A new school year is beginning, and the Grade 12 graduands of 2008 are moving on to other things. What follows is based on "chats" with the five Scholarship winners - the Curly Stewart Award went to Miranda Loutet, and four Lions Bay Community Foundation Scholarships were awarded to Leila Elischer, Leora Elischer, Emily Matthias and Ale McLean. Miranda also received an Achievement Award from the LBCSF. Good luck and best wishes to the scholars and all the graduands!

 

The Lions Bay Scholarship Winners 2008   

The Elischer Twins
August 12, 2008. It is a glorious summer's day. I leave home well before the appointed time, to walk down to the Village Café to meet with three of our Scholarship winners. The temperature is pushing the high 20's, an ebullient large flowerpot, overflowing in blues and yellows and reds, welcomes you to Crosscreek bridge. Hanging baskets and red maple Canadian flags enliven the bridge. The diminished creek trickles soothingly, in our often noisy world, among the dumpling-like boulders impeding its bed. The boulders, too, are clothed in soft green algae, despite the raging torrents that will come later. Lions Bay is indeed a good place to be.

 

Leila and Leora are already there, at a table gratefully shaded by the unfurled awning. We are here to chat about living in Lions Bay, primary and elementary school, the transition into (and out of) High School, and whatever else comes up in conversation.

 

Leora and Leila Elischer are twins. It soon becomes evident that they show a consideration for each other - a tenderness even - that may be far less common among other siblings. The family moved from Montreal to Lions Bay when the twins were about two, too young to have many recollections of those early days. "We were shy at first, everyone else seemed to have their own circle of friends".

 

School, of course, plays a very important part in the lives of our children. Both Leila and Leora show strong leanings toward the artistic elements of our culture. Leora notes however that she particularly enjoyed mathematics, at least until grade 12, when it got "really hard!" Piano lessons (to Grade 7) were a pleasant relief. She has now registered at Kwantlen University College in the Fashion Design Program, and will soon be undertaking an employment Practicum in this field. Leila, with a healthy fascination in cooking, and in Dance at the Vanleena Dance Academy, has moved into Arts, to do a Studio Arts Diploma at Capilano University.

 

Leora and Leila both found time at Rockridge School to participate in the Interact Club, an organization that deals with charitable famine relief efforts in association with the Red Cross. In the Village, they enjoyed helping out "behind the scenes" at school plays put on by our elementary kids, and at Canada Day events. Like others, while living in a small community has benefits, with interests and social activities in the town, "a late bus back to Lions Bay would be great!" And, like others, the twins find THE BEACH to be a valued recreational/relaxation/social feature within our community.

 

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Ale Mclean  

Ale too arrives early for our meeting. She chats easily and confidently, and "bubbles" with exuberance about the future that is opening up for her. She was born in the Philippines but has lived in Lions Bay since less than a year old, first with grandparents Linda and Terry Thompson, then in the family home in the forest on Bayview Road. Like other youth in our community, Ale attended Lions Bay Primary, Gleneagles Elementary and Rockridge Secondary Schools.

 

Ale is enthusiastic about school and schooling, and it seems that each transition provided new and interesting challenges. In small Lions Bay, Ale reflects on the unity within her peer group and the close friends that were established in that environment, in the care of excellent teachers. At Gleneagles and Rockridge, Ale found her combined passion for the contrasting disciplines of Music and Soccer.

 

Ale soon joined the West Vancouver Youth Band where she became a lead singer. She plays the clarinet for fun, the piano for "serious stuff" and is itching to take up the guitar. The Band has entertained the thousands of Sun Run participants and has toured in Alberta and Germany. Ale was chosen as singer of our National Anthem at the West Vancouver 2008 Canada Day Celebration.

 

Ale's latest achievement is her successful audition and admission to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is a candidate for the Bachelor of Music degree, possibly combined with a Business option. Ale will be amongst an extremely select group of very talented students at this "Harvard of Music Schools", selected in a highly competitive process from many countries in the world. To paraphrase the Director of Admissions: "A new door has opened as you pursue your life's passion. Your experience at Berklee will be rich and filled with possibility. The qualities at the core of Berklee's success are a pioneering spirit, a boundless thirst for knowledge, a willingness to explore new musical horizons, an openness to creativity around you, respect for your peers, professionalism, passion and focus". The expectations of the College are very high, and Ale has come through with flying colours.

 

Ale's Mom says: "We are very proud of Ale, but we have our anxieties too. Boston is a long way away".

 

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Emily Matthias  

August 20, 2008. Today the temperature is half of last week's, and the much needed rains have come. Emily Matthias arrives at the cafe well before 10:00 am, and we find a table inside rather than outside today. Emily is born and bred in Lions Bay, where school life began locally with pre-school to grade 3. She admits she became known as the "noisy, bossy one", requiring an occasional request that she desist from "directing the class" (usually the teacher's prerogative!).

 

In elementary school Emily found an interest in Art, progressing from kindergarten painted plates to an Art Camp in Squamish in grade 6 to more advanced still lifes in acrylic and watercolour. At Gleneagles Emily was attracted to many extra-curricular activities ("tons of sports"), perhaps accounting for her own assessment as "not too good a student".  In grade 6, however, Emily says that a transformation from an ordinary student to one with straight "As" in all subjects, including Art, is due to one particularly encouraging teacher.

 

Emily's academic transformation together with extra curricular interests have served her well at Rockridge High School, where good teachers were a source of encouragement and inspiration. Besides track and field and wrestling (silver and golds in the latter), the fun sport of "Ultimate" was a great attraction, being co-ed and available to a broad age bracket (coached by a Physics teacher, no doubt from an aerodynamic perspective). The uninformed ignorami should know that "Ultimate" is not mere "Frisbee", and is played with superior Gaia Discs!

 

In grade 11 Emily was in a contingent of 5,000 Canadian youth that attended the Vimy Ridge memorial event in France in April 2007 (google Emily Matthias on www.lionsbay.net for details). She is a qualified lifeguard and liked helping out behind the scenes at school plays, tutoring grade 4-9 maths, and at sporting events. Emily helped organize or has played a part in many charitable activities, including food drives, the Rotary 24-hour Famine event in aid of the Red Cross (about 150 Rockridge students raised $10,000), the Burnaby Christmas Bureau  - "there were so many activities to be involved in".

 

Emily is now a student at Guelph University, aiming for a combined Bachelor of Arts and Science degree with Studio Arts as an elective. Her main focus will be in Biology and History, the latter catalyzed in part by the visit to the Vimy Memorial. She plans to fully explore club and social activity possibilities during Frosh Week, perhaps outreaching into Oxfam and working as a lifeguard (for money!). Encouraged by her Mom, a teacher and world traveler, she will likely spend part of next summer at her easel in Mexico. She also hopes to be able to join an exchange group of students for a semester France in the not too distant future, to study Parisian Architecture and Ancient History.

 

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Miranda Loutet  

Miranda comes over to the café in the early afternoon. She is charmingly supercharged with the joys of a completed two-month post-graduation adventure in Europe. She too has lived all her life in Lions Bay, but with thoughts of a "dream trip" beginning to form in Grade 9. With this goal in mind, Miranda worked part time in the village general store for three years, saving her earnings for the big event.

 

Miranda's reflections about Elementary School (and Lions Bay in general) have to do with the early friendships formed and likely to be sustained into the future. She liked the spaciousness of the open plan of Lions Bay School, and the integration among the K - 3 classes. Show-and-Tell was an activity she looked forward to with great interest.

At Gleneagles and Rockridge, Miranda seems to have enjoyed all her academic subjects, with the possible exception of French. Math was tough until grade 7, but has not deterred Miranda from the hard sciences of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The volleyball team and ski trips were good physical outlets, as was after-school Hip Hop and Ballet at the Vanleena Academy of Dance. Locally, Miranda followed the path of Sparks, Brownies and Guides. She took piano lessons from grade 6, later teaching some of the younger children in our Village. Miranda has volunteered her time in various ways, which she modestly calls "little things". Among other things, she played the essential "Easter Bunny" at our beach, helped at the West Vancouver children's summer camps doing about 60 service hours per summer, and helped with "little things" around school. She became a member of the Amnesty International Club during her grade 12 year.  

Grade 12 was a very special year for Miranda, culminating in the exhilaration of graduation banquets and after-grad parties - and the trip to Europe with two friends. "Mom looked after registration at McGill and other details while I was away!" Her eyes are set on a Major in Psychology and possible later entry into the new Neuroscience program at the University. She mentions "a large first year course load", and hopes to participate in the student exchange program in her third year. She is looking forward to living in dorm, and plans to "learn more French!"