Interview with Fieldstone School Alum, Adham Ragab

When attending Fieldstone School I most appreciated the openness of the staff. They were so open to hearing some of the ideas that I had, some of the suggestions that I brought up and wanted to expand in the sense that they wanted to include more student initiatives and really wanted to have more activities to connect with the students as well. I could go to any member of staff and just have a conversation with them. When you're new and when you're trying to adapt to life within a new country, you appreciate having that openness within the school that you're attending. So it's a nice experience to have just being able to go up to a member of staff, talk to them, discuss ideas with them.

Fieldstone School offers the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which I actually wanted to engage in back when I was in the ninth grade, but I had to move to Spain at the time and so I couldn't. And the fact that I got to experience that at Fieldstone, something I'd known about for years and wanted to do for years as well as different experiences that I didn't expect the school to have, was something else I appreciated about Fieldstone.

I think a majority of the student population of the school are international students, and the school does actively look into bringing international students. From those I've talked to from other schools, that wasn't necessarily the case at their schools. But what opened my eyes was the fact that the school was so open to having people from different countries come in and help broaden the community in terms of the culture, in terms of the different viewpoints that are being offered. I think that was something that I think the school did well in terms of the fact that they were so willing to bring in all those new students who were just moving to Canada and helped them adapt to the country. I think that really helped those coming in. I think that's the same position that the school took with other students as well.

I think if Fieldstone School was a person, they would be that friendly party host just wanting to welcome people and talk to them and get them used to the environment.

The school runs a month-long orientation program over the summer. I think that orientation month in August before school started was really helpful because they took us on trips. We got to go to the University of Toronto, just explore the campus, because obviously a lot of students are interested in getting into the University of Toronto. We got to go to Toronto Islands. We got to go to the AGO—just different landmarks around the city to introduce us to the city of Toronto. Not just school life, not just how to do well at school, but also how to move around Toronto. So, for example, they gave us pamphlets and instructions on using the subway system. So just taking people onto these different trips to these different places just to get them used to the city around them.

One reason I chose Fieldstone School was because I was doing the British curriculum in Spain, so I was doing the IGCSEs and then moving on to A-Levels. And I wanted to continue the A-Level route and Fieldstone has the Cambridge program, which was exactly what I was looking for in terms of wanting to continue my A-Levels. Ideally, I would have wanted to stay with the A-Levels, but I got to experience the Ontario curriculum as well. But I did end up doing the math A-Level course at Fieldstone, which is something I hoped to get out of it.

I think the main value is community because there's a lot of people coming in from different places. If there is, for example, a person at the school who is maybe the same nationality or can speak the same language as an incoming student, the school actively gets them to become a mentor to that student to get them adapted to school life. A lot of students may come in, maybe not speak perfect English or may not be familiar with the language. So getting them to be with a person that they might be comfortable with does help them adapt better to the school.

You have certain events that the school holds that get staff and students together. So for example, there was a Christmas luncheon, there was a Mardi Gras festival. There was Halloween, obviously, but just these different celebrations, these different days in which students and staff can engage with each other just so that there was a real focus on community spirit from the events that were held and from the way some things were conducted.

One of the things that sort of surprised me about Fieldstone School was the amount of extracurricular opportunities that were there for students to take part in. As a high school student in Ontario you need a certain number of volunteer hours, and the school had a lot of contacts for a lot of volunteer hours. For example, the school got me to volunteer at the Toronto Marathon in 2018. So there was this weird number of contacts in a lot of different places that allowed students to partake in a lot of volunteer opportunities.

I'd have to say Fieldstone School shaped who I am today massively because the school was my introduction to life in Canada. How I carried myself in the school translated into my personal life, how I carried myself living here, how I carried myself just being who I am, really. It was my last year of high school, and so the decisions I had to consider were ones that affected my life moving forward. So I'd have to say Fieldstone influenced who I am, my priorities in life, my focus on who I wanted to become and what I wanted to become, what I wanted to do, not just in academic pursuits, but in life pursuits as well. Because I had to focus on which universities I wanted to find and because I had to focus on how I wanted to carry myself in my last year in such a formative system, getting to experience that year at Fieldstone changed my outlook on a lot of things.

I think one of the main things I'm thankful for is the fact that the school offers the Cambridge program. So I'm in the engineering science program at the University of Toronto. It's very fast paced. It's very advanced. It's not an easy task, not at all. And what I've noticed is that those coming from IB and A-Levels have tended to do noticeably better than the students who are coming in from the interior Ontario curriculum. And my strongest courses have been the more math-based courses, which I got a lot of experience in by doing A-Levels at Fieldstone. In a way it gave me a little bit more knowledge and more preparation for what was to come in terms of the math side of things. And I'm thankful for that.

The three biggest reasons to choose Fieldstone School are first, a lot of alumni are involved. There's a lot of connections to be made. If someone's focusing on establishing that community spirit and wants that in the school, then that's the school for you. Secondly, I would say that the extracurricular programs offered are very interesting. There's a lot of cultural extracurriculars offered to the school as well. So if someone's interested in having a side to their education that will supplement their personality or supplement their character a little bit more, then the options on hand at Fieldstone are absolutely great. And thirdly, if anyone's looking for an extra academic challenge, the fact that the Cambridge program is offered at the school as well as other academic challenges is great, for example, the Waterloo chemistry contest or math contests.

If a family is considering Fieldstone School right now, I’d tell them that the administration can really help the student adapt within the school. Fieldstone School is great at establishing that transition for students into the school and they continue to help them with that extra side to school that is outside of academics, that is outside of studying. I think having someone there who really cares about the welfare of the student outside of academics is really helpful for students.