TFS - Canada's International School

ENTRE NOUS 22 e Anna Giles Medal recipients Kathy Giles '77 Arlene Hofstader '77 Greg Sharp '77 Nicholas Volk '78 Rachel Mott-Trille '79 Kathryn Emslie '80 Michelle Brown '81 Sarah Ball '82 Richard Woodruff '82 James Grimaldi '83 Viveca Rasins '83 Vera Frantisak '84 Rachel Sheinin '85 Shelina Hirji '86 John Chang '87 Michelle Cheung- Kwan '88 Narguesse Joneidi '88 Carrie Mandel '89 Arlene Chua '90 Alexa Bersenas '91 Dana Gornitzki '92 Sarah Finkelstein '93 Jessica Wilson, '93 Suzy Davidkhanian '94 Katerina Sukovski '94 Liana Brown '95 Lauren Cappell '95 Shawn Chua '95 Catherine Willis '96 Talia Hoffstein '97 Lara Pascali '97 Tazlin Kamani '98 Laura Billing '99 Sabrina Peric '99 Marc Pfeiffer '00 MICHAEL AW '15 When Michael Aw heard his name announced as the recipient of the Anna Giles Medal, he remembers feeling grateful and excited. He also didn't know much about it. When it was described to him as having a passion and a love of life, he says, "That really stuck with me. I was humbled that people thought I was enthusiastic, optimistic, and the impact that had was it helped keep me mindful of those qualities, to continue to live life to the fullest – like engaging with others, maintaining a love of learning and finding balance in life." Having first attended public schools, Mr. Aw entered TFS in Grade 6 as an Intro French student to become bilingual like his dad and sister. What he noticed most was being surrounded by encouragement. "It is such a great memory for me – my supportive classmates. And the teachers who were mentors, approachable and willing to go the extra mile," he says. Mr. Aw also gave back as the Prefect of TFS' student ambassadors, assistant coach of the swim team, a house head and a peer mentor himself. Now completing his second year of medicine at the University of Ottawa, after receiving a bachelor of science degree in health sciences from McMaster University, this is what Mr. Aw says he has discovered about his chosen field so far: "Those experiences with patients! Interacting with people, with individuals, gives you a lot more perspective. A person is more than a specimen, more than just cells. It made me appreciate what impact one can have to ameliorate someone's life through medicine." SARAH FINKELSTEIN '93 "I knew the award was very different; it was not exclusively academic," says Dr. Sarah Finkelstein of the Anna Giles Medal. "When I received it, I was honoured and humbled. It involved character and leadership, repairing broken things in our world, and being a bridge between cultures for positive change," she says. It was many of these same aspects that brought Dr. Finkelstein and her brothers to TFS in the first place. Her family had moved to Toronto from Montreal, and finding a school that connected Canada's two solitudes – meaning that it was bilingual – as well as co-educational, non-denominational and diverse, was important to her parents. Dr. Finkelstein too knew that TFS was special. From her memories of the science fairs that inspired her, to a curricular approach that allowed her to do close study and sparked curiosity, she says, "If not for TFS, I would not be where I am today. It gave me the confidence to do difficult things." And exactly where is Dr. Finkelstein now? She is an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto, teaching and researching in the areas of paleoclimatology and paleoecology so that we may understand the climate history of, for example and as per her dissertation, the coastal wetlands of the Great Lakes, and how climate change might devastate peatlands that, over millennia, became storehouses for carbon. "I thought this was where I could make a difference. I work with teams, including my students, to solve problems. It brings together all these different insights and it's thrilling. It helps us to deal with the pressing concerns of humanity."

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