fbpx

Event planner

Nadia Irshad – Co-founder of Glarea Elevated Learning and the future of education

Nadia Irshad - Co-founder of Glarea Elevated Learning and the future of education
About Nadia Irshad

Nadia Hasan’s (@nadia__irshad) educational background is in Environmental Studies focusing on Sustainable Development and Urban Planning. She pursued a career in Art & Design working in Magazine Print Design and web design for a decade before opening her first early learning school. She is the Founder and CEO of Academics Educational Systems; The Academics Edge System that incorporates proprietary curriculum, programming and innovation in centres called Academics preKindergarten.

She is a founding partner of Glarea Elevated Learning; A NEW KIND OF SCHOOL. Glarea is a K-6 School in Surrey BC growing with the students yearly up to Grade 12.

As a resident of the South Surrey area, Nadia has had the privilege of being a board member of the Peninsula Community Foundation. She was a member of The Women’s Presidents Organization for years, before focusing on her current role as a Board Member for Arts Umbrella, Canada’s non-profit leader in arts education for young people, providing access to the highest quality arts education to communities as a basic human right. She is specifically dedicated to expanding the non-profit’s reach in the City of Surrey.

Nadia is passionate about her industry as a change agent for women, children and families. She is drawn to education and childcare through her own personal story. She finds passion in human connection, civic activism and more specifically causes that relate to women. Nadia’s interests include mobilizing women and girls by confronting cultural barriers that limit and harm women in closed communities.

Words, poetry and screenwriting is her passion. Maxwell’s Muse is where she spends some of her free time, on projects that give voice to untold stories, creating safe spaces and giving a platform to marginalized people through the production of art and film. 

Connect with Nadia: Email | Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Glarea School Website

Academics PreKindergarten

Peninsula Community Foundation

The Women’s Presidents Organization

Arts Umbrella

Maxwell’s Muse Website

Systems Thinking Leadership Certificate Program at Cornell University

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the High Performing Educator podcast. This is your host and youth speaker Sam Demma. Today I had the honor and pleasure to interview and chat with Nadia Irshad or Nadia Hassan. She has an educational background in environmental studies, focused on sustainable development and urban planning. She pursued a career in art and design working in magazine print and web design for a decade before opening her own early learning school.


Sam Demma (01:05):
She is the founder and CEO of academics educational systems, the academics edge system that incorporates proprietary curriculum programming and innovation in centers called academics pre kindergarten. She is one of the founding partners of Gloria elevated learning, which is a, a new kind of school focused on the K/six to K to six grades in Surrey, BC growing with the student yearly up until grade 12. She has kids of her own that are part of this school system and we talk all about why they created this innovative school, why she was a founding partner, and what their school looked like and how it differs from typical schools. And I think we can learn something from everyone we talk to. And I definitely learned a lot talking to Nadia, so enjoy this conversation and I will see you on the other side, Nadia, thank you so much for coming on the High Performing Educator podcast. Huge pleasure to have you on the show. Why don’t you start by introducing yourself and sharing a little bit about how you got into the work you’re doing today with young people in education?


Nadia Irshad (02:09):
Oh, that’s a big loaded question. well, pleasure to be here. How did I end up in the world of education? So I took a really interesting path of my passion for education lies within two sort of spheres. One is I’m a parent, so I never actually envisioned being a parent. It was a complete surprise to me. I never touched a child until I had one, never changed a diaper until I had one. But it, everyone, I think as it’s a transformative moment, it is a transformative moment. I’ll, , I’ll say it’s a moment where, you know, suddenly everything that you never thought was relevant to your adult life is and it also takes you back to your childhood in a really strange way. Children are your own child or other children to me are they’re kind of an opportunity to look in the mirror.


Nadia Irshad (03:12):
I think it’s an interesting, I always kind of reflect on my own parenting and my own kind of the things that I’m drawn to in relation to education and children, all I think really do are things that my child’s self are, is drawn to. Yeah. There are things that the gaps that I felt as a child, I feel suddenly responsible for ensuring that my children and children in my community don’t feel that gap. So that’s kind of how I landed here. I went. So I, so I started my career in environmental studies. It’s not even a career, my educational journey in our environmental study urban room planning and things like that related to sustainable development was more interested in the developing world. But I was, I I’m really interested in urban environments as well. And then I landed in a graphic arts and print design because my parents weren’t really happy with me traveling for work or leaving home or going too far.


Nadia Irshad (04:16):
And at that time there were no options available to me. So my other passion has always been art. I followed that I did print design for, I’d say close to even 10 years. I absolutely love the feel of paper. I love glossy magazines. I have none in my house. They’re not something that I, that I, that I keep, but I love, you know, I just, there’s something tactile about it. I love color. I love, you know, so many things I could talk about art all day, but then I had a child and it changed everything and I wanted to work. So I think I’m really in really, really fascinated it by how family structures are, how people pursue purpose and, you know, it’s really difficult being a woman and pursuing a purpose outside the family home. Mm-Hmm, , it is it’s a challenge in a world where you there’s expectations.


Nadia Irshad (05:21):
I know all the expectations that people around me had was that I was going to stay home and I was going to focus on being a good mom and cooking, cleaning, and ensuring that they’re brilliant, amazing, loved children. I, I don’t think that that humans need to box themselves into like specific little frames of reference that way. I think we can be lots of things. I, I, I’m quite proud of the type of parent I am, but I’m not the type of person that could sit at home all day. It’s just not in me. So after about a year, a half, two years of staying at home I started looking for childcare and preschools so that I could go back to work. I was feeling really antsy and stir crazy. And I ended up coming upon at that time, I lived in the was Washington DC area, and I came upon this really amazing little preschool that I ado and that allowed me to fulfill, you know, my other needs, intellectual creative, and leave the family home.


Nadia Irshad (06:25):
And so through that, I fell into preschools and childcare. So I started academics pre kindergarten when we moved to Vancouver, BC in, around, I started the company in around 2009. So that, that flourished from that personal experience. And I really do in that, in that sphere. So I, I, I touch education in multiple ways. I’m met a teacher, I’m an outsider to all the industries. I’m currently a part of, I absolutely door being an outsider. And the reason why is I can, I can ask questions. I don’t feel shame or guilt for not understanding things. I question things all the time. You know, it’s easy to when you’re in an industry for a long time to see things as this is the way they’re supposed to be. So I never under, I don’t understand that in this industry and I, I love it.


Nadia Irshad (07:20):
I think it I think children are deserve the utmost respect. I think children are capable. I think that what, what really fires me up inside is, you know, I’d say most adult, as I know, carry, you know, stories and sometimes trauma from their childhood homes and their families, and are the educational spaces that we provided academics, or, you know, I’ll talk about Gloria as well. You know, for me, the essence of it is to provide a safe space. And if you think about the fact that a lot of children, schools and preschool educational environments are where they spend most of their time you know, we, you know, we can be, we can be that, I don’t know what, what the right word is. We can be.


Nadia Irshad (08:20):
Yeah, so that’s kind of where that came from. So from there, I have an interesting story of how I landed in the K to 12 space. So one of my first students in preschool that, that enrolled in my first preschool that opened in 2010 I became really good friends with their parents. This was boys parents, and he is that couple, their developers in, in the province of BC. They mostly work in the health tech and health sphere. So with hospitals and care homes and you know, they, they kind of carry their purpose with their development projects. They’re always about community and empowering people, boldly elevating people. And it links well with healthcare. So randomly a dinner table conversation, I think at this point, it’s probably six years ago saying, you know, I have this D dream of a school and like, you know, just, just fun, philosophical, random chatter about what would your dream school look like?


Nadia Irshad (09:22):
What would it be? And this friend of mine told me, okay, well, I’m gonna do this. What do you think? And at the time, you know, I noded, I said that sounds great. Sounds so interesting. I’m so happy for you. Like, I I’m here if you guys need anything. So he went on his little journey and we had a hilarious chat years later where he called me and he said, okay, so my team, they do construction and they develop big buildings and they’re telling me we don’t operate schools. So , so I, I, they, they basically sat me down and said, you need to find somebody who, who knows schools and knows children. So he called me up and he asked me if I’d be interested at the time I was married. So it was something I was looking into for, for about a year, kind of doing a discovery, just looking into where it would be, what it would look like.


Nadia Irshad (10:13):
And then I ended up going through quite a high I conflict divorce. And he asked me if I wanted to do the project and, and if we want to you know, move forward in a concrete way and it was my anchor. And so the project became my anchor through a really tumultuous time in my life. Nice. and the amazing part about it is I don’t know how to best, describe how we formed Gloria except to describe a table of well, who I believe are the smartest, most innovative almost revolutionary type thinkers from different industries who sat around a table and said, well, what would be the most amazing school you could ever imagine? What would be the educational space you’d wanna be in? And yeah, we put together, you know, our purpose is at Gloria to empower indomitable spirit. And you know, that, that kind of, I think, sums it up really well. That’s, that’s what we envision for all of our students.


Sam Demma (11:20):
I love that. Can we go back all the way for a second, when you were telling me about when you were a child, you said there was gaps in your childhood that led you down this path. If you’re comfortable to share, I’m curious to know what those are, because I’m guessing those gaps are what inspire you to make sure that those gaps aren’t present and I other students or other young people’s lives.


Nadia Irshad (11:40):
Yeah, I think huh, I’m not, I’m comfortable talking about it. I think I was always the shy kid. I was always the kid that picked last for every sports activity known. And it’s interesting. I reflect on upon it now. I’m the child of a, of a, of an athlete. So my dad was a major athlete and I know looking at my brother and my father, I have the gene. I know that now as an adult, I know I could do all those things, but I nobody noticed me and my extreme shyness. And so I would pretend to be sick. I would have a tummy ache and not one teacher ever thought and stopped to reflect. Maybe she actually needs somebody to pay a little bit more attention to her and help include her. I was ne and, and so those are some of the, you know, I remember this will sound, I think crazy now.


Nadia Irshad (12:36):
I don’t think people, hopefully people don’t go through this now, but being told I’m stupid or, you know, I’ll never get it. Or, you know, you’re never gonna do more than be a secretary. I used to hear things like that as a child. Yeah. So those, and, and, and I, I’m an introvert and I’m a, I’m, I’m a bookworm. So I would just kind of spiral into my books and in my room and nobody paid much attention to me. So I kind of, I have a soft spot for introverted children, for sure. Mm-Hmm, I think it’s easy to, or, or the good kids. I always point out to people that, you know, it’s the kid that never or breaks the rules that never does anything, you know, that sometimes is negative attention worthy that we sometimes forget most. So the kids who are struggling and screaming and, and, and, and for attention, we give it to them. But sometimes it’s those kids that are so quietly kind of lost in the corner, but do you know, get the, as do everything right? That we never pay much attention to, but deserve it for sure to be seen is a big thing. And I think that’s through my, my educational entire journey, I’ll say all the way through university, nobody ever really saw me. I felt quite invisible. So that’s really important to me to see. I love that.


Sam Demma (13:55):
No, I love that. And, and at Gloria, you talk about challenge based learning. I was reading your website, and I know that’s a huge component that you’re very passionate about at the school. Can you tell me, or define what you think challenge based learning is and why it’s so exciting and important?


Nadia Irshad (14:13):
So the way I like to do describe challenge based learning is people are familiar with inquiry based learning or international BA programs. So those programs and that type of learning pushes questions. So it’s like the Socratic method it’s pushing, you know, asking questions, questions, questions, which is amazing, which I think we should all do all the time. Challenge based learning is problem-based learning. So everything we do in life, you know, every day we tackle problems all day. And I think that’s what we that’s, that’s what we pick challenge based. Learning challenge based learning is gritty. It means it, it’s not, it’s an environment where there isn’t a no. So if there’s an idea, it’s, it’s about failing reiteration learning. It’s about a it’s it’s challenge based learning for me is creating a space where failing you’re safe to fail. You’re safe to try again. You’re safe learn. Cause I do think in general, generally I’d say is true. And for most traditional educational models, it isn’t safe to fail. It, it isn’t encouraged. Kids need to get that a and there’s a lot of shame and attached to not doing it. Right.


Sam Demma (15:26):
I, I wholeheartedly agree. I even think back to my European parents, like you don’t come home in less, you have over 80 average, you know, like it was


Nadia Irshad (15:34):
The most, most scary day is the report card day. I remember that.


Sam Demma (15:37):
Yeah. Right. And, you know, knowing what I know now and looking back, I realize how backwards that thinking is. Right? Cause there’s a difference between learning and memorization. And I mean, throughout all of high school, I can memorize everything and finish a semester and look back at buddy and say, I’m not gonna remember anything I did. I’m not gonna use anything I learned, but I’m glad I got the nineties on my test. Like it’s so it’s so backwards at your school, what else do you provide the students with to create an unbreakable spirit, as you mentioned? Like, what does that mean and how do you young person? Yeah. Indomitable spirit. So


Nadia Irshad (16:16):
Gloria came from the word grit in Latin. So grit is something that’s important to all the founding members of Gloria elevated learning. Nice. And so indomitable spirit for was when we, when we sat around this table to talk about what model would we create? We talked about what made, what made the most successful. And when I say successful, I don’t mean in monetary terms or, you know, in successful, in happy, joyous living their best life terms. What made those people? And a majority of us, all that those were people who were comfortable with being uncomfortable, were comfortable with taking risks, were gritty, people, people who, who fell got back up, tried again, didn’t take no for an answer. And so in this world of helicopter parenting and lawnmower parenting, it’s a really hard children have a lot of anxiety and social media and all those things don’t help.


Nadia Irshad (17:19):
But so we created an environment. So challenge based learning, you know, is something that, that supports that type of environment. But we have academics, we have sports and we have art. So in our academic model, all those three things are equal. There isn’t a imbalance of, you know, your math mark means way more than, you know, athletics or arts. We really do feel that all those things come together to create whole gritty humans. And you know, what I love about the program is, you know, my, so my daughter’s in the program. She said, always, I hate skating. I’m never gonna get on skates. It’s cold. I don’t like it. And what I loved about it is I kept telling her, you know, but that’s the point, the point is you’re not gonna like everything. And that life, life is gonna throw so many different things at you. And it’s about your attitude. And it’s about pulling on those skates and making it happen. And what I love is she, so we’re now in almost in March and she loves skating and she’s talking about being a hockey player and I keep, you know, I’m being the annoying mom and I keep reminding her well, interesting.


Nadia Irshad (18:29):
But but I think, you know, I think we create an environment where, so parents like to push the things they love. Mm-Hmm of course, you know, soccer parents probably played soccer when they were young or wanted to be a soccer star or hockey parents wanted to be a hockey star. You know? So you kind of, because those are the things, you know, so what I love about gala Gloria is it’s a place where it’s a multi-sport multi art place. Children get to learn for themselves what they actually love, what actually fires them up, what they’re passionate about. And they’re able to kind of carve their own path, be their own spirit, right. Instead of feeling the shadow of all of the people around them who love them, who adore them. I know, but to me, that’s you know, as an adult, that’s the most, that’s the most exciting opportunity. I love that opportunity today, but


Sam Demma (19:18):
That’s awesome. It’s funny when you’re mentioning your parents always push your passions on you. I’m thinking about my own family and my own situation, right? My dad was hockey player growing up, always wanted me to play hockey. He tried for a whole year, a whole, whole year putting skates on my feet and I cried every time and he finally just gave up, put a soccer ball in front of me and I couldn’t stop kicking it. And I pursued a pro soccer career since I was six years old. I, I lived in Italy for six months when I was 13. I ended up having three major knee injuries, two surgeries, and totally lost my full ride scholarship, lost the ability to play. And I was just connecting with you on so many levels. You were talking about Latin phrases. I have a Latin phrase on my bicep right here.


Sam Demma (19:58):
It says, VIN key pat tour. It’s a phrase that means he who endures our, the person who endures conquers. And I had it after my second knee surgery, not because I was gonna go to the end of the earth to play pro of soccer, but because I made a decision in that moment that no matter what I chose to do with my life arts, academic sports, whatever it might be, I’m gonna give a hundred percent of my effort all the time. But I do have a question for you. How do you ensure that your students don’t attach their self worth to their cha their, their talents or their achievements or their accomplishments? Because at the end of the day, I think it’s still important that a student doesn’t come home and say I’m worth nothing because I didn’t play well or I’m worth nothing because I didn’t get a good grade. So I’m curious to know, how does the teachers and you at Gloria ensure that students don’t attach their self worth wholly to those things.


Nadia Irshad (20:48):
So I think, and that’s really interesting that you brought that up for me, the fact that we teach through challenge based learning, meaning we push trying, failing, reiterating failure is a success. Failure is something we completely celebrate. Risk taking is something we celebrate that, you know, walking through something you’re afraid of. And so for me, those are the things that we celebrate as an organization. We do not celebrate, you know, I love that’s great. You got a 99, but that’s, that’s not where we celebr. We celebrate your, we celebrate the spirit and we do have, you know, we a a health and wellbeing program. We have Dr. Doan, who is the president of BC doc doctor’s of BC right now who’s on our board. And she supports us with trauma informed practice. And she supports us on, in lots of, kind of mental health initiatives.


Nadia Irshad (21:44):
But I will say that, you know, child learning makes it really hard to do that. It really doesn’t even our sports, you know, for sports it’s, we, we focus on how you got better or what you did or what, you know, you tried that and you fell and you figured it out and you know what, that’s awesome. You, you know, you took the risk cuz sometimes the kids won’t even take that first step to fall. They don’t want to. Fall’s so scary. Mm-Hmm so while talking through those scary things, those are the celebrations for sure.


Sam Demma (22:11):
I love that. And you’re so right. I guess when you’re focused on learning from the failure, there’s nothing you really to attach yourself worth too. Like you’re not, you’re not celebrating an achievement, you’re celebrating the learning and the growth which is so unique and so cool. Cuz when I look back to my own experience in school, like that was one of my biggest hurdles. I remember the day that I had my second knee surgery and the voices just went through my head of all my parents, aunts, uncles, coaches, Sam, one day, you’re gonna be the player that we hopefully watch on TV. You’re gonna be the first person from our family who gets a scholarship. And then all these voices started becoming like weights on my back. Because I thought by myself that if I didn’t fulfill those things, that I’d be worth nothing as a human being. And it sounds like you guys are doing the exact opposite of Gloria, which is, which is so cool. Tell me more about what the average day looks like for a student at the school.


Nadia Irshad (23:06):
So an average day, so I’ll say for example, what’s today, today’s Thursday. So school starts at 7 45. The kids hit the rink first thing in the morning, so cool. and so we always, we always start the day with athletic athletics. We all, you know, I think there’s a lot of research to prove that that’s a good thing for you. So we, we try really hard to yeah, to follow kind. We break all the norms and we do it the way we think is the right way to do it. I like that. So yeah, so the kids hit the rink, they do that for an hour, power skating sometimes hockey and they get off the rink, then they hit their classrooms. We do have, so the difference between Glar in a lot of schools is we don’t have, you know, some schools have rules where you can’t eat until it’s snack time and you can’t eat until it’s lunchtime.


Nadia Irshad (23:58):
So that’s normal humans. That’s not how, yeah, it doesn’t work. so kids, you know, we’ll break out their snacks and they’ll eat and they’ll go to class. And so it’s challenge based learning, meaning math, science, English all the subjects that they’re learning. We, and we do Mandarin as well are integrated. So sometimes they have an engineering project. Maybe there’s a challenge. How would you create a Rover on the moon? So they have to use math. They have to use science. They have to use, you know, English to write up the report communicate. So, so it’s learning, but it always, so whenever I go into the school, it all, it looks too fun. It looks like campus can school, nobody everybody’s on their feet. We also have transitional learning spaces. So it doesn’t feel like we’re stuck in classroom and this is your classroom and now you don’t move all day.


Nadia Irshad (24:49):
No, all the entire school is, is a student school for learning. So you’ll see them in the hallway. They’ll use, they’ll use spaces in the cafeteria. Yeah, it’s, it’s a really cool actually environment. And what I love most actually about going to the school is because of the way it’s, it’s transitional and open and project based students interact. So the kinds love chatting with the grade five kids and they, and the grade five kids love mentoring the little kids. And it’s a really I can’t wait to see these kids in like 20 years to see how, you know, they interact. I imagine they’ll be really close for for a lifetime. That’s how I see the relationships that build as a family. It’s really, you know, we’re all learners. So part of the mindsets that, that, that we try to instill in everyone is we’re all learners. So the teachers are learners, the students, our learners, the grade fives learn from the kinds the teachers learn from the kindergarten, kindergarten kids. It’s not there. Isn’t a hierarchical kind of, you know, setup where there there’s a teacher up there and we’re down here, we’re all here and we’re all learning together.


Sam Demma (26:03):
That’s so cool. I love that. And I think in traditional education, sometimes students work in silos, especially when you get into university and people start th saying things like, oh, I’m not gonna share my work with you because it’s, it’s a challenge and I need to have better work than you so that I can get the position. And you don’t. And it sounds like what you’re fostering is a collective group to build team, to work towards solving a bigger problem. And I think, you know, there’s a proverb that says, you wanna go, you wanna go fast, go alone. You wanna go far go together. And I think it’s so wise and you know, from a young age teaching students that they need to, you know, be able to function in a team is so important because they’ll use that skill for the rest of their life, which is so, so cool. I’m I have so many questions. This is fricking awesome. It sounds like


Nadia Irshad (26:56):
It sounds like what you just said. You brought up about knowledge and university students. I have similar experience in university, but what’s interesting. What I always think of is people like that. See the world as a pie. I, you, you know, there’s only eight slices, so I get a slice and now there’s only seven left, so you can’t have, you know, so to me, knowledge, isn’t an asset. It isn’t property it’s for everyone. And so I think it’s interesting being an outsider in the world of education. I know I confront it confronts a lot of people to have non-education people in the world of education, but for me, learnings for everybody there’s no, there shouldn’t be any kind of boundary set. It is in a pie it’s endless. It’s, it’s abundant.


Sam Demma (27:42):
I love that. The way I look at it, just, you just gave me an idea of like a future analogy with the pie. So the way I look at it is like, there’s a pie on the table, right. And we’re all. And like people traditionally go and they take a piece, but in reality, every person has specific gifts and talents which could be a kid to an ingredient. So you come and take a piece from the pie, but you’re the flower and someone else comes and they’re the milk. And if you didn’t just realize that you all got together, you could make more pie, you know, like using everyone’s unique gifts and talents. So that just came into my mind while you were speaking. And I think it’s so true. Like, I, I don’t really talk about this much on this podcast because a lot of teachers listen, but I actually dropped out of university.


Sam Demma (28:23):
I did I did two months of formal school before I broke down in front of my laptop, crying, telling my parents, look, I have this passion for speaking to young people and I need to follow it. And there was this initiative I was building at the time catered around service learning and serving leadership. And at first my parents were like, what the heck are you doing with your life? And very, very quickly as things started to progress, their whole mindset shifted and changed. And so sometimes I think it just takes one example one success story to shift the narrative. And I think there will be hundreds coming outta your school supporting that idea. What is some of the things you’re most proud of so far that have come outta the school?


Nadia Irshad (29:04):
Hmm, interesting. That’s a interesting question. Be careful cuz it’s a small school environment. I, you know, can’t have confidentiality too. We’ve of course I’ve had I think one of the, one of the proud moments for, you know, it’s a small thing, but watching a ma you know, 85% of our students, couldn’t skate, couldn’t even, you know, they need a chair and now watching them months later, we open in September, we’re in February, they’re in power skating and they’re starting hockey. And these are like little like month, like little guys, five year old guys. And it’s so amazing because I think it underlines the fact that kids are underestimated. They have endless capabilities. They have endless energy, their brains are so from either this brilliant, you know, organisms that are constantly making connections and growing and how I, how sad I think it is when people limit that growth.


Nadia Irshad (30:08):
Mm-Hmm yeah, so there’s yeah, it’s, it’s it’s the little things, it’s the little things for sure. It’s and it’s watching the kids, you know, they put together performances, they, we have martial arts and watching the kids who never once, you know, did a punched something or did anything or now suddenly, you know, yellow and orange belts. those are it’s it’s, it’s amazing. And it’s, they take so much pride in it and I just love watching them. And I think I love that they never walk in and I never hear them say I got 99 on test. I never hear that. I hear today. I drop, I, I, I jumped up and I did this kick and, and, and, you know, I’ve watched them go through this journey where they couldn’t do any of those things and how much pride they are. And I think it builds so much self confidence to think, you know, to know, even for five year old, two months ago, I couldn’t even do that. And to so how endless are my capabilities? Right. So it’s yeah. I, I absolutely adore being around them that that type of energy is just, it’s like, I wanna see.


Sam Demma (31:14):
Moment. Yeah. It’s infectious. Right. you mentioned redefining purpose, right? I know this idea of finding your purpose, embracing your purpose. It sounds like you guys do it a little bit differently at your school. Do you have any opinions on the word purpose or, or what that means and how to encourage students to pursue it?


Nadia Irshad (31:34):
I think so is a trendy word too. Sometimes you, I always feel like I have to tip toe around it and be careful. Yeah. You know, if it puts fire in your gut, that’s the way I look at it. Put, puts fire in your gut and you can’t sleep until you do it, probably your purpose. And it’s probably not, you know, going fast on the ice and it’s probably not. It’s probably you, you know, you have to stretch to think what exactly is that mm-hmm and I do you think all of us and maybe I I’m an ideal idealist, I I’ll admit it. I think we’re all here to leave the world a little bit better. And so if you can find that little gift, you have that thing that puts fire in your belly to leave it a better, a better place.


Nadia Irshad (32:21):
And that’s why, you know, that comes back to challenge me, is learning. So what makes challenge based learning so special to us is it forces kids to think community and global mm-hmm . So it’s not the problem about you today. It’s how, you know, a problem that affects the people around you, your school community, the people down the block in your, in your world, and ask them to problem solve. And, and, and because the reality is, is it’s easy to be apathetic and it’s easy to think we can’t do anything. This is the way it is, but we, you know, people did it to get us here so we can, we can change and flip it around, make it go a different direction. Yeah, I dunno if that makes any sense.


Sam Demma (33:03):
No, it does a hundred percent. I, I had a world issues teacher who changed my life when I was in grade 12, who started the first day of class by walking in front of us and saying, don’t believe anything I tell you. But if it makes you curious, I want you to go do your Reese search and verify facts to yourself. And it was the first teacher I ever had, who said anything like that. And instantly like snap of a fingers. I was hooked. I was like, this is gonna be the best class ever. He made his own curriculum. He taught us his own curriculum. He retired the year after he taught me, but there was one lesson he taught us in, in April of 2017 where he was breaking down the lives of figures in history, trying to prove to us that they all had this common trait.


Sam Demma (33:47):
Grit was definitely a part of it. And the, the way he said it was, they all took thousands of small, consistent actions. And he said, if you wanna make a difference, you wanna challenge status quo, just, just choose a problem and take thousands of small actions towards solving it. And that challenge changed my life. I talk about him to this day, me and Mike Loudfoot, he’s retired now. We still stay in contact. So I wholeheartedly agree. It’s definitely, it’s definitely possible to make a difference. Especially when you just start with a small step, if an educator has been listening to this conversation and is just amazed by what’s going on at your school, loves your energy, wants to connect, have a conversation. What would be the best way for them to get in touch with you?


Nadia Irshad (34:29):
The best way would, they should go to our website. So they should go to Glareaschool.com and they can always shoot me an email. So my email is nadia@glareaschool.com. That would probably be the easiest way to reach me. But we are currently recruiting teachers. We’re in the midst of growing our little teaching community and it’s, it’s exciting to see the types of people that are drawn to our program. They’re really unique, unique individuals, which, which is exciting.


Sam Demma (34:55):
Can you just spell the URL of your school? Just so people don’t mess it up?


Nadia Irshad (34:59):
Yes. So Glarea is Glareaschool.com.


Sam Demma (35:04):
Awesome. Nadia, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show, share some of your wisdom, energy and stories. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to the day that I can come skate with the five year olds oh, totally.


Nadia Irshad (35:16):
You need to come out to BC and visit us here.


Sam Demma (35:19):
I will. I will. I’ll talk to you soon.


Nadia Irshad (35:21):
My pleasure. Thank you.


Sam Demma (35:23):
And there you have it. Another amazing guest, an amazing interview on the High Performing Educator podcast. As always, if you enjoy these episodes, please consider leaving a rating and review so other educators like yourself can find this content and benefit from it. And here’s an exclusive opportunity that I mentioned at the start of the show. If you wanna meet the guest on today’s episode, if you wanna meet any of the guests that we have interviewed, consider going to www.highperformingeducator.com and signing up to join the exclusive network. You’ll have access to networking events throughout 2021 and other special opportunities, and I promise I will not fill your inbox. Talk to you soon. I’ll see you on the next episode.

Join the Educator Network & Connect with Nadia Irshad

The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.

Maddie Campbell – Canadian Student Leadership Association Operations Coordinator

Maddie Campbell - Canadian Student Leadership Association Operations Coordinator
About Maddie Campbell

Maddie Campbell (@maddiecamps) is a life-long student leader and learner who found a way to turn her love of activities, organizing and community impact into a career. Born and raised in the Waterloo Region, Maddie has been connected to her community from day one, particularly through sports and various charitable organizations. Choosing to stay close to her community, Maddie attended the University of Waterloo and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation and Sport Business (2019). Along her student leadership journey, Maddie has served as a Co-Prime Minister at her high school, V.P. of Internal Affairs for the University of Waterloo’s Applied Health Sciences Undergraduate Members (AHSUM), Logistics Coordinator for Applied Health Sciences Orientation Week and various event coordinating roles in between.

Maddie is the current Operations Coordinator for the Canadian Student Leadership Association, a national not-for-profit organization that provides leadership resources, programs and opportunities for youth leaders across Canada, including the Canadian Student Leadership Conference (CSLC). Before joining CSLA as a staff member, Maddie was a member of the organizing committee for the 2017 Canadian Student Leadership Conference hosted in Waterloo. As the only full-time staff person for CSLA, Maddie’s journey has come full circle as she attended CSLC 2013 (Montague, PEI) as a student leader and representative for her school.

Maddie can be described as someone who always has a smile on their face, a coffee in hand and her fanny pack nearby. In her spare time, you’ll likely find Maddie at a hockey arena cheering on her favourite team or on the bench as a minor hockey trainer.

Connect with Maddie: Email | Instagram | Twitter

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Canadian Student Leadership Association (CSLA)

Canadian Student Leadership Conference (CSLC)

Flush Away Cancer Fundraiser

Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School

University of Waterloo’s Applied Health Sciences Undergraduate Members (AHSUM)

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the high performing educator podcast. This is your host and youth speaker, Sam Demma. In today’s episode, we are showcasing another high-performing educator, Maddie Campbell. She is a graduate of the university of Waterloo. She studied recreation and sport business, and she currently works with the Canadian student leadership association. She has a huge passion for events, sports, student leadership, and community impact, which is all so evident from today’s episode. She is skilled in sponsorship, communications, planning, event planning, community outreach and event management. And in today’s episode, we talk about the teachers and educators in her life that impacted her what it means to be a leader and how you as a teacher can apply those same lessons to your own students. This is a huge pleasure and honor to have interviewed Maddie. She is doing amazing work with Dave and everyone from the Canadian Student Leadership Association. And I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. I’ll see you on the other side, Maddie. Welcome to the high performing educators podcast. I’m super excited to have you here. We’ve met a couple times in person and virtually, and it’s great to have you.


Maddie Campbell (01:14):
Thank you so much for having me


Sam Demma (01:16):
Do me a quick favor. I can definitely intro you, but I would love for you to explain to our audience who you are, what you do and what got you started with the work that you do with youth.


Maddie Campbell (01:28):
Well, so my name is Maddie Campbell and I am a recent university grad. But before then I was a lifelong student leader. I am the operations coordinator for the Canadian student leadership association, which is a fancy word for saying, I have a lot of hats and they do a lot of things. So everything from our programming to some more day-to-day things trying to come up with new ideas on social media. I am often behind the scenes on a lot of those things, how I got started in my role and in student leadership, like I said, I’m a lifelong student leader when I was in high school. I’m from Waterloo, Ontario and went to Sir John A McDonald secondary school. I joined our Confederation program at the end of my grade 10 year. So going into grade 11, took our leadership class and then ran for co prime minister and became co prime minister of my school in grade 12.


Maddie Campbell (02:24):
And from there, I had the opportunity to go to the CSLC, which is the Canadian student leadership conference, which is our main event per CSLA. So that’s really where it started. And then as I got through university, it was found found it difficult to find my place in school. And in extracurriculars, there are people who are lifelong athletes and artists and all that kind of stuff. And I was interested in a lot of it, but I wasn’t a professional. But student leadership always felt like home and event planning and community building. And I grew in a house like that. And so started to volunteer a little bit more and got lucky enough that CSLC was going to be hosted at my high school S jam in 2017. So two years before that, I said, Hey, like I want to volunteer. I want to do something. It actually turned into a co-op job for me for over a year. And then after that CSLA was looking for some help and they said, Hey, what are you doing? And we started working from there and it turned into a full-time job when I graduated the university. So that’s what got me here. It’s just a whole lot of leadership events stacked together. But got me, my, my job in student leadership.


Sam Demma (03:40):
That’s amazing. I’m curious to know when you were back in high school and this isn’t too, too long ago for you, maybe for Dave Conklin or someone else, it was, but you can, you can think back when you were in high school, did you have some teachers or educators in your life that made a huge impact on you? Like literally when I asked this question, what names pop in your mind? And I’m curious to know what it was that those educators or teachers did for you that made all the difference.


Maddie Campbell (04:06):
So there’s Def there’s a few there’s three. The first I would say is Sandy Miller. So he’s now a vice principal in the school board, but he was my leadership teacher in grade 12. And I learned so much from him and I can’t even describe all of the things. But he is a huge mentor for me. He believed in what I could do as a student leader. And then further beyond when I was out of high school and what I loved about Sandy and the way he taught us was he treated us like adults. There was never an opportunity for you to kind of like hide behind a bigger person or a bigger leader. He always saw the potential in everyone. And he would, if you were sitting behind the scenes, he’d say go do something. And he would get people moving and motivated.


Maddie Campbell (04:54):
And he always saw the bigger picture of what we could be and what we could do. So Sandy, for sure. He is someone who I still connect with regularly about my job and what I’m doing and leadership and what he’s doing. And I think he misses the leadership teaching side of things as an administrator, my other leadership teacher in high school Greg Todd unreal. He came over to our school the same time that I started in the leadership program. So he actually joined our leadership retreat where as at the integrates Penn, he was coming in to teach for grade 11 and no one had met him yet. So he was like the new kid in town. I was sort of starting leadership late. A lot of grade tens will take it in grade 11 and I was in 11 taking it in 11.


Maddie Campbell (05:41):
And so we met at this retreat and we really connected and then I ended up being in his class. So just kind of my leadership base. And then I had a really awesome coach in high school. Her name is Lori Montgomery, and she is the most energetic person you’ll ever meet. She’s a kick-butt coach. And by that, I mean she rocks Angela also kick your butt to make you do what you need to do. And she was just an excellent leader on and off the field. She made sure that people were paying attention at all times. And that it wasn’t just about where you watching the game. It was where you watching the skill. Were you watching the practice? Were you listening to everything and doing those next steps? So all of those people, I still talk to pretty regularly especially when I can go into visit at the school. But those are three teachers who really impacted me in high school.


Sam Demma (06:36):
That’s amazing and very diverse. We have a coach and then two leadership teachers. And you, you remembered their names as if you hadn’t forgotten for the moment, which is phenomenal for me, there’s a teacher named Mike loud foot. That just sticks in my mind. Whenever someone asks me the same question. And if there’s anything you took from the way they taught you and you try and embody it in your own teaching and your own work with youth today, what would like one thing be?


Maddie Campbell (07:04):
I think all three of them just had this characteristic of never being afraid. So never be afraid to take that next step or to try something. Oftentimes when I think of those people, I think of just go do it and ask for forgiveness later. Don’t if it’s something that you aren’t sure, but it needs to get done, go do it make, make the right choice. Like they had the faith in us as students to do the right thing which was huge. And then we then were able to have that faith in ourselves that we knew how to make those big decisions. So if I could say anything and trust your gut and just go do it. And that was how they led us. And I think it’s a huge part of my leadership now.


Sam Demma (07:50):
That’s so awesome. The reason I ask is because so many educators right now are afraid and burnt out and not sure what to do and what’s going on. There’s so many challenges being presented to everyone in education, including yourself and everyone from CSLA because of COVID-19. What are some things that you think an educator should be focused on right now? To overcome these challenges?


Maddie Campbell (08:14):
It’s so different. Like today, as we’ve talked, like I should be at CSLC right now, which is our national conference was supposed to start today. We be getting ready for our opening ceremonies. And I think that if anything, I just hope that teachers can remember that this isn’t forever. It seems like it. I, I get that. I feel like we’ve been in this for so long and now it just looks longer and longer. But the bottom line is your kids are still your kids and your students are still the people that they would have been this year, but how do we adjust for them? They still have that spirit. They still have that hunger to learn about leadership and about everything else going on in their school. And yeah, the world has changed, but they’re seeing that too. It’s not just you experiencing that change, it’s your students. So how can you change together? How can you have a conversation about what works for you and them and what are, what are their goals? What were their goals before COVID in their school situation? How do you make those happen? Because I bet you, there’s a way it’s going to be a lot different and a lot of outside the box thinking, but there’s a way and we’re getting there.


Sam Demma (09:28):
That’s awesome. And you mentioned CSLC, I was watching the video on the front page of your new website, the recap promo video. I think it’s from a few years ago, got me super pumped up. Those conferences, change lives, change students’ lives. The speakers come, they change students’ lives. Can you share with us a story of a student who might’ve been directly impacted by something you did or something someone did at a conference and you got to witness it firsthand. And for privacy sake, you don’t have to share the name of the student, or you can just change it. But I’m really curious to know. I think it’s those stories when we tell them from a place of just vulnerability and honesty, that it really inspires educators to remember why they do what they do and to remind them why it’s so important.


Maddie Campbell (10:14):
So I actually talked to a student yesterday for a totally separate project. And I said, I think you went to CSLC and my mistake. And she’s like, Nope, I was there. I’m actually from like where CSLC was happening. So it was close by, but instead of being a delegate, I got asked to be like a, a spirit leader. And so she was very hesitant about that. Would it change her experience, which you still get the same thing out of it? And since then CSLC has just propelled her to think outside the box and do so many more things. So starting her own initiatives for her community applying for individual grants to support projects in her community, she just had this, a list of things she’s like, oh, can I tell you about this? And then we would keep talking to them, oh, I forgot about this.


Maddie Campbell (11:04):
I got to tell you this. And so to see less than a year’s impact on a student who is now in grade 11 and still has two more years of high school left, that’s huge for them to already be doing all these things, being so passionate about them. And that started at CSLC was the first experience that that student had. And since then they’ve looked for other opportunities and how they can grow and make an impact. And I think that was really reflective of the message that students got at CSLC last year, but at every year


Sam Demma (11:39):
That’s amazing and a big part of the celebrations and the conferences are the speakers you bring in. I’m sure you’ve sat in on dozens upon dozens upon dozens, upon dozens of speeches by speakers. I’m curious to know there’s educators listening who want to bring more inspirational messages into their school. How do they choose someone that’s a good fit? What do you think some of the most important attributes or characteristics of a good presenter and speaker?


Maddie Campbell (12:05):
I think you definitely need to know your student audience to start. So what are your students looking for or what point in their leadership journey are your students at? Are they your first time students who you’re at your first leadership retreat or your first meeting, and you’re trying to get them bought into this whole concept of leadership, or are they a grade 11 or 12 student who’s now moving further into their education career or they’re moving into a job or whatever it takes them on their path after high school, how do you prepare them for that next stage in life? And so I think knowing what your students need is important to get back from a speaker, we are so lucky that the students that we get to work with and the Canadian speakers that we work with, they mesh so easily on so many different levels. I think that when we bring Canadian stories to Canadian students, there’s a real connect there. It’s so relatable. All of our speakers have been in these students’ shoes. And I think that also is a really big benefit. So bringing someone who even is from your province or territory, who kind of knows the ground, knows the area to work with your students, I think is really cool. If you can have that relatability.


Sam Demma (13:23):
That’s awesome. That’s really cool. And is there any speaker who you’ve seen at various conferences that sticks out to you as like, wow, that was amazing. Maybe someone you saw in the past at CSLC or who is someone who you kind of really resonated with and why?


Maddie Campbell (13:37):
So the first, not the first, one of the first speakers I ever saw as a student with Ian Tyson and Ian came to our leadership retreat when I was in, at the end of my grade 10 year and I was just blown away. I was like, oh my gosh, like, yeah, I need that energy all the time. Like that was just great. And like I said, he’s Canadian speaker. He could connect with our group of students because he knew exactly what our leadership program was built on and what we were trying to do. And I had seen speakers from the states or, or elsewhere in the world before that. And it just didn’t have the same impact, you know, that they’re telling a story, but you also know that the school culture and climate is so much different in America than it, than it can be in Canada and specifically Ontario. So Ian was someone who stood out to me and then in my grade, 12 year, he presented at CSLC. And so I signed up for that workshop and that was like, hi, I saw you like here. And then and now we kind of get to work together on different projects. So it’s come full circle for me. But Ian is for sure a standard speaker for me and, and my path in leadership, but I think for a lot of students


Sam Demma (14:48):
Yeah, that’s amazing. And you mentioned earlier that, you know, you ever first a attendee of these conferences and now you’re working for the company, which is awesome. And a lot of your work is putting on multiple hats, doing tons of different jobs. I’m curious to know with all the different ideas you’re posting on the blog and sharing on social media, what ideas about increasing virtual engagement or increasing student engagement right now have piqued your interest or you think are worth sharing with other educators?


Maddie Campbell (15:18):
I think for the most part, what we’re trying to do, and it’s, it’s nothing precise, but I think we’re trying to throw a lot of mud at the wall and see what sticks and go from there. It’s such a different year for us. Like I said, we’re supposed to be at CSLC right now. And I would say over 50% of my portfolio is running in-person events. And so now to transition that to, okay, how do we just share these ideas so that students have that resource to do more in their school? It’s a huge challenge. So we are working with teachers who we’ve worked with for years and years and saying, Hey, like, have you tried this in your classroom? Or are you thinking about trying this in your classroom? If so, can you write it up for us, send us a picture and we’ll put it on the blog.


Maddie Campbell (16:02):
If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But we were so lucky, especially having Dave who has been doing this for so, so long, he went back into the archives of newsletters and he pulled activities and ideas and events, and he has in his own headset. Okay. Like, how do we make this work for COVID? How do we make it work for virtual? How do we make it work at a distance? So that from the blog perspective, we’re just, we’re just throwing everything up that we can find. And hopefully it’ll benefit someone from a social media standpoint. We have pretty curated schedule. We try and mix in some light stuff with some heavier stuff. In terms of we do like a wisdom Wednesday. So we work Brad Dixon, who is our social media person. He’s a teacher in Calgary.


Maddie Campbell (16:53):
He will find an article in a picture to go with it and he’ll share it and say like, this is great. Here’s some key points read this article might you might learn something you might not. But then we also share like motivational quotes. We repost things that other schools are doing. So kind of like the blog, but on a social media point, if something happened across Canada this week, we’ll go find it. And on Friday we’ll repost it. I think those get a pretty good uptake. And then we’re also taking words, ideas from students. So if students are connecting with us saying, Hey, like we’re running this in our school, can you share it? Absolutely. if students have their own initiatives that they’re running like that student, I was talking about, who I actually spoke to yesterday, they DMD us on Instagram and told us all about their new initiative. And I said, yep, like, that’s great. We’re here to promote what students are doing. Especially students who are taking the initiative to reach out and say, oh my gosh, I’m doing something so awesome. Please share it. And we have that platform to get it all across Canada.


Sam Demma (17:58):
That’s awesome. Yeah. I love that. And Dave was telling me about some ideas on a previous episode in relation to shoe boxes and the shoe box parade. I don’t know if you heard about that one. He was telling me some really interesting out there ideas that I thought were really cool, but if any ideas stuck out in your mind, I’d love to hear them. I don’t know if you have one that pops to mind.


Maddie Campbell (18:21):
The, one of my favorite ideas that we featured in a newsletter, I want to say three years ago. I believe it was out of Kindersley, Saskatchewan, and they did this fundraiser where they went to their local dump and they picked up old toilets and they repainted them and then they would just drop them on people’s front lawns. And so this campaign was called flush away cancer, and you had to pay money, donate money to their campaign, to get the toilet taken off your lawn. So you could pay $50 to get it taken off and then, or you could pay a hundred dollars and then go put it on someone else’s lawn. And I think when I think about that, and I think about what’s happening now kind of weird, but it would totally work in a pandemic situation. You’re outside, you’re far away. You don’t really have to be near someone or sick closer than six feet away from someone you can handle your donations online. But that was one of the first activities I, I remember reading about in our newsletter when I got more involved in the association and it just stuck. I thought it was so funny and so impactful. And they raised a lot of money when they did it.


Sam Demma (19:34):
That’s a brilliant idea. No, no idea is a bad idea also is can lead to amazing things. I think that’s a general theme. Whenever I asked that question with these interviews a more internal question for yourself, what keeps you motivated? Things are difficult. They’re different right now. Like you said, a lot of your portfolio is about in-person events. The first couple of weeks back in March, the week of March 13th, you were probably in need of a toilet, you know, like, like, oh my God, what am I supposed to do here? And everyone’s just going crazy. You fill in the blank and I’m curious to know what keeps you going? Is there an impact that you have that you’ve seen that you had on other people that just reminds you why you do what you do? A lot of educators and people who work in education might be burnt out right now?


Maddie Campbell (20:23):
I definitely feel the burnout every once in a while when it comes to programming in a normal year. So like after a CSLC, I’m like Kim I’m done for, for four or five days and by day five, I normally get a cold. And then I’m really down and out. So this has been different in terms of being at home and not seeing a lot of people as I, it is for everybody. What keeps motivated is how much freedom I have in my role. So yes, there are things that need to get done every day or every week. Yes, we have priorities for the year. We have to figure out what programs are replacing. CSLC how we’re going to make horizon leadership conferences happen this year. We pivoted in COVID pretty quickly to develop an online program, but in between all that, I also have the ability to say, Hey, let’s try this, or let’s do this.


Maddie Campbell (21:16):
The, the fact that I have that space to be creative in my role is what keeps me motivated because I’ll have a day where a light bulb will go off and I’ll text Dave frantically and say, Hey, like, what about this? Like, can we try this? What do you think about this? And he’ll, he’ll just fill me and he’d be like, oh, the light bulbs are on, like, the gears are turning today. And I’m like, yes. And so those moments, those light bulb moments, keep me going in what we’re doing. And then when we can come full circle and maybe the light bulbs actually been screwed in somewhere, that’s what makes it worth it. So when I go back in my notes and I’m, I’m preparing for a meeting right now, and I went through the agenda of our meeting in may. So this is two months after things really kind of went to a halt. And just our notes on talking about the development of our student leadership certification program. We basically presented a bare bones idea in may. And we said, level one of this four level program, we have a draft ready, but it was not ready yet. And today we have all four levels ready and done and out to the world and over a hundred students enrolled in the program. So to see stuff comes full circle, like that is what keeps me going.


Sam Demma (22:32):
That’s awesome. That’s so cool. And if any educator is listening right now and they just want to reach out, have a conversation, bounce, some ideas around where can they reach out to you, Maddie?


Maddie Campbell (22:44):
The easiest way to get ahold of me is my email which is mcampbell@studentleadership.ca. But you can also reach out to us through our Instagram page, which is @canadianstudentleaders. There’s a few of us who are monitoring that, but for the most part, I think I’m the one who answers the messages on a regular basis. It’s kind of my responsibility because we have a teacher who’s in that role as well. So while they’re busy teaching, I can take the wheel on the social media side of things. So if you send us a message on there, we’ll definitely get connected and figure out the best way to have a chat from there.


Sam Demma (23:23):
Awesome. Matt, it’s been a huge pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the High Performing Educators show.

Maddie Campbell (23:28):
Appreciated. Thank you for having me


Sam Demma (23:31):
There. You have it, the full interview with Maddie Campbell. I hope you enjoyed it and took some notes. There was so much to take away from this amazing interview. Maddie had so much to offer and as always, if you are an educator who was enjoying these interviews and you personally have something to share with your fellow colleagues and other educators, please shoot me an email at info@samdemma.com so we can get your insights and ideas on the podcast for everyone to hear and use. And if you know somebody who might be a good fit as a guest, please also email me and nominate them to come on the show because we’re always looking for more amazing educators to talk to. Anyways, I’ll see you on the next episode. Talk soon.

Join the Educator Network & Connect with Maddie Campbell

The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.

Erika Rath – Director of Student Services at The Sacred Heart School of Montreal

Erika Rath - Director of Student Services at The Sacred Heart School of Montreal (Part 2)
About Erika Rath

Erika Rath is the Director of Student Services and teacher at The Sacred Heart School of Montreal. Erika has been working in the educational field since the late 1990s. She was always involved in her community recreation programs and worked as a camp counsellor and director for several summers.

While studying in Cegep and University, Erika worked with pre-school children and led classes for parents and young toddlers. In 2004, while completing her Bachelor’s degree in Human Relations at Concordia University, Erika became a teaching assistant in the department and realized that she loved working with people and leading groups. After finishing her BA, she decided to obtain a certificate in Teaching English as a Second language so that she could travel the world and teach. Before making any firm plans, she was accepted to do her Master’s in Educational Psychology at McGill University and was also offered a job in a learning centre at her old high school.

Both opportunities led her to realize that working with students was her passion. She went on to teach English and Social studies at the high school for 5 years and then was accepted to do the one-year teaching program at The University of Toronto.  Upon returning to Montreal, Erika was finally able to use her TESOL certificate and worked for Concordia in the continuing education department.

On a whim, Erika applied to The Sacred Heart School of Montreal and was hired for a part-time position. Over the years, Erika has been fortunate to experience a variety of roles within the school. She has taught English, been the Student Life Coordinator, the Director of Academics, helped out with enrolment and advancement, advised students on post-secondary choices and more.

Currently, Erika oversees all of student life, the boarding program, the grade 12 program, the discipline at the school and teaches the PD-personal development class to all grade levels. Erika is passionate about educating the whole student and hopes to help in their growth and development by creating an environment where students can talk openly without fear of judgment.

Erika is the proud recipient of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence.

Connect with Erika Rath: Email | Linkedin

Listen Now (Part One)

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Listen Now (Part Two)

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Erika Rath Personal Blog

TED Talks

Trunk or Treat

Award for Teaching Excellence

National Coalition-Girls School (NCGS )

Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS)

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:01):
Erika welcome back to the high performing educator podcast. This is your second time on the show. It is a pleasure to have you here today because you’re celebrating a huge milestone because of the impact that the program that you’ve been running in your school is making, why don’t you introduce yourself in share a little bit about that milestone moment?


Erika Rath (00:24):
Sure. Thanks. Sam for having me again, I, love being here. So yes, I’m the director of student services at the sacred heart school of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. And I’m also a teacher. I teach a class called PD – personal development. And basically I was given the award for teaching excellence for helping to empower young women and and you know propel them forward to be change makers and, and make a difference in this world. And I think in order to do that, we have to understand who we are and where we come from and be vulnerable and be open to having challenging and sometimes conversations. So the class is pretty unique. I see the students for one hour, every eight days and it’s not mandated by the ministry, so there’s no homework, there’s no grading, there’s no marks, which is great for them. And for me, of course, and it gives us the ability to be ourselves and see where the win. Of course, I go in, obviously with a plan, a video to share an activity that we can work on, but it’s amazing to see that the, the, we, we find ourselves going in different directions based on what we need that particular moment.


Sam Demma (01:37):
Students often hear the word PD when they have a day off No, we, we have a PD day and every kid goes home to watch Netflix and eat chips and teachers go and improve their practice or teaching. What inspired the creation of a, a PD class for students. And what does the content and the curriculum actually looked like in that Classroom?


Erika Rath (02:05):
Sure. Great question. So, so first of all, here we call it a P day. So we try not to confuse the students with PD and PD, but, but it’s funny because teachers when we have PD days or we have we do professional development, right? So that’s, so it’s, it’s a bit similar in the sense that for the students, we are, we’re growing, we’re personally, we’re developing ourselves. And so the, the course is not something I created it already existed before I even came to the school, but it was called GI and that was general instruction. And so when we think of what is generally taught, you know, that could be a whole gamut of things. And of course what did, was, I tried to modernize it a little bit and realize that you know, there are certain things that still were really important, like mass etiquette, right?


Erika Rath (02:52):
Like how to sit properly in a chapel or in any place of worship and be respectful. But there were some other things that I just, you know, maybe weren’t my forte or I didn’t know them well enough. And so I, I kind of said like, let, what else can we be teaching? So digital citizenship and literacy, like what, what is your place online? How to, how to be, how to act online, things like that. And then also just like looking back at my own experience in high school and thinking like, what were some of the things is that I was missing there? Oh, like a place to have a conversation about how I’m feeling as a woman or as a teenager growing into a body and, and, and a discussion around that. And, oh, I’m sure if I’m feeling that 10 other students are feeling that too. Could we at least try to be comfortable in an uncomfortable place together and come together through that that, that the, the sense that we’re the same and how could we connect over that? And so that’s really kind of where I was teaching general instruction, and then I thought, I don’t want it to be so general anymore. I want it to be a little bit more about our growth and development. What could we be calling this? And we played around with some names, and that’s what we came up with.


Sam Demma (03:58):
You mentioned sometimes you go to the class and obviously you have ideas of activities, videos to watch. What are some of the resources, maybe books, videos that you and the class work through to prompt some meaningful discussion, maybe, you know, name a couple of those resources that you think might be helpful if someone else’s listening and will wants to have a meaningful discussion with a group of young women.


Erika Rath (04:23):
Sure. So I, I mean, I’ll be honest. I use a lot of videos from Ted talks. I really, I think those are great. It’s great to see people you might not really ever get to see in, in real life. You know, just walking down the street or in your community. So I use a lot of that. I short snippets I use a software called my B, so what I’ve done is it creates like a portfolio system for the students. And so what is really cool is that they can see kind of their growth and development over the course of five years. So, wow. How did I respond to a reflection in grade seven and then, wow, I’m now a mature young adult in grade 11. How do, how am I responding a little bit differently, maybe to a similar topic, but we’re delving in a bit deeper.


Erika Rath (05:02):
I also bring in a lot of guest speakers because let’s be honest, I’m not an expert in everything and, and any, you know, in all, in all of things. And so I think it’s really important to have people who know a lot more or who are more research based than I am coming in. So, you know, like mad will come in and do a talk about driving under, under the influence. We’ll have guest speakers about mental health coming in. We might have residents or doctors in, in in from different hospitals coming in to talk to us about different things. I, I wanna make sure that the students are getting the right information. And if I don’t know it, I, I don’t wanna pretend to. So I don’t think there’s any, you know, anything, there’s no shame in saying, I don’t know, but let me figure out how I can know it and present it to you in the best way.


Sam Demma (05:50):
That’s awesome. And the sharing of uncomfortable things like you mentioned earlier, yeah. Often happens when trust is built. At least that’s how I look at it when I am about to share something that I think is very private or maybe a little bit embarrassing or something. I only talk to with some of my best friends. How do you think you build, build that trust with a student and a group of students to this degree where they’re willing to share this uncomfortable conversations?


Erika Rath (06:27):
That’s such a great question. I mean, trust is definitely not built overnight. And, and I find that I’m in a bit of a difficult position here. As a director of student services, I’m also in charge of discipline at, at the school. And so I, I don’t want a student to feel that she can’t come tell me something just because I might have given her a detention the week before for uniforms or lates or, or whatever else the, the infraction might have been. So it’s really hard to juggle the two, but I think being approachable, you know, like the door to my office is always open. Also just being physically close to the girls and where they keep their belongings, that helps. But also, like I often tell stories about my own childhood or my, my parents or my family or what it was like growing up.


Erika Rath (07:07):
And then I think it’s like, oh, Ms. Roth is sharing. She’s putting herself out there. She’s being vulnerable. She’s trusting us with this story. Then they do learn to trust me also, I do wanna have a good of time with them. I do wanna share, I do wanna address topics. The other part of the job, the discipline part is not the fun part. It’s not like I get joy outta that. It’s just that that’s part of what I have to do. And, and the truth is that’s a teaching, that’s a teachable moment as well. Like we’ve asked you to do something. You might not agree with it. But we’re asking you to do it. We’ve given rationale and we’re asking you to follow it the same as at work, right? Your boss says you have to come in at eight 30. Well, you like to sleep until nine 30. Well, you have to figure out how to get there at eight 30 and, and be respectful and do that. So I think it’s about life skills and realizing that we work with a lot of different people. We might not always like the rules, but we still have to follow them. You know, we can find out why there are rules. But I think it all really comes back to the trust, the teachable moment. And hopefully the girls can see me like and separate the fact that the discipline is involved.


Sam Demma (08:11):
I love that. A big part from talking to you previously, I know a big part of your work is also encouraging service, the importance of giving back. And I know right now you’re doing some unique things in this school, not only to give back to the students, but also to fundraise and give back to the community as a whole. What are some of those things that are going on that you think are unique ideas that other schools may be able to implement and also touch upon the importance of service?


Erika Rath (08:38):
Sure. That great, great high. I mean, we’re so devoted to service. It’s, it’s one of our our goals social awareness, which empowers to action. And so this year’s a little bit tricky again with COVID. We often do huge boxes of food in every Homer homeroom. Every student is responsible for bringing in, you know, like ketchups and mustards and cereals and things like that. We also do toy drives and warm, mittens gloves, hat, socks. Unfortunately, a lot of the places that we support have reached out to us and said due to, to limiting of space and just with COVID, they don’t want the actual items this year. So everyone’s donating money so that we can buy gift cards at grocery stores to donate to needy families so that they can have a Christmas meal on their, on their table.


Erika Rath (09:22):
In addition we’re selling hot chocolate at lunch, just raising money in, in different ways. We have a spare change challenge. So we decorate those huge water bottles and the grades have to put change in their water bottles and grade who raises the most money in change will win like a free dress day or a pizza lunch in the new year. You can also kind of like if you have a rival grade, you could stick bills into their ch into their jug. And then it kind of like offsets their amount, but we’re still obviously raising money. So it’s still good. And then an idea that we came up with this year, which I’m super proud of, which a lot of fun is a call the advent calendar. So everyone knows, you know, you get an advent calendar, you open it up every day.


Erika Rath (10:02):
There’s a little chocolate. Sure. That’s a little fun surprise. We, the school, we are the advent calendar this year. And so students have prepaid for the entire month of December and every day they come to school and we dispense a small all gift to them. That was a surprise. The night before we might email them with a clue, or we might tell them, you know, it’s a free dress day tomorrow because you bought the advent calendar passport. Today they got to pie a teacher or their class rep we’ve given out like 10 bits. We will give out things like Christmas cookies. And then on Fridays, we double up the gift, cuz they’re are not here on the weekend. So we raised quite a bit of money that way, and it’s just nice to see students participating and having fun and doing good for the community. And, and I want them to understand that it’s an integral part of who we are, but we can also have fun in a meaningful way as well.


Sam Demma (10:53):
When you say Tim bits, do you mean Tim BES?


Erika Rath (10:56):
So we, we got this Tim bits. Yeah. Now I’ve been wanting to see the Tim BES. So we, we we had preordered, so we just got a lot of Timbits


Sam Demma (11:04):
That’s so awesome. And this past year has been unique for you as an educator because it’s been full of transition, you know, COVID slowing down, hopefully fingers crossed, not speeding up a good in with new variants and whatnot. How have you continued to educate yourself and you know, continue with your own PD and personal development. What are any conferences you attended over the past year, since we last spoke that you found meaningful or resources that you’ve you’ve read or watched that you as an educator thought were helpful, that someone else may been it from?


Erika Rath (11:38):
That’s a great question. I, I think it’s the students that really continue to inspire and, and energize me this year has been so much better than last year. You know, I feel like we’re kind of back to normal just with the mask, which is fine. You know, we’re all used to wearing it. It’s part of our lives. We had our first school assembly in September and I could feel the buzz in the room and like just the sheer, like wanting to be together and the applause and the raw rawness of it. I, I was sitting in, in the chair at the front and I could feel tears coming down my cheek because I was so happy to be happy and so happy to be like, oh my God, we’re together. This is actually happening. And it, it made me realize like the togetherness, the community that we have is I always knew it was important, but we had been missing that for over a year.


Erika Rath (12:27):
We did it in other ways online and things like that, but it obviously wasn’t the same. It just, it made me realize how much the girls need each other. And it, it made me quite emotional. So I, I can say that, yes, I attend PD and, and it’s always good, but I feel it’s, it’s the learning I get the day in and day out here that I think really propels me to do more good. I really, I do some work with NC a national coalition of girl schools. I do some work with C a I S Canadian accredited, independent schools both fantastic organizations that I love doing PD with. And obviously our sacred heart network as well. It’s, it’s amazing, you know, winning this award actually people from the network started reaching out. Can we talk about your class? Ask, can we talk about PD? And all of a sudden I’m on zoom calls, sharing with people like around the world at sacred heart, which is such an amazing opportunity. So the PD and the connecting and, and the networking has been really good, but like I said, it’s the girls, it’s, it’s really the girls.


Sam Demma (13:29):
Yeah, it’s so cool. And if someone’s in another school wanting to start something similar with a group of girls, how would you instruct them to start? Or where do you think they should take their first step to bring something like this to life?


Erika Rath (13:48):
I would love that first of all, anyone can reach out to me, you know, through you. That’s not a problem. But also it’s so funny, your, your question just sparked like a, like a memory for me. I was doing a bachelor’s in human relations at Concordia university. And everyone was like, what is that? And I’m like, it’s a way to learn how to talk to people and run groups and be a leader. And it’s funny for our field placement for our, our stage. We had to find, we had to come up with a program, design it and implement it. And as I look back, I, I realize now my program was done in an elementary school with grade five and six girls for eight lunch times. And I ran activities about body image. Ah, and so I’m thinking back now and I’m like, oh my God, this was kind of like in me the whole time, like, I feel like this is a way, like what I was of meant to do. So I think if you have an idea, you, and you wanna like, just run it by your students and they’ll tell you if it’s good or not, like, believe me, I run a lot of ideas by my students and they’ll be brutally honest. So but they’ll tell you, you know, like I think, I think there’s a lot of like power in at least trying. And I know it’s hard to like sometimes put yourself out there, but these conversations are too important to not be had.


Sam Demma (15:00):
Yeah, I totally agree. And if someone does want to learn a little more about how you run the program and potentially even have you give them a little blueprint or the first steps to try it in their school, who knows maybe this program grows and becomes its own thing that other educators, you know, can learn from you and implement in their own schools. But if someone does want some more information and has some questions for you, what would be the best way for them to get in touch, reach out, ask a question.


Erika Rath (15:29):
Sure. That would be my email, erath@sacredheart.qc.ca. I check that all the time. So that would be the best way to reach me.


Sam Demma (15:37):
Awesome. And as we enter the holiday season, depending on when this interview comes out, it might not logically make sense. So , as we enter the hypothetical holiday season any last words any last pieces of wisdom for an educator who might be listening anything you wanna se share or send as a parting word?


Erika Rath (16:01):
So I think just, you know, we are all looking forward to the holidays, cuz I think we do need a break educators work really hard. We’re with students all the time. We’re on all the time. And I say this to students too. Like we all need some downtime to be with our friends and our family and then, and to come back, you know, refreshed and energized in the new year. I think it’s really important to do something for yourself to take a little bit of time for self care and also to continue realizing why we do what we do for me. It I’m, I’m passionate about it and brings me a lot of joy. And so I just think it’s important to give back at this time some time for yourself and, and, you know, be happy to be with family and friends and enjoy the moment and be present.


Sam Demma (16:43):
Erika, congratulations again on the huge milestone and award. So deserving enjoy the holiday season and we’ll talk to you soon.


Erika Rath (16:52):
Sounds good. Thank you too.

Join the Educator Network & Connect with Erika Rath

The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.