S T .MICHAELS U NIVERSITY S CHOOL Celebrating the Opening of the Crothall Centre for Humanities & the Arts Create the Future Fall 2003 St. Michaels University School Create the Future! At St. Michaels University School, we have created an environment that nurtures the academic, spiritual, and physical growth of young people, from kindergarten to grade 12. Inspiration and encouragement motivate our students to reach new heights and to discover their potential. Creating bright minds and tomorrow’s leaders… Financial aid available. St. Michaels University School Visit our web site! Co-educational, from Kindergarten to Grade 12 www.smus.bc.ca Day • Grades K-12 Admissions (250)370-6170 Boarding • Grades 8-12 Toll-free in North America ESL • Grades 8-10 1-800-661-5199 Headmaster • Robert T. Snowden [email protected] school ties — fall 2003 1 SCHOOL TIES is distributed to more than 6,500 Create the Future members of the St. Michaels University School community, including current families, friends, UILT FROM current and past staff and alumni. The goal of GREAT IDEAS the publication is to communicate current B activities and initiatives, along with articles and and visions – reports on the alumni community. If you have tethered ’round providing any comments or suggestions regarding this an outstanding learning publication, please contact Jenus Friesen at environment – SMUS (250) 370-6169 or e-mail: [email protected]. celebrates her newest landmark, the newly opened Crothall Centre for Humanities and the Published by: Arts. This beautiful The Development Office at St. Michaels University School building stands proudly 3400 Richmond Road, Victoria on the Senior School British Columbia, Canada V8P 4P5 Architect aul Merrick campus as a reminder of P Telephone: (250) 592-2411 a great gift, given in On the cover: St. Michaels University School celebrated the grand opening Admissions: 1-800-661-5199 confidence in support of of the Crothall Centre for Humanities and the Arts on Friday, October 3, E-mail: [email protected] 2003. More than 250 invited guests were in attendance. Website: www.smus.bc.ca the school’s bold vision of the future. St. Michaels University School is a leader in innovative K-12 education, providing young men and Editors: Christopher Spicer, Jenus Friesen women a nurturing learning environment that is both creative and inspiring. These pages of School Ties magazine reveal elements of our rich heritage, including great founders from the past and some Contributors: (in no particular order) of the changes that have influenced us today. You will also find stories about people who continue to Robert Snowden, Peter Bousfield, connect and contribute to the energy and the fabric of our greater community. Robert Wilson, Ian Hyde-Lay, Brenda Waksel, Archie Ives, John Reid, Rev. June Maffin, Donna Ray, Lindsay Thierry, Heidi Davis, Anna Forbes, Donna Williams, Cam Culham, Kindergarten to grade 12 – and beyond! Cynthia Mitchell, Rick Johnson, John Crawford, Jim De Goede, On a September morning in the Miriam Stanford, Louise Winter, Senior School quad, next to School Tony Keble, Margaret Skinner, House and the newly opened Linda Rajotte, Hugh Young, Kathy Roth, Keith Murdoch Crothall Centre for Humanities and the Arts are [l-r] Trent Norris (kindergarten), son of alumna Photography: Jenus Friesen, Christopher Spicer, Liane Thomas (SMUS ’82); Jessica Craig Farish, Rob Destrubé, Qualley (grade 6), daughter of school family members & friends alumnus Eric Qualley (SMUS ’62); Ellise McCarten (grade 12), Production & Printing: daughter of alumnus Murray Reber Creative McCarten (SMUS ’74); and John Hillside Printing Ltd. McIntyre (US ’62), alumnus, Victoria, BC current parent, and History teacher Lithographed in Canada at the Senior School. SMUS history and tradition holds that first, second, third, and even fourth generation families are in attendance. More than just tradition – these kinds of If you are interested school ties pave the way for the in attending school events, future. call (250) 592-2411 for further details, or visit the school’s website On the back cover: Though not exactly Abbey Road, we do Calendar of Events: have the Senior School Quad at St. Michaels University School. www.smus.bc.ca 2 quality, permanence, access Quality, Permanence, Access by Robert Snowden, Headmaster, SMUS Robert Snowden, Headmaster E MAKE A LIVING by what we get, we others who are following his lead, each characteristics that these schools share? And W make a life by what we give.” As we according to his or her capacity, are deciding to since it would be a daydream to duplicate any open the Crothall Centre, and contribute to a future SMUS that is possible of these schools, we then ask ourselves: what anticipate the construction of the Schaffter Hall because of a combination of conditions that characteristics of these schools does it make for Music, these words of Winston Churchill now prevail here. So we continue to plan for the sense for us to emulate? As we think, talk, plan, resonate for us all at SMUS – more than they future, as we have done for the past few years, examine, and research, three words float to the might in a community without such fresh keeping the school’s mission first and foremost. top – quality, permanence, and access. These memories and promising plans. It is humbling We remember our past, we do our best for our are the pillars of our planning. to accept these gifts, and to understand that current students, and we plan for future Quality. Parents and teachers want to make these buildings aren’t given so much to us, as to students. A remarkable number of people have sure that our students have the best and richest the idea that our school represents. It is the idea observed that this recent gift ought not to be opportunities to pursue their potential. These of a school that has done great things in the viewed as a benefit, but just a stroke of luck to young men and women are among the best past, and that will be even greater after we have be enjoyed for the present. This success that we students in the world. Our mission seeks, as its gone. We are dwarfed next to such dreams, and share is not an ending of our work – it is a first goal, the “excellence in all of us.” It asserts our proper response is to find our place within beginning. that our students all have their talents and those dreams, that vision. It is in this spirit that we are undertaking, gifts, and that these gifts are different in each These buildings, and the buildings that will right now, a look at the future of the school of them. Our mission also asserts that the come after them, have quality and permanence. and its educational programme. This planning quality we seek has to take place within a During these fall days, without considering the is guided by two simple questions: how do we community that shares values, that pursues past and the future too much, the students serve the current students of the school as well truth and goodness, and that prepares students enjoy the wide walkways of the Crothall as possible, and how do we continue to serve for higher learning and life. When we did our Centre. They run and gather in the new our students in the future? Soon, the school Strategic Planning exercise four years ago, a quadrangle, they learn – or are distracted – in will be celebrating its hundredth birthday. It is group discussion among parents emphasized classroom spaces of auspicious light. Churchill significant that our school has this history. It that the development of character was as also said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter means that the original mission of the two important as the pursuit of academic success. they shape us.” In a very conscious way, the founding schools – to pursue academic success In fact, it is almost impossible to pursue shape and qualities of School House have in an environment where the character and the academic success without paying attention to influenced generations of students, and have self also grow – is valid still today. The art of character. A student has to learn that the habits influenced the design of our new structures. change is to preserve the things that don’t that make him or her a good student are also We hope that to future generations of students, change, and in our long history, the ties that the habits that will make him or her a these new buildings will mean what School bind past students and parents to what is going successful and good adult. Wasted genius – the House has meant to those who have left. on now is a great example of this art. bright, intelligent student who thrives Quality, permanence, access. Our new Where do we look in our planning? To great academically, but then leads a life that doesn’t buildings evoke these words. Certainly, and schools. We look at any number of institutions, measure up to that early promise – is a cliché obviously, they evoke quality and permanence, that for one reason or another, would be in education and in the wider world. No at least. More about access in a moment. There considered great schools in the world – Eton, parent wants a son or daughter who succeeds is great good fortune in our present opportunity Harrow, Phillips Exeter, Andover, Groton, and in school but doesn’t succeed in life, and no at the school. People like Graeme Crothall, and others both nearer and further. What are the student wants that either; so our search for quality, permanence, access 3 quality has to extend beyond the measurable that young people discover what will resist the most important thing they learn.