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Interview with University of Toronto Schools PARENT, Samhita Gera
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Samhita, a parent at University of Toronto Schools (UTS), shared her perspective on the school's academic excellence, innovative and research-driven learning, inclusive community, accessible teachers, and extensive co-curricular opportunities. She reflected on how UTS has challenged her son to become more independent and self-motivated while fostering curiosity, collaboration, leadership, and a strong sense of belonging.
Highlights from the interview
- We heard about UTS and just what it stood for, and it intrigued us in terms of its academic excellence.
We heard about UTS and just what it stood for, and it intrigued us in terms of its academic excellence.
When I got there and visited the school, and we walked through the various classrooms with the teachers, I started to appreciate the innovation mindset and the research mindset. It was very clear through the various demonstrations that all the learning is around innovation and curiosity.
If we talk about excellence, you could see that that's practiced in terms of the programming that they put out. The curiosity and love for learning that you could see, and that's probably clearer. But they do talk about leadership, inclusion, belonging, serving to a broader community, and we see that it's definitely practiced.
There are a lot of events to ensure that the students recognize that they belong as a community, like their differences are valued and shared and communicated, so that everybody feels like they're part of the community.
The feeling that I get from the teachers, or my connections with the teachers, is that I can see that they are available to the students. They post their office hours, or they are very clear in saying, "If you need help, reach out," and we're available outside of those office hours if it doesn't work.
UTS definitely has a lot of co-curricular programs. I think I remember taking a picture the first day when we went and seeing, I think, over a hundred clubs that are run.
You budget for the things that matter, and you make the sacrifices for the choices that you want for your own future and your children's future. And we've made certain sacrifices so that our son can have this incredible opportunity. And I don't regret a second of it.
There is obviously a lot of support that the school tries to provide. So I would encourage families to look into those supports and apply and consider them, and at least put your hand forward.
I was looking for a school that would be an intellectual challenge, and UTS surpasses that by far. But it has to be for a student who is self-motivated, who enjoys that intellectual challenge, to be able to flourish, because the last thing you want is to put a child in a situation where they start doubting themselves.
I will say that the level of independence that the students learn through this school is incredible. I did not think that he was going to be able to manage the course load himself—all the communication, the emails, being on top of the programming, the homework, the tests.
