Read more details about St. George's School, Vancouver on their 2026 profile page.
Reflections and Advice:
1.) What do you think makes your school unique relative to other boarding schools?
I walked in as a grade eight kid who liked science and music. Walked out knowing I wanted medicine, carrying a pottery bowl I made myself, and still playing piano. The school sits in Dunbar. Two campuses. Harker Hall for boarders. I was a day kid. But honestly? The best thing was the quiet permission to explore. Nobody told me to pick one lane. I could volunteer at a hospital, come back and play country music in a practice room, then make a mess in the art studio. All in one week. They just let that happen.
2.) What was the best thing that happened to you in boarding school?
Sitting with a woman at Mount Saint Joseph who didn't speak English. I didn't know her name. She didn't know mine. I just held her hand for an hour while she cried. I didn't fix anything. But I was there. That taught me more about medicine than any textbook. I'm proud of the hamper drive. Years of showing up. Years of making sure families had food. That was mine. And I grew. Became someone who could sit in silence with a stranger. That wasn't who I was at fourteen.
3.) What might you have done differently during your boarding school experience?
I would've started pottery earlier. I waited until grade eleven. Missed two years of clay on my hands. I also would've stopped caring what people thought sooner. Nobody was watching as closely as I thought. Advice for someone new is don't try to be impressive. Try to be curious. The impressive stuff comes from curiosity anyway. And sit in the pottery room at least once. Even if you're bad. Especially if you're bad.
4.) What did you like most about your school?
Being allowed to be unfinished. St. George's didn't expect me to have it all figured out. They let me try things, change my mind, try again. I came in thinking I needed a plan. I left knowing I just needed to keep showing up.
5.) Do you have any final words of wisdom for visiting or incoming students to your school?
Pottery studio in the basement. Go there. The clay doesn't care. The piano in the music wing. Play something. Country, classical, whatever. The snack bar has these cookies that are gone by 10am. Don't sleep on them. And the seawall at Kits. Walk it on a weekday afternoon when nobody's around. That's the Vancouver you'll remember.
Academics:
1.) Describe the academics at your school - what did you like most about it?
Small classes. Teachers remembered your name by week two. I loaded up on sciences. Biology, chemistry. The medicine track. But I kept music in the mix too. That was non-negotiable for me. The workload junior year was something else. Late nights. Coffee. The usual. But here's what stuck with me. One teacher saw I was running thin and just said "you okay?" Not checking on grades. Checking on me. That happened more than once.
Athletics:
1.) Describe the athletics at your school - what did you like most about it?
Required through grade ten. I played soccer. Not because I was good. Because it was something to do with my body instead of my brain. After that, I dropped official sports. But I stayed moving. Hikes on the North Shore. Runs through Pacific Spirit Park. The school has a gym. I used it sometimes. The competitive athletes had their world. I had mine. Nobody made it weird.
Art, Music, and Theatre:
1.) Describe the arts program at your school - what did you like most about it?
Piano was my first love. There were practice rooms in the music wing. I'd disappear in there. Country music mostly. Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash. Sometimes Chopin when I was in a mood. Pottery came later. Grade eleven. The art room is in the basement. It smells like wet clay and quiet. You sit there with your hands in mud and make something imperfect. That became my therapy. I never performed much. That wasn't the point.
Extracurricular Opportunities:
1.) Describe the extracurriculars offered at your school - what did you like most about it?
The hamper drive took up my winters. Coordinating with families, sorting donations, making sure nothing fell through. It was stressful. But seeing the cars pull up to pick up boxes? Worth it. I also helped start a health science club with a couple friends. We brought in speakers, talked about med school, just gathered people who cared about the same things. You could build whatever you wanted there. The school didn't get in the way.
Dorm Life:
1.) Describe the dorm life in your school - what did you like most about it?
Lived at home. But I spent weekends at Harker Hall sometimes. The common room was alive. Guys doing homework, playing FIFA, just existing near each other. The boarding parents were there but not in your face. What I noticed was how the boarders moved through the school differently. They had this ease. Like they belonged everywhere. I envied that a little.
Dining:
1.) Describe the dining arrangements at your school.
I ate at the dining hall sometimes after volunteering. Food was fine. Nothing to write home about. But there was this one cook who made grilled cheese exactly right. I don't know how. And the Sunday brunch? Everyone came down slow, still in sweatpants, no rush. That was the best meal of the week. Not because of the food. Because nobody was in a hurry.
Social and Town Life:
1.) Describe the school's town and surrounding area.
Vancouver in your backyard. That's not nothing. I'd walk to Dunbar Village for coffee. Sit in the window and watch people. On weekends I'd bus to Kitsilano. Walk the seawall. Just breathe. The mountains were always there. The ocean too. You could ignore it if you wanted. But why would you?
2.) Describe the social life at your school - what did you like most about it?
The school is big enough to find your people. Small enough that you couldn't hide. I had my close friends from grade eight. But I also had friends in music, friends in volunteering, friends I made in pottery class. The groups mixed. Nobody was territorial. You could be a science kid who played piano and made bowls. Nobody thought that was weird.
Read more details about St. George's School, Vancouver on their 2026 profile page.
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I hold the record for fastest goal in League1 BC history. 11 seconds. We drew up the play on a whiteboard 10 minutes before kickoff, the grass was longer than we expected, my teammates adjusted. . .
I drank maple syrup for breakfast every day for four years. Dark amber only. My friends thought I was joking until they saw me do it. The inflatable chinchilla named Puffy lived on my desk. . .
I was at St. George's from 2021 to 2025 after moving from Calgary to Vancouver for school and hockey. I lived in Harker Hall as a boarding student in the Dunbar neighbourhood. The funny thing. . .
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