the.echotheThe St. George’s School Newspaper

School Future Planned until 2021By Paul Redelmeier“We have a unique opportunity

here as we move forward,” said Dr. Tom Mathews, describ-ing the new strategic plan in which his high hopes and dreams for St. George’s are anchored. “As a headmas-ter,” he continued, “you have to keep your school’s history in your heart, its present in your mind, and its future in your sights.” The strategic plan, a time-

line that documents the school’s path for the next decade, is layed out in four priorities, each of which in-cludes an action plan for this year that identifies “specific actions, who’s responsible for them … and if there are any costs associated with those actions,” as well as one for the next decade that Mathews says will be find-tuned and updated yearly.He stressed, however, that the

strategic plan, which has been in the works since 2008, is a look

ahead “five, 10, and 20 years,” rather than something that will have a wide ranging impact on

the 2011-12 school year. “Ultimately the fruition of the

plan is something that a boy in

grade 12 isn’t necessarily going to see.” Rather, the strategic plan is “[an opportunity] to be proactive,

[to say] these are our priorities. These are where we’re focusing. This is where we’re moving.”

Mathews announced the new plan on September 29, in front of an audience of parents, faculty,

and students. The plan will provide several, immediate, tan-gible changes of which Mathews is particularly proud.The first, a new

position in the administration that Mathews is tentatively referring to as “the new Se-nior Director of Learning,” is something that he identified as “a real gap in the administrative structure.”“It’s interest-

ing,” he contin-ued, “you probably wouldn’t find another independent school of this size without that position …

and so my hope is that what we’ll have is more support for teachers and greater emphasis on the shar-ing of ideas.”The position, he added, will be

a key part in “a shift towards an approach that’s more deliberate and more intentional” in “really how we teach boys … manifest-ing [what the administration has learned] in the classroom … and doing it in a more methodical way.”What’s more, the Senior Direc-

tor of Learning would be “respon-sible, really for what happens in the classroom, the integration of technology … how students are assessed or evaluated — it’s one of those areas where we really have all these fingers in the pot, but no one person overseeing it all.”The next priority, “reinforcing

character education as a corner-stone of a St. George’s educa-tion,” is one that will have a much more immediate effect, with one

Continued on Page 2

By Paul RedelmeierVancouver’s third iteration of

We Day was held on October 13, when 18,000 students, 27 from St. George’s, crowded into Rog-ers Arena, to, according to the events website, “inspire and cel-ebrate the youth movement for global change.”The event, which was attend-

ed by former Soviet President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev and activist-actress Mia Farrow, among oth-ers, has become a mainstay on the St. George’s calendar, with a field trip of selected students attending annually, something that won’t change soon.“We go every year because it’s a

great opportunity for our students to get involved and get motivated about some of the most important social justice issues in society,” said Sarah McLean, the school’s service and charity coordinator, explaining why the school had

committed to the event.Organized by Free the Children,

a multinational charity founded by brothers Craig and Mark Kiel-burger to “empower youth ev-erywhere to make a difference,” We Day is held annually to do just that, motivating and inspir-ing youth to strive and to fight for equality and justice.Katrina O’Connor, one of the

school’s chaperones for the event, agreed that the event was success-ful in this regard. “[The speakers] were really inspiring … and I think that they were able to en-gage the students on a really great level.“It’s only one event,” she ac-

knowledged, “but it’s certainly a starting point and I think that from my perspective, as an adult being there, the whole arena was full of positive energy and action and that sort of thing — it’s defi-nitely a worthwhile endeavor.”And with a speakers list as di-

verse as the former president to

current British Columbian lead-ers like Premier Christy Clark and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, the event was full of impactful speakers, making it a unique event. “As far as I know, there are not

many other events of this kind in Vancouver,” McLean continued.Gorbachev himself compared

the global problems of climate change and poverty to his own childhood’s fight against Nazism, while Clark brought up Terry Fox when talking of the ability of one person to create change.At St. George’s, where the event

remains a hot draw, there are no plans to stop the admission pro-cess that all students must under-go. “Enabling as many students as possible to get motivated and involved in something we sup-port,” argued McLean. However, given that the number of students who wish to go far exceeds the number of tickets, the application is as necessary as it is useful.

Repping Canada By Roy YangGrade 12 student Christian Gravel has placed sixth in the

1500m race at the 2011 Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games. The intensely competitive race included runners from as far away as Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Cyprus.Gravel finished the 1500m run in 3 minutes and 58.81 sec-

onds. The event was held on the Isle of Man, Great Britain, from September 7 to 13. Though not his personal best, Gravel felt satisfied with his ef-

fort.“Considering the harsh conditions, I felt like I performed quite

well. I was hoping to com e away from this event with a new personal best, but in the end it just wasn’t my day.” As Gravel said, the strategy for the race was to “go all out,

like the BCHS’s, where the fastest person won the race.” The senior athlete finished only ten seconds behind the Gold medal-ist’s time of 3 minutes and 48.38 seconds. “I will remember this event as one of the highlights of my high

school years. It was a first for me competing on an international stage, and the fact that it was a multi-sport event made it all the better. During my spare time, I’d go watch our national badmin-ton team or boxers duke it out.” To qualify for the Commonwealth games, Gravel had to rank

top four in Canada before the end of June. The senior athlete was very close to qualifying for the prestigious Track and Field World Youth Championships. However, he fell short by two places.After his performance in the 1500m, the 17-year old found

running techniques to improve on, such as leaning slightly for-ward, which decreases the power in the knee drive. He also plans to train more days in the week. “Last year I got away with only actually running four days a

week. I cross-trained two days with one day rest. [This year] I am amping up my mileage.” Gravel believes in practice and hard competition when it

comes to racing.“I hate to lose and I hate my competitors. There’s no room

for being soft. You got to practice like [it’s] your last race. If you’re not going hard in practice, you aren’t going to get magi-cally faster in a race. I always look towards Steve Prefontaine, a distance legend, ‘to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift’.”

Day of Motivation

Student runs at the Commonwealth Youth Games

the.echotheThe St. George’s School Newspaper

By Roy YangSaints student and opera singer

Yuri Guerra has successfully per-formed his solo concert “Dolce Lirico: Yuri Guerra em Casa”, and has earned himself a studio recording for a possible future CD album. The concert, sponsored by the

Fundacao Torino International School and Method DeRose, was held in Belo Horizonte on August 28, 2011.Guerra opened the concert with

“Ave Maria” by Schubert, fol-lowed by two Italian arias “Ama-rilli mia bella” by Giulio Caccini and “O del mio dolce ardor” by Gluck. The singer then sang world-renowned composer Heitor

Villa Lobos’ “Melodia Sentimen-tal” and “Hallelujah” by Lenoard Cohen in “homage to Canada”. The Brazilian singer closed his

concert with “Amigos para Siem-pre” by Webber and “The Prayer” by Clurking. He encored with “Oh Sole Mio”.

By Faeez AhmedIn July, 13 grade 11 and 12

students went to Peru to build a school in the isolated village of Miskiuno.The students worked with a lo-

cal non-governmental organiza-tion called Peru’s Challenge.These students fundraised all

year to reach their goal of $10, 500. The group’s efforts allowed

them to greatly exceed their origi-nal target. Grade 12 student Zach-Maurer affirms, “At the end of the year we ended up raising $32,000 and that’s three times our goal.”The official Peru trip website

stated, “Any funds that exceed our target amount of $10, 500 will be used to purchase various sup-plies for the village.”Maurer recalled, “We came into

the village on the first day and literally the entire village came out and they were so happy, they were beside themselves that these people from Canada had come all the way across to build the school.”The students also witnessed

some of the difficulties that the people in the village were going through.

Maurer reflects, “We learned about how difficult their lives were.”He continued, “One of the elder

Guerra performs solo in Brazil

for, be it respect or humility.” In this, Mathews said that stu-

dents can expect to be extremely involved, much like last year’s student survey, saying that the school would undertake the venture with “heavy input from students on what values are im-portant to them.” It would be, he stated, an endeavor that each fac-et of the St. George’s community would have a part in, directly or indirectly.

Unlike this second priority, the third, developing and implement-ing a comprehensive program on global mindedness and environ-mental stewardship, would be un-dertaken by the school at varying paces. Mathews stressed that the

school needs “to operate in a way that reflects [its] belief that envi-ronmental stewardship is impor-tant … so that when opportunities [that allow the school to reduce its environmental footprint] arise, we take them.”

Mathews was also proud of the green audit that the school would undergo later this year, in which the school would seek ways to improve its “less than stellar re-cord” in regards to energy con-sumption. “There’s so many ways in which the physical operation of the school gets in the way of what we want our image to look like.” Naming things like recycling and composting, Mathews stated that the green audit was a perfect way

for the school to assess itself criti-cally and better itself from there.

The second part of the priority, global mindedness, will seek to strengthen the relationships that the school had made both inter-nationally in countries like Gua-temala as well as closer to home with organizations like Covenant House. “The service part you’ll see happening more quickly,” he concluded.

The final priority of the plan — and perhaps the most ambitious —is one that would establish St. George’s as a world school. Like the other facets of the plan, Mathews stated that it would hap-pen on several different fronts. Diversity in the school’s popula-

tion, long an important part of the school’s mission, would be built upon, not “necessarily in racial or cultural terms, but also in terms of social economic terms, that de-serving boys … who have some-thing to contribute to this school should be able to come … even if their parents can’t necessarily pay the fees. You would never want this to be just a school for rich boys,” he said, finishing.

This of course, played into his theme of “St. George’s School being an international school for boys.”

“What I mean by that,” Mathews continued, is, “a school of inter-national significance … that if people look around the world and

women we visited was a widow and living largely on the scraps of food that her daughter gave

her from her own family’s supply. Because, her

daughter’s fam-ily was short on food as it is, this creates a huge amount of tension in the family.” While the stu-

dents were in Peru, they also had an opportu-nity to see many historical sites.“One of the

highlights of the trip was bound to be our experience in Machu Picchu an ancient Incan city. It was certainly

one of the things that I was most looking forward to,” posted Anthony Hui on the trip’s blog.

they say ‘Where’s an example of a school that does a superb job of educating young men,’ then that St. George’s would be at the top of their list.” The plan, he added, was an important part of this ulti-mate ambition.

The school, Mathews con-cluded, needed to have “increas-ingly a global outlook,” preparing its students in a changing world where their “work, their job, their education might take them to a dozen different countries … We really have to do a better job so that if a student’s job takes them to Paris, London, or Shanghai then they can flourish.”

The Saints singer also performed duets with two soprano singers.“This concert was a dream that

I always had—to perform in my country, officially for the first time and in my hometown. To be on stage with great musicians accompanying me, and to do my own concert and making little kids happy was the best part of it.”The concert, which required do-

nations of kids’ toys as entrance tickets, was a non-profit event. The collected toys will be later donated to poor children in day cares during Brazil’s Kids’ Week holiday. Guerra, who began singing op-

era at the age of 12, has learned

greatly from this concert experi-ence.“I learnt how to put up a concert

in no time with high quality and high level of professionalism. Also, I’ve learnt that you have to have different people taking care of things for you, because it is a singer’s job to be worried with his voice and give the maximum during the performance and not be dealing with technical things. The amount of stress to put up a concert and the thousand mini de-tails that you have to care for can be really tiring.” Currently, Guerra has plans to

stage another concert during the winter back in Brazil.

Continued from Page 1

By Kevin Lee Throughout the month of September, two students have been

working to involve more juniors in the Model UN Program. Kevin Lee in grade 10 and Kelvin Zhu in grade 9, want to encourage more people to give Model UN a shot.They began with drafting an agenda on an online Google Docu-

ments file and began adding more members and feedback during the starting week of school.The documents laid out plans to “sync in” with the current Inter-

national Relations program, headed by Mr. Becott and to introduce basic rules to new people. The International Relations program currently participates in the National High School MUN and the Regional High School MUN, as well as organising the Vancouver MUN.The Beginner’s MUN club offers further opportunities to enrich

participation, extending delegation attendance to ConnectMUN, Canadian High School MUN, Vancouver Youth MUN, and vari-ous other conferences.“We hope to involve more grade eights and nines and to persuade

more people to come out and learn new things in these MUNs, and I hope this is worth the trouble of organising delegations for the conferences,” said Zhu as he was heading towards the meeting room for the weekly club meeting.The turnout for the club surpassed expectations and 35 grade

eights to 10s filled Becott’s room to listen in on Zhu and Quinton Huang explain future conference dates. The next day, a similar number of people congregated to sign up

for the ConnectMUN, with the school’s head delegate, Lee, who is working to collect all the cheques and organize committees offered to delegates in the school.“As the school year goes on, we’re hoping to turn this club into a

supplementary club to the International Relations program by of-fering miniature, mock conferences to students within the school,” Lee said. “I’m really happy with the numbers at the moment and I look forward to getting to know each delegate better!”

Making a differenceSenior St. George’s students make a trip to Peru

Successes of MUN

the.echotheThe St. George’s School Newspaper

New coach, more medals

By Roy YangThe St. George’s 1st XI Soccer

team has finished third in the gold division of the 2011 Canadian Accredited Independent Schools Soccer Tournament. The tournament consisted of

five round robin pools—A, B, C, D, and E—of four teams. The best team from each pool advanced to the gold division championships, and the rest qualified in the silver and bronze divisions. St. George’s, from Pool C, ad-

vanced into the quarterfinals by winning 3-0 versus Crescent School, 2-0 versus Royal St. George’s College, and tying 0-0 versus Bishop’s College School. In the quarterfinals, Saints easily defeated Lower Canada College 4-2.The strategy of the varsity team

was to play “disciplined soccer”, said Coach Shaun Lawrence. The team, emphasizing smart soccer and controlled possession games, worked efficiently on the field. “Our plan was simple: stick to

the game plan. We wanted to be fierce warriors on the field in the defending and winning of ball possessions. We tried to play the best soccer we were capable of playing,” said Lawrence.The semi-finals brought a tough

matchup against the best-ranked team, St. Andrew’s College, for the Saints 1st XI. According to Lawrence, coach of the Saints’ soccer team, the team had “mas-terful control of the first half [of the game].”

By: Harmanjot UppalWith the portables gone from the

field, more space is made within the senior school, and some other rooms are updated.

For the past six years, the school had a construction permit that ex-pired at the end of the last aca-demic year, therefore, everything from the portables, such as the spin bikes, the ergs, junior school fair materials, and other equip-ment had to be moved to inside the senior school.

Also, many rooms within the school have opened up to pro-vide space to more classes, for example, a new seminar room next to the north entrance to the large gym, which was previous-ly the IT room, had been newly updated. With approximately 90 seats, multiple power outlets, a new projector and a large screen, the room serves a better purpose as a lecture room than a small and crowed IT room.

Furthermore, the spin bikes from the portables have been moved

By Leon ShenSt. George’s School, Vancou-

ver – Shannon Van Baalen was hired as the newest member to the Senior School’s Rowing Pro-gram over the summer of 2011. Van Baalen brings with her an ac-complished rowing background to Saints as the current Rowing Coordinator. She is excited to be part of the community.

Van Baalen hails from Wellan-port, Ont. and has extensive expe-

rience both as a rower and coach. Throughout her years as a former Brock University rower, Van Baalen has racked up numerous achievements including two Ca-nadian University Rowing Cham-pionship Medals (08 - Silver, 09 - Bronze), Female Rower of the Year, among other various schol-arships and awards. After retiring as an athlete, Van Baalen con-tinued to pursue her rowing ca-reer as a coach. Having coached for 15 years, the native Ontarian brings her experience to Saints as assistant coach of the JV and Var-sity rowing teams. When asked to define her job, Van Baalen re-marked, “In a nut shell I could be called ‘Captain’ de Leeuw's (head coach of the rowing program) right hand woman.”

Recalling her first impression of Saints, Van Baalen exclaims, “As I drove down West 29th Avenue after a five-day road trip across Canada, I was thrilled to see such a great facility that offers pro-grams and courses that embrace all aspects of the lives of their (Saints) students.”

Van Baalen emphasizes that the school’s identity as a community is what really makes Saints great. “It is a community where the stu-dents are engaged, the parents are involved and the teachers are enthusiastic, everyone seems to work together to make the school the best it possibly can be.”

As a native of Ontario, Van Baalen is just starting to settle down in British Columbia. “It is definitely hard being from a small town in Ontario and moving to a big city like Vancouver where I do not know anyone. Being so far away from my family and friends is what I do not like the most...”

Van Baalen hopes to take back from Saints “lasting friendships, acceptance from this wonderful community and valuable life ex-

perience.” As one of her goals, Van Baalen aims to make new friends in her new environment. “I have no doubt that this is possi-ble as everyone here is very sup-portive in helping me settle into my new surroundings.”

When asked if being at Saints has changed her as an individu-al, Van Baalen knows one thing is certain, “I am who I am. My small town roots, morals and val-ues will always stay the same, but as I am in an entirely new envi-ronment I hope to learn and grow, becoming a better person through my experiences and the people that I meet.”

On expectations for the row-ing team, Van Baalen states that though she is not stressing, she expects no less than a couple of medals from the St. George’s crew this year. “No pressure team, but I am female so naturally I like shiny things, so I hope to see a lot of them.”

For the team to be successful, Van Baalen believes in teamwork and effort. “I want them (row-ing team) to have that hunger to compete and the desire to leave nothing on the table because they were pulling for the crew...if the boys on the St. George’s rowing team are committed everyday to make themselves strong as a team, I have no doubt that they will achieve greatness.”

Improving Saints Female coach brings propects to the rowing season

“We had never played the first half of any game that well. We had better scoring opportunities and passed the ball well, and had more ball possessions. We later tired and had unlucky bounces against us.”In the dying minutes, the oppos-

ing team scored a penalty shot, earning them the winning goal. The final score was 2-1 for St. Andrew’s College. Bryan Fong, captain of the

Saints’ team, had a slow start in the tournament but later per-formed exceptionally well in the quarter and semi-final games. Though Saints didn’t win the gold, Fong believes the team found a “new identity.” “I think as a team we really

came together. In that St. An-drew’s College game, I would say we looked like Barcelona! We passed the ball well, moved for

each other, played for each other, and worked hard on and off the ball. I am extremely proud to be the captain of our team and proud of the way we played at CAIS, despite our unfortunate loss in the semi finals.”With upcoming games for the

provincials and ISA’s, Fong be-lieves the team can improve on certain aspects.“I think our team could improve

on our endurance and finishing.

In the last game against St. An-drew’s College, we started off re-ally strong but started to get tired as the second half came around. Additionally, we had so many chances to score in the first give minutes of the game but missed many opportunities that could have taken us to the finals.” The 1st XI is currently compet-

ing in the Vancouver Richmond Zone tournament.

Soccer: 3rd in CAIS

into a bright and open room in front of the pool entrance. It pro-vides quick and easy access to students within the school, and al-lows for an extra workout space.

The physiotherapy room moved to a cozy and clean room next to the pool after its portable was moved in June.

Another great improvement to the school was the creation of a school store located at the senior school campus. Many students agree that the new store was one of the best additions, as it allows all students quick access to the store, instead of always going down to the junior school. Along-side selling sports equipment and school apparel, the store sells pencils, notebooks and other sta-tionary, much to the approval of the student body.

Since Garcia Field has opened up, the field will be newly refur-bished, and it will once again be a whole rectangle. Being a full field, it will provide a full rect-angle space that was only previ-

ously available on the Nigel Toy Field.

As many students, teachers and parents have already noticed, the floors from both Maclean Hall and the front entrance have undergone changes from full-carpeted flooring to clean, cream tiles. Although many students say the change is “eye-catching” and gives a fresh sense to the school, many others are saying that the floor from the front entrance cre-ates a risk of slipping, when it is raining hard outside. Even though no one has been seen being in-jured or slipping on the floor, and the floor does seem to have some texture to it, the floor is taking some criticism, especially since the floor easily gets dirty.

However, in Maclean Hall, the floor is being greeted with open arms, particularity by the janitors. The floors, which often gets dirty by the occasional full cup of liq-uid or the full plate of food, are much easier to clean, according to the janitorial staff.

St. George’s 1st XI soccer team ranks third overall in a 20-team tournament

the.echotheThe St. George’s School Newspaper

It’s never too late for triathalon

By Paul RedelmeierThe new school year got off to

a quick start, when on September 8, barely a day into it, the Parent’s Association hosted the first annu-al Family Barbecue on the senior school’s main field. Unlike in years past, where the

Parents Association has hosted an annual reception at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, the board decided to host an event, which, while serving many of the same purposes — the conveners for the 2012 Saints Fair were announced — was also easy and accessible for the community.“We wanted an event that was

casual and that was intrinsic to the school and to the St. George’s community,” said Tricia Ed-monds, one of the three chairs on the hosting committee. “[Some-thing] that would be social for everybody … and that would bring the students and staff into the mix.”Up to 1,500 people visited the

event, a number that Edmonds said the organizers had expected. The online sign-up process in the days leading up to the barbecue, “gave [the organizers] a good look at how many people would end up coming, and [they] were able to handle that from there.”The event, however, was not

without its surprises. “We were absolutely astounded that peo-ple lingered, that people really stayed,” she continued. “People were only really leaving because they had other engagements, be-

By: Roy YangSenior teacher Jeremy Sayers

has placed 16th in the World Tri-athlon Championships in the 45- 49 age group. Sayers participated in the Olym-

pic distance event, which consists of a 1.5 km swim, 40 km bike ride, and 10 km run. He finished the race in 2 hours 20 minutes and 10 seconds. According to Sayers, it was “an

amazing experience.” “I thought of it as a once in a

lifetime experience. I was lucky enough to run on the complete 2008 Olympic course. [It] was beautiful and I had the opportu-nity to meet athletes from across Canada and from around the world. I even met [2000 Olym-pic gold medalist and 2008 silver medalist] Simon Whitfield.” Sayers qualified for the World

Championships because he had performed well in the 2010 Ca-

cause it was getting dark out … I was very happy about that.”The barbecue promises to be-

come an annual event, as its post-ers advertised. Said Edmonds, “We’re definitely planning on having one next year, and then, as we [members of the parents as-sociation] review it, year-by-year. We’ll see from there.” The barbecue was also warmly

received by the student body. Connor Dyson, a new student to St. George’s agreed that he felt that it integrated him into the school community. Integration, added Edmonds,

was a focus of barbecue, both for the new students as well as their parents, who are now members of the Parents Association. “This was the first event that was to re-ally welcome everyone to the Par-ents Association.”Though the Royal Vancouver

Yacht Club reception had fulfilled this purpose before, Edmonds stated that the barbecue provided a far more friendly and less im-posing atmosphere. The recruit-ing that took place there in the past would now take place in the form of an introductory luncheon at the senior school this October.Changes, she admitted, though

possible, were unlikely to be drastic. After all, why change something that was, from the point of view of both the Parent’s Association as well as the student body, “a tremendous success on several fronts.”

nadian National Triathlon Cham-pionships in Kelowna B.C. He completed the Olympic distance race in 2:11:25 to finish sixth in his age group.To prepare for the subsequent

World Championships, the teach-er-triathlete trained intensively before and during the summer--partly in Beijing but primarily in Canada. Sayers credits his suc-cess to his consistent training. He advises any aspiring student or teacher athlete to always “be con-sistent.”“The important thing is con-

sistency. The hardest part of my training was getting out there on the field, day in, day out by my-self, and pushing myself through challenges. To all, be consistent. Get out there and set a goal for yourself. Do whatever you have to do and do it everyday.” The 48-year old first started tri-

athlon because it did not require

expertise in one particular sport. The senior teacher still trains reg-ularly to stay fit.

“I like to stay fit. I like the fact that at 48 years old, I can still do the things I did when I was 18, or even better.” Sayers finds many things about

competing as a triathlete reward-ing. But perhaps one of the big-gest rewards is finishing a tough race.“There’s nothing like crossing

the finish line after you’ve really pushed yourself to the limit. It’s a special feeling.”Sayers is currently invited to

partake in the Olympic distance event of the 2012 World Triathlon Championships held in Auckland, New Zealand. However, the se-nior teacher has declined, due to his teacher commitments for the 2012-2013 school year.

BBQ success By Leon ShenSt. George’s School, Vancouver - A number of foreign students have landed at Saints this year to expe-

rience St. George’s and discover Canada and its distinct culture. Through various exchange programs of-fered at the school, international students from around the world have arrived at St. George's doorsteps. In grade 10 alone, there are at least five exchange students; some coming from distant countries such

as Germany and France while others from much closer nations like Mexico. As their time at Saints is temporary, some students are only able to stay for one term while others will be here until the end of the school year. In a recent interview with an exchange student, Victor Marlin (Gr. 10), shares some of his thoughts

on the Saint’s community and points out various differences between France and Canada. Victor is cur-rently 16 years old, and is from Burgundy, France. He has three brothers, one of which is his twin and states that his favourite courses are P.E. and math. What was you first impression of St. George’s?“When I arrived at St. Georges, I said to myself: ‘This school is so big and so beautiful!’ I also thought

this school is like the ‘perfect school’ because everybody is in uniform and so dressed well! Inside the school, it is perfect: clean, with a lot of ‘school decor’ and outside, the grass is perfect! I see this school as the typical Canadian's school!”What are some of the major changes in the education system between what is taught here at Saints and

the school where you come from?“In France, we never eat or laugh with the teachers, some of them (teachers) are very strict with us. In

Canada, the teachers are very cool, relaxed and not very strict. There is also the thing about computers; in France, we can't have our laptop during the class but in Canada, you can!”“...In my school, there isn't any uniform; we can wear whatever we want...but in St. George’s, we have

to wear the uniform for going to school. I like to wear the uniform, I find this funny!”“In France, we have not the system ‘sport after school’, in St. George’s, there is this system. I find it is

a good system because we can practice sports free“...and the last thing is about the timetable, in France, we have a timetable for one week but in St.

George’s, there is a timetable just for 2 days.”What do you like most about Saints?“I like St. George’s because I find it is a competitive school. For example, in sports, there are many

challenges and the teachers are with the students so they are like a community between all the students and teachers.”What are your thoughts on the single-sex education implemented here?“Personally, if I have the choice, I prefer to go to a school with girls and boys because I find it is more

funny....”Has your time at Saints changed you? What do you hope to gain from this exchange?“...because I just stay two months at St. George’s, I think my time at here has not changed me, but dur-

ing this time, I have met a lot of different people; I have discovered the culture of Canada.”To exchange students like Martin, St. George’s serves as a representation of the Canadian culture. Our

community embodies the Canadian spirit for multiculturalism and has welcomed every foreign student over the past years with open arms. Through this short exchange program, Victor has achieved his goal for traveling abroad and brings back

to France a firm grasp of the Canadian essence and culture. Here at Saints, we have achieved our goal as well, establishing St. George’s as a home away from home for Victor and all other foreign students.

The Saint’s multiculturalism Saints parents host a school-wide family barbeque on the fields