Latest / Upper Canada College Admission Community Conversation / UCC Admission Community Conversations | Episode 1 - Why All Boys

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UCC Admission Community Conversations | Episode 1 - Why All Boys · Upper Canada College Admission Community Conversation

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, everyone.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being here today.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this is our first ever episode of Community Conversation Podcast Series, where we're going to talk about different aspects at UCC and help you learn a little bit more about what Upper Canada College offers.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And we're very excited today because for this first episode, we'll be focusing on why all boys, which is easily the number one questions that a lot of our prospective families wonder about.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: What is the benefit of being in an all-boys school?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are actually potentially some drawbacks?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And how is UCC experience different compared to other schools out there as well?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we're super excited to have a lot of awesome guests on here.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to let them introduce themselves.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, Anna, do you want to go first?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure, I can.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Anna Crawford, and I am a senior kindergarten teacher at UCC.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is my eighth year teaching SK.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, I'm coming from the bottom end of the spectrum with the youngest learners.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And Anthony.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: I teach in the upper school and I teach MYP, grade eight, nine, and 10 physical education, as well as the in the diploma program, grade 11 and 12 sports exercise in health science.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm also one of the upper school well-being coordinators where we do a lot of work uh for our boys in the space of health and well-being.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: And Charlie?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, thanks, Miss Mew.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Charlie.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the head steward of the school.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: I've been here since year seven.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I play on various sports teams, football, baseball.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: I love the arts at UCC.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the singer for the senior jazz band.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'm excited to talk about everything that goes on here.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And of course I would forget to introduce myself.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I am Melody.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the VP of enrollment management here at UCC.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I look after all things admissions, and I'm sure whoever's listening, I'll be in touch with you quite often throughout the admission cycle.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get into it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one question that I often ask is get asked is why all boys.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to seek your expertise on how does an all boys environment really give students the opportunity to explore interest from like arts to athletics to academics and whoever feels like um you want to take a get started.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I can kick it off from the early years and then maybe build the trajectory going up because I think it's very could be different in different spaces, but still kind of speaking maybe to um similar benefits, but with a different lens.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in kindergarten, I find um an all-boys environment um really gives permission for boys to play in all kinds of ways.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it gives also educators an opportunity to sort of disrupt um any expectations that they might be learning in different spaces for like what's appropriate for boys or not, and what boys might typically identify with or not.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives us a chance to disrupt that by just offering um all kinds of play.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so in the kindergarten space, we're thinking play, but it also then can feed into different areas of learning as well.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, in any learning environment, children are constantly looking to others to kind of confirm like, is this for me?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Am I doing the right thing for me?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who is this for?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is it for me?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and especially in kindergarten, um, I mean all along, but identity formation is really happening.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a stage of life where they're also really thinking um in that sense of like, this is me, this is not me.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's that stage where it's like things are baby, so that's not me.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but this is for me because I'm a big kid.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all that style of thinking, like what is for me and what is not for me.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so some studies have found in co-ed spaces when um there's an area like the home center, for instance, where there's like a lot of house play and doll play.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that can be a space that girls identify with and move to and fill in a co-ed space, but that kind of silently can create those um kind of gender norms of like, oh, and maybe that's not my space.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I should come over to this space.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so in an all-boys environment, we're able to give the message like if it's here, it is for you.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so if we're offering it, it's a space that you know you have access to and it's for you if you're interested.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're really able to kind of help um disrupt some of those expectation forming um things in in play.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, cool.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Anthony, are you seeing that in the upper school?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think there's a lot of similarities.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, context specificity changes a bit, but uh one of the things I think we do really well here in the upper school is we kind of let our boys choose their opportunities as to where they want to go.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: And in many ways, this helps to kind of break down some of those social expectations about what should a teenage boy do.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one of the things that we really encourage is them to explore kind of the different identities that they might have as a teenager.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, like Charlie alluded to, he both plays a number of sports here at the school, but he's also a part of the jazz uh band where he does some of the singing and the vocal work.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: And these are things that we're always encouraging the boys to explore.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like I like the analogy of like the different rooms in a house.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: They all have a use for some sort of activity.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's really what we're trying to get them to do is to start to see that like the development of the self actually requires you to explore the different areas of your development, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not just like this unilateral focused, you know, I'm just an athlete.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: We really expose them not only through curricular exposure, but also through co-curricular exposure and really encourage them through the ID program as well to be a multifaceted student, right?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: And whether you're a student athlete or a student performer, um, it's just things that we really want you to develop from a very much a holistic standpoint.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what this kind of offers them is this opportunity to kind of see that there is no one size fits all approach to being a boy in 2026, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of different things that you can do.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and by doing so, you open up the doors for beyond UCC.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really something that, you know, we're very much so invested in.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just trying to produce one singular type of boy, but rather like a whole expansive set um of character traits and kind of perspectives that boys really allow themselves to lean into and then obviously develop to uh as they go through kind of their young adulthood and then into their professional careers.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like a lot of this work is happening unofficially, kind of in you know, conversations through play, through advising program, perhaps.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is are there any examples that you can share with us where you you've seen it happen, like through like either a curriculum intentional design or just a conversation in the hallway?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Charlie, go for it.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to step in here.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: I would say when I came to UCC, I couldn't believe I still don't know how many different things there are available for students here to do.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I still don't know all of them.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that's through clubs and ensembles and athletics.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was pushed out of uh my shell in grade 10 to go from cross country and try playing football for the first time, the same way in grade seven, um, from having been someone that um has just played the piano and done and sang um to learn the clarinet and then the saxophone and then a different type of saxophone and then become a solo singer for a jazz band.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and all avenues of things that a student shows some interest in.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Teachers do a great job by realizing that and then giving opportunity to explore that further.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: And there's so many different ways that looks, and no two students' experience is the same at UCC.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it's exactly because of that.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's because the student experience is tailored to the interest of a student, and they're given the opportunity to explore those things, which at first glance for the student, maybe that's not a part of um like Miss Crawford was talking about the young guys, of yeah, that's me.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: But once they try it, they realize, yeah, that is me, and then they they love it.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious, Charlie, from from your experience as a student, how are you seeing peer-to-peer interaction in terms of you know the stereotype that Ms.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Crawford and Mr.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: DeGiorgio was saying?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how how do you guys can manage that?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you see a whole spectrum of of expression and what being a boy means?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: I have I have a great story actually for this.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_03: One of my friends, um, he's a big time athlete and he's a steward as well.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: And he tried out, well, he auditioned for a play and he got one of the lead rules, and it was a play at BSS.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was a co-curricular play.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: And it was his first experience of ever doing anything this kind of theater-related.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it wasn't exactly what you would think his profile is, but our entire friend group, at least 50 of us, showed up um to the opening night of his play.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: And we all supported him.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we were over at BSS, 7 p.m.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: play, and we gave him an ovation the next day when he came into class.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone was super supportive of him trying out and doing a play, and everybody really rallied behind it.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: And that's that stands true for the whole community, whether it be for plays or a quirky interest, um, those are celebrated here.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that, and and Charlie, you mentioned um a play with BSS, which is an all-girls school next door to us.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think this segues into um, you know, a later question that I'm gonna bring up now.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of parents are worried that going to an all-boys school is not gonna prepare their sons for a coet world.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so how do you think how would you say a UCC all-boys experience prepares students to be respectful and collaborate, collaborative leaders in a coet world?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can chime in.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, we build those connections uh with BSS from the beginning.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm actually working on trying to expand it a little more so that it's a full early years JK through grade one connection across those three years that builds.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for now we have been partnering with BSS and SK every year.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so they have a partner.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I feel like even though, of course, it's an all-boys school, that doesn't mean that there's no contact with any girls, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They have these collaborative learning experiences as well still.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we have done like work with the SKs where we think ahead and they kind of make predictions about what is BSS going to look like, what's it gonna be like, what kind of things are they gonna have there?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: What are the girls gonna be like?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we go and we observe and we come back and we think about okay, what did we see?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: What did we experience?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we often do a Venn diagram of like differences and similarities.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the outcome is always um, you know, we have so many similarities to them.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're always really impressed by the girls' ability to climb trees.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um it like subverts their expectations a little bit of what it's gonna be like.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the, you know, the girls are climbing up the trees way ahead of them, and they're like, how do how are they doing that?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um so anyway, they the boys are always actually blown away by um by the girls there and and really enamored by them.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's awesome.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we we build these relationships together.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, at least over SK, and now hopefully we'll do a JK to one partnership.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, awesome.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's lovely that they're already getting that experience when they're that young.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Anthony, what are you seeing in the upper school?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think in the upper school, one of the big things that we really do is try to get like BSS is our, you know, the school down the road, um, but we really try to bridge out to some of the other single-sex schools uh here in Ontario, more so the GTA, but uh a lot of different kind of co-curricular community engagement events.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: We have a relay for life, which is usually run by, I believe it's Havergale and us that do all the um organization of it.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: We have some school dances, we have uh not necessarily just um like dances, but like other engagements.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in the past, we've had skating at the arena during the holiday season.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: We've had activities where our kids have gone down to brank some.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: They're just trying to integrate them, obviously, in both single-sex environments, allowing them to overlap, intersect, you know, learn together, play together.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, those are kind of like the larger community parts to this.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think the other side of this is we, you know, we do a lot of emphasis here at the upper school with putting um our boys in positions of leadership, both titled and untitled leadership positions that allow them to interact with the younger students, which I think, you know, while it's not co-ed, it does teach them some of the skills that they need to have where they're learning how to deal with, you know, people who have different needs than them, um, allow them to really think about like what does it mean to be a leader and how do we, you know, demonstrate peer leadership amongst our peers, particularly younger and older ones.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And these are skills that while you know they do exist in a single sex school, I think they have direct translation into a co-ed school.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: And these are always things that we're thinking about because it's much bigger than just you know, here at UCC.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're trying to expose them to things that are going to be important for them in the real world and have like real world translation.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, trying to do as much as we can from a uh co-curricular, but also even curricular standpoint.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like in sports science, for instance, uh one of the things that we talk quite a bit about is hormones and just learning about like, you know, the other side of the female hormonal system, which is very different than boys, but it's giving them exposure to so they can understand things on a deeper level.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's something that I think helps to kind of bridge some of those barriers as well, for sure.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that actually reminded me too.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: I remember walking past Late Law Hall and an assembly, and all the boys were there learning about period poverty.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so impressed by this because this is actually something that you guys will never have to experience, but learning about it is so important to build that empathy.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: And Anna, do you have something to add?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's also exactly what it reminded me of.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I maybe some of you like Anthony or Charlie remember more details about it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: But there was a student who ran a drive.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like one of the students at the upper school ran a like feminine product or helped run a feminine product drive.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that I think really speaks to obviously like leadership, but you know, thinking obviously outside of our single sex um system, right?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: There it's a student already thinking of um supporting all kinds of people, right?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was really impressed by that, by that trap.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: And Charlie, being a 12th grader, about to go into the real world, you know, quote unquote.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: How prepared do you feel?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I can absolutely see how it could be a problem being in an all-boys school and then just seeing boys the whole time.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: But UCC does a great job uh preparing us for the real world.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um personally, I can say that I have a lot of friends at both BSS and Branksum.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the original connection was made through school events, uh a couple of sports events during the days, during the daytime, a couple of dances in the evening, um, where you make the original connection, and then uh the schools are super connected, yes, on the level uh of like socializing, but also on the like working um and seeing girls as people that we can collaborate with, and that's to Mr.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: DeGiorgio's point planning the World Affairs Conference, which is a huge conference with lots of super important speakers that come in, and it takes an enormous amount of planning.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's 100% student-led, and we do that with Branksum.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and that team meets uh weekly with Branksum, both there and here in person.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of the various opportunities where I've been able to grow as someone that can work collaboratively collaboratively with girls, um, even though I go to an all-boys school.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Great, awesome.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I have and one more little tidbit, I think just as like a general statement on this topic is like of you know, the single sex school experience and how it can apply.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a big focus, at least in the early years, but I know beyond as well, um, is just teaching skills of you know, seeing the other person.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk a lot about like interpersonal curiosity, we explicitly teach that as a skill, um, perspective taking, empathy, uh, listening, and like open-mindedness as one of the learner profile traits, right?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And all of those traits, if you're, you know, teaching these boys to, you know, respect each other and be interested in learning more about each other and their differences and accepting a broad definition of masculinity and all the differences that come along there, you really are just raising boys who um see every person as an individual, and I think could um bring that into any group.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like those skills work in any setting.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's a really great kind of insight there as well, because a lot of families worry.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you go into an all-boy school, is there gonna be bullying?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is there gonna be like the hyper awareness of what masculinity means and in the most traditional stereotypical sense?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do we here kind of help boys develop emotional awareness, empathy, confidence to even ask for support, be able to fail?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: How are you guys seeing that play out in UCC?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I can see it, especially in the opera school.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the topic of masculinity and this culture of what you might think, worst case scenario, nightmare, dream situation of what an all-boys' school looks like.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's talked about a lot.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: We have professionals, experts, guest speakers, researchers that come in and speak to the whole community, speak to smaller groups.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_03: There are teachers at the school that specialize in this topic and address us.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, a lot of the times we'll have like one of the football coaches, for instance, who's someone that is super intense and everyone looks up to, we'll go up in an assembly and have a super vulnerable conversation about uh masculinity and their lives and the power of women and how important they've been to these figures that all the students look up to.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um and UCC is extremely supportive within the student body.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: The story I shared about going to my friend's play um that's just one little antidote of all the times when we're supporting one another and everybody can find their really close friend group who they have an awesome time with.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that's really what I've seen.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen people having an awesome time being able to be themselves at UCC with all their interests and quirks being celebrated.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Charlie.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh oh, Anthony, go for it.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was just gonna say, just to pick up kind of on what Charlie said.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, we we have convened some kind of experts in the field who have been speaking to uh our school community as a whole, so not just at the upper school, but you know, for all the way from our youngest learners uh through to our upper school students, through to the teachers, through to our uh families.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that our our last Casey fellow, Dr.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Brendan Hartman, had spoken about was this idea of expansive masculinity.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that was one of the most important messages that you know many of the boys here at the school have heard.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I would even argue some of the teachers as well, the families, um, in that as we kind of already alluded to, there is no one size fits all approach.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: But to the point of like the emotional awareness, one of the things that I think for a lot of boys undergoing kind of their transition from teen their child, their childhood through their teenage years is this like cultivation of self-awareness.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just speaking to my year 11s about this idea of self-awareness and how important it is for athletes in sport to really become more self-aware of them of what of who they perceive themselves to be, what their identity is, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and that anything that does come up is not it's it's not a weakness, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: So having this vocabulary, right?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: This idea of expansive masculinity, what does that mean?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right, it's someone who's able to tune into their emotions, but also to ask for help when they need it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not a weakness, that's a superpower, right?
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Having more idea that, you know, boys can do things that maybe don't fit inside this, like, you know, more the archetype that's been kind of displayed in the media or traditionally, but it can fit outside of that as well.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that was something that was, I think, really salient that he brought to kind of our school community.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of our, you know, our board of stewards, our arts captains got to talk about it, um, just kind of sharing different ways that these types of things play out in the school.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I think like having um a common vocal.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: vocabulary that we all share allows everybody to engage in the conversation and kind of starts to show people that it's not just this one thing that we talk about here at the school, like Charlie was alluding to, but rather this very vast, you know, different perspectives being taken on on the different on the same topics.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that helps our boys develop holistically and really into like, you know, these well-rounded students that we really want them to be.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I I one thing that I love about UCC is truly the ability to bring in and really the dedication and intentionality behind bringing in all these experts.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: I remember one year we had a whole school book club and it's really on learning about how friendships are actually very important for boys.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas traditionally they would think that it's more important for girls and how do we actually help the community foster that for the students.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's really lovely.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: And Anna?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what Charlie was saying about um like vulnerability and watching you know some of the educators in the school share vulnerability, I feel like that is really key for me.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's plays out at the prep as well.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think just really we work on teaching our students that like vulnerability is strength.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And right and dismantling sort of the possible myth that strength is actually like you know hiding your vulnerabilities and pushing through but that vulnerability is a form of strength.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah having like role models is really powerful for that.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hartman when he he came in he actually spoke to the SKs and the grade ones and you know asked oh who's ever felt afraid and Dr.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hartman himself raised his hand in the air right to say me and here's when right because like these young boys receive messages very early about which emotions are acceptable to show and which ones they might feel pressured to hide because you hear kids saying like I didn't even cry right or I wasn't even scared.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: And right they're trying to it's like already they're communicating that that need to feel strong right.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: So helping them tease the part that actually strength can be being vulnerable.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when we don't necessarily have um like role models right in the we do have role models in the school but when we want to add to them in the moment um the blue jays for example in the prep we used uh the blue jays in the World Series and Ernie comment and you know shots of him crying and talking about how much he loves his team and but the vulnerability that the blue jays show really captured the hearts of the city.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: But kind of taking advantage of some of those moments too to show examples to our students of men who show their strength through vulnerability I think is um one of the ways we really lean into um teaching that like emotional awareness and that that confidence to to show those those emotions that you're having and which leads to seeking support and help and all of those things.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: And vulnerable being able to be vulnerable I think really stems from a place where you feel safe and there's trust in it.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: So how do we actually create a community at UCC that where boys can come in and immediately feel the safe like the safety and the confidence and the courage to be vulnerable Charlie I'll put it on you as a student from that from your perspective.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah I mean of course it takes some time to settle into a community find your footing and then be able to once you kind of find your footing leap up and have the confidence um to show who you really are and to be vulnerable and to express yourself to have emotions and um I've absolutely seen coming in year seven um it wasn't long until I was expressing to my teacher and to my classmates how excited I was uh to be joining the the choir and to have the opportunity because I hadn't been in choir for a year to get back into it and how excited I was to sing again.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: And the teacher immediately turned to me and said Charlie that's so awesome I'm so excited that you're ready to get back into choir.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's brought out by teachers and then in the upper school we talk about brotherhood a lot and about having each other's backs and supporting one another because time management and trying to do all these different things can be extremely difficult at UCC and we learn a lot from the challenge but we also need the support of our friends and teachers and the Center for Learning and it's through that support that we're able to have the opportunity to express ourselves and to find those things which we're really connected to which aren't top on the priority list of things that we need to get done to get a good grade or to get into university or to do well on our team but are on the top of our list for things for me to be a happy person.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right and me being students in general.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's great.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: I would just add to that I think one of the strongest features of UCC as a whole in terms of like you know the safety and confidence and and feeling welcome is our support systems that we have in place here.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they're you know the formal support systems we have such as you know when you come to the upper school you're immediately paired up with a a foot with an advisor right whether you're coming in for the prep up to year eight uh or you're coming in as a new boy like you're immediately paired up with an advisor which means you have a group of 18 to 20 students who you are going to basically spend the next five years if you come in grade eight or four if you come in year nine kind of moving through your experience here at UCC with um so that's like a direct connection point that gives you like an immediate sense of belonging and community.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: But then other things uh for example such as our house systems so you belong to a house and that's you know layering out then to now about a hundred students in a smaller community but then within that we have peer mentorship that usually happens in year 11 and year eight um opportunities for students to have leadership roles within this so we have sort of the younger students and the older students making connections.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then obviously like having different things as we already alluded to in terms of clubs.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: We have I don't know how many clubs at UCC easily over a hundred um potentially upwards of probably I'd say 75 in like this fall term.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then in the winter term we have more so there's so many we are we actually have to say like enough's enough because there's too many things on offering.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you know there's somewhere where every boy can feel connected to there's so many opportunities to play sports and to do activities and to join a um like one of these clubs.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: So there's never a place here where you're not going to feel like you can find your fit uh and that's something that I think is is a selling feature of the school community as a whole.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Anna do you have anything to add on this one?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I my brain's in a couple different places because I feel like there's the angle of um like belonging to the whole community but also like what we do in the classroom um and like through curriculum to make students feel safe and confident I think I'll start I'll focus on curriculum for now but um there's like I in I guess through our pluralism um focus as well there's so much in the early years and just primary like learning about accepting others.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of goes back to what we were talking about before, but building that safety, that feeling of safety um that you asked about I think in the prep it comes from our celebration of identity our very first unit in JKNSK is a focus on identity and we explore how everyone has unique traits and strengths that they're bringing to the community and that we have something to that we can learn from each other.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And like I think we work hard through those units right in the classroom through the curriculum to help every student feel that they have something to contribute.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that you know also that they have something they can gain from their peers.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that mindset and all that teaching early on builds that culture of safety that leads them to be able to feel that sense of belonging and then which in turn leads them to being able to be vulnerable and all of those you know wonderful things we talked about that that basis of really just understanding and valuing diversity that creates that safe space.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think just to add to that like this idea of the connected curriculum like that's exactly what Anna's alluding to it's like we do a lot of the work in the classroom it's in our lesson plans and it's in our unit plans but at the same time there's a direct through line between the things that we're doing outside of the classroom.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: So they're being reinforced mutually on both ends and that type of kind of approach to doing education is really about meaning making right so we're trying to always have this like interconnected learning that does not learning just happens when you're in a classroom but who you are and how you develop and what you learn that happens when you're on the sports field in the band room, right?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: When you're outside with your friends at lunchtime like all of this is part of the UCC experience and that type of community and connection I think is probably the most powerful kind of feature of this community and it's definitely uh reflected in kind of our alumni network and how many people feel such an affinity for the college right not because they you know excelled in school or were the best football player but rather just the connections to the peers that they had here and to the people that were here and to the and all the other things that come with being a UCC alumnus.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm definitely and I you know I know that this will come soon actually but um in the Harvard kind of flourishing study and we surveyed um all of our students in terms of having them you know answer questions to find out what their key strengths are and as a community love and gratitude actually came up first top two for our boys and which is so amazing to see um and it's really making the point here that it's not the like when people think about all boys it it's really not what you think about or the stereotypical and archetype of what masculinity is and I think that love and gratitude for the connection that all of you mentioned and that community is so important.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: This question I'm just gonna target it to Charlie because Charlie I know when you're running for head steward you gave a wonderful beautiful speech about brotherhood.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: What makes UCC Brotherhood so special in your opinion yeah the UCC Brotherhood it unites 800 plus people in the upper school and the prep school about even though everyone has their own interests and some people are more so um are spending more time on the field others might be spending more time in the classrooms or in the in the music room or in the theater everybody's united by UCC and in being students at UCC we're automatically if we see each other if you see someone else in UCC uniform in the street and you have no idea who they are you're going to say hi.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: If you see somebody that's sitting down by themselves eating lunch they're from UCC and you're gonna go you're gonna stop by because they're another student at your school and you share the brotherhood of being UCC students and everybody is looking after one another.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: No one is left out from the community we often sing it in assembly the song Never Walk Alone and that resonates extremely strongly with all UCC students we'll sing it impromptu um at an away game when a full crowd of students shows up to be a student section at St.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_03: Andrew's Dry Crescent.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_03: And that's something that all UC students believe and that's why the UCC Brotherhood is so special because we're all here looking after one another and then building lasting friendships and working together.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect I love that thank you all right to close off I'd like to ask two lightning round questions and so they're meant to be short.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: In one sentence what does being a boy mean in UCC?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anna go for it I think that being a boy can mean anything that any boy wants it to mean at UCC.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's having the freedom to try things and discover more about the boy that you are and also making space for the boys around you to be whoever they are as well.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect Anthony Yeah I'd say learning how to show up as the best version of yourself and anything you do and what best means can mean a lot of things.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's one of our pillars is best self and you can navigate that but it's really like whatever you do you're showing up with that like that zest that really try to you you bring the best to whatever it is that you're um endeavoring upon Charlie Yeah I would agree putting um the right foot forward every morning when you step into the school being values driven and being a 1% better person every single day.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect and the last one what do you why what do you think is the greatest gift of an all boys education I this is going to sort of echo my last sentence but I think um the breadth of experience is one of the biggest gifts I'm cheating I'm giving to um and the sense of belonging I think that we're able to foster so breadth and belonging um and again being able to be who you are and know that whoever that is has a place here in this community.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Great Anthony Yeah I would definitely go to the cultivation of deep bonds and friendships that last a lifetime great Charlie I I agree with both of those and I'd say having the opportunity to grow in tandem with your whole grade level and community kind of at once reaching the same stages around the same times in the classroom and co-curricularly.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect awesome well thank you all three of you for taking the time to chat with us today.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: And for those listening if you're listening before end of October um I hope that you're registered for open house and we're super excited to see you there.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if you have any questions regarding admissions make sure to check out our other podcast series um they're gonna be on our website we also have all the steps listed there and we look forward to getting to know your family.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome