THE ECHO A St. George’s School Student Publication November 2009

Class Ranking Dropped for Good By Andrew Watson

The school’s Student Servic-es Department recently an-

nounced that they have of cially terminated the process of ranking students; this change was made primarily to allow for a fairer sys-tem for judgment of its students. As of September, the school eliminated its long withstanding ranking policy and became a non-ranking school.

Brian Lee, Head of Student Ser-vices, said “the department con-tends that ranking our students can do more harm than good for graduating students in today’s high-stakes university admis-sions game…only a handful of students are advantaged by the reporting of class rank in the ad-mission process.”

According to statistics, class rank really only bene ts the top 5-10% of the class. Due to the relatively small graduating class size and the academic parity be-tween top students, the depart-ment feels a single rank gure can misrepresent an individual student’s achievements.

As Lee said, “The comparison among students inherent in rank in class calculations unnecessar-ily increases competition within the school. Furthermore, we be-lieve that our students’ levels of

achievement are not equitably or fully communicated by the single gure transcript statistic. Our school has one of the most aca-demically challenging and com-petitive high school environments

in Canada, and our students meet that challenge by earning exem-plary grades.”

St. George’s is joining an in-creasing list of schools that are doing away with their class rank-

ing systems. The majority of these schools have found no evidence of students being denied from admission to universities based on not reporting their class rank; in fact, many high schools have seen improvement in university placement since dropping their ranking systems.

Lee also mentioned that the change will decrease unnecessary stress for students. “The system contributes to an overly competi-tive peer culture and a misguided focus on outcomes on our school campus. Many of our students, both high and low achieving, ex-perience signi cant stress levels resulting from the pressures of being either at the top or the bot-tom of the class ranking scales.”

Over the past ten years, ap-proximately 30% of St. George’s graduates have achieved an 89% overall average or higher.

As times have changed, and the university admission process has evolved, the school feels very con dent in its decision.

School does away with Ranking Students for Universities

“Death Traps” to stayBy Alan Osiovich

The B.C government has left it to individual school

boards to regulate their use of the vans, instead of issuing a Prov-ince-wide ban.

Sandi Cobb, Head of Transpor-tation, explained that she is not concerned about the safety of the vans because they undergo mul-tiple inspections that are not en-forced in other provinces.

“B.C’s vehicle inspection regu-lations are among the strictest in

the nation; 15-passenger vans un-dergo several yearly inspections which are adequate for their con-tinued use.”

Under B.C law, the 15-passen-ger vans are considered school busses. The vans must undergo a school bus permit inspection on top of the bi-annual commer-cial vehicle inspection. Cobb ex-plained that both types of inspec-tions provide a “thorough check of any wear and tear that the ve-hicles may have.”

Yvon Godin, the Member of Par-liament for the Acadie–Bathurst region, New Brunswick, said the vans’ safety “have nothing to do with inspections.”

“The vans are unsafe because they were made to carry cargo, not people,” insisted the New Democrat MP. “It doesn’t matter how many inspections are done. The bottom line is that these ve-hicles weren’t made for transport-ing groups of people.”

The vans gained national prom-

inence following a fatal crash in January 2008 that killed 7 basket-ball players from a New Bruns-wick high school.

Dubbed “death traps on wheels” by Safety Forum, a US-based consulting rm, the vans are used at St. George’s for transportation to and from short eld trips and other school-related events. Safe-ty Forum’s study, published in 2002, explained that the vans are highly susceptible to rollovers during crashes. According to the

American National Transporta-tion Safety Board (NTSB), upon a crash, vans loaded with nine or more people have a 35.4% chance of rolling over.

Under the national code, St. George’s’ safety record is cur-rently ranked at the “low level” (positive record); a strong safety record insures the school lower insurance rates on the vans.

Continued on page 2

INSIDE THE ECHO

News.............................................................................1-4

Technology.......................................................................5

Harker Hall News............................................................6

Editorials..........................................................................7

Clubs.............................................................................8-9

Arts and Entertainment.............................................10-11

Sports.........................................................................12-15

The senior school will continue to operate its two 15-passenger vans amidst several warnings by politicians against the use of the vehicles

• In 2007, fatalities to occupants of 15-passenger vans increased nearly 20% from the previous year.

• About one-fourth of fatally injured occupants of 15-passenger vans, over the last 5 years, were drivers.

• The median age group for drivers killed in 15-passenger vans is 45 to 54; the median age group for passengers is 25 to 34.

• In 2007, there were 45 fatalities in 15-passenger vans that rolled over, 73% more than in 2006.

• About 80 percent of the fatally injured van occupants in rollovers in the past 5 years were not restrained.

Key Findings by the Study

Yvon Godin, NDP MP

2

Continued from page 1 But the vans won’t be in

service too much longer at St. George’s; the school’s current 10-year plan for ve-hicle replacement calls for the 2 remaining vans to be phased out by 2011.

Sandy Bucifal, Resources teacher, agreed with Cobb’s statements and thinks that the vans aren’t a threat to safety while used within B.C, “Vancou-ver’s mild climate provides ac-ceptable conditions for the vans to be used in.”

Godin is currently rallying for the federal government to ban the vans across the country. He

By Josiah Tsang

The exchange program at St. George’s has seen a de-

cline in interest amongst the stu-dent body this year. The program sends four students worldwide per year and gives the students a chance to experience different cultures around the world.

Lindsay Thierry, Director of Ad-missions, thinks many students are not interested in the program because they do not know it is of-fered and that the program isn’t advertised throughout the school.

He also said, “I believe no one is interested because the students do not want to take time off of their academics or athletics.”

The program, created before 1989, started off as an option for “Gappers”, recently graduated students from Knox Grammar School in Australia, to come to Canada for a “gap” year before they go on to college.

Soon after, an exchange program between the schools was created. Every year, St. George’s sends one student to Knox Grammar

is prepared to introduce a Private Member’s Bill to the House of Commons.

“Though vehicle use regula-tions are under provincial juris-dictions, Canada must have the right to set some safety measures through the federal government. When the bill is introduced, my

hope is that the government takes over and recognizes why the bill must pass.”

Though Godin is keeping his hopes high, it could be a while for this bill to be in-troduced in Ottawa; Private Member’s Bills are literally “drawn from a hat.”

The U.S study mentioned that the vans are “are among

the most lethal vehicles on the road today” because of their high center of gravity; the vans have been found to lack an adequate amount of several emergency and traffic-control features that could have detrimental effects on pas-sengers.

From the Editors...

School and receives often more than one student from Knox.

Other schools, such as St. Mi-chael’s University, offer ex-changes to other places such as Quebec, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Although St. George’s does not offer more than six exchanges, Mr. Thierry has said that he is currently working on building relationships with schools world-wide that would be interested in an exchange in Vancouver.

“The problem is that students from other schools want to come to St. George’s for the program and no students are willing to bil-let students for the time of their stay,” says Thierry.

Johannes Tsang, a participant of the Knox Grammar School exchange in 2006, said, “I was able to learn about the culture and about rugby, but I think that the exchange isn’t for the faint of heart. The only way you would enjoy yourself would be if you took time off your academics and sports.”

This year the cultural tour, along with a couple of exchange pro-grams might be cancelled due to the lack of interest from the stu-dents. Thierry said the programs might become cancelled because the advertisements for these pro-grams are not broadcasted to the student body.

These programs are said to give the students growth opportunity outside of the school environment in places they have never been to. Also, the ability to see schools, experience new countries and their cultures, create connections with newly made friends is an added bonus to the trip.

Mr. Thierry believes, “The boys are missing out on this opportu-nity and also realize how lucky we are to live in a place such as Vancouver.”

He also hopes to see students become more interested in these programs during the school year but also to offer more options for the students to choose from.

With the arrival of another year at Saints, the prestigious Echo newspaper has returned for yet another edition. This term, the talent-ed 15-man staff has compiled 16 pages of news, relevant to the lives of the St. George’s student body. The publication boasts a vast array of topics, ranging from arts to technology to sports. Within the sports section the reporters have attempted to cover the greatest possible variety of athletic endeavors at our school. Golf, hockey, basketball, squash, and many more have all been touched upon in the four page athletic spread. I am confident that this term’s edition of the Echo has not only lived up to the school’s high standards but is also a work that all students can be proud of.Tyler Raycraft

Hello everyone, this year is going to be one of the best for the paper as Alan, Tyler and I will hopefully catch your attention with this newspaper. My main task is the boarding house representative and I say it has been off to a great start. The building has just been refurbished as well with the rooms being renovated. I would like to welcome Tyler Hvidston and Mr. Taylor’s baby into the house as they were born this past summer. We have several new interns with us, Reto Camenzind, captain of boarding 2004-2005, who helps out with volley ball, James Weber, who works with the rowing squad, and Kristine Matuziac who also works in rowing. We also have sev-eral new assistant heads of house as well with a switch between Mr. Jones, who was first floor earlier, switched with Mr. Hvidston who was second floor. Ms. Weckend left last year only to be replaced by Ms. Hamilton and her partner, Mr. Blackman. Justin Wilke and his wife also left to be swapped by Alan Hesketh, director of Outdoor Education. Anyways, hope you do great on your exams and have a wonderful year.Thommy Thompson

This edition of the Echo has a little bit of everything. In fact, we have several new sections including: tech, clubs and Harker Hall news, along with a myriad of other news stories to keep students informed and up to date with happenings in (and out of) school. Also, you can expect a brand new online edition of the Echo to appear soon. We are excited for the move to the web, and hope that it will bring you news more often. This edition, the Arts and Entertainment section is packed with stories. Catch up on We Day, the Breaking Boundaries conference, and Mr. Wisden’s last-minute performance during A Few Good Men. Enjoy!Alan Osiovich

Students Losing Interest in Exchange Program

15-Passenger Vans (Total and Rollovers) Involved in Fatal Crashes, 2003-2007

Vans to be phased out soon

Editors-in-Chief.......................................................Tyler Raycraft .............................................Thommy Thompson ......................................................Alan Osiovich

Writers...................................................................Andrew Watson ..........................................................................Chris Chen ......................................................................Ian Brackman ........................................................................Ivan Cheung ........................................................................Josiah Tsang .........................................................................Matt Yensen ............ ..............................................................Nabil Virji ...........................................................................Peter Ding .............................................................................Roy Yang ................................................................... Soroush Rezaei .........................................................................Stuart Smith .............................................................................Tony Ahn

Staff Sponsor............................................................Jermey Sayers

Saints battles against global poverty

Fate of European cultural tour unknown

By Roy Yang

The senior school has in-troduced a new detention

system in response to students arriving late to advisor block. Students who are late for morn-ing advisor period will now serve an automatic fifteen-minute de-tention after school.

Paul Cohee, Head of Discipline, explained the new measure is aimed at fixing the growing problem of late ar-rivals before it runs out of control.

“The culture of coming to school early and advisor block hugely dete-riorated last year. I really want to shift the culture of think-ing of the Saints boys. Students have to start coming into school exactly at 8:15.”

Last year, if a student was late to school twice in one week, the penalty was a Friday detention. This year, a student will serve an automatic detention if late and will have to meet Cohee in per-son if the habit continues.

Cohee explained “Any ap-proach will be attempted to im-prove the situation.”

“Last year, I tried a soft ap-proach. It was an immense amount of work and I really don’t want to go through that process again. This year, I imposed a harsher system and will continue to search for any means possible to decrease the numbers.”

According to Cohee, the overall numbers are improving relative

to last year. In the month of Sep-tember 2008, the grade 8s had 29 unexcused late arrivals, grade 9s had 80, grade 10s had 69, grade 11s had 94, and grade 12s had 141.

This September, the grade 8s had nine unexcused late arrivals, grade 9s had 28, grade 10s had 54, grade 11s had 33, and grade 12s also had only 33.

Cohee also credits the new grade 12 cohort with some of the improvement.

“I think that students develop a certain attitude as they get older. For example, grade 12s [tend to] have a relaxed attitude that is sometimes not good for the school. To be honest, last year’s grade 12s were horrible. This

year, the grads are better.”

Regardless of the change in cohort, senior school re-ceptionist Natasha Thomson agrees that the situation has improved.

“The students take it seriously now. They understand that they need to be here on time so the school knows whether they are

here or not.” “Also, I’m pretty sure that the

boys don’t like staying after school and have better things to do than serve detention.”

It is not yet clear what the stu-dents think of the new policy, but from the administration’s point of view, the situation is definitely changing for the better.

Cohee implements new system

3

By Nabil Virji

Kagabay, a charity started by two eleventh-grade stu-

dents, is ready to expand to other schools. Terry Wu and Christo-pher Dee founded the charity at the end of the last school year, and after many sold-out sushi sales at St. Georges, they hope to grow.

Dee is enthusiastic about the ex-pansion, and believes it will yield success for the growing charity.

“Our lunchtime sushi sales here at St. Georges have been a great success, raising hundreds of dol-lars for the charity. We believe this effort would enjoy similar success at other schools”. The charity is currently looking into Crofton House and York House as possible destinations for their fundraising endeavors. The branches at these schools would be headed by siblings of boys in-volved in the charity.

Kagabay, which has enjoyed monetary success through the sales of sushi and stationary, is also looking to expand its product

base. “We’re look-ing into other prod-ucts we can sell that would be in demand by the student body.” Dee explained.

The idea to launch a charity started at the end of the ninth grade. “I realized that we [St. George’s Students] are very privileged to go to a private school, when there are many peo-ple lacking a basic primary education. I believed that we have the rescores to help.”

With that idea in mind, Dee set out to find a cause to support.

While on vacation in the Philip-pines, his aunt told him about a charity in which she was involved that specialized in providing a primary education for children in some of the poorest barangays

(districts) in the Country.Dee was immediately inter-

ested. He called his friend Terry Wu, who, at the time, was in Tai-wan, to come to the Philippines. They set a date to see the living conditions of the areas. “We were deeply moved by what we saw. Many homes did not have elec-

tricity, and children were subject to diseases such as hemorrhagic fever .” Wu commented. Dee and Wu had found their cause.

The organization, called Ka-babaihan Gabay ng Bayan (Kagabay for short), is based in the Philippines. They decided to fundraise at school in the new

year. When they got back how-ever, they realized that there was a long process for creating a Canadian charity. “We were shocked by the amount of pa-perwork required for register-ing the charity in Canada. There was a wait of around 10 months, and we didn’t want to wait that long.” Finally, Dee found a way around the problem. “My church, St. John the Apostle, as-sists us in sending the money to the Philippines, which simpli-fies everything.”

So far, the charity has raised hundreds of dollars, directly benefiting children in the Phil-ippines. This year, their goal is to raise $1000. “Each child Kagabay supports

needs only 50 cents a day for food and education, which isn’t a lot for us to raise. I believe this is an important cause because, after all, the children are our future, and the key to the betterment of the nation.”

By Stuart Smith

Saint George’s annual cultur-al tour may not get off the

ground this year, due to a lack of interest.

Ms. Basset, one of the teachers heading the trip, sites the busy atmosphere and stress of the year as the reason behind the lack of interest.

“There are so many different options being offered this year. People are busy,” says Basset.

A lack of interest may come from the economic recession, as well.

$1500 per person, would be need by October, followed by $2500 in December, not includ-ing spending money. In these times, people may just be afraid of spending that much money.

If the trip were successful, stu-dents from grades 8 through 12 would be able to visit four differ-ent European destinations over a span 10 days.

The tour would start in Paris and continue to Chartres before traveling, by train, to Spain where students would see Barcelona and Girona.

The trip would need a twelve person minimum to submit mon-ey by October 15th in order for

it to continue on. Unfortunately, as of October 2nd, the trip lead-ers have had no one submit their money.

The trip was planned for spring break, but it seems as though it may need to wait.

Basset says, “It might not be meant to be this year but I would love to take it in the future.”

The school tour hopes to instill a love of travel in students, but it seems as though this hope will have to wait for another time.

Basset, who also heads the yearly Japan tour, has never been to Spain before and she hopes that the trip can happen later in the future.

She is optimistic that students will realize the value of visiting foreign places and experienceing other cultures. “I’m sure it will be picked up for another time.”

In the past, the school has of-fered educational spring break trips to several locations around the globe.

Trips to England and Paris are common. The school also has plenty of Model United Nations trips to places such as Boston, New York City, and Chicago.

4

By Andrew Watson

With regards to Grad Student driving requirements, its out

with the old and in with the new. In an effort to ease the ten-sion of driving, St. George’s has altered their driving policy to better accommodate students who wish to drive themselves and their friends off campus. As of Wednesday, October 8, the policy was changed. It’s not a change that impacts the whole school, but it has a more secular impact that greatly re-lieves the stresses involved with grad students driving around with friends, as well as the parents of the drivers. Paul Cohee, Head of Disci-pline, said, “Because of the prior documents’ inability to be enforced and the complexities involved with them, we found it would be unrealistic to assure guaranteed obedience of that policy, so we had to change it.” Although this privilege is an attractive one, student drivers had to go through certain proto-col, which meant, that the driver of a particular vehicle had to

By Stuart Smith

In an effort to reduce its car-bon footprint, St. George’s

School is no longer mailing out midterm marks. Instead, the school’s administration is email-ing marks. The 2009 fall term was the first time Saint Georges sent their marks virtually. “We changed the system because it is faster, easier to access and better for the environment,” says Bud Patel, school principal.

Green life is a growing lifestyle that has dominated popular me-dia and Saint Georges is support-ive of the new changes. “Saint Georges is getting there. Green life is definitely a high priority at the school.”

The school has recently stopped sending a monthly newspaper, replacing it with a weekly “E-newsletter” sent via email. Patel says, “It is far more efficient to use the internet to share informa-tion. It’s faster, permanent and it saves trees.”

Saints has also changed all of its

By Tyler Raycraft

With the arrival of anoth-er Saints’ school year,

students and faculty celebrat-ed one of the most successful fund raising performances for the Terry Fox Foundation in recent memory. The donations continued to pour in during the weeks following the run, which took place on Septem-ber 16. These final donations raised the tally to greater than $27,000.

“We typically raise over $20,000 dollars, but this year was particu-larly successful,” said Head of Service, Heather Morris. “I think this year’s run was especially moving due to Mr. Mortimer’s speech before the run.”

According to Morris, the Senior School contributed approximately $12, 000 of the total. The Junior School is credited with amassing the remaining $15, 000.

Despite the impressive numbers posted in terms of total dollars

collected, this number is liable to balloon in the future. As Morris explained, only one out of every three senior school students re-turned pledge forms with money. Therefore, two-thirds of the stu-dent body, some 500 students, has yet to contribute.

“If those students who did not contribute this year would be able to make even a slight donation in future years, it would make a world of difference,” said the Head of Service. “It’s important

to realize that every dollar makes a difference.”

Although the tally has steadily risen over the past several years, Morris is confident that upcoming years will contribute even greater amounts to this worthwhile cause. “I feel that the school has con-tinued to perform exceptionally well, but we have yet to meet our goal of $20 per student at the Se-nior School,” explained Morris.

“I am very proud of the school,” said the Terry Fox Foundation

Terry Fox Run yields $27, 000 for Cancer Research representative, who accepted the cheque at assembly on Sept. 23. “As usual Saints is one of the largest contributors to our noble cause. The foundation has great appreciation for Mr. Toy and all the students of St. George’s.”

fluorescent lights to a more effi-cient alternative. Patel says, “The ministry recently went through a visionary exercise to help see the changes needed to make the school greener.”

Saint George’s also plans on making the website even more of media center for the commu-nity. The administration has been expanding the site from its small beginnings and they plan to make it the source of Saint George’s in-formation.

The school is also stressing energy conservation. “We really want students to become con-scious about light conservation,” says the principal. “The right atti-tude is the most important thing,” says Patel.

The school hopes to expand these positive achievements and continue to make the future greener. “We aren’t sure what a greener school will look like, but we’re on our way.”

Another step towards a greener St. George’s

get permission not only from his parent(s) but the parent(s) or guardian of their passenger(s). Now, instead of that, students and parents just have to sign a form and the students are free to drive with whomever, and accept full responsibility for their passengers and vehicle. “We appreciated that the pre-vious method was awkward and difficult for both students

and parents to use on a regu-lar basis,” quotes Shawn Law-rence, Head of Grade 12. Even though the process has changed, the rules haven’t, and students still need to respect the policies and the restrictions of their licenses. “St. George’s School recognizes the importance of sup-

porting and encouraging senior students as they make the transi-tions to adulthood,” Cohee adds. The new policy, presented in document form, states the in-tent of the new procedure, “St. George’s School recognizes that driving is a high-risk activity with significant consequences of poor decisions,” it reads. “We also understand that granting the freedom, responsibility and

decision-making associated with driving can be an ago-nizing decision for families. “ While granting freedom to its students, the school will take all the precautions to ensure that its students are safe, and that they represent the school well within the community. Also, students need to respect the rules, or their privilege to drive could be revoked.

“It’s nice to no longer have to

New and improved grad driving policy revealed

get permission from my parents every time I go out with some-one,” says grad student Naeem Bardai. “It is less stress on us, and it shows more trust between the school, our parents, and us.”

On your marks, get set, GO! The Saint George’s boys start the 4km Terry Fox loop while raising $27, 000 for Cancer Research

School now sends mid-term marks via email to reduce paper usage

By Tony Ahn

Laptop restriction has been introduced this year in

St.George’s boarding house. The restriction applies to all grade eights to nines in the boarding house, and the restriction was put into action in 14th of September. Students are to use their comput-ers up to 4 hours a day, from 5 to 9 in the evening. Laptops will be taken away at 9 o’clock, and will be stored in the boarding house, handed back to students at 5 the next day. There are ex-

By Stuart Smith

A grade 10 Saint Georges’ student has created a lu-

crative online business. Working in the self described, “online per-formance marketing industry,” creator Hafiz Dhanani opens up viral and digital doorways for big companies by marketing their products to potential buy-ers. He creates advertisements and raises the hype over a proj-ect by presenting it to the target buyer. “The versatility of this business varies depending on trends,” says the young entrepre-neur, “anything from health and beauty products to real estate.”

Dhanani says that he has always had an interest in business and has dabbled in several different fields, including an online elec-tronic dealership clled “Deal Ul-tra” and a brief entrepreneurship. in Energy drinks. The young bus-sinessman calls these beginings “childish” and has moved on to a serious, more successful field. While researching for a new form of bussiness, he “stumbled upon an interesting article about online performance marketing,” says Dhanani. This accidental encounter fueled his desire to follow his dream in the world of entrepreneurship. “I began to do my own research,” which helped him build up a few creative ideas. He nurtured these ideas

ceptions when computers are needed for educational purposes.

Lindsay Thierry, the head of residential life, stated that the “objective of the boarding house is to develop socialization for students.” He claims that laptops allow students to play video/on-line games too much, thus not so-cializing enough. Students need other activities than computer gaming, and need to ‘devote to the community’ according to Thi-erry. He also recommended the using the pool, gym and having

New laptop restrictions in boarding houseStudent makes online business

Student using his laptop in the boarding house

By Alan Osiovich

Twitter has arrived at St. George’s; the social net-

working site was recently inte-grated into the school’s com-munication department in an effort to provide a simpler and more effective method of com-munication with students.

Lindsay Thierry, Executive Director of Admissions and Di-rector of Residential Life, said, “Twitter is a fundamental piece of technology; it represents the communication format for to-day’s youth – short, to the point messages, issues and dialogue.”

In September, the school launched multiple school-affil-iated Twitter accounts; the ac-counts range from an athletics department page, “@ATHLET-ICSaints,” where up to the min-ute scores, schedules, and events from Saints athletics are posted, to “@SaintsBC,” providing any general information on day-to-day happenings at the school (including the announcements displayed on the screens placed

throughout the Senior School).Twitter, which was started in

2006, allows users to post messag-es with a limit of 140 characters; there are an estimated 20 million users worldwide with about 65% of those users under the age of 25.

Jason Fearon, Communications Officer, is the principle organizer for the school’s Twitter pages, and admits that Twitter has taken a slow start in reaching out to the student and parent body. “Things

have been slow to start with the Twitter accounts – we have few followers, and sometimes that makes it feel like I’m talk-ing to myself when I update the page… Twitter hasn’t been the most effective method of reach-ing the School’s audiences.”

An experienced Twitter user, Fearon understands it will take some time before the reception to the pages improves. “I know from using Twitter myself that

St. George’s is “Tweeting”I’m not likely to follow a page without a history of providing information that I’d be interested in receiving. So until the Saints Twitter page has that history of updates, we cannot expect to gain large numbers of followers.”

Thierry, who has his own Twitter page, explained that the network-ing site makes it easy to communi-cate with the boarding community.

“Through my Twitter, I can communicate the ‘what’s up at the SGS’ type comments that boarders need to know; I can post upcom-ing open houses, my travel plans, and real-time updates on where I am. ‘Tweeting’ is a great way to avoid someone having to take the time to search through web pag-es to find my travel schedule.”

Thierry mentioned that start-ing his Twitter page, “@Lind-say_Thierry,” was a joint idea and effort with Fearon.

Fearon mentioned that Twitter is an integral part of the new so-cial media plan because it allows for two-way communication. “Not only can I send information

about what is happening around the school on a timely basis, but followers can respond – asking questions, seeking clarification, and providing feedback on what types of things they’d like to see on the school’s Twitter account. This instant feedback can be a very powerful thing in the world of communications; it enables you to constantly fine-tune your message based on what your au-dience is telling you, instantly.”

Thierry later emphasized the importance of the school’s par-ticipation with modern commu-nication methods. “As society continues to become more tech-nology focused and literate and we continue to see a culture of young people (like those at St. George’s) become more and more connected to social media, it is imperative that our school (ad-missions in particular) use these tools to become connected with our prospective student body.”

tutors instead of video gaming.“Grade 10 and senior grades

are to be observed,” says Thierry, and said any troubles found will be handled individually. He as-sumes that grade 11 and 12 will have enough work from school to keep them busy, and trusts that grade 10 students are able to decide how to spend their time.

There weren’t restrictions with laptops before, but with sug-gestions from parents and find-ing a few students who stayed up all night with their comput-ers, the boarding house has come up with this restriction.

Andrew Jones, the head of Mc Millen House (the 2nd floor of the boarding house), had very similar ideas with Thierry, and states, “any sensible parents would put restric-tions (to laptop usage) as well.”

There were various responses from the grades that were affect-ed by these restrictions. Although some say it’s ‘acceptable’ to have these restrictions, some find it ‘pointless.’ Some of the grades 9 insisted that they could control their own time and should not be restricted from their laptops. The old boys see no special changes to their academic scores because of the restriction, Jones claims it to be ‘too early to see the results’ as the restriction has been only been in effect for only a week.

into the lucrative business which it is today by “getting advice from others,” and “hard work.”

One of the major draws to young Dhanani about online marketing is the youth in the business itself. “It is so young,” he says, “we are the ones defin-ing [the industry].” With this fresh, new form of marketing seeing a rise in popularity it has the potential to shape the upcom-ing years in regards advertising.

Dhanani is not just a man of ac-tion; he is also a man of words. Dhanani may be young but has gained a lot of experience with this budding business and he wants to share that experience. His main three tips for young en-trepreneurs are, “to take action and get things done, to persevere and never give up, and to build personal relationships”. He sites the latter as his secret ingredient to success, saying, “If you take the time to ask questions, you will get a wealth of useful information.”

Dhanani says that he will stick with his organization through the coming years. He hopes to expand and continue in this new and lucrative field of business. His accomplishments are admi-rable for someone of his age and he hopes to continue to learn and grow with the industry itself.

5

Mr. Thierry’s Twitter page

THE ECHO

By Chris Chen

The voices of boarders at Hark-er Hall residences will nally

be heard with the introduction of six student-run committees. Each committee consists of a group of students that focuses on one of the following: communications, weekend activities, intramural, food and maintenance, environ-mental, and volunteering.

The committees allow students to speak up and contribute while presenting valuable leadership opportunities within Harker Hall. Lindsay Thierry, Director of Residential Life, explains that the committees will further reinforce a sense of community within the house. “The voices of students play a major role in a community like Harker Hall. Students who wish to comment upon life within the

By Peter Ding

Despite rumours of St. George’s boarding students

playing a lot of video games, a recent survey was conducted by The Echo Newspaper show-ing that the majority of students do not play an excess of video games. The result of the survey shows that 61 per cent of the students in Harker Hall play less than an hour each day on average. Approximately 32 per cent of the students play more than an hour, but less than two. Mr. Klassen, head of Woodward house and math teacher, said, “[That] as a boarding student, one should not play video games more than two hours per day.” In fact, only 7 per cent of the students, [nine students] in the house play more than two hours per day, meaning that 93 per cent of the students don’t exceed Mr. Klassen’s video game time limit. Eighteen per cent of the students play only one day per week and another 18 per cent of the students play two days per week. Twenty-nine per cent of the students play three days per week. However, only 13.5 per cent of the students play more than four days a week. During the survey, no students in-dicated, they would “die” if video games were taken away. Approximately 29 per cent of the students consider video games

By Chris Chen

On October 18, 2008, 30 fe-male boarders from Queen

Margaret’s School took the ferry from Duncan to Vancouver in the hopes of meeting new friends within Harker Hall. Since that day, the Saints boarding com-munity has maintained a rela-tionship with the sister school. “This unique relationship allows both schools to interact with each other in a casual, social environ-ment. It allows students to build friendships and have fun,” says Bridget Nargang, captain of resi-dence within Queen Margaret’s boarding program.

Upon arriving at Harker Hall, the girls were treated to a tour of the residences and participated in numerous events, including a movie night in the evening and a joint breakfast and photo hunt the next day, with the Saints board-ers.

“Overall, I had a great time meeting the girls. As time went on and everybody got to know each other more, new friendships were made. The activities were a new experience within the board-ing house,” beams Shaun Lim, a Grade 12 boarder.

In contrast to dayboys, who go home everyday and have the ex-ibility to go out simply with their parents’ permission, a boarder’s timetable is much more regulated

New committees instituted in Harker Hall

house are given an opportunity to speak up through the commit-tees,” explains Thierry.

Each committee is led by a boarding prefect and works in conjunction with in-house staff

to co-ordinate day-to-day activi-ties within Harker Hall. Students from all grades are welcome to participate in any given commit-tee as long as they are devoted and focused.

“The committees are essentially a student led initiative. We as stu-dents get to decide what to do,” beams Keven Wang, a grade 12 boarding prefect.The committees have been re-ceived with a warm welcome fol-lowing their initiation. A wealth of initiatives has been put into place since the beginning of the school year, including the com-mencement of an indoor soc-cer league and the creation of a Harker Hall blog.“Opportunities exposed to the stu-dents within the boarding house are often much more down-to-earth and personal than the ones found at the Senior School. The Harker Hall community is ex-tremely multicultural and houses international students from all around the world,” Wang says. Students are also con dent that

the committees will eventually bring forward changes to existing problems within the house. Such problems include the in-house food quality and commu-nication issues, e.g., parents not getting updated on events within the boarding residences. “With the committees, students can communicate more ef cient-ly with the infrastructure of the boarding house. We now have a stronger voice in addressing some of the problems within the community,” explains Danny Lo, a grade 12 boarder. Similar to the leadership model found within the senior school, the committees hope to keep boarders occupied with constructive activities. “We are trying to drive into the students a strong sense of intrap-ersonal responsibility,” says the grad.

as a hobby. Another factor that is usually concerning to boarding house staff is the academic performance that the boys achieve. However, the 29 per cent who consider video games a hobby, have marks ranging from 80 per cent to 94 per cent, which means they’re on the honour roll.

Then again, on a different side of the survey, roughly 50 per cent of the boarders play video games because they feel bored a lot of the time. These students’ academic performance mostly ranges from 75 per cent to 89 per cent. Roughly 14 per cent consider video games boring and said that they prefer other things to do for leisure. These students’ have marks ranging from 85 per cent to 94 per cent on average. The nal question on the survey was “Do video games affect your studying?” 21 per cent of them answered, “Yes, it affects me a lot when studying.” About ve per cent of these students receive lower than 80 per cent in their academic performance.

Approximately 32 per cent of them said, “Maybe a little bit,” and almost 47 per cent think that video games do not affect their study; these students are getting an average score of 80 per cent to 94 per cent.

with roll calls and curfews. “Day

boys are free to wander at home;

boarding members miss that freedom of interacting with fe-males on regular basis,” asserts Lindsay Thierry, director of resi-dential life at Saints.

The connection between Harker Hall and Queen Margaret’s al-lowed their students to associate more with each other, and also provided them with a unique al-ternative to the usual boarding life. Thierry believed that such events allowed the boys to inter-act with girls in a more “socially relaxed environment.’

“By initiating and maintain-

ing a connection with an all girls school like Queen Margaret’s, boys are given a greater oppor-

tunity to interact with female students,” explains Thierry.

Both schools are excited to continue the reciprocal tradition of sending girl students over to Harker Hall, and vice versa. The respective boarding councils from both schools are already planning events for the 2009-2010 school year.

“I hope that gradually more and more people will participate in these events. If this year’s activi-ties go well, Queen Margaret’s girls and the boys at Harker Hall can meet more regularly,” ex-claims Nargang.

Harker Hall Maintains Relationship with Queen Margaret’s

66

Harker Hall

A group of girls pose for a photo at the Harker Hall Residences sign

The new committee members stand proudly as they were announced the prefects for the 2009-2010 year

After several possibilities of having to cancel the relationship with QMS, Harker Hall decided to keep the relationship despite challenges that ensue...

Are Video games an Issue for Harker Hall?

By Alan Osiovich

Students who start university without knowing what to

major in are heading down a path to failure. This common miscon-ception often drives university-bound students to pretentiously commit to a particular area of study just because “it must be the right thing to do.” Determining a major at university is a crucial decision; but making that deci-sion while still at high school is barely beneficial.

As deadlines for university ap-plications slowly approach, some grade 12s may be getting increas-ingly confused about what they really want to study after high school. Even those grade 12s

who feel confident about what they want to pursue are bound to get some feelings of uncertainty upon beginning their freshman year.

During high school, students often make the grave mistake of choosing their courses on basis of succeeding in them rather than en-joying them. More often than not, students enjoy the fact that they succeed, rather than enjoying the actual topic. Unfortunately, this concept of success over passion creates a chain reaction; a student will continue to choose to take courses that he or she most suc-ceeds in but not necessarily en-joys. It is inevitable that students

who fall under this category will finish their high school careers without knowing what subject they actually like.

On the other side of the spec-trum, there may be high school students who have tried a wide range of courses, and are still clueless as to what they want to pursue. High schools offer only a minute fraction of existing aca-demic and artistic subjects. Even at St.George’s, there are only a handful of hand picked elec-tive courses that are available. A student who has tried every high school course that he or she could possibly think of and is still in desperate confusion, should re-

main calm.In fact, for students pursuing an

undergraduate education, there is no need to “know.” The first few years of an undergraduate educa-tion is the opportune moment to really test the waters. No matter the institution, first-year students who are undecided on what sub-jects to take will have a myriad of course options. In their first year, students should take courses they know absolutely nothing about. Maybe a student had taken sev-eral history and literature classes during high school only to realize that he or she had gained a lot of interest in physics while at uni-versity. As fourth year undergrad-

uate student at the University of Washington Scott Halliday puts it, “It’s at university that you are able to find what you like; there’s absolutely no reason to rush in pin-pointing what to study as a high school student.”

The undergraduate system al-lows students to explore in all di-rections until they find a subject of interest; majors must be de-clared in second or third year. It is completely unnecessary for high school students to feel stressed or anxious if they are confused about what to study in future years.

Undecided? It’s OK!

7

By Tyler Raycraft

Over the past months, people from across the globe have

driven themselves to a state of panic due to the sudden outbreak of the H1N1 infection. Given the vast media coverage of the Swine Flu, the peoples’ concern for the health of their families is under-standable. However, when the actual statistics are examined, it becomes clear that people have generally overreacted to the flu. Although certain precautions should be taken to counteract the infection, some people have panicked beyond the necessary level.

As of November 7th, British

Columbia had suffered 17 fatali-ties. This fatality rate of 0.3% is only slightly higher than the fa-tality rate 0.12 of the common influenza (according to WHO statistics). According to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, there is, at this point, no need for panic. Through frequent hand washing, the passing on of the in-fection can be avoided.

A survey that was conducted by Healthcare Canada stated that only 13% of all general practi-tioners consider the swine flu to be “extremely concerning.” Most stated that the general public has vastly overreacted to the sudden

outbreak. This poll also stated that most Canadians feel that the H1N1 is as concerning as the Severe Acute Respiratory Sys-tem (SARS) outbreak. However, the fatality rate of SARS hovers at around 12.4%; this is notably higher than that of the swine flu (82% of all doctors say that SARS is far more concerning).

As soon as the words “swine flu” were uttered, people began to question their safety. Imme-diately they attempted to draw comparisons between the current situation and those of the 1918 and 1976 outbreaks. However, the differences between these

scenarios are vast. For example, since 1976, the vaccination has been greatly improved. Original-ly, the vaccination was thought to cause a muscle-weakening dis-order known as Guillaine-Barre Syndrome (GBS). With the new vaccine there is no risk of con-tract GBS. Due to extensive test-ing, this risk (which was only 1 in every 100, 000 in the first place) has been eliminated.

The risks associated with such a vast overreaction are blatant. By focusing all of our attention on H1N1, people tend to ignore the big picture. Based on the attention given by both the gen-

eral population and the media it would seem that the swine flu is exponentially more dangerous than other diseases. However, it is clear that the fatality rate is much less than that of SARS and nearly equivalent to that of the common influenza. Undoubtedly, we must not ignore the infection. Hygienic precautions must be taken. However, we cannot al-low the outbreak to consume our lives.

Students and faculty alike irrationally panic about

There’s no need to overreact about the flu

By Ian Brackman

The St. George’s Investment Club has recently donated

$900 to two deserving charities as a result of some smart finan-cial choices. The club of savvy business students donated $400 to the Terry Fox Run and $500 to the BC Children’s Hospital Foun-dation to start off the new school term.

Mr. Stephen Watson, the clubs’ chairman, is very pleased with the success and work of the boys.

“It is very much student-driv-en,” said Watson, “meaning the boys choose companies, do their own research, and then vote on a

By Josiah Tsang

10 By 10, an initiative to de-velop 10 full communities

overseas, has established a foot-ing within St. George’s. The ini-tiative is headed currently by the grade 10s and is open to all stu-dents who wish to join the chal-lenge.

Aviva Insurance as well as Craig and Marc Kielburger announced on September 29, 2009, “Today, [We Day Vancouver] marks the start of the 10 by 10 initiative.”

The Kielburgers started 10 by 10 so that people around the world could easily help Free The Chil-dren aid 10 different communi-ties going through difficult times. Free The Children would achieve this by collectively raising funds for those 10 communities as well

By Nabil Virji

A new debate coach has been added to the program in an

effort to restore the team to its former glory.

Danielle Pelletier is a third year student at UBC who brings with her many years of debating ex-perience. “I was introduced to debating during high school and fell in love with it. I have been competing in tournaments at high school and university levels ever since.” She will be working alongside staff sponsor Ron Ou-werkerk.

Ouwerkerk has high expecta-tions for the incoming coach.

“We are hoping that (bringing in a new coach) will help the school regain its status as one of the de-bating powerhouses in BC…. We hope to see students from all three age groups qualify for the provincials.”

Ouewerkerk, who took the reigns of the St. Georges debate program from long-time coach Catherine Mori, served as the act-ing coach during the last school year. Due to the fact that Ou-werkerk did not have much de-bating experience, the coaching was mainly done by Robert Pat-terson, a grade 12 student. “The seniors also used resources avail-able on the internet.”Ouwerkerk added.

Due in part to the lack of coach-ing, the team performed at what Ouwerkerk believes is less than their potential. “We hope to im-prove upon last year’s perfor-mance... only two grade eight students, Peter Thomas and Eric Liu, qualified for the provincial competition.”

course of action.” Giving back to the community

was a simple decision for the quickly expanding club of 24 boys.

“One of the central themes of the Investment Club is philan-thropy,” stated the chairman. Since the club was started by a generous donation, it is very im-portant for the group to donate to charities.

The first big investment for the club was 500 shares of the local business Methanex, the world’s largest supplier of methanol. The club’s portfolio also contains in-vestments in the Bank of Nova

as contribute 1 million volunteer hours.

During Aviva Insurance’s pre-sentation, over 1,600 student leaders were instructed to go to www.giveyour10.com to start the 10 by 10 initiative. Through this website the students establish 10 commitments to get involved with their community.

So far there have been 45,592 commitments made by 4991 members on www.giveyour10.com. Everyday there is an in-crease in the number of members and commitments.

Heather Morris, head teacher of service and charity, said, “The 10 by 10 initiative is a great program to get young people involved and committed to taking action in a quantifiable manner.”

10 By 10 Initiative comes to

Since no teachers have formal debating experience, it was de-cided to bring in someone who does.

Ouwerkerk explains, “Danielle was recommended by Crofton House, where she had coached previously.”

Ouwerkerk and Pelletier have specific plans on the improve-ment of the team. [Pelletier] is primarily tasked with training the competitors at the senior debate level.

“She will be responsible for as-sessing their performance at the various debates that are held and suggesting ways for each debater to improve their skills and abili-ties.” Ouwerkerk explains. Pel-letier also hopes to increase the number of competitors on the team. “I’m hoping to see more involvement in the program, es-pecially at the senior level.”

The team is also preparing to host a large debate tournament at St. Georges, the Newman FISA Debates, which occur every Oc-tober and draw debaters from schools around the province. “It is the first time that I have host-ed the tournament.” Ouwerkerk stated, adding that he has hosted other types of sports and social events. “The main challenge is to apply this to a debating environ-ment.”

Pelletier also understands the demanding task of hosting a ma-jor tournament. “This will be the first time I host a major tourna-ment, although I have helped host smaller tournaments. We’re look-ing to see the students involved in preparations; this will make the task much easier to accomplish.”

8

Investment club donates $900

New debate coach

Scotia, Saputo Inc. (dairy), and Bombardier. Over the summer the Investment Clubs’ portfolio value rose 10%, and in the fall they had earned a profit of about $5000.

“The whole purpose of the boys investing is to learn, so they are currently trying to diversify their portfolio with a wide vari-ety of companies within a num-ber of different industries,” said Watson.

In the future the club is looking to increase their investments and further support their community.

from UBC

Saint George’s School“[The initiative] is completely

free to register, and in doing so, $10 is donated via… Aviva”, continued Morris.

Recently announced on the Free The Children website, Chismaute, Ecuador and Beichuan, China are two of the upcoming 10 commu-nities that this initiative will be aiding.

Chismaute, Ecuador is located in the Chimborazo province of Ecuador. Free The Children is looking to work with the commu-nity to create projects that would be beneficial to Chismaute.

In Beichuan, China, Free The Children will be aiding the earth-quake victims of 2008 as well as rebuilding the only school in the community as well as other buildings.

By Nabil Virji

The St. George’s Digital Pho-tography club has undergone

adjustments this year, with the in-troduction of a new staff-sponser, Tanya Tourout. Tourout is taking the reigns from last year’s coach, Tanya Peters. “There has been such a huge demand for sports photography that it has become difficult for one teacher to man-age,” Tourout explained.

Peters is now focusing solely on sports-related photography while Tourout manages the pho-tography of the non-sporting side of St. George’s. Under Tour-out’s leadership, the program has grown from seven to 12 student members, many of whom do not

By: Alan Osiovich

Brand new to St. George’s, the Science Fair Club is

yet another addition to the long list of clubs offered at the school. Headed by Wallace MacKay and Forson Chan, the club will pro-vide a myriad of opportunities for the scientifically-inclined.

MacKay, a biology teacher, said, “This is an opportunity for kids to demonstrate their own ini-tiative, independence and creativ-ity. The wonderful opportunity in science fairs is that a student is able to find a scientific problem or area to explore, and he or she can devise a way to help solve, or provide new information to solve a problem.”

The club’s main focus is to pro-vide an environment where stu-dents can work on and discuss

possible research projects for submission at the Greater Van-couver Regional Science Fair, held yearly in April. Projects can involve a broad spectrum of sci-entific areas; pharma-ceutical sciences, envi-ronmental innovation, information technolo-gy, and automotive sci-ences are only a few of the several topics that students can choose to work on.

Chan, who graduated from the school last year, will often be pres-ent during the lunchtime meet-ings to help out and give advice to club members. Chan has par-ticipated in several science fairs, and has gained a national award for one of his projects during his

high school career. Chan explained the advantages

of competing in a science fair. “It is the best resume booster in the science field, you get to meet real

life geniuses, and if you win, you get to travel and win prize mon-ey,” said the recent grad.

Usually, only one or two stu-dents work on each project. MacKay is very excited for the

club, as it is the first-ever Sci-ence Fair Club at St. George’s. “In the past, students such as For-son have worked on projects on their own accord, separately from

the school. With the club running, students will have plenty of support and help that they would lack if they worked indepen-dently.” MacKay also mentioned that The Parents’ Auxiliary has provided some funds that are to be used to help fund the student-

driven projects. So far, there are about 13 stu-

dents from grades 8-12 that are interested in participating in the club; the club meets every two weeks in room 220. Students

who submit projects for the local science fair, held April 8-10, may be invited to go to the nationals in Peterborough, Ontario, in mid May.

MacKay later emphasized that working on a science fair project can boost a student’s creativity. “Enrolling in a science fair is one way to demonstrate that the stu-dent is a creative thinker, and one who is ready and willing to take on a challenge in the world of science. As provincial grade 12 exams have become optional is some cases, students may need to think more creatively about how to get the attention of admission committees from some universi-ties.”

For more information, visit www.gvrsf.ca or www.science-fairs.ca.

have cameras. One of Tourout’s priorities is to ensure the mem-bers are adequately equipped to participate. “Currently, the pro-

gram only has three cameras. We are in the process of applying to the auxiliary so every student has a camera to use”

Tourout also plans for the pro-gram to be more involved in school events. “I want the pho-tographers to be able to take pic-tures where they weren’t being taken in previous years, mainly in school clubs. We’re also looking to make a more significant contri-bution to the Georgian.”

The club meets once a week, on Fridays during lunchtime. At these meetings, the club goes through requests for photo-graphs, and students are matched to events. Some of the less-ex-perienced students also attend sessions with David Yu, a high-ly experienced photographer. “David has been kind enough to teach the members about the finer points of photography, such

New science fair club gaining attention

By Peter Ding

Heart to Heart Youth Society is continuing to arrange

fun-raising activities in school this year. It is also going through a process of becoming a Cana-dian charity.

To continue the weekly bub-ble tea sale every year, Heart to Heart (H2H) has arranged two Bubble-Tea sales as fund-raisers in the Boarding House since the last week of September. “We have temporarily stopped sales in school this year because Heart to Heart is going through a pro-cess of registration for charity in

9

Canada,” said Kevin Yang, min-ister of external affairs of Heart to Heart. He said that they are trying to make Heart to Heart a more famous charity in Canada. This will help the organisation raise funds more efficiently.

According to the people who ran the bubble tea sales, the group sold 55 bubble teas on the first sale and 37 on the second.

“We plan to make $100 per sale,” said Nicolay Mal’tzev, manager of the bubble tea-sale. On the first sale, they raised $71 and on the second sale they made $55. Nicolay said that

these numbers couldn’t reach his plan because many Grade 9s and Grade 10s were receiving outdoor education. He assured that the bubble tea group would raise more funds on their third sale than the first two. Mal’tzev said that these two sales were very effective. They not only have sold bubble tea, but also brought awareness for fund-raising in the boarding house.

Heart to Heart also did a bub-ble tea sale survey in the board-ing house. Sixty per cent of the boarding students liked the bub-ble tea sale. Nineteen per cent

of the students, the majority of the students who do not like the sale, said that they didn’t like it because they thought that the bubble tea is too expensive, and 8 per cent of them think that H2H’s service is not efficient.

According to the manager of the bubble tea sales, Nicolay announced that bubble tea will arrive in only two days after or-der instead of eight days. How-ever, Nicolay said that he could not lower the price because they are trying to help as many kids who can not afford to study in China.

Nicolay said that the income is only a small part of the whole fund-raising plan this year. H2H is also arranging a fund-raising activity called “the Incredible Race”. They are going to make money by collecting registra-tion fees. In the boarding house, they are trying to arrange foos-ball and table tennis tourna-ments to make money. Heart to Heart roughly has 20 members in the boarding house and is try-ing to encourage more and more day boys to join.

Heart to Heart is making progress with the bubble tea sales

as how to use lighting and ape-tures,” Tourout said. However, the photographers have to make additional commitments to take photographs outside school time. “Most of the photo oppor-tunities are either after school or on weekends, requiring the students to commit on their own time,” Tourout explained. The club has been inundated with requests for photographs from clubs all over the school, and head student photographer David Yu is optimistic that they can all be filled. “I think we are much more organized this year. The club is more focused and we are in a good position to be able to cope with all the requests around the school.”

St. George’s Digital Photography club has new Director

A student in the club taking a photo of newly put-up art

By Alan Osiovich

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and other prominent

world figures repeatedly urged that today’s generation of youth will bring about drastic positive change on global issues in the 21st century; these sentiments were addressed to a crowd of over 16000 students during Van-couver’s We Day, held in late September. Directly addressing the crowd, the 14th Dalai Lama said, “You are the seed of a better future; this century must be the century of peace.”

During his half-hour speech, the Tibetan spiritual leader en-couraged youth that the 21st cen-tury must not contain the strug-gles and violence that arose in the 20th century. He emphasized that the current youth generation is capable of bringing about world peace. “When there is possibility of conflict, we must use common sense.”Thirty Senior School stu-dents attended the day-long event at General Motors Place; We Day

is an annual event directly af-filiated with Free the Children, a Canadian Organization devoted to youth helping youth.

Also in attendance at the event was Canada’s Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Hon-ourable Michaëlle Jean, who was received with a standing ovation from the adolescent-filled crowd. In her speech, Jean mentioned that the youth of Canada “is not

ignorant on youth and global is-sues.” Jean, who constantly trav-els around the world, promised to spread the youths’ message of peace and solidarity in all her travels. As Jean said, “Wheth-er it is in small towns or in the company of prime ministers and presidents, I will spread your message.”

Jonathan Pike, Vice-Principal of student services at a private BC high school strongly agreed with

Jean’s message. “Today’s youth are not the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today; age is certainly not a barrier when it comes to leadership. With the right attitude and mindset, any-one is capable of making change for the better.”

Amidst the Dalai Lama’s insist-ence on the need for global peace, the Nobel Laureate mentioned that conflict cannot be fully elim-inated. “Peace does not mean no longer any problem, no longer conflict. Some form of differ-ences, some form of conflict, is always there.”

Mia Farrow, a human rights ac-tivist for Sudan, insisted to stu-dents that the message of hope brought on by youth isn’t power-less. “Know that your voices are heard…you represent hope.”

The former actress and Golden Globe winner was confident that youth will make change this cen-tury. “There was a ripple and you guys felt it. That ripple brought you here today and it became a

wave… this mighty wave will be-come the tide that can shape the course of history.”

Head Boy Jamie Allester, who attended the event said, “Our generation cares about giving more than receiving. The crowd at We Day was only a handful of the kids and teenagers that are ready to plunge into action.”

At St.George’s, students inter-ested in attending had to provide a brief piece of writing indicating why they wanted to participate in the event. Hundreds of schools from around BC flocked to We Day, the first event of its kind held in Vancouver. Hosted by Marc and Craig Kielburger, the founders of Free the Children, We Day was packed with sev-eral other social activists, such as Jane Goodall, Sarah McLachlan and Jason Mraz.

As Farrow yelled in her final line of her speech, “You are the generation that I have been wait-ing for all my life.”

10

Thousands gathered on We Day to hear His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and many others’ speaking on Global Issues

By Thommy Thompson

In an effort to solve local is-sues such as homelessness,

four Senior School boys attended a conference for leadership on October 1st to the 3rd. The con-ference took place at West Point Grey Academy (WPGA) and was headed by the leadership com-mittee of WPGA. Mr. Jonathan Pike, the head of student life at WPGA, also attended the event and supervised the students. The conference took place on October 1 to the third usually having long days and ending in the night.

On Thursday Oct. 1, (the first day) the students made their way to WPGA right after school to be organized into their groups and then had an “amazing race” where the participants had to go around key areas of the school to receive papers. The conference usually started with a warm-up game but then divided the students into four equal groups devoted to one of the following causes: Educa-tion, Homelessness, Violence and Discrimination, and finally, Substance Abuse. The education group was devoted to help at a donated women’s clothing shop to hand out clothes for women whom want to get off the streets. The homelessness group was ded-icated to eradicating homeless-

ness as a whole in the downtown eastside (DTES). The violence and discrimination group was committed to eliminate violence and discrimination in Vancou-ver. Finally, the substance abuse group main target was to abol-ish and raise awareness on how many drugs there are on Vancou-ver’s streets.

Alan Osiovich, a Saints grad who participated in the event, Odd Squad which was in Substance Abuse, said, “It was an unique opportunity to see the harshest parts of the city from a first hand

point of view. It would be great for more high school students to have this eye-opening experi-ence.” “It was a really fun thing to do,” said Thommy Thompson, a grade 11 student who attended, “I learned a lot on how we can do something to get rid of homeless-ness for example. We’ll host our event in April so hopefully it will go well.”

There were four Saints boys in the event, Filip Jaworski, Anjan Katta, Alan Osiovich and Thom-my Thompson.

By Alan Osiovich

For Robert Wisden, “short notice” has an entire differ-

ent meaning. During the run of “A Few Good Men” Wisden was asked to make a last-minute per-formance in the School’s Senior play. The Drama teacher took over for an actor who came down with the flu.

Wisden explained that the or-deal began on Thursday, Novem-ber 5th, when he learned that Jake Powrie, in grade 11, had come down with the flu. That afternoon Ed Mortimer, the play’s Techni-cal Director, asked Wisden if he could prepare to replace Powrie. A couple hours later Powrie had recovered, and, as Wisden said, “I went home thinking I was off the hook.”

The next day Powrie’s illness had become more severe and his Mother called in saying that he wouldn’t be able to perform Fri-day night. Wisden started cram-ming lines the entire afternoon, and, after school, he rehearsed the blocking of his scenes. Amidst the short hours before curtain, Mortimer took Wisden to get a “rush buzz cut… me banging away at the lines as he drove.” By 7pm, Wisden was a member of the cast.

Wisden explained that his great-

est difficulty was learning the name, rank and post of the char-acter he played. “Nathan Roy Jessup, Barracks C.O., Marine Ground Forces NAVBASE Guan-tanamo. I had to say all that as my character gets sworn in before the trial. It was hard to get that right. The rest of the lines I paraphrased without much harm done, but I had to get that bit bang on.”

Wisden genuinely appreciated other’s support to make his per-formance a reality. “Like never before, I realized how much sup-port and professionalism there is in Saint’s Players Theatre. Along with Ms. Cobb’s willingness to orchestrate a fairly complicated costume switcheroo, Mr. Mortim-er was hiding behind the scenery all night on-book in case I needed a line.”

Wisden also found it special to act alongside his own students. “The biggest thrill for me was acting with my own acting stu-dents, being part of the cast, feel-ing their support holding me up as I crash-learned the lines and helping me on and off stage with so much encouragement. It was an intense, remarkable, unforget-table night for me, and I never want to do it again. The show must go on.”

Leadership conference at WPGA aimed to solve local issues

Robert Wisden’s last minute performance

A group of students hold their hands out in front of them during one of the activities for Breaking Boundaries.

World Leaders Plead Youth to Fight Global Issues

By Stuart Smith

Saints Theater has a his-tory of successful plays

and musicals and this year, Mr. Fredeman and the talented student body will be present-ing “A Few Good Men.” I was lucky enough to sit down and ask Mr. Fredeman, director of “Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Oli-ver”, “Murder on the Nile” and many more, about the process that goes into making masterpiece.

“A Few good Men” is the story of two young men hav-ing to deal with an extremely restrictive working environ-ment, which is the US court. “It’s not at all unlike the Saint George’s environment,” says Fredeman. The Director says that the play will “push but-tons” and “teach you to think for yourself, while working within set expectations.”

The drama department has de-cided to put on “A Few Good Men” to “give an opportunity to any new actor.” Due to the large number of male roles in the pro-duction, actors without much ex-perience will be given opportuni-ties to get into the field.

So what is it that truly makes a performance tick? Well aside from our resources, facility ex-pertise, Fredeman sites our “tal-ented and hardworking students” as the main reason for success. “Near the end of the production, I would say the cast has put in about 130 to 180 hours of rehearsal into this,” says Fredeman.

Despite having to deal with teachers and parents who fail to understand the amount of time needed to put on a successful play, Mr. Fredeman says that it’s all worthwhile in the end after see-ing the astounding commitment, love and growth of the cast and

crew. He says, “The kids really understand the amount of work that goes into a performance.”

In case you were unable to land a part in this production, here are some tips from the director him-self on how to snag a role next time. “All we are really looking for is someone who proves that they can do the work. If someone can go out and research the role, and bring their own idea on how to play the character, then that’s all I could ever ask for,” says Mr. Fredeman.

Fredeman says, “[A Few Good Men] will appeal to and enter-tain all ages.” With this produc-tion underway and the upcom-ing middle school production of “Playboy in the Western World” the seats in the Auditorium will soon be filled with eager eyes and ears that are used to the high level of talent and professionalism that goes into every play.

Saints theater presents: A Few Good Men

German exchange students say they enjoyed A Comedy of Errors at bard on the beach

By Ivan Cheung

The yearly Bard on the Beach event has turned

from a “skipping class” oppor-tunity into a program introduc-ing English culture to foreign students.

Florian Huth and two other German exchange students had the opportunity to watch the play A Comedy of Errors with their new classmates. The yearly program was held on October 23, near False Creek.

Huth felt that this experience is unique.“This play is very different to what I have seen before,” Huth commented. “One main reason I actually came here was to learn Eng-

lish, and this is a very good way to do it.”

Coming from a German back-ground, Huth struggled to under-stand the details of the play.

“It was hard to understand most parts of it,” said Huth. “however, I understood the general plot and theme.”

Huth also learned facts that Ca-nadian students all knew from a young age.“I learned that Shake-speare is a form of British cul-ture instead of American culture. I didn’t know that before,” he said.

Ms. Rundall, organizer of the Bard on the Beach program, en-joyed the opportunity to introduce the German students to watch a

true Shakespearean play.“I thought it was a good idea to

let them watch a Shakespearean play. We had a few spare tickets anyway,” Ms. Rundall said.

This idea was strongly support-ed by Mrs. C. Van Rijn, head of

the English department.“It’s a social event for foreign

students,” said Mrs. Van Rijn. “I fully support them in this. Shake-speare should be seen, not read off a page.”

Huth recommended this expe-

rience to other foreign exchange students in the future.

“Well, as long as they can speak English as good as me!” he said.

However, this golden opportu-nity may not always be available to future students.

“I booked the tickets in April,” said Ms. Rundall. “So it’s diffi-cult to know the exact number of students in my future classes. We might not even get the opportuni-ty go to a show, because there’s a lottery picking what schools can go watch.”

Huth recalled that he had a memorable afternoon that day.

“I can finally say that I have seen a Shakespearean play,” he said.

By Roy Yang

Shawn Earle, who is the newest addition to the

Senior School’s music de-partment, was hired as a full time teacher at Saints during the summer. Having spent six weeks in May and June with the band program, Earle is excited for his return. He at-tributed his enthusiasm to the music department’s upbeat at-mosphere.

“When I came here in May, I had such a blast with the music program. The Band was out-standing, and the faculty made

New band conductor excited for opportunitythe experience a very enjoyable one,” said the 27 year old. “ Un-doubtedly, Saints is a great place to work. Vancouver is a great place to live.”

After Marc Crompton left for the head librarian position, a va-cant spot has been left for a co-conductor of the Senior Concert Band.

In August, Earle decided to ac-cept the position and help nurture the talents of numerous young musicians.

“Obviously, he is an excellent player with musical smarts,” said the former co-conductor of

the Senior Band. “In addition, his personality fits here so well. When dealing with students, he perfectly balances seriousness with lighthearted joking.”

Shawn Earle has a plan for the upcoming year; he wants to be involved in the community and gain as much experience as pos-sible.

“I really want to learn from Mr. Rnic. His ability to put together the St. George’s Band is superb. As a musician and a co-conduc-tor of the Senior Band, I want to learn how to put such a strong music curriculum.”

Shawn Earle is also an assistant trainer for the Swim Team.

After the former swim coach left, Earle assists Mr. Hersee in preparing the formidable swim team.

“I used to be a life guard when I was young, and I can swim pretty well. I came to St. George’s to help the swim team,” said Earle. “ I do have a lot to learn, espe-cially from an Olympic Swimmer like Mr. Hersee. However, I be-lieve I can be of assistance to the untrained young swimmers.”

The new conductor immersed himself in the St. George’s

School; he is involved in the mu-sic program, the swim team, and a TOC for many socials and Eng-lish classes. Earle also plans on co-training the triathlon team in third term.

With all the responsibilities that Earle carries, he only sees a fun adventure ahead of him.

“I am not nervous, not at all. I see it as a place where I have so much to gain from. In band, I can put my own twist in things. In swimming and triathlon, I get to train the fittest athletes in all of BC. I learn all the different things that I do, and I love it.”

11

Jonas Schulze, Florian Huth, Cedric Boreches

By: Tyler Raycraft

The Saints Hockey Program has suffered a serious loss

as a prominent member of the team left the school in early Sep-tember to play professionally in Kennewick, Washington. Zach Yuen, who was selected in the first round (22nd overall) of the Western Hockey League’s May 2008 draft, will spend the next year competing for the Tri-City Americans. “Over the next year, I am going to work extremely hard on my game,” said Yuen, 16. “My goal is simple: to help the Americans win as many games as possible.” Yuen signed his first professional contract on July 22nd, explained Tri-City General Manager Bob Tory. “Zach is a skilled d-man who likes to rush the puck. He is a very good skater with good puck skills who plays a physical game,” said Tory. “We are pleased that Zach and his family have chosen the WHL and the Tri-City Americans

Grade 11 student enjoys season in the Western Hockey Leagueas his preferred path for career development.”Last year, the 6’0, 205-pound de-fenceman represented the North Shore Winterhawks AAA ban-tam club in 52 games. Over the course of these contests, Yuen tal-lied 12 goals and 34 assists for a combined 46 points. In addition, Yuen was penalized for a total of 108 minutes. He was also called up to the WHL team twice over the course of the year.“My years with the Winterhawks and the Saints were invaluable in terms of developing my skat-ing and shooting ability,” said the defenceman. “Without a doubt I became a better hockey player as a result.”Yuen is confident that this year will be key in his development both as a hockey player and a per-son. “Overall, I am just excited,” said the 16-year old. Over the next few months I will hopefully improve my game and pave the way for my future in hockey.”

Hockey player realizes professional dream

12

By Ian Brackman

The St. George’s athletic department has recently

launched an on-line sports blog and twitter page to keep all Saints sports fans up to date on their fa-vourite teams.

With a vast number of varsity teams it can be hard to display

the results for all the teams com-peting. But the new Saints on-line sports pages look to do just that. It is the ultimate goal to make the news that is important to Saints students more accessible.

“The main objective of the Saints athletic blog and Twit-ter page is to communicate with our many constituents in ways they already choose to communi-cate,” says St. George’s Director of Athletics and the man behind the athletic blog and Twitter page Richard Cohee.

“Technology is offering more and more modes of instant gratifi-cation, and communication is one of those forms.”

With a click of a mouse a Saints soccer fan can now quickly dis-cover how the team faired against

VC or how the volleyball team placed in their Island tournament. The blog is updated weekly with all of the results from that week in sports and the Twitter page is updated daily with breaking Saints sports news.

“We try to keep the tweets as current as possible,” explains Co-hee. “Athletics at St. George’s is a very busy environment.

On any given day we can have multiple athletic’s contests, fix-tures, and practices. It can almost be a fulltime job keeping up with all our events. We try to stay as current as possible.”

“Our blog has been hugely popular with hundreds of visits each week from local, national, and even international visitors to our website,” says the Director of Athletics.

The Twitter page is gathering speed now with a small handful of followers. You can stay con-nected with the Saints at twitter.com/ATHLETICSaints or by checking out the blog at stgeorg-es.bc.ca.

By Roy Yang

Guy DaSilva, socials stud-ies and P.E. instructor, has

been tapped for the position of Head Basketball Coach. DaSilva is replacing Brian Lee, who took the senior basketball team to the provincial championships and won.

DaSilva says it was his “ul-timate goal to be head coach.It has always been my goal to coach at the varsity level. I’ve coached every basket-ball team except the senior one, so I feel proud and hon-ored to be selected. Howev-er, it might be especially difficult when Mr. Lee was such a good coach.”

Last year, the senior varsity team won the HSBC Tournament and the B.C Provincial Cham-pionships. The team included all-star players such as Dillon Hamilton, Joshua Robertson, and Emerson Murray. Players Joshua Robertson and Luke Braund won the $1,500 Scholarship for char-acter, community contributions and academics. Braund also won a free tuition for five years at

Trinity Western University. This year, DaSilva believes that

“many [other] players can step up for the team.”

“Last year, we had quite a few of stars on our senior team. This year, a lot of guys can elevate. Other than Emerson Murray, players such as Amrit Gill, Ashton

Chang, and David MacFaden can step up their game. In all, there are nine to ten players who can really contribute to the team.”

For the past five years, the bas-ketball team has been using a repetitive strategy in their game. It focused on having a strong de-fense and its offense on aggres-sive, fast breaks. DaSilva will apply the same strategy in the upcoming season.

“As long as we stay healthy, we can be the top in the league. We have to be a defensive team and

at the same time, push the ball in fast, tempo play, wearing our opponents down by the third or fourth quarter.”

Lee, Director of Student Ser-vices, agrees with the strategy as, “successful teams use their strength and potential of the play-ers.” Lee, who was head coach of

the senior team for the past 11 years, is confident about the new senior head coach.

“Mr. DaSilva is an ex-cellent coach to serve the team. He is excellent in terms of building relation-ships with the players and

making it fun for them. DaSilva possesses successful traits of a good coach.”

DaSilva says the challenge will be “to meet the expectations of defending the championship and to win games.”

“Our biggest challenge is deal-ing with the expectations. We have to defend the championship, especially with a new coach. However, if we stay healthy in the game, we have a good shot, just like anyone else in the prov-ince.”

“It has always been my goal to coach at the varsity level. I feel

proud and honored to be selected.”

New head basketball coach has big shoes to fill

Saints makes the leap to Twitter

By Roy Yang

Fourteen-year-old Saints swimmer Edward Zhao was

selected to the National Junior Prospect Team and is now train-ing to compete with the best in the country. The only swimmer from Saints to have made the team this year, Zhao will travel to Toronto in November for a na-tional event.

“I feel very excited and privi-leged to be in the National team,” said the 14-year-old swimmer. “It’s such a high level of commit-ment and achievement and not many people get this chance to race in Toronto.”

Zhao has an intense training schedule. He swims eight times a week, twice a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays with a break on Sundays.

By Josiah Tsang

Monty Cahly, a coach for the St. George’s Swim

Team, has departed from the coaching position after finding an opening and pursuing his passion at St. George’s School that he has held for 9 years.

According to Mr. Dustin Her-see, Head Coach and former Olympian swimmer, Monty has left because of his girlfriend who has moved to New Zealand to pursue a career as a veterinarian.

When asked of what he brought to the swimming program at St. George’s, Mr. Hersee replied with Monty’s ability to communicate to the boys and push the boys to try harder in practice and in

Zhao trains at the UBC Dolphins Club, 2 ½ hours per session.

In Toronto, Zhao will race in the middle distance freestyle events. He considers the 100 M Freestyle

long course and 200 M Freestyle his forte.

“It’s tough competition and I will be going against the very best of Canada. Now, my competi-

tors won’t be the usual friends I race against, but swimmers from places like Quebec, Toronto, and Winnipeg.”From age seven, Zhao built a habit of swimming twice a week. For him, swimming is “ a fun sport I really enjoy and allows me to be fit and stay healthy.”

After seven years of taxing training, Zhao remains passion-ate about his sport.“I think values such as courage, pride, determi-nation, and will power used in swimming…[also apply] to life.”

Over the summer, all Zhao’s training paid off. He beat swim coach and former Olympic swim-mer, Dustin Hersee’s 100 free for 14-year-old long course record.

“I think I go fast because I treat every race as my last one. Adren-aline pushes me forward… I love to compete because during races

you push yourself to the limit and afterwards it is a good feeling to see yourself get a best time after the hard work.”

Hersee is impressed with Zhao’s performance.

“I’m proud to see Edward make the Junior National prospect team, as his hard work in the pool is paying off and showing dividends. He is capable of doing what ever he puts his mind to,” said the Saints head swim coach. “I was excited to see him break my record for the 100 free, as it was about time somebody took it down! It was really old!”

For Zhao, swimming as a pos-sible career is currently unlcear. However, the 14-year-old said his ultimate dream is “ to attend the Olympics and proudly represent Canada.”

Edward Zhao recruited for national junior prospect team

Swim team bids farewell to coach

Kevin Bustamante, Aaron Larue and Edward Zhao pose for cameras with their medals on the podium.

competitions. Also his attitude, energy, and experience as a com-petitive swimmer were definitely key points to his contribution to the team. Because of his history with swimming, he would be able to give the swimmers challeng-ing but performable practices to

further their skills as a swimmer. This encouraged the swimmers to put in more effort and try harder in practice.

Mr. Hersee also mentioned that Monty’s leadership, as a coach at the Swimming Regional’s will be missed. This is because with four coaches and a number of swim-mers, it would be hard to orga-nize and put in action the events for the swimmers. This was lead

by coach Monty with seriousness, initiative and confidence. Cer-tainly the swimmers who had no clue what they were doing were able to get to their event through the leadership shown by Monty.

So far, Monty’s replacements include Mr. Earl, a new coach

who has formerly taught swim-ming and also conducts the school band now dramatically helps out at swim practice relieving the would be one coach coaching the whole team, to two coaches hav-ing the ability to control such a large team.

Also, the possibility of Kent Jones, former swimmer and ‘Old Boy’ of St. George’s School is quite high.

Monty Cahly departs after 9 years of service

13

By Ivan Cheung

A new squash star and a ju-nior assistant coach has

emerged from the student body of Saint Georges.

Alykhan Thobani, 14, is the top squash player in Saint Georges. He now uses his skills to teach new technique for other students. He has become an assistant coach

for the junior squash team. “I’ve just begun,” he said excit-

edly. “I’m confident I can teach them well.”

He thinks that coaching is not just having good playing skills, but it’s about the coach’s spirit and teaching methods.

“ I’m young, but I still have lots of experience,” he commented. “However, teaching not just about technique- but most coaches still are good players.”

Thobani is also confident that he can make the team tourna-ment- worthy.

“ I demonstrate technique to the students,” the new assistant coach said. “ Having proper technique is really important.”

Student coaches are usually lacking in experience, but Thoba-

ni has been active in squash tour-naments around the province.

He recently emerged victorious at the provincial’s men tourna-ment and is going to compete at the Canadian Junior Squash Tournament on December 15.

Despite his youth, Thobani is not intimidated by the challenges ahead.

“ It’s tough,” he said. “ I won against men, but it was really hard. I like the challenge because I like the sport.”

It is not only the challenge of facing adults on the squash court.

Thobani’s love of squash has created many struggles in his stu-dent life, like completing school-work on time and attendance at school.

“I stay up at 9:00 to finish my homework,” the squash star said. “ Sometimes, I even have to skip schools for tournaments.”

Despite his talented skill, Tho-bani is not going to go full-time in squash. It is just a time of pas-sion for the young player.

Both squash teams hope to win major titles this year.

Squash player rises through the ranks

“I’m young, but I still have lots of ex-perience,” said Thobani

Monty Cahly between two swimmers getting a photo at the Swimming Provincial Championship

Alykhan Thobani’s shift from competing to coaching.

By Ian Brackman

The St. George’s cross-coun-try team is ranked #1 in

BC heading into the fall season. After a strong second place fin-ish in the province last year, the group of young runners is look-ing to improve on the solid result. “I’m very pleased with this years’ team,” says Coach Chris John-son. “There is a positive team dynamic and everyone seems willing to approach training with energy and intensity.” It is this year’s positive team that could bring home the hardware.

Cross-country is a growing sport at St. George’s and in 2005 the team captured the first BC title in school history.

Along with being the top seed in any sport comes a bit of add-

By Josiah Tsang

At the end of school last year, athletes in grade ten

were surprised by rugby being moved to third term.

According to the BC Secondary School Rugby Union website, the “season of play starts on March 1, 2010.”

For B.C. rugby, the schools in the province must play during third term to be eligible to com-pete in the B.C. High School Pro-vincial Championships. If teams play two seasons in one year they will not be able to compete in the championships.

At St. George’s the grade ten rugby programs has always played in the first term, which hindered the ability to compete in their age group championships. Because of this, grade ten rugby players were given the opportu-nity to try out for the 1st and 2nd XV, the senior rugby teams.

Bud Patel, Senior School Prin-cipal, explained that the move to the spring term was influenced by the wishes of the B.C. School Sports Association.

He also said that before the move was put in effect, Vancou-ver, Vancouver Island and Rich-mond were playing junior rugby in the fall while the rest of the country was playing during the spring. Now that rugby has been moved to the spring term, teams across the country can compete together.

Now that the rugby season is in third term it allows the team to compete in the provincial cham-pionships. It also lets the rugby

ed pressure. But Coach Johnson and the team remain focused on training and CJ says, “ We will not let the pressure affect our preparations for the BC Championships.”Coach Johnson has developed a training sched-ule that is tough, but not unbear-able, and is hoping this increased work will let the runner’s peak on the day of the BC’s. “To race 6-7km against the best runners in the province requires a high level of fitness and the ability to push yourself well out of your comfort zone,” says CJ.

Cross-country running is not for everyone. You have to take the pain and push yourself when your body isn’t up to the task. John Madden says of football that,“ 90% of the game is half

mental,” but this applies to cross-country as well. You’re mind has to be in the right place or it be-comes impossible to succeed.

Keen runners will be entered in several extra races in Belling-ham, Whistler and even Califor-nia. These trips are designed to give the runners tougher com-petition leading up to the BC’s. The Mt. Sac Cross-Country Invi-tational in California on October 23rd is the largest cross-country race in North America and last year 22 000 runners participated in the storied event.The commit-ted team is quietly training hard in the forests around the school in hopes to bring another BC Cham-pionship banner into the gym.

St. George’s running to the top

team play teams that they have not yet faced in their previous seasons.

Paul Chauvel, a player for the rugby team and now the soccer team, says he enjoyed having rugby in the first term but doesn’t mind having it in the third term.

He also added, “It gives us ath-letes more sports to choose from such as soccer, and also allows us to compete in the B.C. Secondary School Provincial Rugby Cham-pionships.”

Zaafir Ladha, also a player for the rugby team, said he likes the fact that the rugby season is being moved.

“It allows students to have more options to try out new things, whether it be the play or the newsports, like volleyball and soccer,” said Ladha.

Grade ten rugby moved to third term

By Tyler Raycraft

In hopes of ranking higher at the Provincial Championships,

the Saints golf team has expand-ed its single term format into a full year program for 2009-2010. The golf team, which formerly began practicing in April, will host practice sessions starting in November to ensure that the team members are fully prepared when the tournament season ar-rives.

“We want to make sure that the team has not developed any rust during the winter months,” said Vice-captain Nick Russel. “Al-though these practice sessions will take place only once or twice per month, they will guarantee that our players will be ready for the provincials.”

A key contributor to these prac-tice sessions will be CPGA pro-fessional Mark Burke, who will aid in the development of the players’ swings. During the prac-tice sessions, which will take place at Fraserview Golf Course, Burke will work with each player individually and address specific needs.

According to Russel, the winter training sessions will be intend-ed for the members of the senior provincial team. However, any players from either the senior or junior teams will be welcome to attend.

“Any time you compete in a

tournament, it is your goal to rank as highly as possible,” explained the 16-year old. “Obviously, we didn’t get the results we were looking for last year and we hope to improve on that for the 2010 event.”

At the 2009 provincial cham-pionships the Saints team was forced to withdraw after numer-ous injuries. David Worsley was unable to complete his round due to pain in his wrist stemming from a rugby injury. Anthony Chen was also battling injury, with a bruised forearm.

“Last year was hard to take,” argued the vice-captain. “I am pretty confident that we will be able to improve this year. I think that this early training program is a step in the right direction.” Competitive golf is a third-term games choice at the Senior School. Approximately thirty students ranging from grade 8 to 12 are normally accepted into the program on the basis of ability.

Golf team to train through the winter

14

He also said, “We have more competition in the spring rather than in the fall because of the way the other schools in the province place their sports throughout the year.”

So far the affect on the athletic body of grade ten is positive and has not made anyone upset. Also, St. George’s moved the season to create more opportunity for the grade 10 athletics through soccer and volleyball in the first term.

Later this year there will be a Senior Rugby tour to Argentina and Chile. Some students from the grade 10 team may be invited to go on tour. The yearly rugby tours, which are optional, have gone to places such as New Zea-land, the United Kingdom and Australia in the past.

Runners Willy Cliff, Christian Gravel, and Azar Chatur competing in a major cross-country race during the fall

The Grade 10 Rugby team

Junior Volleyball Program wins first Tournament

Cross Country Teamowns podium at Whistler

By Ian Brackman

The Saints cross-country team had a very successful

and fun weekend, grabbing three of the top five places in the Whis-tler Spirit Run.

Upon arrival at the course, the team was greeted by a large contingent of runners from rival school and last year’s provincial champs, Oak Bay. The race, for grade 9-12 boys, was to be run on the Olympic cross-country skiing course at Callaghan Valley. It was

15

By: Thommy Thompson

October 31 is a date associ-ated with ghostly terror, but

the day didn’t have any ghostly effects on the junior volleyball program as they won their first tournament in the history of St. George’s. Carol Pollock, head of the junior program for 8 years and grade 11 counselor, was very pleased to see the boys win their first tour-nament. Reto Camenzind, an in-tern for the school who heads the team, was also an integral part of the boys’ first tournament win. “I don’t think I’ve ever been as happy with a whole team at Saints because in the end, it comes down to the guys perform-

ing on the court and supporting each other off the court. These guys have got that nailed,” said coach Pollock. Saints beat Killar-ney, the top Vancouver team, in a final that ended 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 26-24, to seize the title. Ca-menzind said, “This year’s squad plays a true ‘team game’ with dif-ferent players stepping up each match with strong performances. The reason why we didn’t have any super-stars was because they played like a team with different people showing their skills on different games.” Sajen Gill, a player on the team, stated, “I think our team improved a lot more than other teams because the team we lost

to in the beginning was the team we beat in the end. That team was Killarney and even though it was a close game, we still beat them and that shows that we’ve im-proved over the season.” The team will be going to rep-resent Saints at this year’s BC’s as well. The tournament that will always be remembered as their first win was held at Burnett in Richmond. Various significant awards were handed out to Chad Payne for MVP of middle blocking. Lucas Macfayden, Sahill Sidoo and An-jan Katta had honourable men-tions.

By Peter Ding

St. George’s rugby team mem-bers, about 40 students in to-

tal, will be touring Argentina and Chile in 2010. They are leaving on March 27 and coming back on April 11. This year’s tour is special compared to rugby tours in the past where students have gone to the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

In the past, the junior rugby team has usually gone to the UK and the senior team has gone to Oceania. Bud Patel, the principal of the school and the coach of the senior team, chose Argentina and Chile for this year’s tour. Austra-lian schools cannot billet students from St. George’s this school year since these schools will be closed for Easter holiday during tour time. In addition, Patel be-

a very rocky course, with some work still being completed. “I felt like I was running through a construction site,” said star Grade 10 runner Christian Gravel.

But the tough course wouldn’t be enough to stop the Saints on this day. Christian Gravel came in first place at 25:16 for his 7km, with Will Cliff finishing second, just a few seconds behind. Cross-ing the line in fifth place was Dennis Brown at 26:49. Saints

Rugby Team goes to Argentina and Chile for Spring Break Tour 2010

had eight other runners who also ran in the Spirit Run.

The team managed their great results despite all three captains being injured for the race. Cap-tain Azar Chatur and assistant captains David Ling and Ken Takagi were all inactive for the race, but did make good cheer-leaders.

The team headed up the moun-tain after school on Friday, Sep-tember 25th for a Saturday race,

lieves Argentina and Chile will provide unique experiences for St. George’s rugby players.

Shawn Hamilton, Patel’s execu-tive assistant, said that this is an busy rugby tour. “We are going to play four games against four different schools. Our students are going to be billeted by these schools,” said Hamilton. Accord-ing to the tour plan, students are going to four different places in South America. These places are Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata and Tandil in Argentina, and Santia-go, a famous city in Chile. Ham-ilton said, “We are going to stay in each place for approximately two to three days.”According to Hamilton, this trip will cost each student approxi-mately $3500. This will cover the cost of transportation and room

and board. Hamilton said that on this tour, St. George’s students are going to live with students from the schools that they are go-ing to play against. Thus, they are going to have local food for their meals. However, they will stay in a hotel in Santiago, Chile.

Patel expects students to learn from the trip. Firstly, he wishes students will learn some Spanish. “I also want them to play rugby better and to learn a little bit about culture in Argentina,” said Mr. Patel.

Aside from the four games stu-dents will also have time for sight seeing, watching a professional rugby game and rugby training. Patel and Hamilton are looking forward to an unforgettable tour for St. George’s rugby players.

and stayed the night at the Fair-mont Chateau Whistler. “We all made use of the Eucalyptus Steam Room,” said Gravel.

After a meal at the Whistler Bre-whouse, the team went back to the hotel to rest up before the big 7km race. “The trip was a great way to start off the new season,” said James Pitblado Grade 10, “ It gave us all a chance to bond and get know each other better”.

Last year’s Grade 10 Team toured U.K and the senior team will travel to Argentina and Chile this year

Milan Mitrovic goes up for the spike

Senior Cross Country team

16

Special to The Echo: A Loon Lake short story: “Camp Bay Shore” by Leon Shen

There was nothing I could’ve done to prevent

this. It was already too late. As the water seeped into my kayak, I held my breath. There was no life jacket. Land was 2km away and I didn’t know how to swim. It was going to be a slow, painful death. At the critical point, a hand shot through the mist. With the last ounce of my strength, I desperately fought to reach it, but the fingers seemed to slide back with every try. Before I came to my senses, erup-tions broke below and bubbles formed. As the rumbling con-tinued, out of nowhere several mammoth tentacles blasted into the air. The shower of rain para-lyzed me. I could only watch in horror as the tentacles slammed downward and swathed around my skinny boat.

I woke up with a sweat. The clock read 5:48 a.m. I was back

in reality. Around my sleeping bag were two slumbering friends and a pile of dirty clothes. I un-zipped my backpack and checked the camp schedule. “Thursday morning: Kayaking, 8:00a.m. - 10a.m.” UH-OH!

Alright, so who wants to go first?” asked the over-enthu-siastic instructor, “how about you, the one in the green!” As I nervously limped toward the kayak, the instructor game me an overview of the craft and told me to put on my life vest. My long legs barely fit into the cramped vessel. As the woman handed me the double-sided paddle, the boat began to rock. I wanted to run, hide and scream my head off. But instead, I swallowed my tears and put on my mask of courage. Unfortunately, that failed miserably because the first thing I felt after I pushed off was the wind in my face and a splash

of water dampening my pants. I broke into a sweat and wanted to puke. Knowing I had a life jacket and taking slow breaths did little to help. It’s strange how everyone else seemed to settle in fine.

“C’mon guys just follow my lead say!” shouted the female instructor. So far, I’ve managed to hang tight and follow the group. A snail would probably laugh at my speed, but I didn’t care. Best of all, the encourage-ments I constantly fed to my brain deflected the sniggers and snorts from the others. As the unit made for a u-turn, the devil struck me. A spider had taken my knee for its home. I began to quake and wobble. The boat quivered but I didn’t care. I went into panic-mode. Wrong choice, pain electrified through my body as I battered my funny bone. Before I even noticed, water

started to seep in. The bad news: I had swung too hard to one side and tipped my boat. The good news: I didn’t flip! I could see my kayak in level with the lake. I was cold, shivering and behind. Overlooking my strategy, I paddled like never before.

Water rushed into my body. I didn’t have time to take a breath before the flip. Everything hap-pened all at once. The last thing I heard was the bubbles and hollers from above. Then a fatal glitch and everything stopped at once. Total and pure darkness…

The face of a twenty-seven-year-old-woman was the first thing I saw. Water came out of my mouth as I felt pressure on my stomach. The instructor wiped the sweat off of her toma-to-red face and heaved a sigh. I felt light-headed but somehow refreshed. When I regained my senses I observed my surround-

ings. “So, what happened?” I inquired.

“Well, when you tried to catch up,” she sighed, “you went too fast and lost your rhythm. This caused you to dip your paddle in at the wrong time and stop the current on one side. After that you lost balance and flipped while still in the kayak. Luck-ily there was an instructor at the back who quickly grabbed you seconds after the incident, but you had already blacked out!”

Things I learned from this experience:

1. Take up swimming lessons.

2. It’s better to go slow and steady than fast and furious.

3. I can tell the future through dreams!

By Andrew WatsonYou can’t handle the truth

Where have we heard that line before?

It wasn’t Jack Nicholson, but Jake Powrie who recited this line as the Saints Players conjured up four magical performances of the Rob Reiner directed film, A Few Good Men. It has been a dream of Mr. Luke Fredeman to have his cast perform such an intricate play, and his cast delivered.

The characters were all amaz-ing, but the leads made the play really sparkle. Tommy Stokes played the lead role of Lt. Dan-iel Kaffee, a navy defense lawyer with a cocky, and narcissistic at-titude, but effective lawyer. Tom

Cruise may not have been on the set, but it sure felt like it, as Stokes captivated the audience with a brilliant performance.

The story of the show (especially on the last night) was Jake Pow-rie for his role as Col. Nathan R. Jessup. After being sidelined for the Friday night show, bedridden with illness, Powrie mustered up a performance for the ages, add-ing a villainous sizzle to counter the protagonist’s positivity.

The biggest kudos has to go to Robert Wisden, who stepped in for the ailing Powrie, learning over 600 lines in the span of 36 hours, of course, it’s only busi-ness for the man who played Richard Nixon in the Watchmen.

In order to determine the pop-ularity of this show, the Echo did a survey on 50 students in the boarding house.

36% of the students agreed that the show was a very good one; all of them wanted the school to stage a show like this again in the school year.

There is more to a properly exe-cuted play than just the lead char-acters, all the backing characters were phenomenal in their specific roles, and the lighting and stage crews both did excellent jobs with the moving and placing of props.

The countless hours of hard work, and rehearsals sure paid off, as the play was a great suc-cess.

It may possibly be the last Senior School Production Headmaster Nigel Toy may see as the incum-bent, it was surely a great sendoff performance, as he regarded the play as, “a performance to re-member for the ages.”

A Few Good Men: Worth the effort By the numbers:What people said...Students who praised the

show said the following:

> “A Few Good Men is a very interesting play, presented with an intriguing plot and dynamic actors. The school constructed the stage so multiple scenes could be switched through quickly and easily.”

41% of all the students liked the show but expected more.

56% of respondents wanted to see a similar show again this year.

23% of the students said that the show was boring.

11% of them agreed that another show should be per-formed.

> “Instead of comical plays like other Saint’s drama productions, A Few Good Men touched on sensitive topics like social out-cast, social hierarchy and poli-tics.”

Students also made sugges-tions for further improvement of the show:

> “Make the show shorter, be-cause it gets boring after two and half hours.”

> “Props could be made better and the plot could be more coher-ent and more easily understand-able.”

> “The crew needs to be making less sound in background.”

> “There should be more jokes that are easily understood.”