Breaking Down Walls
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Lenard De Ocampo, George B. Little Public School; Sevion DaCosta, Upper Canada College; Jyoti Sehgal, director, Horizons; Khushi Patel, George B. Little P.S.; Tom Lace ’06, director, Horizons alumni mentoring program; Latisha Edwards and Meryam Afkea, Nelson Mandela School group of Grade 8 students ignores the lure of summer Breaking breezes and green lawns as they vigorously debate A Middle Eastern politics in a classroom at the Upper School. Just a week ago these issues, half a world away, down walls were largely unfamiliar. But a passion for learning and a bit of preparation has turned these students in the Horizons After 15 years, UCC’s landmark Horizons summer program’s Model United Nations (UNM) into eager advocates for the countries they’re assigned to represent. program still triggers profound growth in both The exchange is lively, energetic and intelligent. UCC students and the lives of the inner-city “Speaking in front of your peers and expressing arguments students it touches. isn’t an easy thing to do,” says IB2 student and UNM tutor Andrew Irwin, a tutor for the Model UN. “They were trying By Elaine Smith to understand the intricacies of Middle Eastern politics and were really involved and interested. After four days, they were really good at it.” 18 Old Times Fall/Winter 2014 Lenard De Ocampo, George B. Little Public School; Sevion DaCosta, Upper Canada College; Jyoti Sehgal, director, Horizons; Khushi Patel, George B. Little P.S.; Tom Lace ’06, director, Horizons alumni mentoring program; Latisha Edwards and Meryam Afkea, Nelson Mandela School Photograph: Liam Sharp Pushing students towards uncharted waters is exactly what the Horizons summer program aims to accomplish. It’s one facet HORIZONS BY THE NUMBERS of the more comprehensive school-year program that connects Horizons began: 1998 UCC student tutors with boys and girls, mainly in Grades 5 Horizons programs in 2014: 17 and 6, from inner-city school districts in Toronto, among other Participating TDSB schools: 12 programs. The goal is to improve their understanding of individ- UCC student tutors in academic ual subjects or allow them to experience new skills and ideas. year programs: 190 to 200 Among its 17 offshoots are math, rugby and other recreational programming. (For example, watching a game at the William P. Youngsters tutored: 465 to 600 Wilder ’40 Arena can be, in so many cases, a first-time hockey Old Boys tutoring Horizons grads: 30 rink experience for many participants.) Horizons grads in graduate program: 35 The goals are modest perhaps, but the results are often Summer program students: 170 life-changing. Sevion DaCosta, a Scarborough youth, first set Source: Horizons 2014-15 Report foot on the UCC campus as part of a Grade 6 Saturday soccer program. He fell in love with the school and applied for a Fall/Winter 2014 Old Times 19 scholarship. He began his UCC career in Grade 7 and is now the barriers to other opportunities that result from this pov- a Grade 10 student, a graduate of the Horizons summer pro- erty. The Meighen Foundation funded the original program gram, a clarinetist, a football player and a future lawyer. He’s and donations to the UCC Foundation have ensured that it’s also a tutor in the weekday Horizons program that focuses on endowed to provide for ongoing success. Grade 5 and 6 students. “It was the first program of its kind — a partnership “I want to give back,” says DaCosta. “Horizons helped between an independent school and the public school board me grow up.” — in Canada,” says Sehgal proudly. While not every Horizons participant can obtain a scholar- Since that time, other Toronto independent schools such ship to UCC, the programs still make a difference in their lives. as The Bishop Strachan School and Branksome Hall have Every student from the first class of graduates from the Horizons adopted the model in some fashion, along with others in the summer program 15 years ago, for example, went on to post-sec- province, but none is as comprehensive as Horizons. ondary education, says Jyoti Sehgal, Horizons programs director. The UCC community has embraced Horizons wholeheart- That outcome might have been unlikely without the added edly, and it has grown from the original academic year tutor- stimulation, confidence and support they gained at UCC. ing program to include 17 offshoots such as an Ontario Model Parliament in April and the one-month summer program for 170 of the most talented Grade 6 through 8 students each July. Students return to enrichment programs in science, THE HORIZONS MANDATE, WHICH math, arts and more each summer for three years and can HASN’T CHANGED AS THE PROGRAM take part in a leadership program while they’re in high school. The summer program could be considered the shining ENTERS ITS 16TH SCHOOL YEAR, star in the Horizons firmament. It is based on research show- IS TO RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ing that summer is the time during the critical pre-adolescent years when youngsters are most likely to disengage. Studies IS A SCENARIO OF POVERTY IN show it’s difficult for students to retain material after a two- month summer break. TORONTO AND TO HELP STUDENTS Those selected for the summer program are often new OVERCOME THE BARRIERS TO OTHER immigrants to Canada or first-generation Canadians, which, says Judith Macdonell, head of drama at UCC and Horizons OPPORTUNITIES THAT RESULT teacher, “creates a tapestry. A bond happens and they realize FROM THIS POVERTY. that we are all in this together.” Reed Jeffrey, a UCC physics teacher, designed the Grade 7 science segment of the program and spent some time in the Horizons classroom introducing the students to astrophysics. Sehgal, a former school vice-principal at one of the Toronto “The questions they asked were very intelligent and mature,” District School Board’s (TDSB) inner-city schools, runs the says Jeffrey. “I loved the fact that the kids were eager and inter- Horizons programs with the help of Elaine Ticzon, program ested in learning. It was amazing teaching them.” co-ordinator. Discussion about a program to provide disadvan- UCC alumni are recruiting for a new Saturday program that taged students with tutoring came to fruition in 1999, Sehgal will run throughout the academic year (see sidebar on page 22), says, when Nanci Goldman, previously the co-ordinator of inner and one student has proposed establishing a robotics club. city programs at the TDSB, joined the UCC faculty to run Hori- “It’s almost part of the school culture,” Sehgal says. zons. It celebrated its 15th anniversary this year and continues to expand to embrace more students in need. “Nanci opened a lot of doors for us at the TDSB, and we wouldn’t have the program today without the work she did and the vision of what it would become,” says Patti MacNicol, chief administrative officer at UCC, noting that Goldman is still involved in the program today despite her retirement from the TDSB. The Horizons mandate, which hasn’t changed as the pro- gram enters its 16th school year, is to recognize that there is a scenario of poverty in Toronto and to help students overcome 20 Old Times Fall/Winter 2014 UNEXPECTED DOOR TO A UCC EDUCATION How Horizons changed the course of their lives. “About a quarter of the Upper School participates in our academic year tutoring program.” Yvonne Lai, leapfrogged from the Horizons summer program to a leadership role That program remains a focus for Horizons, because it in UCC’s summer camps and then to meets a real academic need in the community and benefits teacher’s college: “Horizons led me to a both students and tutors. The school board identifies those different place,” she says. schools with the greatest needs and Sehgal works with them to determine how tutoring can help. Horizons generally focuses on Grade 5 and Grade 6 students, says Sehgal, in order to prepare students for provincial testing during Grade 6. Yvonne Lai and Old Boy Othniel Cundangan ’13 could talk for hours about the Horizons summer program, given the impact it’s had on their lives. Cundangan is now at McGill University and Lai is a certified teacher who worked in the most recent IT WAS THE FIRST PROGRAM OF ITS Horizons summer program. KIND — A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN “I started with Horizons and it led me to a different place,” AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL AND THE says Lai, who attended Pape Avenue Public School in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood. Lai, 25, was part of the first class PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD — IN CANADA. to attend the fledgling three-year summer program. “I loved to learn, but I was very, very shy. The program helped me a lot with that.” “A typical program would be to have 45 students for math Lai graduated from the summer program and took part in tutoring and lunch every Thursday for eight weeks in the the UCC leadership camp. She soon had her first paying job, fall,” says Sehgal. “In the winter, that Thursday slot might be working at a UCC summer camp. taken by another school.” Lai went on to the University of Toronto and to teacher’s UCC either buses TDSB students to the campus for an hour’s session or UCC students go as a team to one of the college at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. “I partner schools. There are students coming and going daily was exposed to working with kids and it sparked my interest in during the fall and winter tutoring sessions. It requires an teaching,” she says. immense amount of co-ordination, but all the Horizons par- Cundangan, too, sees Horizons as a major influence in his ticipants, benefit from the program.