Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

OVERVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCT ION

Trees on Havergal’s large campus.

It is possible to prune the branches of the tree and to allow new ones to grow. Its … appearance will change as a result, but its strength and support will not—it will still be essentially the same tree …The same is true of this school. In 1994, the centennial year, the Havergal tree’s roots were deep and its canopy lush. The program was vibrant, community support was wholehearted and, to draw on the words of the 1991 Mission Statement, Old Girls were conducting themselves with “both confidence and compassion in their professional, social, community and family lives.” However, the world beyond the ivy was being rocked by unprecedented disruption and change, with far-reaching implications for educational institutions. The early 1990s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, the revocation of apartheid laws in South Africa, the detonation of a bomb in the World Trade Center and genocide in Rwanda. Even more far reaching in its impact was the exponential growth in the use of the Internet. As Dr.

Winn Barlow observed in the final pages of Havergal: Celebrating a Century , “[t]he world has in effect shrunk, and no individual or group can any longer live a life unaffected by the actions of others, whether they be neighbours or strangers.” 9 Given the gravity of these events and the speed of transformation, Dr. Barlow asserted the following: [A Havergal education] must give our students the confidence to manage change. We must try to ensure that they graduate from the College with a love of learning and the desire to continue this learning throughout their lives; with a wide range of skills, especially the ability to think both critically and creatively; with knowledge that roots them in their own heritage while opening them up to the new and the different; and with a strong set of the basic values that transcend all cultures. In the years that have followed, Havergal has strived to provide just that kind of education.

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