Welcome to the MaCS Program, a specialized program at  William Lyon Mackenzie C.I.

• MaCS Graduation

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  Congratulations to our grade 12 MaCS students who celebrated their graduation from the program this past week with a ceremony and reception! Celebrations will continue at our school-wide commencement at the end of the month!

  

• University of Western Science Olympics

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  Congratulations to all participants at the University of Western Science Olympics! Special congratulations to one of our grade 9 teams for placing third in the Circuits event and to two of our grade 11 teams for placing third in the Robot event and first in the Bridge building event!

  

• Avogadro and Chem 13 Chemistry Contests

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  Congratulations to all participants in this year's chemistry contests from the University of Waterloo! Special congratulations to Andy Cai (Grade 9 MaCS student) who placed third in the world out of 4,372 participants! Four students also placed in the 80th percentile in the Avagadro contest. The CHEM 13 contest had two students place in the 90th percentile!

  

• Grade 8 MaCS Student Orientation

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  Last week, we had the opportunity to welcome our incoming grade 9 MaCS students at our annual grade 8 MaCS student orientation! Students took part in various activities including a tour, a club crawl, and a BBQ. Students were able to talk to senior MaCS students about their experience in the program as well as meet other incoming MaCS students. We look forward to welcoming our new grade 9 MaCS students in September!

  

• Languages/Grade 11 Trip

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  This past month the Languages department had their Quebec trip to Montreal! Students had the opportunity to visit the McGill campus as part of the trip!

  

• Grade 12 MaCS Trip

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  This past week was the annual Grade 12 MaCS Trip dinner and show! Students had the opportunity to have dinner at Quinn's Steakhouse and then see the musical Annie at the Ed Mirvish Theatre!

  

• U of T Chemistry Essay Competition

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  Grade 11 Chemistry MaCS students recently competed in the University of Toronto Chemistry Department "Ask a Laureate" Essay competition. Students had to write a concise 500-600 word essay on one of four topics. Of the 10 students that represented Mackenzie, there were 2 honourable mentions, 3 third places, and 1 first place! Congratulations to all participants!

  

• NEURObrite research initiative at Baycrest

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  Last month, twenty-four grade 10 and 11 MaCS students had the opportunity to take part in an extracurricular initiative involving an introduction to the brain and the NeuroBRITE Initiative. The NeuroBRITE initiative seeks to partner high school students with mentors from Baycrest Health Sciences Centre in a hands-on neuroscience research project which will span the next 5 school months (going into the 2018/2019 school year), during which students will have access to state-of-the-art EEG technology to complete their research. Student findings will be presented in a culminating showcase at Baycrest in late 2018!

  

• University of Guelph Science Olympics

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  This week, students had the opportunity to compete at the University of Guelph Science Olympics. There were three first place event team winners and one overall first place team competition winner! Thank you to all staff and students who participated in the events!

  

• Culturama

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  Last month, Mackenzie held the school's annual Culturama Night. The variety of performances and delicious food made the evening a true cultural celebration of our community!

  

• Envirothon

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  Congratulations to all the students who participated in the science Envirothon competition last month! One team received 2nd place overall at the regional finals and a first place finish in the aquatics category. Another team achieved first place in the forestry section.

  

• Dance Team

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  This month, the Dance Team competed at the TDSB Creates jury event and have advanced to the final showcase at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts next month!

  

• TDSB Creates

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  Congratulations to the following students who will have their work exhibited at the board wide gallery exhibit for TDSBCreates! “Decidentes ex Somnium” (“Falling from a Dream”) – Lily Fishman, Maya Weir “Love and Loss” – Sienna Park, Melanie Yu “Twitter Problems” – Erfan Yaganehfar

  

• Sick Kids Hospital Science Extravaganza Trip

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  This past week, students were able to attend the annual Sick Kids Science Extravaganza event! Students listened to a very interesting presentation about memory and learning followed by two great lab tours in the afternoon.

  

• DECA

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  Congratulations to all the MaCS students who attended DECA Internationals in Atlanta last week! There were 11 finalists and 6 top ten winners for a total of 25 medals!

  

• Programming Competition

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  On April 17, the Computer Programming Team hosted the Second Annual Girls Invitational, where females across Toronto have the opportunity to compete against one another. Mackenzie CPT shared their love of competition, coding, and teamwork in this special event.

  

• Harvard University

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  Congratulations to Sarah Goldfarb (Grade 12 MaCS) who received an offer from Harvard University this past week!

  

• HOSA Conference

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  Congratulations to HOSA this past week where 80 students competed at the annual HOSA Conference! Mackenzie students placed superbly with two firsts, one second, and one third! Those students who placed have qualified for the International competition in Dallas Texas at the end of June!

  

• ECOO Programming Contest

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  Congratulations to two Mackenzie MaCS teams who advanced to the regional round of the ECOO Computer Programming Contest in April! Team: Arsh Raza, Richard Yi, Jeffrey Gao, Jiayue Wu Team: Jaclyn Woon, Yuan Yang, Sarah Goldfarb, Hannah Zhu

  

• Waterloo Computing Competition

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  Congratulations to Richard Yi (MaCS) and Evan Zhang (MaCS) who were invited to compete in the Canadian Computing Olympiad as one of the top twenty - thirty students at the University of Waterloo on May 14-18, 2018!

  

• Ministry Student Advisory Council

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  Congratulations to Gabby Chan for being selected to be part of the 2018-2019 Minister's Student Advisory Council (MSAC)!

  

• Canadian History Award

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  Congratulations to Andy Pham (Grade 10 MaCS), for winning a Government of Canada History Award!(http://gcawards.canadashistory.ca/History-Awards/High-School-Awards/Winning-Essays/Andy-Pham)

  

• French Public Speaking Contest

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  This past week, 4 MaCS students competed in the TDSB French Public Speaking Contest at the school board level. Congratulations to Lev Raizman and Maria Yampolsky who both advanced to the Provincial level in May!

  

• Toshiba ExploraVision Competition

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  Congratulations to three of the grade 10 MaCS project teams for receiving honorary mentions and for one of the grade 10 MaCS project teams for being chosen to be one of the regional winners! The regional team is now competing for nationals in June!

  

• DECA

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  Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's Provincial DECA Championships. We have 15 students moving on to the International Competition in Atlanta! At the Provincial competition last week, we won 16 plaques and 73 ribbons!

  

• Grade 10 MaCS Trip

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  This past week grade 10 MaCS students spent three days at the Canadian Ecology Centre! It was a great way for the students to have a winter ecology experience!

  

• MSEO

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  This past week our science club hosted their 12th annual middle school grade 7 and 8 Science and Engineering Olympiad. Congratulations to all the middle school participants as well as our student volunteers and staff who organized another amazing event for the school!

  

• Virginia Tech Soccer Team

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  Congratulations to Nicole Kozlova (Grade 12 MaCS) who officially accepted an offer to Virginia Tech University and will be playing for the Virginia Tech Hokies NCAA Women's Soccer Team next year!

  

• SHAD

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  Congratulations to all our MaCS students who applied this year to the SHAD Valley Summer Enrichment Program. Four students have been given offers for SHAD 2018! This is a great accomplishment, given how competitive this year’s application process was at SHAD.

  

• Journalist Sandra Martin

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  Journalist Sandra Martin spoke to grade 11 and 12 English classes last month to help them prepare for their culminating activities. Sandra has a lot of experience in the media industry and currently works for WE (formerly Free the Children). She spoke to our grade 12 students about how to create successful campaigns. She spoke to the grade 11 students about interviewing skills. Sandra led students through examples of both good and bad interviews and discussed with students how they could fix the poor interview. All in all, students took away valuable lessons from an expert in media.

  

• Charter Challenge Champions

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  Congratulations to Mackenzie’s Mock Trial Club (Celine Kim, Beatrice Han, Gabby Chan and Mehak Shah) for an amazing Charter Challenge victory in the Ontario Justice Education Network’s Charter Challenge. The Ontario Court of Appeal Panel found 2-1 in favour of the appellants (William Lyon Mackenzie C.I). We are looking forward to the spring challenge!

  

• “Bay Street Deconstructed”

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  On December 8th, the Grade 10 Business classes spent the morning discovering more about the financial world as the Business Department hosted the “Bay Street Deconstructed” Program. The main objective of the program is to raise Financial Literacy and career awareness about the variety of Financial Service Areas available to students.

  

• Inside Ride

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  Congratulations to all teachers and students who participated and/or supported last week’s Inside Ride. The Inside Ride presented by the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation is Canada’s first indoor cycling challenge and fundraising event dedicated to raising money in support of children with cancer and their families. Teams of students and teachers cycled to raise over $9000!

  

• Cabaret (A Night of Musical Theatre)

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  Congratulations to the Music, Drama, and Dance departments as well as the over 80 students involved (actors, singers, dancers, musicians, costume and set designers, tech and crew members) for an outstanding performance this week!

  

• Charter Challenge Finalists 2017

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  Congratulations to Gabby Chan, Beatrice Han, Celine Kim, and Mehak Shah (Grade 11 MaCS Students) for advancing to the Charter Challenge Finals out of 500 students who participated. Later this month they will have the opportunity to compete before a panel of Ontario judges. The competition was organized by the OJEN (Ontario Justice Education Network), Osgood Hall Law School and the Court of Appeal for Ontario (www.ojen.ca).

  

• Economic Club of Canada (Guest Speaker: Michelle Obama)

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  Last month, a few students had the opportunity to attend a conference hosted by the Economic Club of Canada with Michelle Obama as the guest speaker. The CPA (Chartered Professional Accountants) of Ontario invited and sponsored the students.

  

• McMaster University Engineering Workshops

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  McMaster University provided Engineering Workshops to our grade 9 and 10 MaCS students last month. Some students had to build a Canadarm-simulating device to move solar panels from one end of the table to another (Space Exploration strand) or build a wind tower to simulate clean energy (Climate Change strand). Students were engaged and the workshops were well run!

  

• DECA Competition

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  Congratulations to the MaCS students who competed at the DECA Business Regional Championship earlier this month. Mackenzie took home 70 ribbons and 19 medals in this business competition!

  

• University of Toronto Guest Speaker

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  This past week MaCS biology students had an opportunity to listen to Dr. Gary Levy, who is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Toronto. His research has focused on immune-mediated mechanisms of organ injury due to viruses, alloantigens, and xenoantigens. Thank you to Ms. Batras for organizing the event.

  

• MaCS Test Day

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  Last week approximately 700 grade 8/9 applicants wrote the MaCS Entrance Test. Notification letters will be mailed the week of January 22nd, 2018.

  

• Baycrest Hospital - Ideation Workshops at Baycrest and at Mackenzie

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  MaCS students had the opportunity to participate in Ideation Interactive Workshops. These workshops were organized by the scientists at Baycrest Hospital on the brain and human memory.

  

• Math Contests

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  Math Contests have started. Good luck to all of our MaCS participants!

  

• Regenerative Medicine - The Next Frontier Symposium

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  MaCs students recently had the opportunity to hear about and experience hands-on, cutting edge stem-cell research from world-renowned leaders in the field. They embarked on a journey from bench to patient bedside, exploring career paths and meeting scientists, venture capitalists, clinicians, biotechnology experts, and government regulators working in the field.

  

• MaCS Information Night

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  Last week over 1200 people attended our MaCS Information Night to learn more about the program and the application process. Thank you to all those who attended and volunteered their time for the evening!

  

• Mactoberfest

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  This past week students and staff participated in our annual lunchtime Mactoberfest with amazing costumes and activities during an extended lunch!

  

• Grade 9 MaCS Trip

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  This week grade 9 MaCS students went to Muskoka Woods for a three day leadership and team building trip! Students had a great experience and an opportunity to get to know everyone in the program!

  

• Grade 9 Club Crawl

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  Last week students had the opportunity to attend the annual club crawl at Mackenzie! Over 50 clubs were in attendance and students were able to sign-up and learn more about the clubs available at Mackenzie!

  

• Business World Championship

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  Congratulations to the MaCS team of Michal Moshkovich, Jessica Peter, Rikard Saqe, Cyrus Gandevia, and Natalie Kaufman who competed with their company "SpitStrips". This August the team traveled to the Ukraine for the SAGE International Business Worldcup Championship (http://www.citynews.ca/video/2017/07/24/video-high-school-students-create-impairment-spit-test/)! The team placed 2nd in the world with their venture! They also won a United Nations Gold Medal for their venture!

  

• Grade 9 Day

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  This past Friday Mackenzie hosted their annual grade 9 Orientation day! It was a great opportunity for grade 9 students to learn more about Mackenzie, meet the Student Council, and find out about all the extra-curricular clubs/activities/sport teams available to students.

  

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.

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.