Leadership interview with Sam McKinney, Upper Canada College

In so many ways, I think I have the best job in the city of Toronto or the province or what have you. I feel incredibly fortunate. I work at an incredible organization, an organization that's entering its 192nd year, nearly two centuries old in a wonderful city, the city of Toronto, with exceptional colleagues.

I work with individuals who are deeply committed to the work that they do, great professionals who are also a great fun to be around, and then in a community that I would say has been wonderful for our family to be a part of. I work with just extraordinary young men, individuals who bring with them the many different gifts and talents and abilities at the various ages and stages of their learning journey, from senior kindergarten boys who I have the pleasure of going down and reading with on occasion, through to our graduates at year twelve who are individuals heading off to exciting opportunities beyond their time at the school. Quite unbelievable young men. So a real pleasure for me to have that opportunity.

Many things surprised me about UCC. I suppose the history and tradition hasn't been a surprise. But what really has surprised me is the forward looking focus of the College. Perhaps it shouldn't surprise me, but the College set forward in its strategic intentions, the idea of a bold future, and really is taking steps towards that. While its history is a fantastic foundation, it's not an anchor, it's simply something to build upon. And really the way that it is looking forward, looking at programs and opportunities to ensure that what has been defined in the mission of the College, a transformational learning experience, is what we're able to deliver to the boys. 

So the forward focus has been something that perhaps has been pleasing, maybe not surprising. I would also say that the community of the College is a wonderfully inclusive community, one that is extraordinarily diverse. When we were speaking just before this call, we were talking about the circumstance that I've had personally to live and work outside of Canada and in fact, spending 20 years overseas. It was actually 23 years between leaving the city of Toronto and returning to Toronto and the incredible diversity of our city and our country.

The wonderful inclusion that we feel in this city and country is something that also is experienced here at the College, with more than 40 different nationalities by birth represented in our student population, with a great range of individuals across socioeconomic statuses of our society supported by a financial assistance program in the school. Diversity is something that has been wonderfully pleasing, maybe not surprising, but incredibly pleasing about my experience at UCC.

Yes, tradition is important, and you can't avoid 192 years of history and tradition. There's a palpable sense that people have gone before you when you walk through the halls of the school. There's a wonderful network of alumni and a wonderfully strong community in the school.

But when I'm talking about perhaps forward focus, I could speak to programming aspects, elements like even just within the last few weeks of conversation that we had with individuals in our community, racialized individuals, individuals who would identify as black, having a conversation about anti-Black racism. And that with a value of pluralism identified in the five fundamental values of the College, how we live a pluralistic viewpoint or outlook in the school, and how we can ensure that the community of the school is one that is inclusive, that we take the steps that are necessary societally as we're observing in Canada and certainly in Toronto to be an inclusive community.This means one that is supportive of all individuals and recognizes that differences are to be celebrated, not to divide us, and that what we cherish is similarity between us as individuals. And that when we can recognize that differing perspectives add a richness and a value to a community, we're a better community.

We're an International Baccalaureate school, and from grade 6 through to grade 10, we offer a program in design, and really in developing the skill set of design thinking that has required renovation to facilities and the implementation of design centers within the school. It's become an incredibly popular area for our students in an area that is bringing about a very human-centered approach to problem-solving. That would be a programmatic example of a forward-looking perspective and viewpoint. Those would be two examples that spring to mind.

I guess in many ways I'm a steward of the College. I have the opportunity to lead, as I mentioned earlier, remarkable faculty and staff group and student group, to engage with our alumni and to steward the College into or towards its third century as an institution. And that role of stewardship is to again build on the foundation of our history. I would suggest that one of the earliest opportunities that we had to build on that history was in the development of new strategic directions. So three years ago, we launched new strategic directions for the College. We refresh the vision and mission of the school, defined our values, and set three specific goal areas that we were focused on as we approached the beginning of our third century. Those are around the “best self.”

So the idea that when a student is here at the College, that we provide them with the opportunity and support them in becoming the very best version of themselves, that they can be the idea of a flourishing community. To help to foster a community of which we're proud, a community that is supportive of the College, but that also is supportive of a much broader community and that lives the mission of the school, which is to leave a lasting and positive impact in our world. That's what we seek to provide a learning experience that inspires our boys to have that degree of impact, supported by our community and finally, a bold future.

I suppose what I would like my legacy to be is that we have taken the strongest of steps towards supporting the development of “best self,” that we are a flourishing community within a flourishing community, and that we are taking strides towards a bold future. I think that the current period that we're in, this COVID-19 impacted period, has really challenged education, and I've been so very pleased by the way that we've responded to that challenge. It's meant that we've had to embrace many aspects of learning, teaching, and operations that were embodied within that bold future. The idea of hybrid education, of learning both in person and online, supporting that through the use of technology, working remotely, as many of us have had to do, it's really brought the future to today in many respects. And I've been so incredibly inspired by the creativity, the collegiality, and the commitment of all across our school as we've endeavored to undertake that task.I would say that if I were to write my legacy, it would be that I stewarded our community in collaboration with a wonderfully strong leadership group, faculty and staff towards, yes, that strong community, flourishing community to individuals who are becoming their best selves and a school that is embracing the future.

Yes, we are an all boys school, but I think this is imperative in education. It is true for an all-boys institution, but it is equally true for any school and even for our broader community. I think we're recognizing the importance of wellbeing, physical, social, and emotional health, and the important role that education plays in fostering well being, in supporting individual well-being, in responding when there are challenges, but also providing skills and abilities to individuals so that they can navigate those ups and downs that we all inevitably face.

The relationship that exists between our students and our faculty and staff is wonderfully strong. And I believe that it helps to foster wellbeing, I believe that an individual's best self is reflected in, and we use the term. head, heart and humanity in our strategic directions documentation.  You could perhaps speak to the health components of heart, but also the heart that we have of creating an empathy and an inclusion that helps us to be the types of community that really are most beneficial for us as a society. And then that notion of humanity, taking and extending that thought to that place of true inclusion, diversity and the recognition of other mindedness that it isn't solely about me, but it is about others as well. And developing another mindedness broadening on that thought of inclusion.

As part of the strategic directions development, we identified five fundamental values of the value of learning, the idea that learning is a journey and not a destination, and that we seek to have a growth mindset and to continue to learn not just during our time at school, but in our lives. Beyond the notion of service and other mindedness, the notion of community and the value of a strong community and strong relationships, trusting relationships within a community, the notion of well-being that we've just discussed, as well as that notion of pluralism, those five fundamental values underpin a UCC education and very much the experience of each boy within the College.

That hasn't been my experience, and I believe that the College is one that is an environment that is welcoming, that is incredibly supportive with programs of financial assistance. We have an offering of more than $5.4 million annually in financial assistance to support any individual into the College. The financial assistance program supports more than 220 students annually into the school. That socioeconomic diversity is one that is incredibly healthy for the College and is making it a wonderful environment to work within. I would suggest that while we sit in a very fortunate position at the top of a Hill in Toronto, and while there might be a fence surrounding the school, this is an open environment and one that is welcoming of individuals from across the full breadth of the community of Toronto and nationally. And internationally.

We are indeed a day and boarding school. We're predominantly day, but we do have an incredibly vibrant boarding population in the school and that population has existed throughout our history as a school. The student population annually approaches 1200 students. The boarders come from as many as 25 countries in last year's boarding population. They are a wonderful group coming from across Canada. We had individuals from Alberta through to the East Coast of Newfoundland in our boarding community, and that community, as I mentioned, is wonderfully vibrant, involved in the full breadth of school activities, very much interconnected with our day population. Our student population of 1170 begins with senior kindergarten students, and we have one class of senior kindergarten students. We have entry years in year three and year five, year six, year seven and into our high school. Our boarders don't begin until that high school age, typically starting in around year nine and progressing through to graduation. They are, through classroom experience, through co-creator activities, sports, drama, music and the like, all involved in the full program of the school.

I've mentioned inclusion a few times, but it's one where individuals from our boarding community and our day community interact in all respects in all areas of endeavor. And it's wonderfully pleasing that our family lives on campus and we have an opportunity to interact with the borders on a regular basis. And indeed, this year, even given the circumstances of COVID-19, our family is going to move out of the principal's residence on the school grounds and borders are going to move in here. We've decided that it would be helpful to create an environment where boys can be in single rooms. And we've taken the decision this year to create more single rooms by vacating this home where a number of our boarders will be able to reside this year and in support of the boarding program.

Students come to us from down towards the Lake, east towards Scarborough and beyond, west towards Mississauga, north towards Richmond Hill. They come from all spokes of that wheel. And many students travel a significant distance to come to school, some by public transit, some by personal transport, and others will walk or ride a bicycle to school. So there isn't one specific neighborhood for students in the school. We draw from all across the city, indeed with the boarding community and from across the country and globally. So there isn't one neighborhood for the school, that is for sure.

A family that is seeking what our mission defines as a transformational learning experience. A family that wants for their child, for their son, specifically, an opportunity to become the best version of themselves. They want a breadth of opportunities available for their child, opportunities that are clearly within the classroom, a rigorous, Liberal education that is supported by a breadth of cocurricular opportunities, opportunities on a sporting field or in a theater with a musical instrument, a club. There are 20 different sporting activities in the school, performances across all year levels at the school that are theater in nature, musical opportunities across our year levels, there are approaching 100 clubs that are student led for our students in the school. And that breadth of opportunity is what I would anticipate a family would be seeking for their son. Ultimately, what I hope and what I believe we provide is the development of a platform for an individual to stand on when they leave the school.

But I believe a student also leaves an honest sense of who they are, what they can do, an honest sense of themselves, and a sense of confidence that they can then use as their platform to go on and take the challenges that will arise for them beyond their time at the school. And if we're successful in creating engaging and meaningful opportunities, there are more planks of experience in that platform for those individuals to stand on. Successes are going to come for each individual quite uniquely, some wonderful successes on a sporting field or with a musical instrument or from a classroom as exceptional mathematics students or students of literature and history. They're thespians or musicians that they take those experiences, and that becomes the platform for them as they tackle the life challenges beyond their time at school.

Our community is all shapes and sizes, all levels of engagement and less engagement. So really, it's about opportunity. And again, like a student, there are plenty of opportunities for a student to be involved in. And while I believe that in many ways the students who have gained the greatest outcomes from the school have been those who've been most involved, I think, in many ways, families. Families find ways to become involved, and that can be in any multiple of ways. It might be helping on Grandparents Day here at the College, volunteering or Remembrance Day or on open houses or things of that nature. It might be helping a child at home bake something for a bake sale, and not coming into the school for that, but helping their child in support of an activity in the school.

Here's a number that surprised me. We have over 1000 people who volunteer for the school every year. That number staggered me when I arrived that a thousand different individuals are involved in all kinds of activities, alumni who organized branch events in London or New York or San Francisco or Hong Kong. There are individuals who are involved in those parent organizations, members of our board, members of our foundation, library volunteers, volunteer coaches, parents will find their niche and their opportunity to be involved, and a great many do. And those who aren't able to are still incredibly vibrant members of our community.

What type of personality would UCC have as a person? I believe that it would have a strength of character, an honesty and integrity that are at the very heart and foundation of that individual, that they would have a sense of purpose, that they also have a sense of responsibility. They would be an individual who has a warmth and an inclusiveness about them because they recognize again that we're all different, and that difference is just a strength, something to be recognized but valued. I think that the individual would be one who is seeking to make a positive difference in their world. 

What I would suggest is investigate the school, spend time learning and understanding and trying to match what the school represents and offers with what you know of your child. I've often stood in front of a group of individuals at an open house and I've asked them as they take a walk around to take a moment to picture their child in a room or seated in that auditorium or on a basketball court or on a theater or stage, picture their child there. And how does that make them feel? That will be? In many ways, the guide interact with students where it's possible. TAgain, I come back to that idea of the most valuable asset that we have in our lives.