Welcome to the MaCS Program, a specialized program at William Lyon Mackenzie C.I.
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Student Council
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Thank you to Student Council for preparing next month's annual SACMAS Holiday Festivities before winter break! They will also be running a Food Drive Initiative with donations going to our local North York Harvest Food Bank. The class with the most donations will receive a free pizza lunch for the entire class!
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MaCS Entrance Test
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Thank you to all grade 8/9 applicants who applied to the MaCs Program this month! With over 700 applicants for only 90 spots, it speaks volumes to the success and recognition of Mackenzie’s MaCS program! Notification letters will be emailed to all applicants on Friday February 11th at 4pm.
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2021 Prime Minister’s Award (PMA) for Excellence in STEM
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Congratulations to Cindy Law (Science Teacher) who is one of only two recipients in Canada to receive a National Certificate of Excellence for the 2021 Prime Minister’s Award (PMA) for Excellence in STEM. Winning a Prime Minister’s Award is an honor and a proud moment for the recipient’s school and its community (www.canada.ca/pm-awards)! The school will receive a certificate signed by the Prime Minister. Ms. Law is also the staff supervisor for the Mackenzie Science Club (MSC) which is still the largest club at the school with 210 registered members and 272 in the club's Google Classroom!
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Business Council Returns!
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ACED Mackenzie, is a business case competition team that trains and inspires members to magnify their academic, business, and personal potential while maintaining a safe and positive environment. We have recruited a wonderful team of 60+ members, and are currently in our training stage. Each of our trainers prepare extensive and information packed lessons each week to prepare our competitors for our ACED competition in late February. Throughout the year we plan on hosting various workshops with local community leaders to talk with our team and expose them to real life business trends and skills that are in demand.
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Athletics Return!
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Slowly but surely, sports and athletics are coming back to MAC! For the month of October and beginning of November, the Mackenzie Athletic Council has spearheaded the return of outdoor sport intramurals. The scholastic response has been amazing, with over 6 ultimate frisbee teams, 8 spikeball teams, and 12 soccer teams competing, staying active, and having FUN. The camaraderie and sportsmanship between all grades has been phenomenal! The Athletic Council will now shift indoors to offer intramurals in volleyball, badminton, basketball, and kinesiology.
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Cyber Patriot/Cyber Titan International Cyber Security Competition
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Six Mackenzie cybersecurity teams competed against over 3,300 teams internationally in the first two
rounds of the CyberPatriot XIV Cyber Defense competition. All performed exceptionally well! In the first qualifying round (November 12-14) 4 teams placed in the top 15 in Canada and 1 team placed in the top 10 internationally! We are very proud of all teams and wish them luck in the next two rounds of the competition (Dec 10-12
and the semi-finals Jan 21)!
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Math Contests University of Waterloo
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This fall our students registered for three important Math competitions COMC, AMC 10A and AMC 12A and CSMC/CIMC. On October 28th, 110 students wrote the in-person COMC (Sun Life Financial) competition. This competition is the first exam on the road to the International Mathematical Olympiad. On November 10th, 108 students wrote the AMC 10A and 12A, a 75 minutes virtual competition. The AMC 10/12 is the first in a series of the American competitions that eventually lead all the way to the International Mathematical Olympiad. 110 students registered to write on November 17th the in-person the CSMC and CIMC Waterloo Mathematics Competitions. The Canadian Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contests (CSMC and CIMC) are the first in the series of the Waterloo Math Competitions that our school offers throughout the school year. Thank you to all the math club members who have offered training sessions for math contests preparation!
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Loran Scholarship
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Congratulations to Matthew Li for being selected as a Loran semi-finalist! Thirty students in Canada make it to the final round for the $100,000 scholarship. Good luck Matthew!
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Terry Fox Run
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Thank you to the Athletic Council for organizing another amazing Terry Fox Run and raising money for such a great cause!
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Grade 9 and 10 Day
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Thank you to Student Council for organizing two amazing events this past month- grade 9 and 10 day! Students participated in exciting outdoor activities while meeting other students in their grade!
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Club Crawl
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Grade 9 students attended our annual club crawl this month and had the opportunity to sign up for a variety of clubs for the school year!
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Mactoberfest Spirit Week
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Thank you to Student Council for an amazing spirit week for our annual Mactoberfest! Students enjoyed the spirit theme days including spooky accessory day, twin day, and pajama day while ending the week on Friday with an extended Mactoberfest lunch and a Halloween costume competition!
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Computer News
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Congratulations to Nicole Han who was invited by University of Waterloo (following her outstanding results in CCC on February 19) to become one of 4 girls representing Canada in the new European Girl's Olympiad of Informatics. She and the team all earned a bronze medal at the event held online June 14-19! (https://egoi.ch/en/)
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HOSA News
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At the end of last school year, we found out that Kyubin Kim (MaCS Grade 12) placed 3rd in her event at the National HOSA competition! She used the $1500 USD on the Advanced Medical & Neuroscience program, and the research paper she wrote with a team was actually selected by world-renowned scientists who asked her and her team to work outside of the program to fine tune the paper so that it could be published internationally and presented in front of Georgetown University Medical Faculty. The program offered her a $2000 USD grant to do the Public Health program so she had a chance to experience two internships. She got to virtually diagnose a real-time patient in Nigeria (which she successfully did, which fully funded the patient's treatment) and then also created a public health campaign that was printed and is being distributed to the Nigerian communities right now. At the end of both internships she got noticed by the staff and she is now being offered a spot on the staff team next year which means the program will be flying her out to Georgetown University next year and cover her flight fees, housing and meal fees for two weeks. Congratulations Kyubin!
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Science News
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Dr. Sinclair was very busy last June receiving more great news regarding some of her grade 11 MaCS students she has taught, mentored and encouraged to compete in University of Toronto's Annual Ask a Laureate Chemistry Essay Competition. Kenneth Ruan and Tracy Wang placed 1st and 3rd while honourable mentions were given to Jacob Kuo and Leo Farb. Congratulations to our students and to Dr. Sinclair!
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Science News
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The science department continues to facilitate our students in regional, national and international competitions. Thank you to Sean Devine and Dr. Elaine Sinclair for their facilitation of 40 students last spring participating in the Avogadro Chemistry Contest. Three MaCS students, Stefan Zorcic, Jacob Kuo, and Matthew Li were recognized with awards for placing in the top 100 in Canada and the US. Congratulations to our students!
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MaCS Graduation Class of 2021
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Congratulations to the MaCS Class of 2021! Have a great summer and best of luck in September!
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Sanofi Grant
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Congratulations to the Science Department and the students involved in creating the video that was submitted for the Sanofi grant. The school will be receiving a $50,000 grant to build a new science classroom! Thank you Ms. Grundy! https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/sanofi-canada-awards-first-annual-biogenius-grants-strengthening-equity-in-stem-learning-for-canadian-students-893145496.html
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Weston Youth Innovation Award
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Congratulations to Catherine (Katia) Makarytchev who placed second in this year’s Weston Youth Innovation Award for her project on using machine learning to sort recyclable objects based on their sound!
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ontario-science-centre-celebrates-six-canadian-youths-for-innovative-science-projects-802258533.html
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Exploravision Champions!
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Congratulations to Harriett Lerman, Alexandra Miller, and Alexandria Yau for placing first in the Exploravision National Championship! Each student receives over $10,000 in Canada Savings Bonds! Students will be recognized at a virtual ceremony in June! (https://www.exploravision.org/winners/?grade=grades-10-12&year-winner=2021&op=GO) https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/shiitake-diapers-toronto-teens-win-30-000-in-north-american-stem-competition-1.5419065
https://www.cp24.com/
https://nstawebdirector.wixsite.com/exploravision
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Canadian Chemistry Olympiad
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Congratulations to the Chemistry Club-club members competed in the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad and the Canadian Chemistry Contest last month. Andy Cai placed first in Canada in the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad. He now qualifies to represent Canada in the International Chemistry Olympiad and a $500 award. Andy also came in second and Peter Lin came in 46th out of 257 Canadian students writing the Canadian Chemistry Contest.
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Model UN
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Congratulations to our students from grades 9 to 12 that participated in a 3-day Southern Ontario Model United Nations Assembly (SOMA) conference last weekend with over 600+ delegates from across North America. Congratulations to Jeffery Hu for his Honourable Mention Award for his role as a delegate representing Egypt in the General Assembly, discussing issues of Proxy Warfare, Women in Power and Combating Corruption in Political Leaders and Government Institutions. As well, an Honourable Mention Award was awarded to Simon Hungate for his role representing Republican Steve Daines in the Joint Crisis committee simulating the American Civil War 2021
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Wellness@MAC
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Thank you to the Wellness Council and their ongoing work with Wellness@MAC. This week Wellness@Mac hosted a grade 12 student-led panel for junior students (grade 9 and 10) through Zoom on Wednesday, April 28 from 5- 6 pm entitled: Wellness Connects. This event allowed junior students to connect directly with senior students and learn from their experience navigating high school at Mackenzie. The panelists came from a variety of academic backgrounds and are preparing to enter a variety of post secondary fields in both college and university. The panel discussed time management strategies, studying tips, balancing your social life and much more. It was a phenomenal event that saw over 70 participants at the peak of the evening.
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ECOO Competitions Saved!
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Congratulations to Ms. Krasteva and our students for saving this year’s ECOO Competition! ECOO is one of Ontario’s most prestigious and longest running competitions. When Ms. Krasteva and her student team learned that the competition was in jeopardy, they immediately kicked into gear to ensure that the 600+ ECOO registrants would have an opportunity to compete. Under normal circumstances, running such an event is difficult; however, doing so in a lockdown is logistically off the charts! To learn more about ECOO and our incredible student competitors read the latest ECOO Publication at https://ecoo.org/blog/2021/04/09/a-peek-at-w-l-mackenzies-ecoo-competitors/
Thank you Ms. Krasteva and the Computer Science Club for keeping this wonderful competition alive! https://ecoocs.org/ and
https://ecoo.mcpt.ca
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DECA International Championships
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The awards for the International DECA competition were this month and we set an Ontario and William Lyon Mackenzie record for wins with 11 medals and 3 trophies! Special congratulations to the following students!
Elia Haghbin - 3rd in Business Services Marketing
Justin Schwartz - 3rd in Sports and Entertainment Marketing
Rachel Leong - 1st in Accounting Applications
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MaCS Alumni
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Thank you to Jonathan Clodman (MaCS Alumni 2013) who is giving back to the community helping people book vaccine appointments:
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/i-do-little-finger-stretches-sometimes-toronto-man-juggles-vaccine-hunters-and-full-time-teaching-1.5422029
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Cyber Titan Competition- Top 2 in Canada!
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Cyber Titan is a network defence competition aimed to introduce high school students to cybersecurity in a competitive environment. It allows students to explore various aspects of cybersecurity and to practice their skills and further their learning in a realistic environment. This was, and still is, a great opportunity to explore a new and often overlooked side of technology. Congratulations to our two teams for placing first and second in Canada!
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Schulich Scholarship Winner
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Congratulations to Jacob Kolyakov who won an $80, 000 Schulich Scholarship! Good luck in September!
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Math Contests
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Congratulations to everyone who participated in the annual math contests! This April 83 students wrote the Euclid Math online Contest and 39 students the Fryer/Galois/Hypatia online Math Contests. We received 13 medals and 85 Certificates of Distinction placing in the 25th percentile in Canada! We also had 4 students qualify for the American Invitational Math Exam (AIME) later this year- good luck!
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Arts in Bloom
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The annual Arts in Bloom was hosted the last week of May. Thank you to all students and staff for organizing an amazing Arts in Bloom week! The week includes a virtual Drama night, Music night, Paint night, and Java after dark night which includes dance performances!
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HOSA Canada
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Congratulations to our HOSA club who took part in the Spring Leadership Conference for HOSA Canada this month! We had 12 students who placed in the top 10 of their competitive events. The following earned a top three placement: Jimmie So - 2nd in Human Growth and Development, Celeste Luo and Tracy Wong - 3rd in CERT skills and Kyubin Kim - 3rd in Dental Science.
These students qualify to compete in the International Leadership Virtual Conference (June 23rd - 26th). Good luck!
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2021 Canadian Computing Competition (CCC)
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The 2021 Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) was held on February 17, 2021. Congratulations to Nicole Han who was among the top scorers, and is one of four young women being invited to represent Canada at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informations (EGOI). The CCC is a challenging competition and this is an excellent achievement! The EGOI is a new contest this year and is scheduled to take place in June. This is an excellent opportunity for Nicole to be challenged and to make history by being a part of Canada’s inaugural delegation. Good luck Nicole! (ecoo.org)
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American Society of Human Genetics’ (ASHG) 2021 DNA Day Essay Contest
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Congratulations to Alyssa Wang, 2nd place who won $600 for herself and $600 of genetics equipment for the school and to Maria Yampolsky, honorable mention, who won $100 in the DNA 2021 essay contest! (https://www.ashg.org/discover-genetics/k-12-education/dna-day-2021-winners/) The highly competitive contest saw entries from 40 U.S. states and 30 countries (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tb-V_BYa49LZ6pV8hnJ86-hCYCgdwv_F/view)
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Canhack 2021
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Congratulations to Ms. Krasteva for leading her team of future programmers, engineers, software developers….to a second-place finish in all of Canada in Canhack 2021! This is the second year in a row that the team led by Ms. Krasteva has finished in the top 3 in Canada. Three other students of her program, coached by Brandon Silva - Analyst I - Cyber Threat & Vulnerability Management, competed in the same competition and finished in first place!
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Art Gallery Display
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Congratulations to our MaCS students who were selected to show their artwork in an online gallery with Arts Etobicoke (EDGE Youth Art Show)!
tdsbCREATES is coming to us this year! Grade 10 and 11 Photography Classes will have the opportunity to learn from the Toronto-based artist, Elaine Chan-Dow, during the online classes. She will be hosting an artist talk about careers in Photography, critiquing students portfolios, and answering any questions about applying to post-secondary in the arts. After the mentorship, students will submit work for a chance to be featured in the tdsbCREATES online showcase! This quad the Mackenzie senior dance class has had the opportunity to engage in workshops from many seasoned professionals in a unique virtual setting. Not only did they have several enjoyable sessions learning Jamaican dancehall style from Toronto artist Bizzyboom, but they are just now working with the outstanding Shaun Wolch learning Jazz and Broadway technique. The students will soon have the unique opportunity to participate in a virtual iteration of tdsbCREATES workshops led by contemporary artist and Canadian legend Allen Kaeja. Students are able to participate in these experiential learning opportunities both from the classroom and from home!
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Much Ado About Zoom Class
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Many of our Mackenzie students have been working tirelessly for 5 MONTHS writing, auditioning, stage managing, filming, editing, and producing an original play: Much Ado About Zoom Class by our very own, Mia Rebelo. The performance was streamed on Thursday March 11 at 7:30 pm via YouTube Premiere on the WL Mackenzie CI Art Dept Channel, Much Ado About Zoom Class. Great job by all students involved in the production!
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Show Me the Money
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The Experiential Learning Department would like to congratulate Diana Lin, grade 11 co-op MaCS student, in winning today's competition "SHOW ME THE MONEY" offered by Bay Street Deconstructed. Four-hundred secondary school participants across the province competed in six challenges concerning Financial Services and Diana came first overall. She will now move on to the Provincial competition. Good luck Diana!
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ExploraVision 2021
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Congratulations to the grade 10 MaCS science classes who submitted 16 projects in total this year to ExploraVision and 12 of them are being recognized! There are 11 honorable mentions given to the top 10% of all projects. One group won regionals and are now going on to compete in nationals. Good luck to our regional winners in the next round!
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Robotics Regional Ontario Competition
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Congratulations to the Robotics team that consists of two MaCS students as well as students from Brebuff. The team placed first at the Regional Ontario Competition! Good luck at the next event!
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Math Contests
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Congratulations to Lu Nathan, Li Max, Patel Om, and Hanxu Richard who qualified to write the AIME Invitational Math Contest on Thursday March 18, 2021. Good luck!
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Science Club
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The Mackenzie Science Club will be hosting a Virtual Science Olympics for middle school students (grade 7-8). This is our annual MSEO (Mackenzie Science and Engineering Olympics) that normally brings 300 additional people into the building. This year the event will run online asynchronous between March 29 to April 1. All events are created by the students and vetted by the staff advisors. The opening ceremonies will be 9AM on March 29 and the closing will be 2PM on April 9. Thank you to all the volunteers and staff for continuing this amazing event online this year! (https://www.sites.google.com/site/macolympics)
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Student Council
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Thank you to Student Council for organizing an amazing spirit week for April and for running an amazing club crawl this month online! Club crawl this month was an opportunity for clubs and councils via zoom to share club offerings and increase student participation and membership! Spirit week in April is themed Retro-Throwback and includes theme days from the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's. Thank you to Student Council!
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DECA
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Congratulations to the 63 students who participated in the DECA Ontario Provincial Competition in February! The team won 84 awards and 9 students qualified to compete at the virtual International Competition in April. Good Luck!
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Business Council
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Since the winter break, the Business Council ran a couple of guest speaker sessions. Gerald Mak, a Portfolio Manager with the Ontario Public Service, and Cindy Liu, a Mackenzie MaCS grad and current student at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania provided excellent insights on how to succeed in high school, as well as career options in Business available post-graduation. Coming up in Mid-February is FBLA’s National Conference, where 5 Mackenzie teams will compete against thousands of other students across the country in their respective divisions. Good luck!
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Cyber Security Competition
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7 teams from Mackenzie, including 2 all girl teams very successfully competed in the Semi-Finals of the XIII Cyber Patriot Cyber Security competition(https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/).
The students compete in multiple divisions according to age and skill level with Platinum being ranked the highest. Five of our teams made the Platinum division and 3 of them placed in the top 3 in Canada! In the second tier, Gold, one of Mackenzie’s teams placed 1st in Canada. Incredible achievement for our students! Congratulations to all competitors!
Two teams will go to the Canadian Finals in May in Ottawa!
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The Scientia Initiative
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The Scientia Initiative (@thescientiainitiative) was created to connect youth with current research findings in a variety of academic fields, from medicine to chemistry to sociology. This monthly newsletter presents new and exciting research for students to read and critically think about, as well as tips for reading scientific literature and pursuing a career in STEM. This newsletter is written by a MaCS alumni currently at the University of Toronto!
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First FTC Robotics Event
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Congratulations to the Robotics Team consisting of students from Brebeuf College and the MaCS Program who won first place in the Connect award for FIRST FTC Robotics Scrimmage 2 event. It was a scrimmage. Alexandra Miller and Radha Kotra from the grade 10 MaCS Program are an integral part of the team. Good luck at the spring event!
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SAC in February
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Thank you to Student Council again for providing another amazing month of school spirit virtually! Information is on Instagram @wlmac.sac. February SAC has partnered with Kensington Place, a Seniors home to put together a kindness card initiative. The online themed events this month include Valentine's day Kahoot. Love Song Mad Libs, Spirit prize giveaways, and a lip sync video (https://youtu.be/sTfwNRegxO0) put together by Student Council!
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SHAD
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Congratulations to all those students who successfully applied to the SHAD summer university enrichment program!
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DECA Regional Competition/Stock Competition
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Congratulations to the DECA team who participated in the regional competition in November.! The team had an outstanding competition due to the dedication and efforts of the student executive team as well as the competitors. Mackenzie had 26 competitors place in the top 20 overall in the province in their events. 7 finished in the top three of their categories. 66 competitors qualified for the virtual provincial competition in February! Best of luck to the DECA team as they prepare and try to qualify for the virtual international competition in May! Congratulations to Victor Vasilev, Sion Gang, and Jessica Chen and Shane Chen for placing 3rd from out of over 50 teams at Target Alpha’s national Stock Pitch Competition for their presentation on Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp! Looking forward, Mackenzie will be competing in FBLA’s Canadian National Leadership Conference in mid-February.
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University of Waterloo Hack the North
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Congratulations to Ishan Garg who has been accepted as a mentor for the University of Waterloo Hack the North event being held the weekend of January 15th!
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MaCS Alumni
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Athletic Council will be spearheading next month a new initiative called Heart of a Lyon - Alumnae Edition. They have reached out to Nicole Kozlova (MaCS Alumni) to speak to our school community via Instagram Live- Nicole Kozlova (Varsity Soccer @ Virginia Tech AND on the Ukrainian National Team) is now a decorated varsity athlete who will talk about her athletic journey as student-athlete who has balanced sports with academics.
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Debate Club
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Last month, 60+ Mac students signed into Google Meet to "attend" a teacher-student debate hosted by the WLMAC Debate Team. Grade 11 students and debate club co-presidents, Sarah Zhao and Swetlana Kumar faced off against debate coach and club supervisor, Mr. Berenstein and special guest teacher-debater, Ms. Gourley. The motion before the House was as follows: If the House got a hold of Santa's naughty and nice list, it would destroy it. The teacher debaters supported the bill and the student debaters represented the Opposition. All attending students had a chance to vote via Google Forms at the end of the debate. The victory went to the teachers which is kinda nice since teachers lost to the students last year! It was first-class debating and the attending students said it was enormously fun to watch. Club presidents took the names of 10-20 students inspired by the debate and interested in joining the debate club.
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SAC January Spirit Week
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Thank you to SAC for organizing the January (25th-29th) Disney Themed Spirit Week with the following events below. All proceeds will go to Kernel's Sponsored Charity of Autism Speaks Canada. Monday: Collegiate wear Tuesday: Twin Day Wednesday: Wonderland Wednesday Thursday: Pyjama Day Friday: Movie Night
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HOSA
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HOSA Canada is the largest health science student organization in North America. At the Mackenzie chapter, under the leadership of Analpa Vishwanath and Hannah Kim, we have an 80-member team spanning all grades that trains weekly in their chosen area, such as pharmacology, Dental Hygiene, Sports Medicine, etc and compete against other students at Leadership Conferences. The top competitors are eligible to compete at the International Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. The Fall Leadership Conference, held for the first time this year, ran at the beginning of December in an online format. Our students balanced their courses with training every week in their area of competition. Five of our students placed in the top 10 in their event, and Oscar Han placed first in Epidemiology!
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Student Council (SAC) Spirit Holiday Week
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Thank you to Student Council for organizing our annual holiday tradition of SACMAS with the following Student Council initiatives for Mackenzie School Spirit:
a) SAC Candygram Distribution- Donations raised to support a local charity for Homeless Youth called Eva's Place.
b) Cozy Sock Raffle Drive- All proceeds raised will also be donated to Eva's Place.
c) Grade 9 Virtual Holiday Assembly- SAC hosted a virtual holiday style Kahoot for all grade 9 classes!
d) Dress up Day Themes:
Monday: MAC Apparel Monday!
Tuesday: Jersey Day to Represent Your Favourite Team!
Wednesday: Channel your Flannel Day!
Thursday: Grout Fit Day Grey Day December!
Friday: Festive Ugly Sweater Day
e) Happy Holidays from Student Council!
Enjoy the promotional SACMAS video: https://youtu.be/wAEGPa29Xeo
Thank you SAC! Please follow SAC at www.maclyonsden.com and wlmac.sac on Insta for more virtual fun!
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MaCS Grade 8/9 Applicants
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To grade 8/9 applicants - Thank you for your interest in the MaCS Program! This year we had close to 700 applicants apply to the MaCS Program for the 90 spots! Notification letters will be mailed to all applicants by Canada Post the week of February 8th!
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COVID Creations Music Concert
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The co-directors of COVID Creations, MaCS students Marlee Schwartz and Josh Friedman conducted a phone interview live on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM on Friday, November 13 around 8:20 AM online. To learn more about COVID Creations go to their website and watch their promo video.
Promo video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qE8bBM9cxU&feature=emb_logo
Website link: CovidCreationsConcert.com
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SHAD Valley 2021
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Grade 10 and 11 students can visit the SHAD website (https://www.shad.ca/) to apply for the SHAD Valley 2021 July Summer Enrichment Opportunity at a Canadian University.
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A Peek Into Science!
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Even though the science department has had to cancel some lab activities in light of COVID, they were able to reinvent other labs. For instance the chemistry conservation of mass lab was redesigned to use disposable materials. The microscope lab had students wearing goggles and sanitizing their equipment. The Science department is trying as much as they can to provide the same enriching and engaging activities for the students as they normally would while still keeping safe.
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Online Clubs and Councils
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Thank you to our Student Council Vice Presidents who have been hard at work organizing our school clubs and councils to be ready to receive members for their online start-up in October/November for the 2020-2021 year! There are
51 clubs running at Mackenzie this year! Student council also organized the annual Halloween Candygrams and Food Drive with proceeds going to the North York Harvest Food Bank Drive.
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COVID-19 Research
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Seyone Chithrananda (Grade 12 MaCS Student) over the summer gave a talk for the Emergent Ventures fellowship he received 6 months ago recapping his progress on the work with Prof. Alan-Aspuru Guzik's lab at UofT on building a drug discovery platform for designing, screening and synthesizing antivirals targeting the COVID-19 virus. They are currently running molecular simulations, synthesizing some of our most promising antivirals and testing them right now. Here is a deck that goes into more depth on his portion of the project.
Seyone has also been working with his mentor at Stanford, Bharath Ramsundar, on a research paper that uses language models (similar to the ones employed for products like Siri) for learning to predict drug-like properties in molecules. They are finishing up their final paper, and have been invited to deliver talks at the Royal Society of Chemistry and Baylearn machine learning conferences! Great Job Seyone!
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Covid-19 App
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Congratulations to Ananya Vishwanath (MaCS Alumni 2020) who recently spoke to a TV channel over the summer where she spoke about her app, the MaCS program and women in STEM. (https://youtu.be/mL2bQMwYoKU). Ananya is currently in talks with Indigo and an entertainment company in the U.K. She is planning to do a dry run in a busy Indigo store this month.
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Canadian International Olympiad
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Congratulations to Christopher Trevisan, for being selected on the Canadian International Olympiad Informatics team. We wish Christopher and the team good luck at the online competition later this month!
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AP Results!
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Congratulations to all AP exam writers who wrote last year. The results are in and the AP computer science class average for the school was 98% which was way above the provincial average. Well done!
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CCUG podcast team- Vansh, Simon, Noam, Josh (Grade 12 MaCS students)
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Congratulations to the CCUG podcast team (Comprehensive Canadian University Guide) for receiving the government grant called "Rising Youth"! The Comprehensive Canadian University Guide focuses on connecting high school students with universities to generate meaningful content to help students make University decisions less stressful in the face of COVID-19
Student Council
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpgThank you to Student Council for preparing next month's annual SACMAS Holiday Festivities before winter break! They will also be running a Food Drive Initiative with donations going to our local North York Harvest Food Bank. The class with the most donations will receive a free pizza lunch for the entire class!
MaCS Entrance Test
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/MaCS.jpgThank you to all grade 8/9 applicants who applied to the MaCs Program this month! With over 700 applicants for only 90 spots, it speaks volumes to the success and recognition of Mackenzie’s MaCS program! Notification letters will be emailed to all applicants on Friday February 11th at 4pm.
2021 Prime Minister’s Award (PMA) for Excellence in STEM
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/law.jpgCongratulations to Cindy Law (Science Teacher) who is one of only two recipients in Canada to receive a National Certificate of Excellence for the 2021 Prime Minister’s Award (PMA) for Excellence in STEM. Winning a Prime Minister’s Award is an honor and a proud moment for the recipient’s school and its community (www.canada.ca/pm-awards)! The school will receive a certificate signed by the Prime Minister. Ms. Law is also the staff supervisor for the Mackenzie Science Club (MSC) which is still the largest club at the school with 210 registered members and 272 in the club's Google Classroom!
Business Council Returns!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/aced.pngACED Mackenzie, is a business case competition team that trains and inspires members to magnify their academic, business, and personal potential while maintaining a safe and positive environment. We have recruited a wonderful team of 60+ members, and are currently in our training stage. Each of our trainers prepare extensive and information packed lessons each week to prepare our competitors for our ACED competition in late February. Throughout the year we plan on hosting various workshops with local community leaders to talk with our team and expose them to real life business trends and skills that are in demand.
Athletics Return!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpgSlowly but surely, sports and athletics are coming back to MAC! For the month of October and beginning of November, the Mackenzie Athletic Council has spearheaded the return of outdoor sport intramurals. The scholastic response has been amazing, with over 6 ultimate frisbee teams, 8 spikeball teams, and 12 soccer teams competing, staying active, and having FUN. The camaraderie and sportsmanship between all grades has been phenomenal! The Athletic Council will now shift indoors to offer intramurals in volleyball, badminton, basketball, and kinesiology.
Cyber Patriot/Cyber Titan International Cyber Security Competition
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/cyber.pngSix Mackenzie cybersecurity teams competed against over 3,300 teams internationally in the first two rounds of the CyberPatriot XIV Cyber Defense competition. All performed exceptionally well! In the first qualifying round (November 12-14) 4 teams placed in the top 15 in Canada and 1 team placed in the top 10 internationally! We are very proud of all teams and wish them luck in the next two rounds of the competition (Dec 10-12 and the semi-finals Jan 21)!
Math Contests University of Waterloo
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/unnamed.pngThis fall our students registered for three important Math competitions COMC, AMC 10A and AMC 12A and CSMC/CIMC. On October 28th, 110 students wrote the in-person COMC (Sun Life Financial) competition. This competition is the first exam on the road to the International Mathematical Olympiad. On November 10th, 108 students wrote the AMC 10A and 12A, a 75 minutes virtual competition. The AMC 10/12 is the first in a series of the American competitions that eventually lead all the way to the International Mathematical Olympiad. 110 students registered to write on November 17th the in-person the CSMC and CIMC Waterloo Mathematics Competitions. The Canadian Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contests (CSMC and CIMC) are the first in the series of the Waterloo Math Competitions that our school offers throughout the school year. Thank you to all the math club members who have offered training sessions for math contests preparation!
Loran Scholarship
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/loran.jpegCongratulations to Matthew Li for being selected as a Loran semi-finalist! Thirty students in Canada make it to the final round for the $100,000 scholarship. Good luck Matthew!
Terry Fox Run
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/Terry_Shareable___Super_Portrait.jpgThank you to the Athletic Council for organizing another amazing Terry Fox Run and raising money for such a great cause!
Grade 9 and 10 Day
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/IMG_3712-1.jpgThank you to Student Council for organizing two amazing events this past month- grade 9 and 10 day! Students participated in exciting outdoor activities while meeting other students in their grade!
Club Crawl
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/club-crawl-scaled.jpgGrade 9 students attended our annual club crawl this month and had the opportunity to sign up for a variety of clubs for the school year!
Mactoberfest Spirit Week
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/11/thumbnail_IMG_1422.jpgThank you to Student Council for an amazing spirit week for our annual Mactoberfest! Students enjoyed the spirit theme days including spooky accessory day, twin day, and pajama day while ending the week on Friday with an extended Mactoberfest lunch and a Halloween costume competition!
Computer News
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/09/computers.pngCongratulations to Nicole Han who was invited by University of Waterloo (following her outstanding results in CCC on February 19) to become one of 4 girls representing Canada in the new European Girl's Olympiad of Informatics. She and the team all earned a bronze medal at the event held online June 14-19! (https://egoi.ch/en/)
HOSA News
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/09/HOSA.jpgAt the end of last school year, we found out that Kyubin Kim (MaCS Grade 12) placed 3rd in her event at the National HOSA competition! She used the $1500 USD on the Advanced Medical & Neuroscience program, and the research paper she wrote with a team was actually selected by world-renowned scientists who asked her and her team to work outside of the program to fine tune the paper so that it could be published internationally and presented in front of Georgetown University Medical Faculty. The program offered her a $2000 USD grant to do the Public Health program so she had a chance to experience two internships. She got to virtually diagnose a real-time patient in Nigeria (which she successfully did, which fully funded the patient's treatment) and then also created a public health campaign that was printed and is being distributed to the Nigerian communities right now. At the end of both internships she got noticed by the staff and she is now being offered a spot on the staff team next year which means the program will be flying her out to Georgetown University next year and cover her flight fees, housing and meal fees for two weeks. Congratulations Kyubin!
Science News
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/09/essay.jpgDr. Sinclair was very busy last June receiving more great news regarding some of her grade 11 MaCS students she has taught, mentored and encouraged to compete in University of Toronto's Annual Ask a Laureate Chemistry Essay Competition. Kenneth Ruan and Tracy Wang placed 1st and 3rd while honourable mentions were given to Jacob Kuo and Leo Farb. Congratulations to our students and to Dr. Sinclair!
Science News
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/09/waterloo.pngThe science department continues to facilitate our students in regional, national and international competitions. Thank you to Sean Devine and Dr. Elaine Sinclair for their facilitation of 40 students last spring participating in the Avogadro Chemistry Contest. Three MaCS students, Stefan Zorcic, Jacob Kuo, and Matthew Li were recognized with awards for placing in the top 100 in Canada and the US. Congratulations to our students!
MaCS Graduation Class of 2021
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpgCongratulations to the MaCS Class of 2021! Have a great summer and best of luck in September!
Sanofi Grant
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/sanofi.jpgCongratulations to the Science Department and the students involved in creating the video that was submitted for the Sanofi grant. The school will be receiving a $50,000 grant to build a new science classroom! Thank you Ms. Grundy! https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/sanofi-canada-awards-first-annual-biogenius-grants-strengthening-equity-in-stem-learning-for-canadian-students-893145496.html
Weston Youth Innovation Award
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/weston.jpgCongratulations to Catherine (Katia) Makarytchev who placed second in this year’s Weston Youth Innovation Award for her project on using machine learning to sort recyclable objects based on their sound! https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ontario-science-centre-celebrates-six-canadian-youths-for-innovative-science-projects-802258533.html
Exploravision Champions!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/exploravision.jpgCongratulations to Harriett Lerman, Alexandra Miller, and Alexandria Yau for placing first in the Exploravision National Championship! Each student receives over $10,000 in Canada Savings Bonds! Students will be recognized at a virtual ceremony in June! (https://www.exploravision.org/winners/?grade=grades-10-12&year-winner=2021&op=GO) https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/shiitake-diapers-toronto-teens-win-30-000-in-north-american-stem-competition-1.5419065 https://www.cp24.com/ https://nstawebdirector.wixsite.com/exploravision
Canadian Chemistry Olympiad
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/chemistry.jpgCongratulations to the Chemistry Club-club members competed in the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad and the Canadian Chemistry Contest last month. Andy Cai placed first in Canada in the Canadian Chemistry Olympiad. He now qualifies to represent Canada in the International Chemistry Olympiad and a $500 award. Andy also came in second and Peter Lin came in 46th out of 257 Canadian students writing the Canadian Chemistry Contest.
Model UN
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/modelUN.jpgCongratulations to our students from grades 9 to 12 that participated in a 3-day Southern Ontario Model United Nations Assembly (SOMA) conference last weekend with over 600+ delegates from across North America. Congratulations to Jeffery Hu for his Honourable Mention Award for his role as a delegate representing Egypt in the General Assembly, discussing issues of Proxy Warfare, Women in Power and Combating Corruption in Political Leaders and Government Institutions. As well, an Honourable Mention Award was awarded to Simon Hungate for his role representing Republican Steve Daines in the Joint Crisis committee simulating the American Civil War 2021
Wellness@MAC
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpgThank you to the Wellness Council and their ongoing work with Wellness@MAC. This week Wellness@Mac hosted a grade 12 student-led panel for junior students (grade 9 and 10) through Zoom on Wednesday, April 28 from 5- 6 pm entitled: Wellness Connects. This event allowed junior students to connect directly with senior students and learn from their experience navigating high school at Mackenzie. The panelists came from a variety of academic backgrounds and are preparing to enter a variety of post secondary fields in both college and university. The panel discussed time management strategies, studying tips, balancing your social life and much more. It was a phenomenal event that saw over 70 participants at the peak of the evening.
ECOO Competitions Saved!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/ECOO.pngCongratulations to Ms. Krasteva and our students for saving this year’s ECOO Competition! ECOO is one of Ontario’s most prestigious and longest running competitions. When Ms. Krasteva and her student team learned that the competition was in jeopardy, they immediately kicked into gear to ensure that the 600+ ECOO registrants would have an opportunity to compete. Under normal circumstances, running such an event is difficult; however, doing so in a lockdown is logistically off the charts! To learn more about ECOO and our incredible student competitors read the latest ECOO Publication at https://ecoo.org/blog/2021/04/09/a-peek-at-w-l-mackenzies-ecoo-competitors/ Thank you Ms. Krasteva and the Computer Science Club for keeping this wonderful competition alive! https://ecoocs.org/ and https://ecoo.mcpt.ca
DECA International Championships
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/DECA.jpgThe awards for the International DECA competition were this month and we set an Ontario and William Lyon Mackenzie record for wins with 11 medals and 3 trophies! Special congratulations to the following students! Elia Haghbin - 3rd in Business Services Marketing Justin Schwartz - 3rd in Sports and Entertainment Marketing Rachel Leong - 1st in Accounting Applications
MaCS Alumni
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/vaccine.jpgThank you to Jonathan Clodman (MaCS Alumni 2013) who is giving back to the community helping people book vaccine appointments: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/i-do-little-finger-stretches-sometimes-toronto-man-juggles-vaccine-hunters-and-full-time-teaching-1.5422029
Cyber Titan Competition- Top 2 in Canada!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/cybertitan.jpgCyber Titan is a network defence competition aimed to introduce high school students to cybersecurity in a competitive environment. It allows students to explore various aspects of cybersecurity and to practice their skills and further their learning in a realistic environment. This was, and still is, a great opportunity to explore a new and often overlooked side of technology. Congratulations to our two teams for placing first and second in Canada!
Schulich Scholarship Winner
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/Schulich.pngCongratulations to Jacob Kolyakov who won an $80, 000 Schulich Scholarship! Good luck in September!
Math Contests
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/mathcontest.jpgCongratulations to everyone who participated in the annual math contests! This April 83 students wrote the Euclid Math online Contest and 39 students the Fryer/Galois/Hypatia online Math Contests. We received 13 medals and 85 Certificates of Distinction placing in the 25th percentile in Canada! We also had 4 students qualify for the American Invitational Math Exam (AIME) later this year- good luck!
Arts in Bloom
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/Artsinbloom.jpgThe annual Arts in Bloom was hosted the last week of May. Thank you to all students and staff for organizing an amazing Arts in Bloom week! The week includes a virtual Drama night, Music night, Paint night, and Java after dark night which includes dance performances!
HOSA Canada
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/06/HOSA.pngCongratulations to our HOSA club who took part in the Spring Leadership Conference for HOSA Canada this month! We had 12 students who placed in the top 10 of their competitive events. The following earned a top three placement: Jimmie So - 2nd in Human Growth and Development, Celeste Luo and Tracy Wong - 3rd in CERT skills and Kyubin Kim - 3rd in Dental Science. These students qualify to compete in the International Leadership Virtual Conference (June 23rd - 26th). Good luck!
2021 Canadian Computing Competition (CCC)
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/05/CCC.pngThe 2021 Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) was held on February 17, 2021. Congratulations to Nicole Han who was among the top scorers, and is one of four young women being invited to represent Canada at the European Girls’ Olympiad in Informations (EGOI). The CCC is a challenging competition and this is an excellent achievement! The EGOI is a new contest this year and is scheduled to take place in June. This is an excellent opportunity for Nicole to be challenged and to make history by being a part of Canada’s inaugural delegation. Good luck Nicole! (ecoo.org)
American Society of Human Genetics’ (ASHG) 2021 DNA Day Essay Contest
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/05/DNA.pngCongratulations to Alyssa Wang, 2nd place who won $600 for herself and $600 of genetics equipment for the school and to Maria Yampolsky, honorable mention, who won $100 in the DNA 2021 essay contest! (https://www.ashg.org/discover-genetics/k-12-education/dna-day-2021-winners/) The highly competitive contest saw entries from 40 U.S. states and 30 countries (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tb-V_BYa49LZ6pV8hnJ86-hCYCgdwv_F/view)
Canhack 2021
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/05/Canhack-16-9.pngCongratulations to Ms. Krasteva for leading her team of future programmers, engineers, software developers….to a second-place finish in all of Canada in Canhack 2021! This is the second year in a row that the team led by Ms. Krasteva has finished in the top 3 in Canada. Three other students of her program, coached by Brandon Silva - Analyst I - Cyber Threat & Vulnerability Management, competed in the same competition and finished in first place!
Art Gallery Display
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/2020-Still-Life-scaled.jpgCongratulations to our MaCS students who were selected to show their artwork in an online gallery with Arts Etobicoke (EDGE Youth Art Show)! tdsbCREATES is coming to us this year! Grade 10 and 11 Photography Classes will have the opportunity to learn from the Toronto-based artist, Elaine Chan-Dow, during the online classes. She will be hosting an artist talk about careers in Photography, critiquing students portfolios, and answering any questions about applying to post-secondary in the arts. After the mentorship, students will submit work for a chance to be featured in the tdsbCREATES online showcase! This quad the Mackenzie senior dance class has had the opportunity to engage in workshops from many seasoned professionals in a unique virtual setting. Not only did they have several enjoyable sessions learning Jamaican dancehall style from Toronto artist Bizzyboom, but they are just now working with the outstanding Shaun Wolch learning Jazz and Broadway technique. The students will soon have the unique opportunity to participate in a virtual iteration of tdsbCREATES workshops led by contemporary artist and Canadian legend Allen Kaeja. Students are able to participate in these experiential learning opportunities both from the classroom and from home!
Much Ado About Zoom Class
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/download-Copy.pngMany of our Mackenzie students have been working tirelessly for 5 MONTHS writing, auditioning, stage managing, filming, editing, and producing an original play: Much Ado About Zoom Class by our very own, Mia Rebelo. The performance was streamed on Thursday March 11 at 7:30 pm via YouTube Premiere on the WL Mackenzie CI Art Dept Channel, Much Ado About Zoom Class. Great job by all students involved in the production!
Show Me the Money
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/Diana-Lin-Winner-Bay-e1616734673303.jpegThe Experiential Learning Department would like to congratulate Diana Lin, grade 11 co-op MaCS student, in winning today's competition "SHOW ME THE MONEY" offered by Bay Street Deconstructed. Four-hundred secondary school participants across the province competed in six challenges concerning Financial Services and Diana came first overall. She will now move on to the Provincial competition. Good luck Diana!
ExploraVision 2021
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/ExploraVision.pngCongratulations to the grade 10 MaCS science classes who submitted 16 projects in total this year to ExploraVision and 12 of them are being recognized! There are 11 honorable mentions given to the top 10% of all projects. One group won regionals and are now going on to compete in nationals. Good luck to our regional winners in the next round!
Robotics Regional Ontario Competition
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/Qual_1_Motivate_Award_1st-1.pngCongratulations to the Robotics team that consists of two MaCS students as well as students from Brebuff. The team placed first at the Regional Ontario Competition! Good luck at the next event!
Math Contests
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/download.pngCongratulations to Lu Nathan, Li Max, Patel Om, and Hanxu Richard who qualified to write the AIME Invitational Math Contest on Thursday March 18, 2021. Good luck!
Science Club
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/MSEO.pngThe Mackenzie Science Club will be hosting a Virtual Science Olympics for middle school students (grade 7-8). This is our annual MSEO (Mackenzie Science and Engineering Olympics) that normally brings 300 additional people into the building. This year the event will run online asynchronous between March 29 to April 1. All events are created by the students and vetted by the staff advisors. The opening ceremonies will be 9AM on March 29 and the closing will be 2PM on April 9. Thank you to all the volunteers and staff for continuing this amazing event online this year! (https://www.sites.google.com/site/macolympics)
Student Council
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/School-Name-crop.pngThank you to Student Council for organizing an amazing spirit week for April and for running an amazing club crawl this month online! Club crawl this month was an opportunity for clubs and councils via zoom to share club offerings and increase student participation and membership! Spirit week in April is themed Retro-Throwback and includes theme days from the 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's. Thank you to Student Council!
DECA
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/03/download-1.pngCongratulations to the 63 students who participated in the DECA Ontario Provincial Competition in February! The team won 84 awards and 9 students qualified to compete at the virtual International Competition in April. Good Luck!
Business Council
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/02/Wharton.jpgSince the winter break, the Business Council ran a couple of guest speaker sessions. Gerald Mak, a Portfolio Manager with the Ontario Public Service, and Cindy Liu, a Mackenzie MaCS grad and current student at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania provided excellent insights on how to succeed in high school, as well as career options in Business available post-graduation. Coming up in Mid-February is FBLA’s National Conference, where 5 Mackenzie teams will compete against thousands of other students across the country in their respective divisions. Good luck!
Cyber Security Competition
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpg7 teams from Mackenzie, including 2 all girl teams very successfully competed in the Semi-Finals of the XIII Cyber Patriot Cyber Security competition(https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/). The students compete in multiple divisions according to age and skill level with Platinum being ranked the highest. Five of our teams made the Platinum division and 3 of them placed in the top 3 in Canada! In the second tier, Gold, one of Mackenzie’s teams placed 1st in Canada. Incredible achievement for our students! Congratulations to all competitors! Two teams will go to the Canadian Finals in May in Ottawa!
The Scientia Initiative
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/02/alumni-scaled.jpgThe Scientia Initiative (@thescientiainitiative) was created to connect youth with current research findings in a variety of academic fields, from medicine to chemistry to sociology. This monthly newsletter presents new and exciting research for students to read and critically think about, as well as tips for reading scientific literature and pursuing a career in STEM. This newsletter is written by a MaCS alumni currently at the University of Toronto!
First FTC Robotics Event
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/02/robotics.jpegCongratulations to the Robotics Team consisting of students from Brebeuf College and the MaCS Program who won first place in the Connect award for FIRST FTC Robotics Scrimmage 2 event. It was a scrimmage. Alexandra Miller and Radha Kotra from the grade 10 MaCS Program are an integral part of the team. Good luck at the spring event!
SAC in February
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/02/SAC.pngThank you to Student Council again for providing another amazing month of school spirit virtually! Information is on Instagram @wlmac.sac. February SAC has partnered with Kensington Place, a Seniors home to put together a kindness card initiative. The online themed events this month include Valentine's day Kahoot. Love Song Mad Libs, Spirit prize giveaways, and a lip sync video (https://youtu.be/sTfwNRegxO0) put together by Student Council!
SHAD
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2019/02/Shad_Valley_Logo2.jpgCongratulations to all those students who successfully applied to the SHAD summer university enrichment program!
DECA Regional Competition/Stock Competition
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/DECA.jpgCongratulations to the DECA team who participated in the regional competition in November.! The team had an outstanding competition due to the dedication and efforts of the student executive team as well as the competitors. Mackenzie had 26 competitors place in the top 20 overall in the province in their events. 7 finished in the top three of their categories. 66 competitors qualified for the virtual provincial competition in February! Best of luck to the DECA team as they prepare and try to qualify for the virtual international competition in May! Congratulations to Victor Vasilev, Sion Gang, and Jessica Chen and Shane Chen for placing 3rd from out of over 50 teams at Target Alpha’s national Stock Pitch Competition for their presentation on Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp! Looking forward, Mackenzie will be competing in FBLA’s Canadian National Leadership Conference in mid-February.
University of Waterloo Hack the North
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/waterloo.pngCongratulations to Ishan Garg who has been accepted as a mentor for the University of Waterloo Hack the North event being held the weekend of January 15th!
MaCS Alumni
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/soccer.jpgAthletic Council will be spearheading next month a new initiative called Heart of a Lyon - Alumnae Edition. They have reached out to Nicole Kozlova (MaCS Alumni) to speak to our school community via Instagram Live- Nicole Kozlova (Varsity Soccer @ Virginia Tech AND on the Ukrainian National Team) is now a decorated varsity athlete who will talk about her athletic journey as student-athlete who has balanced sports with academics.
Debate Club
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/debateclub.jpgLast month, 60+ Mac students signed into Google Meet to "attend" a teacher-student debate hosted by the WLMAC Debate Team. Grade 11 students and debate club co-presidents, Sarah Zhao and Swetlana Kumar faced off against debate coach and club supervisor, Mr. Berenstein and special guest teacher-debater, Ms. Gourley. The motion before the House was as follows: If the House got a hold of Santa's naughty and nice list, it would destroy it. The teacher debaters supported the bill and the student debaters represented the Opposition. All attending students had a chance to vote via Google Forms at the end of the debate. The victory went to the teachers which is kinda nice since teachers lost to the students last year! It was first-class debating and the attending students said it was enormously fun to watch. Club presidents took the names of 10-20 students inspired by the debate and interested in joining the debate club.
SAC January Spirit Week
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/gym-scaled.jpgThank you to SAC for organizing the January (25th-29th) Disney Themed Spirit Week with the following events below. All proceeds will go to Kernel's Sponsored Charity of Autism Speaks Canada. Monday: Collegiate wear Tuesday: Twin Day Wednesday: Wonderland Wednesday Thursday: Pyjama Day Friday: Movie Night
HOSA
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2021/01/HOSA.pngHOSA Canada is the largest health science student organization in North America. At the Mackenzie chapter, under the leadership of Analpa Vishwanath and Hannah Kim, we have an 80-member team spanning all grades that trains weekly in their chosen area, such as pharmacology, Dental Hygiene, Sports Medicine, etc and compete against other students at Leadership Conferences. The top competitors are eligible to compete at the International Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. The Fall Leadership Conference, held for the first time this year, ran at the beginning of December in an online format. Our students balanced their courses with training every week in their area of competition. Five of our students placed in the top 10 in their event, and Oscar Han placed first in Epidemiology!
Student Council (SAC) Spirit Holiday Week
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/12/istockphoto-840997616-1024x1024-1.jpgThank you to Student Council for organizing our annual holiday tradition of SACMAS with the following Student Council initiatives for Mackenzie School Spirit: a) SAC Candygram Distribution- Donations raised to support a local charity for Homeless Youth called Eva's Place. b) Cozy Sock Raffle Drive- All proceeds raised will also be donated to Eva's Place. c) Grade 9 Virtual Holiday Assembly- SAC hosted a virtual holiday style Kahoot for all grade 9 classes! d) Dress up Day Themes: Monday: MAC Apparel Monday! Tuesday: Jersey Day to Represent Your Favourite Team! Wednesday: Channel your Flannel Day! Thursday: Grout Fit Day Grey Day December! Friday: Festive Ugly Sweater Day e) Happy Holidays from Student Council! Enjoy the promotional SACMAS video: https://youtu.be/wAEGPa29Xeo Thank you SAC! Please follow SAC at www.maclyonsden.com and wlmac.sac on Insta for more virtual fun!
MaCS Grade 8/9 Applicants
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/12/MACSLOGOBig-1.pngTo grade 8/9 applicants - Thank you for your interest in the MaCS Program! This year we had close to 700 applicants apply to the MaCS Program for the 90 spots! Notification letters will be mailed to all applicants by Canada Post the week of February 8th!
COVID Creations Music Concert
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/11/620x296-CBC_News_Network.jpgThe co-directors of COVID Creations, MaCS students Marlee Schwartz and Josh Friedman conducted a phone interview live on CBC Radio One 99.1 FM on Friday, November 13 around 8:20 AM online. To learn more about COVID Creations go to their website and watch their promo video. Promo video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qE8bBM9cxU&feature=emb_logo Website link: CovidCreationsConcert.com
SHAD Valley 2021
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2019/02/Shad_Valley_Logo2.jpgGrade 10 and 11 students can visit the SHAD website (https://www.shad.ca/) to apply for the SHAD Valley 2021 July Summer Enrichment Opportunity at a Canadian University.
A Peek Into Science!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/11/20201006_113605.jpgEven though the science department has had to cancel some lab activities in light of COVID, they were able to reinvent other labs. For instance the chemistry conservation of mass lab was redesigned to use disposable materials. The microscope lab had students wearing goggles and sanitizing their equipment. The Science department is trying as much as they can to provide the same enriching and engaging activities for the students as they normally would while still keeping safe.
Online Clubs and Councils
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/03/081-1.jpgThank you to our Student Council Vice Presidents who have been hard at work organizing our school clubs and councils to be ready to receive members for their online start-up in October/November for the 2020-2021 year! There are 51 clubs running at Mackenzie this year! Student council also organized the annual Halloween Candygrams and Food Drive with proceeds going to the North York Harvest Food Bank Drive.
COVID-19 Research
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/11/6000795_coronagerms.jpgSeyone Chithrananda (Grade 12 MaCS Student) over the summer gave a talk for the Emergent Ventures fellowship he received 6 months ago recapping his progress on the work with Prof. Alan-Aspuru Guzik's lab at UofT on building a drug discovery platform for designing, screening and synthesizing antivirals targeting the COVID-19 virus. They are currently running molecular simulations, synthesizing some of our most promising antivirals and testing them right now. Here is a deck that goes into more depth on his portion of the project. Seyone has also been working with his mentor at Stanford, Bharath Ramsundar, on a research paper that uses language models (similar to the ones employed for products like Siri) for learning to predict drug-like properties in molecules. They are finishing up their final paper, and have been invited to deliver talks at the Royal Society of Chemistry and Baylearn machine learning conferences! Great Job Seyone!
Covid-19 App
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/09/app_store.pngCongratulations to Ananya Vishwanath (MaCS Alumni 2020) who recently spoke to a TV channel over the summer where she spoke about her app, the MaCS program and women in STEM. (https://youtu.be/mL2bQMwYoKU). Ananya is currently in talks with Indigo and an entertainment company in the U.K. She is planning to do a dry run in a busy Indigo store this month.
Canadian International Olympiad
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/09/1200px-University_of_Waterloo_seal_svg.pngCongratulations to Christopher Trevisan, for being selected on the Canadian International Olympiad Informatics team. We wish Christopher and the team good luck at the online competition later this month!
AP Results!
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/09/AP_logo.pngCongratulations to all AP exam writers who wrote last year. The results are in and the AP computer science class average for the school was 98% which was way above the provincial average. Well done!
CCUG podcast team- Vansh, Simon, Noam, Josh (Grade 12 MaCS students)
http://wlmac.ca/macsprogram/files/2020/09/istockphoto-1154170008-1024x1024-1.jpgCongratulations to the CCUG podcast team (Comprehensive Canadian University Guide) for receiving the government grant called "Rising Youth"! The Comprehensive Canadian University Guide focuses on connecting high school students with universities to generate meaningful content to help students make University decisions less stressful in the face of COVID-19
With over 350 students, a good portion of the student population at Mackenzie is part of this program. This program is one of a kind, giving students many opportunities both academically and non-academically. Please feel free to take the time to search the site and learn about the many possibilities that are waiting for you. For a start, look at our Gallery Page for pictures and descriptions of a variety of activities/events our students take part in.
If you are interested in being a part of this elite program, please go to the Application Page for more information.
Click here to visit the MaCS Program Information Night.
For present students, please go forward to the Current Events Page.
Thank you and I hope you enjoy your experience.
S. Leder
MaCS Coordinator
W.L. Mackenzie C.I.