SMLS Impact of Giving Report: Spring 2023

The Impact of Giving

SPRING 2023

YOUR DONATIONS. OUR STRENGTH AND VITALITY.

When you support SMLS, you empower young women to challenge and transform the world.

Each one of our Millies’ educational experiences are impacted by your generosity. At SMLS, we take great care in creating and nurturing an environment where girls can confidently explore their interests, find their passions and occupy every leadership role. With your support, you make it possible for our students to dream big, do more and continue unlocking their potential.

Here are some recent examples of your generous donations in action at SMLS.

OUR VISION

Young women empowered to challenge and transform the world.

OUR MISSION

To engage each girl in a personalized, real-world learning experience where she explores her unique pathways within a nurturing community.

Signature Programs

Signature Programs

Global Citizenship

Thanks to your generosity, more Millies have the opportunity to participate in life-changing travel experiences through our Global Citizenship Signature Program. Through these experiences, students form strong bonds, challenge themselves, connect with nature, learn new skills and begin to understand themselves—and the world—in new ways.

As our students engage with the natural world beyond the pillars of SMLS, their experience is even better thanks to a variety of resources made possible with your support. Dry bags are keeping our belongings clean and dry during excursions, especially while on boats and near bodies of water. New two-way radios enable communication between staff members at all times and in all landscapes. With our GoPro camera, we are capturing these cherished and lifelong memories, and sharing the experiences with other students and loved ones. Thanks to our generous community, a bursary is available to help more girls participate in these lifechanging excursions and experience all that they have to offer.

Signature Programs

Global Citizenship

“Thank you for sponsoring my trip to Peru. It was an amazing experience in so many ways. I had a lot of fun learning about the Peruvian way of life, their food, and their relationship with nature—especially the mountains. Visiting the schools was one of my favourite parts of the trip. At the schools, I was pushed out of my comfort zone when I had to find other ways to engage with the kids because I could not speak Spanish or Quechua. This experience taught me that language is just one way to communicate and connect with others.”

“Thank you for your generosity to fund my trip to the Alive Outdoor Initiative. It was an amazing experience. I got to learn about myself and attempt new things that I never thought I could do. I was able to try canoeing for the first time and participate in an amazing workshop on personal strengths. My favourite part of the trip was the cabin experience with my friends.”

– 2020-21 CARSON-THORNHILL GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP BURSARY RECIPIENT

– 2021-22 CARSON-THORNHILL GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP BURSARY RECIPIENT

Signature Programs

Active Healthy Living

Thanks to your support for our Active Healthy Living Signature Program, our Spartans are benefitting from professional coaching. We continue to see the impact of this through our athletes’ individual growth, their success at competitions and tournaments, and the pride that is felt throughout the community for our teams, athletes and school. With the imminent addition of our new outdoor scoreboard, thanks to the SMLS Parent Association, friends and family in attendance can better cheer on our athletes. Go Spartans!

Signature Programs

Active Healthy Living

Spartan Highlights from the Winter 2023 Athletics Season:

Gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at OFSAA

Gold medal for our U20 volleyball team, and undefeated in the regular season

Silver medal for our U14 volleyball team at CISAA

Best record in the regular season and the CISAA Final tournament for our U12 volleyball team

League championship for our U12 floor hockey team

“One of my highlights of this year was not only being a part of the U12 SMLS volleyball team but being able to develop and improve my skills with the benefit of expert coaching. Because of this, I was able to understand the sport at a high level, as well as be a part of a team that supported and encouraged each other. I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity, which was made possible through access to exceptional coaching.”

STEM and Robotics

Millies of all ages are learning to thrive in a technologicallyadvancing world through our STEM and Robotics program, thanks to your support. Your donations are creating more opportunities for students to get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and pursue their interests in these areas.

Our Senior Kindergarten students are learning to code with Dash. In small group sessions using the iPad, they used sequencing and coding concepts to create code to make the robot say ‘Hello’, dance, say an expression, and move at varying speeds.

JS1 students continue to learn with KIBO. In celebration of Black History Month, they used their coding skills to make KIBO execute African dance moves. They are also using KIBO to calculate distance by programming the robot to travel a unique path which they designed and measure the distance travelled.

JS2 students are learning to code using Mini Sphero. In one exercise, students collaboratively investigated how their robot rolls and determined which degrees correspond to a roll forward, backward, left and right. They used that knowledge to program their Mini Sphero to roll in a square shape. They tested and modified their code until they found the correct combination of degrees, speed and time.

With the addition of an incubator, our SS11 and SS12 students can complete laboratory work that was just not possible before. They have been using the incubator for various experiments including bacterial transformation, protein digestion, DNA incubation, bacterial growth and agar creation. And, our new electronic balances are constantly in use, weighing various chemicals and agents.

Signature Programs

STEM and Robotics

SWAT 771 has had a highly successful 2022-23 competitive season, which included:

• Team Sustainability Award

• FIRST Impact Award (the most prestigious award at FIRST)

• Qualifiers for the Ontario District Championship

“Being a part of SWAT-771 has allowed us to work with like-minded students from Grade 8 to Grade 12 and pursue our passion for STEMR. We are so grateful for the wonderful resources, incredible mentors, and generous sponsors that make the season possible. As the captains, we have been fortunate to see the team’s development over the years and watch them consistently break down barriers in the STEMR field.

– ANGEL N. (SS12) AND LAILA C. (SS11)

Signature Programs

Art and Design

Thanks to your support of The Millie Fund, a new state-of-the-art digital lighting system was recently installed. This new system significantly enhances performances for classwork, community or classroom presentations, and Middle and Senior School theatre productions. Notable features include portable consoles with plugand-play setup, mixing boards, a dedicated cyclorama fixture, and spotlights with an impressive range of colour and depth. The touchscreen can be used to control moving lights, mix LED colours, play stored looks and effects and play sound and visual media. You can also create a customizable stage map for quick selection and programming. Our Millies are having a blast learning this system’s impressive range of capabilities.

“The opportunity to use such a professional lighting system is incredible. In the Senior School Production of “Into the Woods”, the lighting system could dynamically fade between lighting cues within scenes and carries a much more comprehensive range of hues and colours than the previous system. The interface also incorporates better technology, as we were able to change the lighting colour on the fly and create a wide range of presets which simplified the process of cueing lights during the show. We are extremely grateful for the many opportunities that the new lighting system has provided in the theatre.

HARRIET

–

C. (SS12)

Cutting-edge Technology

Cutting-edge Technology

Thanks to our community’s support, more students have access to specialized assistive learning technology through our Learning Services program. This educational software, which includes WordQ and the award-winning Kurzweil Assistive Technology, provides literacy support and helps students independently grasp and articulate concepts more effectively. This software helps build decoding and word recognition skills and supports phonics instruction. As a result, students can independently grasp and articulate concepts more effectively. Built-in features for reading, writing and study skills help students to become independent learners and active participants in the classroom. In addition, our Student Success Centre will soon add more flexible furniture to accommodate our students’ individual styles and types of learning.

“I have been using the Kurzweil 3000 since the start of the school year. As someone with dyslexia, this app has helped me tremendously. For example, in class, when we are given material to read, I use this app. If I were to read it on my own, I would have difficulty getting through the material and understanding it. By using the app, I can read the material as fast as my peers and understand it. Without it, I feel I would fall behind and struggle to keep up. This donation has impacted me in my day-to-day life and helped me to achieve my full potential. Thank you for making it available to me.

– ANONYMOUS STUDENT

Cutting-edge Technology

RevTouch Interactive Displays

SMLS now has a RevTouch Interactive Display in every classroom. These digital whiteboards connect classrooms with the latest technology and create a highly engaged student experience through screen-sharing, collaboration, ease of use and a variety of educational tools such as real-time polls and quizzes.

Cutting-edge Technology

Proudly Preserving Our School History

SMLS is better able to preserve our school’s proud history as a pioneer in women’s education. Together with our Learning Commons Teacher-Librarian, we are digitizing our school’s archives using a specialized scanner. Sharing these digital archives will better connect us with members of our community who reside across the globe, and continue to share the story of our Millies and SMLS for generations to come.

Around Campus

Around Campus

New Perspectives

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2023, SMLS enjoyed special guest speaker Susan Aglukark, O.C. Apart from being a talented singer and influential songwriter, Susan provided the girls with a significant view of the culture of our northern communities. In addition to being a role model for our students, Susan is an inspiration to humanity. She is viewed worldwide as one of Canada’s most significant cultural treasures. Her perspective was remarkable, and it was an honour to have her share it with our Millies.

“Susan Aglukark was an amazing speaker for International Women’s Day because she shared her journey from growing up as an Inuk in Canada’s far North, to becoming a nationally recognized Award-winning Singer/Songwriter. Her music touches your heart and leaves you with new insights about Inuit Culture.”

– KATIE H. (SS10)

Around Campus

New Perspectives

SMLS welcomed Dr. Elin Kelsey to our school as part of our Earth Week initiatives. Dr. Kelsy is a spokesperson, scholar, educator, and author who shares a powerful message of optimism and hope. Sharing remarkable stories of environmental resilience, ideas that work, and people who make a difference, Dr. Kelsey has helped us see that the way we think is critical to solving the world’s environmental crisis. It was a truly inspiring experience for all.

“As members of a generation that dreams of change, it’s difficult to express how grateful we are for the thought and dedication exhibited by Dr. Kelsey. Her words of inspiration left us all feeling more optimistic and motivated toward the future and how we, as a community, can make an impact. Thank you to all of the SMLS supporters who helped bring Dr. Kelsey to our school so that we could hear her story, open our minds, and help us build an understanding of how we can create environmental change.”

– AINSLEY D. (SS12)

Around Campus

Expanded Learning Opportunities

Thanks to the SMLS Parent Association, our entire community is enjoying our new podium and outdoor seating (with WiFi access!).

Our youngest Millies are enjoying new resources in the Wonder Garden which include a mud kitchen, sensory tables, a natural tree stump seating area, and a double-seater tricycle. The magnet wall teaches students motion and STEM principles as they use magnetic parts to create designs and configurations to explore angles, speeds and distances by sending objects such as water, sand or balls through their configuration.

Sensory play aids in the development of children’s fine motor skills, and brain and language development, and encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity.

Around Campus

Expanded Learning Opportunities

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we have been very fortunate to purchase some additional furniture and whiteboards for our Junior School landing to create a beautiful and flexible space. Our Millies can now work independently and in small groups at standing tables, using laptop desks or soft seating. The fixed whiteboards on the wall and the tables with whiteboard tops encourage our Millies to be risk-takers, spending more time on their thinking, and making their thinking visible to everyone.

Around Campus

Makerspace Program

As we expand our Middle School Makerspace program, resources and supplies continue to be added. During Wellness Wednesday activities, students can select from a variety of options including sewing and Makerspace projects.

Hammers, speed square rulers, C-clamps, wood, nails, hooks, wood glue, screwdrivers, measuring and finishing tools, sewing machines, fabric and yarn are just some of the resources available for these activities. Students can create personalized items such as string art door signs or design and print 3D projects using our new 3D Printers. Many students participated in sewing classes with a professional instructor. The Middle School Makerspace allows all Middle School students to experience building and making simple projects. SMLS thanks the Parent Association for their donation last year to initiate our Middle School Makerspace program.

“I really enjoyed the sewing class during our Wellness Wednesday activities. It was fun and allowed the students to actually sew and not have an adult just do it for us. We learned how to use a sewing machine with the guidance of the teachers and volunteers, and we painted on the bags that we created which added another layer of creativity. Sewing is an important skill to have and is now more accessible and easier to learn through the school. It was an overall fun experience and it would never have been possible if not for the donations.

Recognizing Wellbeing as Vital to Success

SMLS has begun a pilot program to provide no-cost feminine hygiene products for our students. As females are keenly aware, your period can make a surprise appearance at any time. The inability to access period products, particularly for students, can lead to missed opportunities such as school and extracurricular activities, or even cause harmful feelings of shame or embarrassment. The installation of dispenser machines and convenient and cost-free access to period products will remove these barriers and give our students the confidence and ability to participate in school and other activities.

Student Financial Assistance

Attracting Talented Students

SMLS is committed to giving students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds the opportunity to become Millies. Your gifts give our students the greatest gift of all—an education that lays the groundwork for their development and success, and the opportunity to reach their full potential regardless of their financial background. Our Student Financial Assistance program is funded through Endowment Fund income and the annual operating budget, which benefit from donated funds. To support students in the 2021-22 school year, financial assistance totalling approximately $420,000 was awarded to 47 students.

“

My education at SMLS set me on a path with high expectations of myself and gave me the confidence to pursue whatever I wanted, without limitation. That was one of the greatest gifts I was given. I donate to help give another girl that same gift.”

–AMY HOLLAND ‘89

A Tradition of Paying It Forward

A new tradition has emerged among our graduating students and their families who come together to raise funds as a Grad Class Leaving Gift to the School. These funds establish a special Class Bursary Fund in support of our Student Financial Assistance program. Since 2019-20, The Grad Class Bursary has raised over $221,000.

“

We truly believe in the transformative education our girls have received at SMLS, and we are passionate about helping to give more girls the same experience.

– DELAND AND NICOLE KAMANGA, PARENT AMBASSADORS FOR THE CLASS OF 2022 BURSARY FUND

Up Next

Thanks to the generosity of a SMLS family, an exciting new fund has been created in support of our students and school. The Endowed SMLS Student Learning and Innovation Fund will help provide sustainable funding for learning and innovation in perpetuity, and facilitate the long-term financial sustainability of the school through the endowment. We look forward to sharing all the ways in which this brand new fund is supporting our students and school. Together, we will continue to inspire girls and help them grow as empowered women.

STAY TUNED

For more exciting news on how your donations are making a difference at SMLS!

Expressing Gratitude

Thank you for your generous support of The Millie Fund. Our 2022-23 campaign runs until June 30. Visit www.smls.on.ca/ milliefund to make your gift today.

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