Interview with The Bishop Strachan School Alum, Noa Gafni
- Name
Noa Gafni - Grades (year)
Gr. 2 - Gr. 12 - University (major)
Vassar College (Drama and Environmental Studies) - Gender
Female - Enrolment
Day student
Noa, an alum at Bishop Strachan School, shared her perspective on the strong community, empowering leadership opportunities, meaningful extracurriculars, and how BSS shaped her confidence, passions, and sense of belonging.
Highlights from the interview
I felt like I belonged the whole time and that I was supported, and that my interests were cared about… I felt like I mattered and was cared about in a broad sense.
We have the signature of a BSS girl, which is grit and growth mindset and lots of things like that. It’s basically a list of attributes that the school tries to impart throughout your time there. Perseverance is a big one.
BSS is an academically rigorous school… My experience was that it was very inquiry-based and very focused on what we cared about as students.
There’s a lot of emphasis on learning through discovery. Not figuring it out by yourself with no support, but learning it in a way that sticks better than just memorizing something someone tells you. That worked really well for me.
Extracurricular programming at BSS is one of my favourite parts. I grew a lot through extracurriculars, I'd say equally as much as academically, because there's so much community and opportunity to explore passions.
Teaching wasn't just about delivering material; it was about making sure we learned it. Class sizes are small, and there's the opportunity for teachers to care about each individual, if you put in the work to get to know them, too.
It's a great leadership opportunity, and if you're just participating, the events are fun because they’re created by people your age.
It looks like Hogwarts. It's beautiful. It's not so big that you get lost, but still large enough to have everything.
People always cared about helping BSS girls, which was really nice. I reached out to someone from my school who had gone to my university, and others I was applying to.
I felt nurtured and cared for, and I feel like BSS grew me into a person I can be proud of. Academics are important, but I think BSS's strength is creating a whole person with passions, goals, and kindness.
