings. 2018 saw Shawnigan play host to the Alectoria School of Magic, a three-day interactive sleepover camp for teens themed around folklore, magic, and mystery.

This well-subscribed camp was the brainchild of 15-year-old entrepreneur and Harry Potter superfan Maddy Kirstein, a student at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. The unique camp represented an exciting social option for teens

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who aren’t necessarily drawn to traditional sports and activity camps, offering them a chance to explore their interests, meet like-minded new friends, and enjoy all the incredible facilities Shawnigan’s campus has to offer.

Of course, no summer would be complete without a wedding season. Shawnigan has been open to alumni wedding parties for a number of years, but 2019 marks the first year that the School will play host to weddings between couples unconnected with the School, embracing a business model already successfully implemented at many other campus-based schools and universities.

Making weddings, camps, and all the other activities of the summer possible is the team effort of school services, including the kitchen, maintenance, communications, IT, and advancement, and the enthusiastic commitment and drive of Shawnigan student employees, who stay on after Closing Day to work through the summer.

“Employing our own students is one of the best summer program decisions I’ve made,” shares Brown, noting that Cholack-Briand does an unparalleled job coordinating the approximately 28 student employees who work on campus during the summer. “The students work hard all summer and take pressure off the other campus services. Not only that, but they come back to school in the fall with such an appreciation of what’s going on behind the scenes, in terms of cleaning, kitchen service, and laundry, because they are the people providing those services during the break.”

Times are changing. The traditional long, quiet summer vacation has given way to a busy and exciting season, during which partnerships and teamwork come to the fore to create a vibrant, market-driven program predicated on the concepts of openness and diversity. As the School makes conscious strides forward in terms of building community partnerships and increasing accessibility during the academic year, so too is this ethos being reflected in a fresh and progressive approach to summer at Shawnigan.

Instead of the quiet summer campus of yesteryear, Shawnigan’s grounds are now a hive of sport, art, and adventure.

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Artist

EMERGING

CAROLINA MEES STORY BY JON ZACKS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

In the summer of 2019, someone is going to need to clear out the Shawnigan woodshop. A spacious and well-equipped room, the shop is always filled with students’ projects, some of them finished, others still in progress. But after five years of Carolina Mees, there are a lot of pieces that will need a new home.

Carolina first arrived at Shawnigan in Grade 8 – a clever girl from Mexico eager to perfect her English and explore a new corner of the world.

As part of the Grade 8 program, she rotated through different fine arts, spending a few months painting, acting, and sculpting. A natural artist, she enjoyed them all, and did her best to learn what she could in each. However, it was her rotation in woodworking that truly lit a spark.

“I have ADHD,” she says openly, “and I really like to do stuff with my hands.” For her, woodworking brings the opportunity to put on headphones and relax after a demanding day of school. “You don’t really have to think too much. You do your stuff, and you forget about your worries.”

Carolina will also tell you that Shawnigan’s woodworking teacher, Brydon Boyce, was part of what kept her coming

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back. “He’s just such an awesome guy.” She sees Mr. Boyce as a mentor and a guide who gives her key advice for her Shawnigan journey, adding, “He has a really cool perspective on life.”

At the end of her Grade 8 year, Carolina sat down with her parents. The plan had been for her to return to Mexico, but Carolina wanted to stay.

The woodworking program was a big part of finding her place at Shawnigan. But Carolina has an unshakeable desire to be well-rounded. It’s why she fell in love with the School, and it’s why her parents let her stay.

In her five years at Shawnigan, she has torn through every AP humanities course on offer. In Grade 10, she took AP European History – an upper-level course – and thrived.

She’s not just exclusive to the humanities, however. She sees a future for herself in economics, politics, or philosophy, but she knows that math is important for anyone studying economics and that computer programming will be relevant no matter what field she enters. “It’s important for adults in the 21st century to know how to code,” she insists. In sport, she has dabbled in squash and soccer among other sports, and now serves as captain of her beloved tennis team.

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Any time an inter-house competition is set to begin, rest assured that Carolina will be leading Kaye’s House onto the field with an unparalleled passion and intensity.

The pursuit of a well-rounded education is so important at Shawnigan that it forms the core of the School’s mission statement. Carolina also knows that her parents gave her the widest possible range of experiences from a young age, to give her as many options as possible. “They wanted to make an educated, well-rounded citizen. They wanted me to learn different perspectives in life and become a good person,” she summarizes. “By giving me all these choices, they’re basically telling me ‘You can be whatever you want to be.’”

Carolina’s report cards are full of descriptions like ‘curious,’ ‘passionate,’ and ‘engaged.’ It is her work ethic, however, that has most impressed Brydon Boyce.

“It’s her drive that sets her apart from everybody else,” Boyce says. Over the years, he’s seen Carolina develop in skill and confidence, and he has had a few battles with her as well.

“She’s willing to try anything,” he nods. “And she won’t give up. If it’s going to kill her, she won’t give up – especially if you challenge her.”

Boyce points to a box Carolina made for her grandfather, decorated with ornate hand-carved flowers and trimmings.

“It showed what she’s all about,” Boyce smiles. “If it had been

another student, they would have bailed. She struggled, but she kept going and got it all done.” Boyce considers the box one of Carolina’s signature pieces, and a testament to her dedication.

Of course, woodworking involves so much more than knowing how to operate a band saw or lathe. Being able to build successful projects requires math, physics, and the conceptual thinking that Carolina practices intuitively. “I don’t have to explain a lot to her,” Boyce admits. “Most people can’t see the overall picture – they just see the pieces. She sees the bigger picture.”

Over the past five years, Boyce has watched Carolina learn her way around the woodshop. He knows her career ambitions don’t involve wooden creations, but he feels comfortable knowing that she’ll have a hobby for the rest of her life that gives her joy and artistic fulfilment. More importantly, he’s seen her master the tools of the trade.

Given her talent and drive, Boyce doesn’t see anything that can stop this young woman. Whether Carolina ends up in a boardroom or a classroom or a political office, he knows she will always be one step ahead – already aware of how the pieces fit together. And he knows, as well as anyone, that if you’re going to build a better world, pouring your heart into a beautiful box to honour your grandfather isn’t a bad place to start.

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Playing

Levelling the

FIELD STORY BY JAY CONNOLLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARDEN GILL

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IN THE FALL OF 2018, A CONFLICT SURFACED BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS AT SHAWNIGAN WHEN THE GIRLS MADE KNOWN THEIR DESIRE FOR EQUAL ACCESS TO THE PRESTIGIOUS CANADA FIELD. The boys 1st XV had practised and played on the pitch for many years, while the top female squad fought their matches on the less storied “girls” field. It is telling that when the issue arose, many staff and students admitted they had not been aware of the inequity. The girls knew, however, and they wanted change.

During her October 20, 2018 Founder’s Day address, Becky (Davis) Anderson ’93 reflected on a similar issue from her experience during the early years of co-education. Now the Director of the Junior School at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, Anderson recalled the girls’ efforts to establish a rugby team for females. A core group of girls approached 1st XV coach Derek Hyde-Lay to make the case for a girls’ team. HydeLay listened politely but rejected the idea, partly because he did not believe the girls would find competition for matches.

Anderson and her peers remained committed, despite the setback. “We had practices when we weren’t in other sports or fine arts,” she said, “and we begged some knowledgeable teachers to give us some of their time to coach us. … We persisted.”

Determination and patience were required personality traits for the women who led the early efforts to support girls at the School. Shawnigan has now been co-educational for 30 years but has approached numerical parity only recently. Three decades ago, some staff and governors spoke of maintaining the historically established male population of 250 and adding perhaps 125 girls. In the early 1990s, Headmaster Simon Bruce-Lockhart dismissed that thinking, noting that only a 50:50 ratio would represent true co-education. David Robertson grew the School to more than 500 students over the course of his 18-year tenure as Headmaster, in part because it was the only way to hit the balanced girl-boy ratio while maintaining male and female populations sufficient to fuel top programs for everyone.

Shawnigan owes a debt of gratitude to Leslie Reid Carr, the School’s first female house director, who managed the revolution in its early years. Carr headed School House beginning in September of 1988. More than that, she walked the tightrope between a 70-year-old all-male tradition and the educational and emotional needs of the female students.

In Century, she spoke of her initial determination and apprehension: “I was excited about girls coming into the School. There did not seem to be any reluctance in anyone about the change. I could tell that the kids were charged up about it. … Naturally, I was apprehensive about the practical aspects of introducing girls to the School. I mean, the theory is great, but I knew there would be adjustments – sometimes massive ones.”

The girls saw themselves as pioneers forging into new territory, but they were also sensitive to the need for fairness in practice and perception. Lynne Grass (Hargood) took over School House in the Main Building when Carr moved to Kaye’s House to start the 1989/90 academic year. Grass discovered that the girls themselves wanted to eliminate perceived inequities: “They had been mollycoddled the first year and were sensitive 62

to criticism from the boys. They quite clearly told me they didn’t want the boys to resent them because they were treated differently.”

It was natural that the staff would approach the girls with extra care, such was the sense of responsibility to make co-education work – but it amounted to bias. “I was at Queen Margaret’s School in Duncan for seven years,” Lynne Grass says now. “The Shawnigan staff sang the praises of girls, but it was my experience that a group of girls together could be every bit as rambunctious, foul-mouthed, bad-tempered, and mischievous as any group of boys.” Of course, the first cohort of Shawnigan girls was a rarefied bunch, with just 35 students drawn from a large pool of applicants.

From early in the transition to co-education, School leaders assumed that absolute equality was the goal of the move to co-ed, but seemingly small matters created awkward responses. “It took about five years for the School to adopt the phrase ‘house director,’” Lynne Grass remembers. “No one wanted to use the term ‘housemistress,’ so they called everyone ‘housemasters.’” This may seem like a small matter, but it is indicative of the ways in which Shawnigan displayed its recalcitrance to change.

Sue Newns had been a colleague of Lynne Grass’s at Queen Margaret’s and was the third house director of School House in as many years. “Although girls had been enrolled at Shawnigan for a couple of years before I arrived in September of 1990,” she says, “I remember thinking initially that the School still had the character of a boys’ school with some girls in attendance.”

Newns recalls the slow work of guiding the School toward cultural change: “Transitioning from the 80s to the 90s meant that gender-related challenges surfaced at Shawnigan as a microcosm of a larger world in the throes of change. Old notions – underscored by the cliché ‘boys will be boys’ – were under scrutiny, and the School was not immune to these wider influences. I remember working with a male colleague to impress upon a young lad that it is never funny to pull a girl’s track pants down in the public lunch lineup. Hard to imagine any student either contemplating or tolerating such behaviour these days.”

A multi-talented teacher, Newns worked in the English, art, and social studies departments over the course of her 26 years at Shawnigan. She was also on the front line of a sensitive boarding-house transition in 1992: “Groves’ House had been a boys’ residence since 1927 when in 1992 it became the third girls’ house. Those original Groves’ girls weathered their first year in the House with calm, courage, and remarkably mature sensitivity. They empathized with the outgoing Groves’ boys where possible, and worked hard to ensure the transition was as dignified and as orderly as possible. Many girls stepped up to become big sisters to the boys, contributing to a refining of rough edges all around. Co-ed at its best.”

Jo-Anne Kingstone must be credited with providing a practical example to women at Shawnigan. Hired by David Robertson as Deputy Head in 2004, Kingstone provided visible leadership to the School and an exemplary model of strength to girls and women. This is not to say that women did not previously lead or have a voice, but it is probably fair to say that their voice was too often drowned out by the numbers and collective seniority of men.

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In Century, Jo-Anne Kingstone addressed her experience in the early 2000s: I [felt] that part of my story at Shawnigan was to demonstrate female leadership and to honour the girls’ story.

There had been girls at the School for about 15 years, but in my experience, it takes 20 years for an all-boys school or an all-girls school to become fully co-ed. … Early in my time at Shawnigan, we hosted an event for the women … and asked, I think, three key questions: What is the girls’ experience at Shawnigan? What kind of girls do we want to graduate? And how can we create an environment in which those girls can flourish and graduate as strong, competent, confident women? These questions hadn’t been asked before, and to some degree, people did not know how to have those conversations. At the time, the female voice at the School was unpracticed. If you repeated the exercise today, the result would be very different.

Erica Dalrymple served as House Director of Kaye’s House for 19 years, from 1993–2012. Such long service in a boarding house is becoming increasingly rare in schools like Shawnigan.

In Century, she explained that while the work of shepherding the girls through their adolescence can be a tremendous challenge, the rewards are considerable. “Every day I feel like I’ve had a huge opportunity,” Dalrymple says now. “When I went to [a] School function in Vancouver [in 2016], some of the parents had travelled miles and miles to see me – to say thank you. I had a swarm of people around me, and not just girls. A boy told me that he remembered a difficult conversation between us and he said that I had helped him learn to respect girls and women. It blows me away that I’ve had the opportunity to affect so many people’s lives. It’s an amazing opportunity.”

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Erica Dalrymple will retire in June 2019. Sue Newns finished her Shawnigan career at the end of 2016. Newns says, “I left the School feeling the balance was good – that under the guidance of truly sensible, responsible staff mentors, students at Shawnigan feel safe, supported, and encouraged, be they male or female.”

When Becky Anderson looks back from a distance of 30 years, she feels pride in the determination the girls showed in addressing their desire for a team of their own. They insisted on moving forward. And once they had demonstrated the level of their commitment, the School reassessed its first response.

The girls’ determination and vision for opportunity were what Shawnigan wanted for all students. When they approached Derek Hyde-Lay for a second time, the girls achieved their goal: “Term three of 1993, girls rugby was a sporting option,” says Anderson. We called ourselves the ‘Iron Women.’” The term described their grit as much as their commitment to training.

Headmaster Larry Lamont decided upon his arrival at Shawnigan in the summer of 2018 that it was time to eliminate perceptions of inequality between male and female sport teams.

This had been the goal from the beginning of co-ed, of course, but inequities remained. Girls’ teams have been burdened with greater fundraising responsibility than the boys’ teams, for instance. And there’s the Canada Field. Lamont has insisted that funding will be equal for equivalent teams representing Shawnigan at the same relative level. And in the spring of 2019, Shawnigan’s Girls XV will charge onto the Canada Field for their most important matches as well as for training sessions. In doing so, they will contribute to the evolution of co-education at Shawnigan Lake School. As Becky Anderson told the Founder’s Day crowd at the end of her remarks, “[We have] a responsibility to make our communities better places – one girls’ rugby team at a time.”

Becky (Davis) Anderson gives the address at Founder’s Day 2018.

Leslie Reid Carr, Erica Dalrymple, Lynne Grass and Sue Newns talk about the early years of co-ed.

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Alumni notebook 1940s

The School welcomed back two old boys from the Class of 1949 – John A. Pearkes ’49 (Lake’s) and Michael Birch ’49 (Lake’s). Advancement Associate Hilary Abbott had the pleasure of touring John and Mike around the School and showing them how it has been transformed in the nearly 70 years that have elapsed since their graduation. Following his Shawnigan career and a brief period at UBC, Mike charted a remarkable

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career course as a multi-skilled itinerant worker and then as a passionate and successful sailor. In September 2018, he headed to France to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first sailing of the Route du Rhum, a transatlantic single-handed yacht race that he won in 1978. John has continued to be a regular visitor to the School throughout the years and is involved in many of the events that Shawnigan hosts in Vancouver.

1960s This Vancouver Island cast of SLOBs, eight members of the Class of ’66 along with one interloper from the Class of ’67, convened on January 6th to celebrate the advancing age of Victor “Brillo” Horton, now a sprightly septuagenarian.

From left to right – Laurence Fisher ’66 (Groves’), Brian McDaniel ’66 (Lake’s), Nick Gudewill ’66 (Groves’), Steve Housser ’67 (Groves’), Victor Horton ’66 (Groves’), Brian Johnson ’66 (Copeman’s), Phil Head ’66 (Groves’), Tim Rendell ’66 (Groves’), Tom Davis ’66 (Ripley’s).

NOTE: Gudewill is holding copy of classmate Brian McDaniel’s recently published book, Ocean Falls – After the Whistle.

1980s Roland Beck ’84 (Lake’s) visited Shawnigan (and Phil Jarvis) for the first time in more than 20 years in July, and was blown away by the developments. His daughters, Sofia (12) and Emilia (10),

were also suitably impressed by their dad’s old School. Roland Beck is a global management consultant and partner with Oxford Leadership. He travels extensively and is based in Barcelona.

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1980s Mashi Akiyama ’85 (Copeman’s) is now working as the Head of Layout at Moving Picture Company (MPC) Montreal.

Mashi says, “I had wanted to pursue a visual effects career since my dad took me to see Star Wars in 1977. I enrolled in the 3D Animation program at VFS and, after graduation, I got a job at Mainframe Entertainment working on Reboot (the world’s first all CG TV program) before moving into VFX and cinematic animation. It wasn’t until the fall of 2013 that I got my first gig at MPC as a Previs Artist. After two years working between the previs and layout departments, I got the call to work on Blade Runner 2049. I was the Previz Lead on the Montreal end where I had seven artists under my wing, and we coordinated with a smaller three-person team on set in Budapest. Moving Picture Company (MPC) handled the post-production visual effects for just over 40 shots, digitally replacing the character Rachael’s head, and I feel those shots were the ones that tipped the scales in the film’s favour in terms of its Oscar win. That job led me to a Lead Layout Artist gig on Pirates of the Caribbean 5 in Montreal, and then onto my current position.”

Nicholas Coghlan (past staff) served in five Canadian embassies overseas before he was appointed Canada’s first resident ambassador to South Sudan. He has recently published a book called Collapse of a Country: A Diplomat’s Memoir of South Sudan, which is a rare first-hand account of the violent implosion and ongoing humanitarian tragedy of the world’s youngest state.

He lives on his sailboat (www.bosunbird.com) in Canada’s Pacific Northwest with his wife Jenny. They were recently honoured by the Governor General for saving Canadian lives during the 2013 crisis in South Sudan.

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David Fraser ’89 (Ripley’s) paid a visit to campus to chat with Law 12 students. David is one of Canada’s leading internet, technology, and privacy lawyers. He regularly advises clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies on all aspects of technology, and privacy laws and is often sought out by the media for informed commentary on these issues. Growing up in a Canadian Foreign Service family, David spent his youth living in a wide variety of countries including Ghana, India, Sri Lanka, the U.S., and Canada. It was when his family was stationed in Egypt that David’s parents sought out a Canadian boarding school to give him a stable education back on home soil. With familial ties to the west coast, Shawnigan Lake School was an obvious choice.

David spoke to two Law 12 classes about his Shawnigan experience and his fond memories and impressions of several Shawnigan teachers, past and present, including Jay Connolly (English), the late Dai Williams (English), Stephen Cox (Mathematics, retired), Stephen Lane (Physics, retired) and the late Graham Anderson (History). David shared that Mr. Anderson had helped ignite in him a passion for history, which led to his completion of a MA in History at St. Mary’s University in Halifax prior to his legal studies at Dalhousie University. He also touched on several of his cases revolving around privacy and the internet, and noted that it was an early interest in computer science, combined with his legal training, that contributed to his decision to pursue this legal specialty.

1990s Maria (Orlandi) Vazquez ’94 (Kaye’s) visited Shawnigan with her three lovely daughters and husband, David. They took a detour from their west coast road trip to visit the Island so Maria could show off her old School. In addition to meeting up with staff, Maria fondly remembers Jay Connolly and Rhodri Samuel. She also had a visit with fellow alums en route including Becky (Davis) Anderson ’93, Colleen (Sarsfield) Austin ’95, Sue Pritchard ’94, and Natalie Spencely ’93.

Abbie (Bagley-Young) Vandivere ’97 (Groves’) shares that she has been living in the Netherlands for the last 13 years and has been working as a paintings conservator at the Mauritshuis museum in the Netherlands since 2015.

“Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a research project involving the technical examination of the Mauritshuis’s most beloved painting: Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665).

A two-week examination took place in the museum in front of the public (inside a plexiglass enclosure), and involved an international team of scientists working with high-tech equipment. Our aim was to find out which materials and techniques Vermeer used to paint The Girl. Although it will be months before we have definitive results, the examination received a lot of media attention, including an article in The New York Times and a short BBC Culture documentary.

During the examination, The Girl and I were visited by Don and Lynn Rolston! They arranged a European trip around coming to see us. Mr. Rolston inspired my interest in the arts more than 20 years ago, so it was an honour to show him our work and pose with him and a 3D print of The Girl. Also, Sue Newns sent me an email to let me know she was following my blog (www.mauritshuis.nl/girlwithablog), and to ask whether I still have the yellow bucket I used to carry my pens in at Shawnigan (I do!).”

much-needed funds for child health care in BC. They recently travelled to Maui to celebrate Cooper’s 1st birthday!

Laura (Johnson) Furness ’99 (Kaye’s) opened her own art studio in Comox – Laura Jayne Art Studio – and is coming back to campus to teach at the Shawnigan Summer Art Camp. Her focus is on creating art in as many eco-friendly ways as possible and opening children’s eyes to the possibilities of being creative and environmentally conscious at the same time. “I have tapped into the things that make me happy, and part of that is sharing my passion for art and our environment to help others. My message shines through in my teaching: love yourself and do the things that make you unique. Be grateful, get moving, be kind, speak your mind, believe in yourself, follow your dreams, and give back when your cup is full!”

Find Laura at: laurajayneartstudio.wordpress.com

Allison Hepworth ’97 (Kaye’s) and her husband, Roger, welcomed son Cooper Geoffrey Nairn in April 18, 2018. She and Roger were married in June 2015, and live in Kitsilano in Vancouver. For the past five years, Allison has been working as a senior fundraiser at BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, raising 69

2000s Jessica (Dickens) Lyric ’00 (Kaye’s) Since graduating from SFU with Bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Education and from UBC with a Masters in Educational Technology, I have had the unique experience of being a founding faculty member of two independent schools: one in Vancouver and one in Paris, France, at the Canadian Bilingual School.

Creating a program from scratch is incredibly challenging but also fulfilling, as you are able to build the foundation of a school for years to come. I’ve been lucky enough to have guidance and advice from Mr. Connolly over the years as I’ve built my English Language Arts departments. He has been proof that Shawnigan never stops guiding its alumni, while starting new schools seems to have become my forté!

On the personal side, my husband Jordan and I welcomed our first child in June 2018. Ruby Annika Lyric is doing well and was exceptionally well cared for by the French health care system.

We have now moved back to British Columbia to be closer to family and I am actively seeking a new opportunity in educational administration.

Mia Bolton ’05 (Groves’) visited campus in June to speak to the Theatre Performance class about her life and job in the film industry in Vancouver.

After graduating with a Bachelor Degree of Fine Arts in Los Angeles, she was lucky to find a job working for ABC as a production assistant to start her career. For the past four years she has been working on ABC’s Once Upon a Time in Vancouver until the show ended this past spring.

In addition to working on set, she works from home as a film editor. An independent feature she cut last year, Genesis Code, just got a distribution deal in Canada and the US. Release date to be determined! She is currently a member of the Directors Guild of Canada and is working in the film/TV industry in Vancouver.

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Please come back to Shawnigan to share your expertise and experiences with students!

2000s Sophy Romvari ’08 (Groves’) graduated with her Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts from Capilano University in 2014 and has gone on to pursue a career in independent filmmaking. She is currently completing her Masters at York University while continuing to direct and produce her own films.

Her hybrid documentary short Pumpkin Movie, starring herself and Leah Collins Lipsette ’08 (Groves’), played at HotDocs Film Festival in Toronto, among many other film festivals around the world. It toured cinemas across the United States as part of the Eyeslicer Halloween Special in October 2018. Pumpkin Movie has been praised by critics as “a lovely, subtle work of feminist protest.”

Last fall, her film short Norman Norman received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival,

where critics described it as “a rich, fully developed narrative, bridging the gulf between denial and acceptance in a mere seven minutes.” The film was the centrepiece of “Super Succinct and Radically Direct,” a retrospective of Sophy’s work at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, and was selected as the best short film of the year by rogerebert.com critic Justine Smith.

Her most recent documentary short film, In Dog Years, was produced by the CBC and was released on the CBC Short Docs channel. In Dog Years shows 10 portraits of owners with their senior dogs, discussing the difficulties of letting go and the importance of caring for senior pets.

Lauren Gheysens (née Barto) ’08 (Groves’) went on to UCLA after Shawnigan and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. She started her career in fashion while living in Los Angeles. After three years of working in the design room, Lauren and her husband moved to London where she started a business that brought together her passion for the 18th century and fashion. “Royal Day Out” is an immersive fashion experience in London. Guests start the tour by choosing their 18th century costumes, most of which are custom made following Lauren’s own designs – gowns, wigs, jewelry, embroidered jackets. Everything is there. Once their

transformation is complete, they are ready to hit the streets of the United Kingdom’s capital for a striking contrast between the old and the new, and some very social media-worthy photos. Lauren and her husband Max, the tour owners, have always “felt the urge of reliving the golden years,” which is why they have decided to create the Royal Day Out tour.

Their standard offer includes a stroll around Notting Hill and Portobello Road and then sitting down for a picnic or afternoon tea in one of the Royal Parks – with Kensington Gardens being a great favourite, under the gaze and sceptre of Queen Victoria’s statue.

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2010s Alice Coates ’11 (Strathcona) stopped in for a visit to the School in early June 2018 as part of a cycling tour from Washington State to Vancouver. Having worked as a landscape

Max King ’12 (Lake’s) is currently a student at the University of Toronto, doing a Masters in Aerospace Engineering, focused on microsatellite design. He is with a laboratory that designs and builds small 20–30 kg satellites, doing everything from communications to greenhouse gas monitoring.

He has helped to build three satellites that were launched into orbit by SpaceX in early December 2018. He was involved with some of the hands-on building of the satellite as well as some engineering design work, ensuring that the systems never get too hot or too cold (thermal engineering).

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architect in Melbourne, Australia, Alice is now undertaking a Masters in Environment and working part time as an illustrator!

2010s Madeline Torrie ’13 (Groves’) is studying law at the University of Toronto and was very excited to have earned a summer job in 2018 with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The tribunal of international character has the primary mandate of holding trials for the people accused of carrying out the attack of February 14, 2005. Her work took place in The Hague, Netherlands.

Chloe Gillot ’13 (Strathcona) earned her BA from UVic in English and French with a minor in Commerce, and is now working at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, BC. She offered tours of the museum to Shawnigan staff and guests during the annual Grad Weekend in May 2018. Pictured here with Chris Miles ’13 (Ripley’s), who came by for a tour.

Clarke Hardy ’14 (Duxbury) reports that “For the past few summers, I have worked on dark matter search experiments with the physics department at Queen’s University. Dark matter is the invisible substance known to comprise 80 per cent of the matter in the universe, but which has never been directly observed. Measurements of the Milky Way indicate that a large cloud of dark matter encompasses our galaxy, meaning that as our solar system revolves around the galaxy, we are constantly passing through this dark matter. Usually, the dark matter particles pass through the earth unhindered. Very infrequently, however, a dark matter particle will collide with a molecule in a dark matter detector. These collisions are what the experiments are designed to study. I have worked on two such dark matter search experiments. Both experiments are operated at SNOLAB, a laboratory located 2 kilometres underground in a mine near Sudbury. These experiments operate underground so that they are shielded by the surrounding rock from background radiation. Through this work, I have had the opportunity to learn about different experimental techniques and collaborate with many researchers from around the world. It has been incredibly rewarding to see how experimental physics research is conducted first-hand. I am indebted to the many teachers at Shawnigan who encouraged me to pursue a path in the sciences and supported me in the early stages of my academic career.”

Cassie Chang ’16 (Renfrew) is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music with a focus on Opera Performance as well as a German minor at the University of British Columbia. She is studying with renowned Canadian baritone Peter Barcza,

and in the past two years has been involved with multiple opera productions at UBC. Cassie recently performed in Peter Grimes with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and has also been working with Steve Smith in the Shawnigan recording studio.

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2010s Cassie sings anthems for UBC varsity sports, and in her free time likes to jam with the UBC Jazz club. She is also hoping to continue her vocal and German studies in Europe in the near future. “I think it takes a lot to become a musician. Opera has got to be one of the most complex and difficult art forms, but it makes me strong and it is absolutely beautiful. I am blessed to be doing what I love and thankful every day for the people who support me in this journey.”

Kyle Fredrickson ’17 (Lonsdale’s), along with rowing partner Andrew Todd, won gold in the PR3 men’s pair final at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in September 2018. Kyle became a carded athlete (one of the youngest in Canada) on the Paralympic National Rowing Team in January 2018, something he describes as “one of the coolest things in my whole life.” Kyle currently trains 14 times a week, which includes time on the water, erging, and weight training.

This busy schedule doesn’t leave much time for a social life, but he tries to get out to swim and bike on his own to “keep sane.”

His next goal is the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

SEE YOURSELF HERE

ALUMNI EVENTS

To be included in the next edition of Black & Gold, please submit your update and high-resolution photo to the Advancement Office: advancement@shawnigan.ca.

Founder’s Day Reunion Weekend

ALUMNI SURVEY COMING YOUR WAY SOON – we look forward to hearing from you!

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October 25 – 26, 2019 Keep an eye out for more alumni events at shawnigan.ca

VISIT Shawnigan Lake School 1975 Renfrew Road Shawnigan Lake, BC V0R 2W1 Canada

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