crescent times

Volume 16 Issue 10 May 3, 2013

ROBOTICS WORLD CHAMPIONS: TEAM 610 RULES

Its not often Crescent students have an opportunity to com-pete on the world stage, but thats exactly what took place this last weekend in St. Louis, Missouri at the FIRST Robotics World Championship.

It truly was a world championship: over 2,500 teams competed internationally to qualify for the final 400 teams. Thirty-seven countries were represented. Crescent was one of the few Ca-nadian schools to make the cut.

FIRST Robotics Competitions are a wild and wonderful combi-nation of competition and collaboration. Alliances are formed; teams are comprised of three robot teams pitted against an-other team of three. Strategy is essential; the robots on one team all have their roles to play, and good team play can often overcome good engineering.

An alliance was formed amongst Robotics teams from Crescent

School, Rick Hansen Secondary School in Mississauga and an area team from Texas, The Woodlands, and while the team spirit was strong, the robots at times didnt appear capable of putting it all together all the time. There were moments of ela-tion and moments of despair. It wasnt a straight line to the final. Electrical glitches plagued the team, and the execution of some key elements of scoring were missed. There was even a huge controversy about the scoring in one match that would have put our heroes out of the competition, but through re-spectful questioning and quiet perseverance, the judges finally realized that the recorded 64 discs could not possibly have been achieved, and the score was adjusted to the correct 46. The competition would continue for our young men.

In the end, however, the Ontario/Texas alliance prevailed, and if you havent seen the YouTube video, you might take a look:

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2 Men of Character from Boys of Promise

CPA is looking for Grade Parent Volunteers CPA Grade Parent Program

Lower School LiaisonJoelle [email protected]

Middle School LiaisonLori Fisher416-485-8392 [email protected]

Grade 9 & 10 LiaisonNatalie [email protected]

Grade 11 & 12 LiaisonRitu [email protected]

Grade Parents are a valuable resource, and help to facilitate community building within each grade. Its a fun opportunity to bring parents together and to be involved with School activities and to support communication between parents and the School.

Grade Parents are needed at all levels, and no experience is necessaryso please join in!To volunteer or nominate a candidate, call or e-mail your liaison (listed below) by Monday, June 3.

http://youtube/MQ0VNzIvHx0

Were the good looking blue robot at the bottom left. I dont think you need to know much about the scoring to ap-preciate the power and grace of robot 610, Crescents contribution to the world championship team. I think you

will be amazed, however, at what the robot can do, and the speed of the ex-ecution.

Behind all of the technology, noise and hoopla is the human element in this story. Crescents Robotics team is huge, numbering 45, and is composed

of young men from Grade 9 to 12, many of whom have worked through the ranks over their time in the Upper School. They dedicate hours and hours of work late into many nights and on weekends to complete the robot and to strategize just how they will play the FIRST Ro-botics game which changes each year.

Supporting them are teachers and men-torssome of whom are alumni who have worked in our Robotics program in the past and who actually flew down to St. Louis to watch the competition. Without the teachers, mentors and par-ents, who did pizza runs with alarming regularity, none of this would have been possible. The alliance of three robots won the world championship, but it took the efforts of an entire villageat Crescent, Rick Hansen SS and in Tex-asfor us to be able to raise the ma-jestic trophies that represented our joint triumph at FIRST Robotics.

This has been an historic week at Cres-cent. We are joint world champions and weve never experienced anything like it before. This has been a huge achieve-ment for our boys and their support team. They deserve our hearty congrat-ulations.

I cant think of a better way to honour our centennial year.

Geoff Roberts, Headmaster

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3Men of Character from Boys of Promise

2013 GARAGE SALEITS A WRAPTo all our wonderful Garage Sale Volunteers, we sincerely THANK YOU!

CPA NEWS

The Margaret Donnelly Library (MDL) of the Lower School is just over 18 months old, and is best described as a cheery, light filled multifunctional space. It is also where a handful of parents volunteer their time to help Ms. Ford, the LS teacher-librarian, keep the place well organized.

Every morning after drop-off, a parent volunteer can be found shelving books, emptying the book bin, checking in books, preparing book displays or even taking down the Chinese New Year decorations to make room for the Valentines Day stream-ers. On behalf of the CPA, I would like to thank each and every one of the 10 volunteers.

One of the benefits of volunteering in the library is that you get to peruse the new books coming in. The CPAs Birthday Book Program helps to stock the shelves of both the MDL and the MS/US Library.

This year, so far, just over 230 books have been purchased through the Program. New this year, parents can direct their donations towards the Overdrive electronic book collection

that is ever growing in popularityanything to get our boys reading! A list of the newest birthday book titles acquired can be found under the Library/CPA link in the Green Room. Happy reading!

Domenica GanguliCPA Birthday Book and Library Volunteer Coordinator

There was rain! There was snow! And there were line-ups! Thank you to everyone who came out to support this event. It would not have happened without everyone working together including over 200 parent, student and staff volunteers which trans-lated into thousands of vol-unteer hours.

On April 20, customers were lining up at 6 a.m, even though it was a snowy morning. We saw familiar faces return, ready to shop. At 7 a.m. smiling Crescent volunteers arrived in the Field House ready to make this event a huge success.

The Garage Sale is a wonderful way for the CPA to give back to the community, offering high quality gently-used items to our shoppers. Outstanding selections and unbelievable prices are the reason why guests come back year-over-year. Our par-ent volunteers friendly smiles and helpful attitudes are sup-ported by student volunteers who ably help our guests carry

purchases to their cars. This is the type of excellent ser-vice our guests have come to expect. All these things together make our annual Garage Sale well known in the community.

The Garage Sale generated over $32,000 this year with the net proceeds going to help the CPA fulfill this

years pledge to the Great Boys campaign.

The whole event was a pleasure to work on, and a great oppor-tunity for us to be involved in a CPA community activity. We hope next spring even more parents will join the fun, when the excitement starts all over again!

THANK YOU TO OUR 2013 VOLUNTEERS!

Ivy Chan, CPA Garage Sale Convenor Karen Tang, CPA Garage Sale Co-Convenor

BOOKS, BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS!


From the Middle School

From the Lower School

SCHOOL MESSAGES

What you do is more powerful than what you say. That being said we live in times where talking a good game has at times garnered more celebration than it perhaps should. The celebrity who becomes the face of a charity is far better known than the workers grafting each day for the same charity. A 10 minute Oprah interview is more powerful than 10 years of service.

We are really blessed to see moments of character each day here at Crescent and in the Middle School we are particularly

blessed to see those awkward but as a result, highly authen-tic first attempts towards character decisions. Young men who arent quite young men making somewhat unvarnished deci-sions to do the right thing. It is powerful to watch and especial-ly powerful when you know they made the decision for purely unselfish reasonsfor no gain.

Last week Mr. Suckling received news that an organization he had worked with in Kenya, whilst on a Crescent International Outreach trip, had flooded causing massive damage. He, be-

On April 24 at 10:30 a.m. the Lower School, Middle School, our Youth to Youth partner schools, and about 300 guests, eagerly awaited the arrival of our Centennial Series special guest speaker, Dr. Jane Goodall. When she arrived at the doorway of the Lower Gym, escorted by Geoff Roberts, the entire audience rose to its feet and began to applaud. There she is! It is her! She is really here!

In todays culture, social media can make anyone an overnight sensation, and anyone can have his/her 15 minutes of fame. However, from the second we saw Dr. Goodall, we knew we were in the presence of someone who is really famous, and famous for all the right reasons.

Elegant, gracious and graceful, Dr. Goodall sat and waited as a poised Edward Morneau (6C) introduced her to the crowd. When she came to the podium to speak, the audience fell si-lent.

The best speeches are stories, and as Dr. Goodall shared her stories with us, we began to understand the depth of her pas-sion for animals, for nature and for learning. We learned that as a young girl, she wanted to know where hens eggs came from, which prompted her to hide out in the hen house for hours to observe them, (without telling her parents where she was). We learned how she loved to read Tarzan of the Apes in her tree house and how she worked for months to get enough money to travel to Africa as a young girl of 23.

What stood out for me, was the clarity and intention of her message. Dr. Goodall wanted to make it clear to us that ani-mals, feel pain, pride, fear, hope, happiness and especially, love. It should be humbling to more of us that, with their genetic similarity to humans, chimpanzees are capable of learning more that 400 signs, have individual calls, and care for their

family members throughout their lives.

I think it was Dr. Goodalls qui-et and simple voice that made her message all the more com-pelling. She did not shout at us to start treating the oceans, the rain forests and animals with more respect. She did not wave her hands in the air to compel us to donate to specific causes or to change our ways to be more respectful of our planet. She simply stated the facts. Based upon scientific re-search we know that genetically, chimpanzees are eerily similar to humans. Humans, however, are able to learn exponentially, which should make us better caretakers of this planet. Looking around us today, it does not appear that we humans are living up to our potential.

Perhaps Dr. Goodalls best gift to us was that she inspired us to care. She told us that we have the capacity to make a dif-ference. She stated that we could clean up the streams in our own backyards, and we can. I was one of the people that day, who was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet Dr. Good-all in person. As I shook her hand, I dont think I was able to convey to her how significant that moment was for me.

Upon reflection, perhaps the best way to honour Dr. Goodall, is to follow her lead, and do more to care for the animals on this planet and for the planet itself. Her Roots and Shoots program is one of many ways that we can make a difference, and I know that Crescent School is exploring how best to be involved in that initiative. The Lower School has committed one Casual Dress Day each year to be chimpanzee guard-ians. It is a start. It is a beginning.

Dr. Boyes, Head of Lower School

family members throughout

I think it was Dr. Goodalls qui-


From the Upper School

This year, a group of Grade 11 students from the Introduc-tion to Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology course, along with Mr. Fellin and Dr. Leatch, have been engaged in Crescents first ever student-led research project. The topic? What students felt was the most pressing and perhaps misun-derstood issue affecting Crescents school culturechirping.

Using data collected last year from the PrevNET bullying sur-vey with a combination of focus groups and personal inter-views, the group slowly whittled away at a massive mountain of data until it came to a number of conclusions:

Chirping is banter, usually between friends within a friend group, but can transverse friend groups at times. It aims to take away power from the chirpee, give power to the chirper, or to make observers laugh. Chirping is considered bullying once it becomes too one sided or makes the chirp-ee feel attacked or surrounded. There is an invisible line between chirping and bullying. Hopefully this line, which is currently extremely vague and subjective, will be the sub-ject of further research through the 2013/2014 school year.

On the weekend of April 20/21, the group (Dr. Leatch, Mr. Fellin, Hytham Farah, Jacob Green, Robert Halperin, Eric No-ble Marks, Ben Pitfield and Ryan Walderman) presented at a University of Pennsylvania conference with schools that have conducted similar youth participatory action research proj-ects. The group met many interesting, like-minded students and faculty, who offered insight and inspiration into probing what is at the heart of every schoolstudent culture. While

there, the group was able to connect with a 2012 alumnus and current UPenn pre-med student, Leonard Chiu (pictured in red), who gave us a tour of the university campus.

The research group is now planning several presentations in-cluding to the Upper School at assembly, and to the faculty and administration. In these presentations, the audience will be presented with a full report of the research methodology, results, and recommendations aimed at school improvement. Moreover, the group intends to formally publish its findings and serve as mentors to new generations of student researchers and to be drivers of school reform.

Ben Pitfield, Grade 11 and Mr. Fellin, Assistant Head of Upper School

ing the man he is, decided with Upper School teacher Stuart Cumner, in his own small way they wanted to do something to help. However, for reasons best known to them, he (they) along with the Mr. Pestonji decided to help by organizing a car wash. No one organizes car washes in Scotland the rain keeps your car cleanbut even I know that a car wash takes time to organize and needs lots of people and, wellcars, to make it a success. You need to build up a little momentum, a little advertising, not just plan it for a rapidly approaching weekend.

But there we were, in need of support to allow the event to be a success. I need to be clearthere was no need for our boys to get involved. This had nothing to do with their lives, they had no connection with the school in Kenya, and they live busy lives. However, without any real adult guidance, other than morning announcements about the upcoming car wash, our boys began to step up.

It started with the A Team [Assembly Team] inviting Mr. Suck-ling to speak at an assembly. They had a packed agenda but

they thought it was important. From that speech we had boys and faculty make posters for the car wash during their recess time in the Art studio. That led to boys beginning to sign up to helpon a Saturday morning. Many others committed to bring their parents cars by the School to get them washed.

So for three hours last Saturday, Middle School boys came to the School and washed cars, stood on Bayview attracting cars, brought cars and generally pitched in to make the event a mas-sive success. Mr. Suckling has sent a cheque for $1,300 to the Mully Childrens Family in Kenya where it will help with a mas-sive reconstruction following a devastating flood.

That is character. There was no personal gain for our boys. No House Points. No Pizza Lunch. No public recognition. They, in many different ways, helped through their actions.

Of course we are proud of Mr. Suckling but we are especially proud of our boys.

Mr. Young, Head of Middle School


CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION NEWS

On February 20, Crescent School hosted our Centennial Hockey Day. The day was full of hockey, and more im-portantly school spirit and a strong sense of community.

The day kicked off with the U12 hockey team playing Country Day School. With the entire Lower School packing the stands at York Mills Arena, the teamably coached by Mr. Bell, Mr. Cranston and Mr. Dubrickbeat Country Day School by a score of 5-3.

Following that game, the U14 hockey teamcoached by Mr. Dion and Mr. Ferronitook on a fierce rival in SAC at North Toronto Arena. After player introductions, followed by our national anthem and a ceremonial faceoff conducted by our Head of Middle School, Mr. David Young, the game began.

At the end of two periods of spirited and emotional hockey, the score was 3-3. SAC came out flying in the third period and was able to take the victory with a final score of 6-3. All of the Middle School students, staff and parents in the stands were fully entertained.

It was then time for the Junior squad to play St. Georges (RSGC). Earlier in the year, our team had fallen to RSGC by a score of 2-1, so with the entire Upper School in attendance,

it was time for some payback. RSGC jumped out early to a 2-1 lead and by the end of the second period the boys knew they had some work to do. Coaches Fellin, Mason and Costanzo gave an inspirational talk between the second and third period and our boys came out with some kick in their stride. Scoring four unanswered goals in the third period, spurred on by their captain Jack Hutton, the team finished on top with a 5-2 win. With the Chicago stadium horn getting a workout with ev-ery Crescent goal, it was a special sports moment for all those players, parents and fans alike.

In the evening, North Toronto Arena was the venue for an alumni game featuring grads from as far back as 1984 and as recent as 2012. Team Haag defeated Team Davies by a wide margin. Mr. Davies was heard commenting that he thought the teams had been rigged! Following that game, the Alumni team played the Varsity hockey team, and showed the current stu-dents that the alumni can still skate and play the game. With stellar goaltending by Max Greenwood (2003), the Alumni team defeated the Varsity hockey team.

The Centennial Hockey Day was a huge success and has cre-ated momentum to have an annual Crescent Hockey Day in the years, decades and hopefully centuries to come.


ADVANCEMENT NEWS

The Alumni Internship Program is a key opportunity of-fered to our young alumni. While the program typically focuses on alumni currently in university, our past Head Boy, Graham Rotenberg 12, was fortunate enough to utilize the Alumni Internship Program after graduation from Crescent. Upon receiving his acceptance to Brown University, Graham took a gap year and spent part of the year working at the Cana-dian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC), a position he obtained through the Alumni Internship Program. We spoke with Graham about his experience.

Tell us how you obtained your position at the Canadian Jew-ish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC).At the end of my final year at Crescent, I received a letter from Brown University in Rhode Island stating that I had been ac-cepted for the 2013 academic year, and that I could embark on a gap year if I wishedthat is what I proceeded to do.

I knew I wanted to devote a portion of my gap year to work-ing in the political arena. I began applying for positions and also contacted you regarding the Alumni Internship Program, and asked about any openings that might exist. She put me in touch with Jay Mansoor 92, Chair of the Alumni Internship Program, who connected me with CJPACthe rest is history.

Tell us about what a day working at CJPAC was like.At CJPAC, my tasks were usually divided between two areas. First, I was responsible for clerical duties, including stuffing envelopes, making name tags, etc.

Secondly, I was responsible for assisting with CJPACs man-date to activate the Canadian Jewish, pro-Israel community in the political sphere. One of the ways I did this was by writing a blog about experiences I had at CJPAC and my opinions on certain issues.

What was your best experience at CJPAC?Without a doubt, my best experience was attending the CJPAC Fellowship Conference in Ottawa. I was exposed to student activists who were deeply involved in the political process. I was also able to hear phenomenal speakers discuss important issues of the day. To say that this conference was mind-expand-ing would be an understatement!

Do you believe your experience has left you in an even better position to attend Brown University in September? The experience benefitted me positively, for two reasons.

CJPAC enhanced my writing skills. I was forced to write some-thing that would be read by the general public, and in doing so, I was able to hone and really improve my writing skills. This will be extremely beneficial, as I intend on taking courses that predominantly involve writing.

I also learned an exceptional amount about the defining issues of our time. I was exposed to a huge amount of information relating to the Israel/Palestine conflict, what the Jewish com-munity faces on a day-to-day basis, and Canadian politics.

Tell us a little about what you have been up to since your time at CJPAC.Since finishing my internship, I have travelled to Ireland to play rugby for the U21 NUIG (National University of Ireland, Galway) Corinthians.

Would you recommend the Alumni Internship Program? Absolutely! It provided me with the opportunity to learn a great deal about a topic I am passionate about, and experience what it is like to pursue a career in that field. This internship provided me with important, real-world job experience in my field of study prior to going university. Thank you!

Kathryn Rutherford, Alumni Relations Officer

Crescent School | 2365 Bayview Ave. Toronto, ON M2L 1A2 | 416.449.2556 | www.crescentschool.org

The Middle School Jazz Band has been very busy lately, working nonstop on a massive repertoire of songs. This band is mostly consisted of Grade 8s, with one Grade 7 joining the crew. They have worked long and hard over the last year preparing for a colossal music festivalthe Kiwanis Festival.

They have to meet every Tuesday at lunch, which is a very large commitment. But since this is only once a week, they have had to take a lot of free time to keep up with the songs.

The band participated in the Kiwanis festival on February 18. With a large competition of a number of Grade 9-12 bands, the Jazz Band had to overcome a massive feat to even place.

The band ended up finishing in first place with an outstand-ing score of 94/100, despite the fact that the band is much younger than any of their opponents. With this, they received a gold award, which is a prestigious award in this festival. In fact, the band did so well, that the adjudicators at the festival gave Crescents band the huge honour of representing Toron-to in the provincial finals. This would make this band the best in Toronto from the music festival!

The Jazz Band will travel to a Canterbury recording studio on Saturday to record a CD and submit the songs, Here Comes Big

Un and Lean on Me to the Kiwanis Festival provincial champion-ships, and to perform live for a festival official.

This 10 hour recording session will be a very rare opportu-nity for students to see how a studio works and hear how they sound to an audience. On top of that, the Jazz Band prepared a large number of songs for yesterdays spring concert, such as I Cant Get No and Forget You. Also featured was the amazing vocal talent of Grade 8 student Sam Charlton, singing 25 or 6 to 4 with an accompaniment of two saxophone soloists.

The band has had huge success this year and hopes to have even more. A special thanks goes out to conductor Mr. Volpe.

Eric Cislak and Matt Kasperavicius, Grade 8

great picture!

Come out and see these gangsters perform in Guys and Dolls Jr this weekend (Saturday 7:30 p.m./Sunday 2 p.m.) at St. Mi-chaels College School Centre for the Arts. Tickets can be purchased at www.torontomusictheatre.com. Take the family to see this classic musical! Pictured are Neal Ganguli (Grade 9) who plays Nicely-Nicely Johnson, John Conlin (Grade 10) who plays the role of Nathan Detroit, Grade 6 teacher Mr. Cranstons daughter Taylor (Grade 8 at Bogart Public School) who plays Officer Branigan, and Daniel Goldman (Grade 7) in the role of Harry the Horse.

KIWANIS FESTIVAL

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