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bridgejune2014

ANDREW STEWART ‘90

Junior Kindergarten students participated in the “Teddy Bear Clinic”, working with volunteer doctors to learn about immunizations, stethoscopes, and other medical procedures, at the Wentworth Campus.

bridge june2014

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One Shirt, Two Words

With one provocative, powerful phrase, Yael Cohen ‘04 engages her generation by demystifying a dreaded disease

One Life, No Regrets

This prevailing philosophy epitomizes ‘90 Grad Andrew Stewart’s journey from law to performing opera internationally

On the Outer Edge

David Aasen ’07 pushes the envelopes of theoretical physics knowledgebut still finds time to head to the beach and take in some waves

Black is the New Black

Grad ‘03 Michael Black’s diverse academic path to pursuing his passion now affords him ‘stylist to the stars’ status

Perfectly Provence

Julia Clarke rekindles her love of writing while on sabbatical in Provencewhile husband Derek Rowe finds a renewed artistic path in painting

Class Notes

cover

welcome to bridge

editor in chiefSusan Hazell

editorShelley Williams

contributing writersBarb LaBountaSharifa SamuelsShelley Williams

design & art directionBarb LaBounta

photographyCindy Goodman, North Shore NewsTaehoon Kim Derek RoweSharifa SamuelsSam WalkerShelley Williams

bridge is an annual publication of Collingwood School70 Morven DriveWest Vancouver, BC

www.collingwood.org

staff &contributors

.

Passion . . . it’s probably not something that you’d expect to read about in

a Collingwood School magazine, and it’s not actually something that we

planned on writing about when we were gathering stories for this year’s

Bridge. But in speaking with four remarkable alumni and one of our most

beloved faculty members, we discovered that passion was the common

thread that wove through all of their stories.

Our cover story features a former Head Boy who acquired two law degrees,

including one from Cambridge, and then gave up a successful law practice

to pursue his passion for opera. Another of our articles features a young

alum whose world was turned upside down when her mother was diag-

nosed with cancer, inspiring in her a passion to educate people about the

importance of early detection and prevention of the disease.

For another of our featured alumni, his nine-year academic journey from

marketing to neuroscience gave him the skills he needed to pursue his life-

long passion – fashion design and styling. Yet another of our alumni chose

to abandon his lifelong career plan when he realized his true passion was

for theoretical physics. Our magazine also features the story of one of our

faculty members who, after 30 years of teaching, discovered that she had a

passion for writing while on sabbatical in Provence.

We are delighted to present these compelling stories of five extraordinary

members of our Collingwood community; each of whom in their own way

had the courage to be guided by their own personal passion. We have

been inspired by their stories and are honoured to share them with you.

Shelley Williams

Roger Hatch came to Collingwood 29 years ago.He’s worn many hats during his tenure with us including, most recently, Co-Head at Wentworth and Senior Master at Morven. Most notable is hisremarkable commitment as a rubgy coach over the years. As a high-level player himself, he brought excellent skills to the job, and has always excelled at involving and engaging players. He has repeatedly created teams of players who care to play and care about him. Cheers to you, Mr. Hatch!

Photo © Cindy Goodman, North Shore News

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Visceral, emotional wordsborne of shock, fear, anger.

An empowering, provocative, unapologetic phrase forming

the anthem that would alter the course of

Yael Cohen’s life forever.

ONE SHIRTTWO WORDS

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n 2009, Yael Cohen ‘04 was 22, barely out of university and launching a career in finance. She was also consumed with helping her mother Diane cope with a diagnosis of breast cancer; a diagnosis that had

devastated her entire family. She recalled, “This was the first time I saw my mom as mortal. And the first time I saw my dad cry”.

Shock, fear, anger . . . the Cohen family experienced emotions all too familiar to anyone dealing with cancer. After Diane had surgery, Yael created a tee shirt for her that embodied what her family felt about the disease: Fuck Cancer. Yael thought her mother would just wear it at home but much to her surprise Diane wore her tee shirt everywhere. The response was incredible. People would stop her on the street to ask about it and express their support, strangers would want to share their own cancer stories, and everyone was asking her where they could get the shirt.

Deeply grateful that an early diagnosis had saved her mother’s life, Yael began to passionately spread the message of the importance of early detection to her own generation. Within a year she had founded an organization to communicate with the 17 – 35 year old Gen Y. The organization can be found online at www.letsfcancer.com, on Facebook as Fuck Cancer, and is operated by a charity registered in Canada and the US, Yael’s Indaba Charitable Initiative Society.

From the outset, she decided not to focus on raising funds for research. “We knew we couldn’t raise a lot of money for research. Young people don’t have the money to donate. And nobody seemed to be focusing on the fact that 90% of cancers are curable in stage one if caught early. We were asking - why aren’t we spending more time teaching people how to look for cancer and finding it early? Why aren’t we talking to the younger generation about it? Why have they been left out of the whole conversation? So we decided to focus on educating young people to talk to their parents about early detection, which was a goal we thought that we could attain.”

To reach out to Gen Y, Yael “went where they were – online”. With the assistance of a small, talented group, her fledgling organization created an edgy website, made extensive use of social media and utilized connections

with celebrities to engage her generation to talk with their parents about cancer. A natural at marketing, she speaks of using the language of youth and making the website and social media platforms “cool spaces” that would engage young people.

Over the past five years FCancer has built an ever-growing community for cancer patients of all ages, their families and friends to educate themselves and engage in discussions about cancer. It has certainly helped that Yael’s own celebrity and personal connections have attracted a host of young celebrities, including Ed Sheeran, Sofie Bush and numerous others who are keen to be involved with her organization.

Obviously, the slogan itself has been controversial and Yael is the first to admit that it has been fundamental to the organization’s success. She is also frank and unapologetic about her use of the F word. When battling cancer, “It’s what everyone is thinking. If there’s ever a time to say ‘Fuck,’ this is the time. Our credibility and success are due to the fact that we are authentic and raw.” However, they try not to offend. You’ll also often see the organization’s name in print and online as FCancer and it also sells merchandise online with a more sanitized version of the word.

One of their earliest projects, The Cancer Talk, involved making videos of 17 celebrities to encourage young people to send their parents a recorded voicemail to schedule a talk about their risks for cancer and the importance of early detection. Wryly playing off the awkwardness of ‘the sex talk’ angle, the videos used humour and celebrities to engage their audience. The campaign was an astonishing success, with thousands of young people having ‘the cancer talk’ with their parents and the videos receiving an estimated 55 million hits in the first week.

Having started out focusing only on the importance of early detection, Yael then expanded the message and the website to include information on prevention and education about various types of cancer as well. “This was in response to what the community was looking for. A big part of why we got to where we are is because we build the site for our community.”

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“So often people are just told what to do – like eat blueberries, kale and salmon because they have antioxidants in them. But they’re not told what an antioxidant is; what it does in your body. They’re told not to have red meat or alcohol or sugar but they’re not told why. So we broke it down on the website and explained what those things do to your body. As we’ve been growing we’ve been looking very critically at the cancer space and realizing that we could have a much larger impact by talking about prevention.”

From its inception, the strategic use of social media has been an integral part of the organization’s growth of its community. Its Facebook page has over 100,000 ‘likes’. By contrast, the Facebook page for the more mainstream Canadian Cancer Society, BC & Yukon Division has just over 8,000 ‘likes’ and the BC Cancer Foundation page has just over 2,400 ‘likes’. Posts on FCancer’s Facebook page include many from cancer patients and their families who want to share their emotions, often attracting thousands of ‘likes’ and hundreds of comments for just one post. Posters share pictures of themselves, often wearing an FCancer tee shirt.

It’s evident from the popularity of the page and the frequency of posts and comments that cancer patients and their families are keen to use it to share their stories and to follow the lives of other patients. Does sharing in such a public way on social media actually help anyone? The numbers might speak for themselves, and people posting certainly feel that it does. The organization’s Twitter account is also actively used, with over 47,000 followers. Regarding her use of multiple social media platforms, Yael notes that, “They each have their own use. Facebook is much more personal and it allows our community to share their stories.”

Although Yael started FCancer in Vancouver, it wasn’t long before she opened an office in Los Angeles. Why the move? “It was about being efficient and productive and a lot of the work

Yael speaks at the TedX Conferencein Vancouver.

was being done down there. People were donating their time and resources more freely. But obviously I’m Canadian and our office in Vancouver is our heart and soul. I come back and forth and we do our daily calls as much as possible.”

Not surprisingly, the organization’s advisory board includes a number of marketing and tech experts, (including Nick Molnar ’04 as well as Ryan Holmes, founder of Hootsuite), but also lists a number of medical professionals: a former chief of plastic surgery at Cedars-Sinai, described as a pioneer in revolutionizing breast cancer surgery, an oncologist, and a radiation oncologist.

FCancer raises funds by selling merchandise, receiving donations and through some innovative fundraising of its own. In 2011 it entered the Mozilla Firefox Challenge, hoping to raise $175,000 to cover its next year’s expenses. In one month, utilizing a social media campaign and celebrity messages, it raised over $200,000, with the average donation amount being $29.

In 2014, musician Ed Sheeran volunteered to participate in a contest to raise funds to cover the organization’s overhead, where dinner with Sheeran and tickets to one of his concerts were the prize. Using crowdfunding to raise small donations, by the time the contest closed one month later they had raised over $240,000, which thrilled Yael. “That will cover our budget for the whole year – that’s huge!” Nevertheless, Yael acknowledges that fundraising will continue to be necessary. “We will do something innovative and fun again because you only get so many asks of the community. And I would much rather ask our community for their action than their dollars.”

Having dedicated five years to the cause, Yael is also mindful that the organization she founded needs to be able to continue on in the future even if she is not as actively involved with it. “Sometimes the hardest part about being a founder of an organization is knowing where you will fit into it as it grows. It’s my job to make sure that we build the foundations and structure that

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Collaborating with the FCancer team

Diane Cohen and Yael.

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allow FCancer to move forward. I’m always going to be involved in some capacity but at some point I’m going to want to step back from the day to day operations. We’ve been working very hard to make sure that FCancer is going to continue to develop.”

Yael’s involvement with her organization has led to many personal moments with cancer patients and their families. “Early on, after we had launched The Cancer Talk videos, a young man sent me a message saying he had been concerned about his father coughing. He had used the campaign to encourage his father to go to the doctor; his father went and was diagnosed with cancer and had emergency surgery the next day. It had saved his life and he was doing well. That was one of my best moments because it was so early, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, we did that. That was because of something we built’.”

“We get to know our community so well that we really do go through a lot with them. Some families chronicle their experience with us and share so much of what they are going through, sometimes very intimately.” It’s obvious that cancer has been a part of Yael Cohen’s life on a daily basis for five years. So the question arises – don’t you go home sometimes and think ‘just for one day I’d like not to be dealing with cancer’? “Definitely, and I have to work really hard to balance my life because I share the very worst days of peoples’ lives. They pour their hearts out to me on a daily basis and I never know where it’s going to happen. And when it does they deserve my whole attention and heart, because it is very personal and painful for them. So, yes, I have to work hard at balance and being able to switch it off. I couldn’t do that for a long time, and I still can’t sometimes; it is hard not to feel it all so personally and it takes me right back to my experience with my mom.” Yael has recently become engaged to a businessman in Los Angeles and observed, “He’s in the entertainment industry, so that’s an interesting balance.” Yael and FCancer have been getting a lot of attention since she started her organization in 2009. In 2010 she was invited to speak at the White House Next Generation Leadership Conference as well as at the Clinton Global Initiative and TED X. 2011 saw her listed as one of the “12 people who are transforming philanthropy” by The

Globe and Mail. In 2012 she was listed in Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business”, Women’s Executive Network’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada and one of “40 Under 40” by Business in Vancouver Magazine. This spring she was included in BC Business’s listing of “30 Under 30” and just recently she was named as one of the recipients of the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards, created to ‘celebrate those whose ideas have broken the mold to create significant impact’. She also received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 in recognition of her community service. Her story and organization have been featured in a myriad of publications, from Teen Vogue to The New York Times. It has been a remarkable journey for a young woman who graduated from Collingwood only 10 years ago.

Recalling her days at Collingwood, Yael remembers organizing a fashion show to raise money for cancer research, never imagining that in a few short years her life would take such a turn. Of her Collingwood experience, she said, “It was the special teachers, like the Mortons, Lisa Evans and Roger Hatch who stand out; they challenged me to be a better person and to make better choices, not just to be a better student.”

Clearly, Yael was up to the challenge. For the past five years, she has dedicated herself to communicating with her own generation about cancer and has engaged hundreds of thousands of people in her mission to promote early detection and prevention of the disease. It’ll be fascinating to see where she takes her organization and the cancer space in the years ahead.

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How did you and Yael start working together? Yael and I had been friends at Collingwood, and stayed friends through university. When she realized that the charity she had started was going to have a big digital component, I think she just went to the nerdiest person she knew for help. That happened to be me, so I agreed to look over some of the plans for the first version of the website. I believed in the cause and saw that she was on to something, so when Yael asked if I wanted to join the executive board I didn’t have to think about it for more than a few seconds.

Your job title at FCancer is Director of Technical Awesomeness: can you give us some details about what that means?The FCancer community lives online. They use the web to connect with one another, find answers to difficult questions, and find support from the community. The organization relies on a group of volunteers, partners, and staff to make sure our technology supports that. My role is to stand in the middle and act as a translator between all of those groups to make sure they are aligned in solving the community’s problems. Through my work in the startup world I have learned a lot of lessons about the best ways to build websites and apps that has hopefully helped solve these problems more cost-effectively and faster.

Tell us about your newest venture, Wantering. How did you conceive the idea? How would you explain what it does?We built the first prototype of Wantering in a night. It was a silly idea my partner Matt and I launched out of the side of our consulting company. But it started to grow on its own, and we quickly found it was more fun to work on than our main business. About two and a half years ago we sold our company, Thirdi Software, and started working on Wantering full time. The goal of Wantering is the same as when we started: to help people discover clothing they’ll love through technology. We now have a search engine that allows you to shop across 130 stores and easily slice and dice our catalogue of 1.6mm products in an almost infinite number of ways.

What does the future hold for you?I feel like we are just getting started with Wantering, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds there. We have big plans to use our design and tech skills to bring content and commerce together in new ways. Most of the attempts to do this in the past have been really ham-fisted, and nobody has yet found the holy grail of creating something that is more fun to read than a magazine but easier to shop from than an online store.

Q & A with Nick Molnar ‘04

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regretsno

HEAD BOYLAWYERHUSBAND& FATHER of fourOPERA SINGERENTREPRENEURMANY HATsLOTS OF JOYABSOLUTELY

ANDREW STEWART ‘90

ndrew Stewart was the epitome of the four stranded Collingwood student. A top academic achiever, he was Head Boy in 1990, played on the

rugby team, sang in the school choir and was a member of the school’s first a cappella group, The Woodies.

After graduating from Collingwood, Andrew studied philosophy and psychology at UBC and graduated with a B.A. in 1994. At some time during his undergrad years, he decided to go into law. “My father had been a police officer and studied criminology and my brother was a lawyer. Becoming a lawyer seemed like something I should do.” After obtaining his B.A., Andrew headed to Edmonton to attend law school at the University of Alberta.

Andrew had continued to sing with The Woodies during his undergrad years and at U of A he kept up his singing. “I was focused on a career in law, but music was still part of my life. At U of A I performed in The Law Show, essentially a musical theatre production about law school. The Law Show was founded in my first year of law and has become an established production of the faculty since then.”

Andrew graduated from law school in 1997 with the Silver Medal and then went to Cambridge, England to pursue a Master’s of Law. He obtained his L.L.M. in 1998 and returned to Vancouver where he articled with one of the city’s top civil litigation firms, Hordo, Ross and Bennett. He enjoyed civil litigation and fondly recalls that the firm’s senior partner, Randy Hordo (a former Collingwood parent and past Chair of the Board of Governors) was a great mentor and friend.

After being called to the Bar in 1999, Andrew joined Thorsteinssons, a leading Canadian tax firm. “An opportunity appeared at Thorsteinssons and, given my success and enjoyment of studying tax law at U of A, I decided to make a change. Thorsteinssons was also a very positive experience with many great people.” Andrew practiced tax law for two years, “but at this point I began to consider other options inside and outside law . . . everything from acting to professional wrestling! But I had another opportunity inside law as well with a boutique corporate finance firm and I made yet another move. The demise of the firm within a year or so of my

joining forced me to make another decision. I chose to become a sole practitioner focusing on corporate finance law, and I also founded a small investment firm.” Andrew went on to practice corporate finance and securities law for the next five years.

“After I’d started working on my own I decided to pursue voice lessons in preparation to sing for my upcoming wedding. I started studying with a member of the faculty at UBC and within a short while was introduced to Nancy Hermiston, the director of the voice and opera program at UBC.” Within a month, Andrew was on stage as Sarastro in a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

“The following year I decided to commence studies in the Opera Performance Diploma at UBC and over the next two years would sing leading roles in about seven operas at UBC. In my final year I was recruited by the Canadian Opera Company and joined the company in 2006. The next few years were a blur, performing leading, supporting and covering roles in more than 20 operas, as well as performing in concerts and recitals.”

For the next few years, Andrew guested with various major opera companies throughout Canada, and then in 2009, “I had an opportunity to sing in the UK and we made the move.” At that time, Andrew and his wife, Brett, had two children. “Ironically, once we moved to England I became involved in a legal project that kept a lot of my attention. However, I still managed to continue singing in Europe.”

By 2012 Andrew’s family had decided to move back to Vancouver from the UK. “We have four children now and being close to family is really important for us. I’m travelling less because I don’t want to be away from my family, but I will never stop singing and I plan to sing more when the kids are older. In the meantime I hope to be doing more local productions. I’m also pursuing some other business ventures and doing some real estate development.”

“I believe I would never have become a professional opera singer had it not been for my exposure to music and choir at Collingwood School. The experiences I had at Collingwood in the choir and as a member of the Woodies were foundational to my pursuit of a career

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as a professional singer. I’ll never forget the faces of the rugby team players at our first mandatory choir practice! But the reality was that several of us fell in love with music and singing. For me it became a fundamental part of my life which I probably wouldn’t have discovered otherwise.”

Andrew continues to train with voice teachers and coaches. “We cannot accurately hear our own voice when we sing, so getting feedback about the sound we are making is essential in perfecting our sound. Coaches are essential in mastering the roles. They help singers learn their music and perfect their diction so they can sound like native speakers of the language they are singing in. I’ve sung frequently in Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech, so coaches have been indispensable.”

A bass and bass baritone, Andrew notes that, “Vocalizing is a daily routine, much like exercising the body. Learning the language and memorizing roles requires many hours and daily work. During a production, singers will work daily with diction and music coaches. As well, the singer will need to work at least once a week or more with a voice teacher to hone their vocal technique. On a daily basis, I work on vocal exercises, sometimes for up to several hours, to perfect my technique and unify the vocal registers so the voice can sound even and beautiful throughout the full range.”

Despite the hours of vocal training required each week and the challenge of balancing an opera career while raising a family of four, Andrew is still passionate about being an opera singer. “Being an opera singer an amazing career. To be able to sing these magnificent roles and be part of such beautiful music and fantastic stories is indescribable. Opera has a wonderful tradition and is a truly wonderful art form that I am grateful to be part of.”

In one of his very favourite bass roles, Andrew plays King Phillip in Verdi’s Don Carlo

For Andrew, the hardest part of being an opera singer is the travel. “It is one of the main things that has held me back from doing more, but I have been fortunate to bring my family with me a lot too. As the kids get older I plan to do more travelling, and since I’m a bass I play mostly kings, fathers and older characters so I hope to have lots of time to sing in the future. I know I will never stop singing. It’s part of who I am and I hope to share my love of singing, and opera, with my family along the way.”

From corporate law to opera is quite a career leap. What advice does Andrew have for young graduates? “My advice would be to follow your dream. You can get there. When we pursue the things we are passionate about we find greater happiness in our lives. Having said that, we need to be realistic about the time it takes to achieve our goals and what we can do in the meantime to help us get there. Having been a lawyer first, before becoming an opera singer, allowed me to be more financially stable when entering my career. This was particularly so given that I was raising a family. At the same time, we must be careful not to abandon our dreams in favour of the lucrative career that we can so quickly and fully be immersed in along the way.”

Since returning to Vancouver, Andrew has been singing and working on other projects. One of them is “One Life No Regrets”, a documentary movie about facing fears and following dreams. “The movie tells the story of my friend Patrick Stark facing his fear of singing and his journey to try and become a rock star. I am featured in the movie as well, with a focus on my journey from law to opera. I also teach Patrick singing lessons and explain how to deal with his fear of being on stage. The movie will hopefully be released next fall. In the meantime, we’ve launched a website which will share stories of other ordinary people who have overcome obstacles and fears and are pursuing their dreams. We’re also selling OLNR branded apparel for people who want to wear the sentiment that they live daily. We’ve had a huge response from people who find meaning in this expression. Many are trying to live by this philosophy in many aspects of their lives, whether it is in their career, personal life or other life situations.” The project’s website can be found at www.onelifenoregrets.org.

“One life, no regrets” – the phrase certainly captures Andrew Stewart’s approach to his remarkable life so far.

One of his very first roles, Andrew plays the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro

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Talking with PhD candidate David Aasen ’07

involved spectral geometry, relativistic

quantum information and topological

quantum computation . . . not easy stuff

to grasp but what else would you expect from

someone who’s going to the same institution

as Sheldon, Leonard and Howard from

The Big Bang Theory? It was much easier

to understand why he switched from

engineering to physics and

how surfing played a part in

his decision to go to Cal Tech.

AASENON THE

EDGEOUTER

or my whole life I thought I wanted to be an engineer, so that is where I started. I enrolled in nano technology engineering at the University

of Waterloo, but it turned out that the program wasn’t what I had anticipated.”

So began our discussion with David during his visit to Vancouver at the end of the first year of his PhD program at the California Institute of Technology, ranked for the third year in a row as the world’s number one university by the Times Higher Education global ranking of the top 200 universities – which puts it ahead of Harvard, Oxford, Stanford and MIT. Situated on a sprawling 124-acre campus in Pasadena, California, Cal Tech is a science and engineering research and education institution with a student body of about 2200 and a 3:1 student-faculty ratio. It boasts 32 Nobel Laureates, including five on its current faculty.

Graduating from Collingwood with exceptional marks in math and sciences, David’s plan to study engineering at the University of Waterloo seemed like the perfect choice. However, once there he realized that his real passion was theoretical physics and pure math, and he also ran into his old nemesis – writing essays. “I like to solve problems that have to do with the physical world; in physics you could be developing a theory for building a quantum computer or something fundamental about nature. I now know this is what I enjoy. At Waterloo, I also had to do a professional development engineering course over the summer where I would have to write an essay every week and I really struggled with that. I’d fail it every week and have to resubmit the essay and I

“F was getting very frustrated. So I decided not to continue in engineering. I transferred to McGill and graduated with a Science degree in Math and Physics.” David knew he wasn’t great at reading or writing back at Collingwood. “I had always struggled with reading and writing but we didn’t figure out why until about grade 11. I was failing French although I was studying it for 3 - 4 hours a night so my parents got me tested and it turned out I was dyslexic. I was encouraged to drop French and focus on what I could do well. By my senior year my grades were within a few percent of 100% in most of my math and physics and chemistry classes.”

David’s dyslexia didn’t have nearly as significant an impact on his ability to do math and physics. “When I see a sentence it’s usually a bit confusing. But when I see equations I understand much better what is going on. I still make little errors like negative signs and transcription errors, but conceptually I can often find a nice pathway to get to an answer – of course the more interesting equations are the ones we don’t understand.” He excelled at McGill and worked on numerous research projects, including some with his former faculty at the University of Waterloo. His reading and writing skills might have been weak but his research skills were exceptional. In his final year he applied to graduate schools and was accepted by numerous Ivy League schools as well as Cal Tech. He is now partially funded by a grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. “I’d also been accepted by Princeton and Yale and Cornell and other schools in the east but I really didn’t want to go

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California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California

to the east coast because it’s cold and I wanted to surf in California. I’ve surfed in Australia, Bali and California and the surfing is fun there. So I chose Cal Tech and went right into a PhD physics program. In the US it’s quite common to go straight into a PhD program.” For someone who isn’t a strong reader, Cal Tech is the ideal place for David. “It’s very hard for me to keep up with all the reading because I’m terrible at it. This is why Cal Tech is so great for me; I go to a lot of talks and they have amazing people coming through telling you what they are up to and you can hear about what is going on at other schools. It’s very stimulating.”

Prior to entering Cal Tech David had been working on a spectral geometry problem that has been discussed for decades, often phrased as: Can one hear the shape of a drum? For years researchers thought the answer was ‘no’. David worked on the problem for several years with Professor Achim Kempf at the University of Waterloo and Tejal Bhamre, a grad student at Princeton. “Eventually we were able to actually do inverse spectral geometry in a special case, which has shed some light on a problem that’s been around for 50 years. And from this we were able to publish a paper, “Shape from Sound:

towards new tools in quantum gravity” in Physical Review Letters, a top physics journal.” After David graduated from McGill he moved to Whistler to ski and relax, but continued working on a spectral geometry problem. “While I was up there I actually made some progress on it, and Achim Kempf suggested that I come back to Waterloo to work on it, and I thought, “Yeah, that would be good - take a break from taking a break.” So I went back to Waterloo and while I was there I worked on another problem as well, which falls under the heading relativistic quantum information. What we tried to show was that perhaps we could use relativistic effects to actually perform quantum information processing tasks. And we were actually successful in doing this. We showed that, yes, often the effects of the relativity were very bad but if you’re able to put “black holes” in very peculiar geometry and then fire your qubit between them you could actually do some quantum information processing.” This research was also written up in Physical Review Letters. David explains, “Qubits, which make up the fundamental constituents of a quantum computer, are really finicky. Right now the lifetimes they have for these qubits are in the microseconds - very small. And then you have this high probability for error. So it would be incredibly hard to build a fully functional quantum computer.” Which of course leads us to ask - what will we do with a quantum computer? “Ahh, this is why it’s actually quite important. The reason everything is so safe now when we send information across the Internet is because we use encryption that would take standard computers thousands of years to break – i.e. factoring a large number into its primes. A quantum computer would have an exponential speedup over a classical computer, and it would take you only a few minutes with a quantum computer to factor these very large numbers. So all the banks would lose their security and we couldn’t use the Internet safely.”

Does this mean we would be looking at the destruction of our global banking system and we won’t be able to use the Internet safely? “You won’t have to worry about that for a long time. The Internet is safe now and probably will be for the next 100 years. Probably long before we have a quantum computer, we will be able to do teleportation over very large distances.”

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Teleportation? As in Star Trek? “Yeah, just like that. We can actually do this now; we can teleport a single qubit over 100 km, which is amazing. And the way they do this is through entanglement. So you can destroy a qubit over here and you recover it over there.”

Which of course led to our next question . . . how long do you think it will take us from teleporting a qubit to a cube of something? “Well theoretically it’s possible. But actually doing it experimentally would be very, very hard. This is the problem with theories. I think maybe they’ll never be able to do it; maybe they could do two or three qubits, or some containment of these things at some point, but probably not much more than that. But the reason this is so useful is that it also provides the perfect way to encrypt things. Right now our encryption depends on the fact that you can’t factor a very large number into its primes. Teleportation allows us to circumvent this problem since teleportation provides a secure channel. If somebody were to intercept your message they would get garbage. So long before we have a quantum computer we’ll be able to have perfect encryption, and the problem of quantum computers and concerns about Internet security kind of solves itself.”

Given David’s passion and aptitude for theoretical physics it’s not surprising that he wants to end up working in an academic environment. “That’s my goal, but it’s incredibly hard to get positions in an academic place; getting a post-doc after your PhD is very competitive in theoretical physics. And then you go from a post-doc to a professor and it’s next to impossible. I would love to be able to take this path but it’s incredibly hard; you have to be very good. I’m trying my best; I work hard and I think I’ve done all right so far but I’m not getting my hopes up.”

What about going into industry? “What I do now applies to our fundamental understanding of quantum mechanics but it’s not necessarily going to be used anytime soon. And even the precursors to these things, they haven’t been able to make. So it’s quite far from direct application to industry, as far as I know. But this is always an option.”

David may be working on theories that won’t yield results for decades but he’ll still have to decide on a thesis

topic within the next few years. “I’ll probably do it on topological quantum systems; probably exploring new phases of matter, which are very interesting; it’s a very modern field and there is still lots to discover. They could even reveal topologically robust quantum computers. I’m not looking forward to the writing part, but nothing feels better than solving a tough problem.”

David Aasen is working in areas of theoretical physics that push the envelopes of knowledge to the edge. With an already impressive body of research and the challenge of working with world-class scientists, there’s no doubt that he’ll have little time for surfing as he works on his PhD in the years ahead. Let’s just hope he solves that pesky encryption problem before he comes up with a quantum supercomputer.

He’s got degrees in marketing, psychology and neuroscience

but his PASSION FOR FASHIONis the key to his success

BLACKis the new

BLACK

Utilizing his educational background, Michael is a savvy marketer and understands the importance of social media in the fashion world. He is a prolific poster on his Michael Black Styling Facebook page and with over 70,000 likes, he is building a global following.

Michael credits his education for what he has accomplished. “My education plays a big role in what I do. Collingwood and university taught me effective time management, multitasking, motivation and the value of hard work. My business degree was practical, my psychology degree was to enhance my business training, and my neuroscience degree was purely just for fun. I use business and psychology every day in everything that I do, from meetings to what colours I choose for photo shoots.”

At only 29 years of age, Michael Black has managed to blend his educational background with his fashion business. He encourages other young people to pursue their passion, noting, “I feel that a lot of young people don’t fully realize their own potential. One really can do anything.”

Since completing his university education a couple of years ago, Michael Black ‘03 has opened Michael Black Styling and is now working with some of the world’s top fashion companies and styling some of the world’s A list celebrities.

After graduating from Collingwood, Michael was thinking of going into medicine. He spent the next nine years at three universities, collecting a B.A. in psychology, a B.Sc. in neuroscience and a B. Comm. in marketing along the way. With an academic background like that, there was a myriad of career opportunities awaiting him. Michael chose to pursue a career that would encompass his lifelong love of fashion.

When he was just 16, Michael was recruited by Diesel as a junior designer for its denim collection. While in university, he started doing fashion styling and worked as a personal shopper. Along the way, he started his own styling business, working as a fashion stylist. But it wasn’t until he had completed his lengthy stint at university that he decided to pursue a career in fashion.

Michael’s big break came in 2012 when he was selected to work on Donald Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant, watched by over one billion viewers globally, as well as on Miss Universe’s press tour. After that his styling business took off. Operating out of Toronto, he now also has offices in Vancouver, New York and Milan. Attending fashion weeks globally and working with clients keeps him travelling constantly and styling editorials, runway and celebrities. His titles have included Fashion Director, Creative Director, Designer and Stylist and he has worked with companies including Hermes, Aveda, Diesel, Mercedes Benz and Fashion Week as well as Vogue US and Vogue Italia. His list of celebrity clients includes Taylor Swift, Keira Knightly, Britney Spears, James Franco and Justin Bieber.

In addition to his other work, Michael often co-designs with designers to strengthen their collections and is also an international brand ambassador for clothing lines and beauty products. He has also developed and filmed a reality show that has yet to be released.

Despite his own celebrity, interviewers have often remarked on how modest, respectful and down to earth he is. Michael is proud of his professional reputation, noting that he feels there is a misconception about people in his industry. “I’d like to change that. People in my roles aren’t always like “The Devil Wears Prada”!

Dress designed and constructed by Michael Black featuring

51 different patterns of silk.

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PERFECTLYProvenceONE TEACHER’S SABBATICAL BECOMES A WRITER’S DREAM

After 27 years of teaching English at Collingwood, Julia Clarke was looking for inspiration, both for herself and her students. When the opportunity arose to take a six-month sabbatical, Julia welcomed the sabbatical to explore her passion for writing - and to provide Collingwood students with a new Literature 12 textbook.

“Providing a textbook that would engage the students and make the course fun was something that I was very passionate about, as well as re-engaging with writing”, she explained. “Like many teachers, my writing for a few decades has been ‘useful’ writing - for reports, a few articles in school magazines and yearbooks and so on. But I was beginning to feel like a bit of a fake because there I was, an English teacher of now 30 years standing, and I hadn’t done any really extended writing since my Master’s thesis in the 1980’s.”

“The textbook that the students were previously using was an 1100 page tome called Adventures in English Literature. My classes used to call it the burglar basher.” The book was actually an American textbook that wasn’t even meant for the BC Literature 12 course but there are so few students taking the course in BC that the numbers haven’t justified creating a textbook for it.

Julia’s husband, sculptor Derek Rowe, also embraced the idea of taking a sabbatical. They began their trip in Spain where Julia taught English on Collingwood’s Experience the World summer program. “It was a wonderful way to start. The evenings were devoted to cultural exposure and pleasure and it was a charming group of students to spend time with”.

Then it was on to Cotignac, Provence for two months at the summer home of Julia’s long-time friend and former Collingwood colleague, Megan Parry. “When Megan worked here she would talk excitedly about the cottage and for years she has been urging me to go there. When she found out that I had the sabbatical she insisted that we stay at the cottage. It was wonderful to finally visit Provence because I’d heard so many stories about the village from Megan.” Julia’s days were spent writing, visiting cathedrals, touring museums and art galleries, and enjoying the

delights of village life, including the delicious French pastries. She would research at night, write in the morning and then go for a walk in the afternoon. “Provence was beautiful. It looks like a film set; just try to imagine every cliché of Provence you’ve ever seen. The village was utterly charming and its people were unusual, idiosyncratic characters who were fascinating to people-watch. You can just sit back in the café and watch the characters. Some are stereotypes; the village drunk, the village madman, but there are also lots of artists, sculptors, potters - really fascinating people.”

“The markets are wonderful. We used to look forward all week to the Tuesday morning market with gorgeous fresh produce. The butcher, who we used to call “stubby fingers” for obvious reasons, even though he couldn’t speak a word of English, had a beaming smile greeting us every time we walked towards his stall.” The village and its people were wonderful, but for Julia, “the best part of each day was enjoying the excitement of writing and feeling that I had written some great pages that day.”

In writing the textbook, Julia had to follow the BC Literature 12 curriculum which prescribes what works are to be included. “I managed to add one or two texts. I brought the book up to date and included a 2005 poem written by the British Poet Laureate.” She also translated Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from medieval to modern 20th century prose. “I left those medieval poems until the end because I thought that they would be really quite onerous to translate, and I didn’t think that it would be a lot of fun. But what a surprise - it was so much fun! Just working within that framework of medieval prose and poetry and trying to translate medieval prose into lines of iambic pentameter in modern language, and in the case of The Canterbury Tales where I had to make it rhyme as well: what a wonderful challenge. It was a fascinating intellectual puzzle - I loved it!”

Writing the 70,000 word textbook turned out to be a very rewarding experience for Julia. “I had no idea how much I was going to love it. I thought I was going to enjoy it but I didn’t know I would be eager to write every single day.

ONE TEACHER’S SABBATICAL BECOMES A WRITER’S DREAM

21

And it really has awakened a love of writing that perhaps I never even had in the first place. I did a lot of academic writing when I was doing my B.A. and my Master’s but I didn’t do any creative work.”

As Collingwood has recently moved to eBook texts, Julia’s textbook, Brilliantly Lit, is an eBook. “Collingwood is far in advance of other schools in its use of eBooks, so this textbook for the time being doesn’t have a lot of future outside our walls because we are ahead of the curve. At some point, perhaps in the next 5-10 years, the book might be more ‘sellable’.”

After their stay in Provence, Julia and Derek travelled to Italy and then on to London. “It was wonderful to go to the National Gallery in the afternoon and see Shakespeare at the Barbican by evening. That was one of the delights – seeing wonderful theatre. We went to Stratford Upon Avon and saw theatre several times in London.”While Julia was researching and writing, Derek was also keeping busy. “The photos in the book are his; he did all

the Photoshopping and so on. For example, he made an image of Shakespeare attired in baby clothing. He painted as well. In the house in Provence there was a gorgeous third floor terrace that looked out on the entire village and he often painted there. We had ended in London and when we were there he was going to the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and loved to visit all the wonderful art galleries, like the National Gallery.”

Derek’s life has also changed since the sabbatical. “For many years he’s been a sculptor. He’s actually turning to painting. He couldn’t sculpt on the trip so he started painting while we were in Provence and he painted some pictures of our trip. You could say it was a change in the road for him as well from his years of sculpting.”

Returning to Vancouver was, of course, an adjustment. “We were gone for six months; we did move around a little but it wasn’t like being a tourist. We were in Provence and London long enough to get settled in and we almost began to feel like European residents. So it was a little disconcerting to come home but at the same time Canada, and particularly our area, is so utterly gorgeous.” And while the experience reinforced her enthusiasm for writing and reinvigorated her as a teacher, she was truly excited to come back to her students. “Being in a classroom is always the most exciting part of my job and something that I really missed.”

ON KEATS.....One of the most fabulous benefits of travelling off season is not having to rub elbows with legions of sight-seers. We visited the former London home of my favorite poet, Romantic writer John Keats, in November. We were informed that most of the original furniture had been removed but the fireplace in his study, where he penned his immortal odes, was the same one he had used two hundred years ago. As there were no tourists in the room I was able to run my fingers along the fireplace, touching where his hands had touched too- what a thrill! It was very exciting and very moving.

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At The Globe Theatre, London

Since returning from her sabbatical, Julia has written a novel and has started on a second. After writing her first book, she “realized that it was the outpouring of someone who hadn’t actually written a novel before; so now I’m starting again. I’ve actually only written a few thousand words of the second novel but this one is going to be much more disciplined; a much stronger novel than the first one.” Julia’s second book is a murder mystery – quite a departure from transcribing Chaucer for Lit 12.

Julia’s students have reacted very positively to the new textbook. “They say it’s fun to learn from; there are lots of laughs about the pictures and jokes and they’ve said because I comment a great deal on the themes and intricacies of the various poems that I discuss it’s much easier for them to review material for tests.” The students also love Julia’s background stories about the authors. “It’s usually the stories that they remember, such as me telling them about Byron’s disappointed lover throwing herself into the Grand Canal for love of him; they might not remember the poem but they’ll remember the tale of the disappointed woman.”

Julia is deeply grateful for the opportunity to take the sabbatical. “Travelling through Europe, most people I met assumed I taught at a university and were surprised to learn that our school offers a sabbatical program because it is so rare for schools to offer them. I feel really fortunate to have been the recipient of such an extraordinary program and it is something I won’t soon forget.”

The sabbatical also changed Julia’s life. “It’s not as if I went away and had a lovely time and then came back and it’s business as usual. Oh no; it’s really changed my life. For example I’m now on my second novel since returning.” She also feels the experience has made her a better teacher and writer. “Since working on Brilliantly Lit, I have a better idea of how to teach extended pieces of writing.”

AN ESCAPEE IN AVIGNONI had visited the Papal Palace in Avignon before, one July, when it was besieged by thousands of tourists. When we went there in October 2013, the vast square was left to me, my husband and a crowd of pigeons. As the birds flocked around, pecking our bread, I spotted one with a gaudy red plumage. I exclaimed in amazement to my husband that the pigeons of Provence were so much more colorful than the ones in Canada. “That one has the coloring of a parrot,” I observed with glee. “Julia,” he said patiently, “that’s because it is a parrot.” I still wonder if the escapee parrot was ever reunited with its owner.

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At Thornelet Monastery, Provence

At the Ponte Vecchio, Florence

ON SABBATICAL WITH DEREK ROWE

Shortly before we left for the Old World, my thirty year career of sculpting was dealt a serious blow. Both of my wrists were diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel problems. The planned time away was going to be a sabbatical from the physical labor of sculpting, and time to consider my artistic future.

Europe for me was like entering one of the enormous art history texts I pored over as a student. Wherever we traveled and stayed was a visual treat, providing more inspiration. During our time in July with the Experience the World students, the first inkling of my part of the sabbatical revealed itself. Leading a Collingwood tour around the Prado Museum in Madrid and the excitement of describing the story and techniques of my favorite paintings to the students rekindled my enthusiasm for painting again.

In our medieval village Cotignac, in Provence, the effects of being soaked in a world of great art and the magical light of the Impressionists coalesced. I picked up the paint brushes again and have not let go since. What I thought was going to be a fun six months in Europe helping my wife compile and illustrate her literary textbook ended up changing my career.

Excerpt from Julia’s novel, An Uncharitable Death

The most common reaction to the death of Eleanor Irvine was “She was such a lovely lady. No-one would want to kill her.” The logic of this verdict was sapped by the fact that she was discovered in the back room of a Nottinghamshire charity shop with an ornamental knife stuck in her abdomen- a use for the knife that its donor had not anticipated.

The person who found her was the manageress of the store and its only paid employee, Karen Philips. After a busy afternoon chatting on the phone, popping out for crafty ciggies, and picking up groceries, she realized that Eleanor was fifteen minutes late leaving from her usual Monday afternoon volunteer shift. She opened the door to the sorting room at the rear of the shop, expecting that Eleanor had become so absorbed in sifting through donations into ‘keep’ ‘maybe’ and ‘reject’ piles that she had lost track of time. As corpses are notoriously sloppy about time keeping, this had indeed occurred.

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St. James Park near Buckingham Palace, November 2013

class notes .

Julia Lynx ’91 Julia is a singer-songwriter based in Canmore, Alberta. Having been in the Collingwood Choir, she left us with a deep love for singing and has since produced a debut album, Wild Patience. In addition to her fervent pursuit of music, she is a part time birth doula, has presented various workshops and trekked over 4,300 km over five months on the Pacific Coast Trail. Her son, Roche is taking voice lessons and daughter Tenaya sings daily in the house, so there’s always music in the Lynx household.

Maya Zwart (Wingate) ‘91Maya completed her M.Ed in April 2013 and two days later Maya and husband Michael welcome their first child, Ella, to their family.

Sam Byrd ‘92On February 28th, Sam, wife Suzan, and their daughters Emily and Elsie, welcomed Eve to the family. The family lives in Cobham, England. Sam works for Black River, a division of Cargill.

Janet McLaughlan ‘95Janet will be representing Canada in the 2014 Women’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championships being held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre Toronto, Ontario, Canada from June 20-28, 2014. Janet has been a member of the team since 2008 and has participated in the Beijing Paralympics and London Paralympics as well as the 2010 World Championships. The Canadian Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team is one of the most successful teams in Canadian sport history and are looking to build on a 3rd place finish at the last World Championships in 2010.

Stephanie Nesbitt (Hume) ‘97Stephanie and her fellow athletes on the Women’s Field Hockey team, 1998-2000, were recently inducted in the UBC Sports Hall of Fame.

David Sanderson ’99 & Emily Bolton ‘99David and Emily welcomed Theo Michael Sanderson to their family on March 21, 2014. Proud grandparents are Debbie Berto and Dan Sanderson.

Left to right: Julia Lynx; Janet McLaughlin; David Sanderson and Emily Bolton with baby Theo;Maya Zwart and baby Ella.

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Riley Senft ‘97Riley and wife Sarah welcomed their first child, Connor Roderick Senft, on February 27, 2014. Connor caught his procrastinating parents off guard by arriving 10 days early, so he spent his first 72 hours nameless. Riley and Sarah are absolutely delighted with their new son!

Aly Rahim ‘98We welcomed our second daughter, Isha, in August 2013. Her sister, Inaya, who is almost five, is delighted to be a big sister. We moved to the Washington, DC area from Ottawa in 2009. I am based at the World Bank headquarters where I manage a variety of international development programs for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Derek Senft ‘99Derek and Patricia Silva de Toledo Arruda were married on November 16th, in Sao Paolo, Brazil. They met at the London Business School while in the MBA program and plan to move back to Vancouver later this year.

Jilly Tiffin (Geer) ‘01Jilly and husband Jarrod are now the proud parents of twins, Zebedee Nicholas and Poppy Mary Jane. Born on November 19th, this twosome are keeping Jilly and Jarrod very busy! Proud grandparents are founding parents Nick and Penny Geer.

Kelsey Smart ‘04Kelsey recently received her Certified Financial Planner designation, a major milestone she is very proud of. Now living back in North Vancouver, during her spare time she plays dodgeball, floor hockey, and rides her Yamaha R6 sport motorcycle in the summertime. She also enjoys travelling with her partner, Jen Blyth, starting off this year with a first-time trip to Las Vegas.

Kayla Buchanan ‘07Kayla will be marrying Gordon Kerr on July 18, 2014, at Hycroft Manor in Vancouver. Kayla and Gordon have been together for six years and their wedding date is their anniversary.

Riley, Sarah and Connor Senft;The Tiffin Twins; Derek and Patricia Senft;Kayla Buchanan and Gordon Kerr;Kelsey Smart

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Shakir Rahim ‘07Shakir recently organized the “Electronic Surveillance State” conference, and acted as Conference Director for the Canadian International Council Toronto branch. The conference discussed revelations about electronic surveillance highlighted by the recent public disclosures by Edward Snowden and brought together leading stakeholders on the issue from Canada and the United States. In his voluntary role as a member of the executive of CIC Toronto, he organizes programming on topical foreign affairs issues in Toronto.

Justin Bull ‘09Justin was featured in the news for creating a cycling activist tool called Doored!, where cyclists in the Toronto area can report dooring accidents and this successfully motivated police to track dooring incidents again. He works at FreshBooks, one of the top cloud accounting companies in Toronto for software development.

Wynne & Valerie LaBounta ‘09Wynne graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2013 with a BS in Advertising, and has held the position of Digital Media Specialist at Whole Kids Foundation, a division of Whole Foods, based in Austin, Texas. In June she takes on the position of Associate Analyst at RocketFuel, an advertising technology firm in Chicago.

Valerie also graduated from UT Austin in May 2014, with a BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering. She is thrilled to be starting her career in August as a Software Engineer at Google in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jessica Reardon ‘09Jessica graduated from Acadia University with a B.Sc. in Science and Biology in 2013. She currently resides in Charlottetown, PEI, and is working at a veterinary clinic. Jessica is gaining lots of experience through work and volunteering at stables and animal shelters. She has been accepted into the veterinary programs at University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh.

Rebecca Reardon ‘09Rebecca recently graduated from Acadia University with a B.Sc. in Nutrition and Dietetics. She is completing her year-long Dietetic Internship Practicum in the South West Nova District Health Authority in Nova Scotia. Currently she is in her clinical rotation at Yarmouth Regional Hospital, and will complete her internship in August of this year.

Clockwise: Justin Bull; Rebecca Reardon;Shakir Rahim; Valerie and Wynne LaBounta;Jessica Reardon

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Focus on Jade Bowman ‘06As a child, Jade knew what her calling was. Whenever asked, “what do you want to do when you grow up”, she would immediately reply: “I want to deliver babies!” But life would take her in a different direction, and by the end of high school, she was focused on a career in the business world. She graduated from the University of Victoria with a Bachelor of Commerce degree with the intent to pursue a career in event planning. Only one month later Jade watched a documentary on modern childbirth and with her natural passion for women’s healthcare, pregnancy and childbirth, decided to investigate a career in midwifery. She applied to the very selective Midwifery Program in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, and will be a registered midwife when she graduates in 2016. Even though it’s been challenging to start from scratch and change career paths, Jade says, “to witness women become mothers is truly an indescribable feeling; each birth is a moment I’ll never forget. I’ve found my dream career”!

Email your Class Notes to alumni@collingwood.orgInformation may be edited for clarity and space

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Victoria Turner ‘10Victoria is in the third year of a five-year program at the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. As a senior vet student, she trains new students to help with challenging births at local sheep farms. Victoria also plays for the University of Edinburgh Women’s Volleyball Team, currently ranked number one in the Scottish League.

John Kardos ‘10John reports that he is hard at work carving his niche in luxury real estate’s next generation of professionals and enjoying working at Prudential Sussex Realty in West Vancouver. He looks forward to hearing from his CW friends as they think of real estate in the years ahead.

Tanya Rashid ‘10Tanya’s father reports that Tanya is now doing her Master’s of Law at University College London, specializing in international business and banking law and that she enjoys participating in musical theatre in her free time and all that the university has to offer.

Sasha Babicki ’10Sasha married Michael Bryniarski on August 17, 2013. They are living in Edmonton where Sasha is completing her B.Sc. and Michael his M.Sc. at the University of Alberta.

Jack Huebner ‘13Jack will be volunteering in Ghana for three weeks this summer at an eye clinic through a program called Unite For Sight, where he’ll be observing surgeries and performing visual acuity tests. Jack is pursuing a major in Human Biology and a minor in French at USC.

Left to right:VIctoria Turner; Tanya Rashid; John Kardos;Sasha & Michael Bryniarski

Left to right:VIctoria Turner; Tanya Rashid; John Kardos;Sasha & Michael Bryniarski

Post-performance hugs are in order after the “Studies In Contrast” Spring Dance Showcase at the Kay Meek Centre.

On the first day of school, students will stream into the airy and spacious atrium at the new Morven campus. With construction progressing nicely, soon it will be time for finishes, fixtures and furnishings, and the building will bear little resemblance to this photo.