A group of 29 students traveled to the historic city of Boston and broadened their horizons. They made a stop to explore Salem and take a haunted ghost tour at night before experiencing the many treats Boston had to offer. They walked the Freedom Trail where they saw key locations involved in the American Revolution such as Paul Revere’s house and the site of the Boston massacre; went to Fenway Park to watch the Blue Jays take on the Red Sox; toured Harvard University; had dinner at Cheers and ended the trip with a cruise of Boston Harbour.

A great group of girls made the trip an amazing experience for everyone involved.

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based companies providing access to a set of world-class mentors. Since the program was launched in 2012, more than 1,000 founders representing more than 500 companies have participated.

CDL recently launched a High School Girls Program, which offers young women the opportunity to learn, in a hands-on way, about the world of science and technology-based entrepreneurship. Accepted students are invited to attend one of the CDL’s Session days where they are matched with a mentor whom they will shadow for the day, observing meetings, elevator pitches and a moderated discussion about each of the ventures in the cohort. Through their participation in a CDL session day, students learn about the process of launching and scaling a technology-based start-up, how to effectively engage with mentors in time-constrained settings, and gain an appreciation for the enormous opportunities that can result from the successful commercialization of scientific breakthroughs.

Our very own Julia Callahan ‘22, already the founder of a successful business, Mystic Moof Goop, completed a rigorous application process and was selected from students across Ontario to take part in the program. She will be attending CDL at the University of Toronto in June. Congratulations Julia!

The Boardroom is the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management’s Commerce high school business case competition and presents an empowering opportunity for students to demonstrate their teamwork, innovation, creativity and analytical skills to pitch a business idea and solve key challenges. One hundred teams applied but only 10 were selected to compete in the finals on March 30 and present their ideas to a panel of judges. This was the second year HNMCS entered The Boardroom and the second time we advanced to the finals. Congratulations Rachel Senatore, Alex Kirou, Corsen Parker and Victoria Tchoryk. Great job girls!

At the end of March, Julia Callahan ’22, Abigail Najjar ‘22 and Corsen Parker ‘20 participated in the annual pre-Concours and Festival D’art Oratoire (Canada’s French Public Speaking Contest) at French language school and cultural centre Alliance Française in Toronto. This is a unique event offered to students from grades 4 through 12 studying French as a Second Language in Ontario schools with different levels of French, to write, memorize and present an original speech, which is then judged by a panel of three judges. The winning student from each category then participates at the Provincial level which will take place at York University’s Glendon College on May 4.

HNMCS students placed as follows:
Julia Callahan (Core G 9-10): 4th
Abigail Najjar (Extended G9-10): 4th
Corsen Parker(Extended G11-12): 3rd

The girls received a certificate from the organizers of the Concours which will be presented to them in June during the awards ceremony.