It has been said that education is the most powerful weapon, as it can be used to change the world and with St. John's Academy giving their students an arsenal of teachings on respect, resilience, empathy, and integrity the future generation is ready to lead the way.
"The 21st century will require a lot of resilience in order to be successful," said International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme coordinator Bradley Myrholm. "As well, healthy relationships are impossible without respect and integrity. Ultimately, we want our students to thrive in the real world and that cannot happen without these characteristics. Our goal is to help our students learn how to build and maintain healthy relationships, which truly are the most significant part of any human's life."
Myholm wears many hats as he is also the Shawnigan Lake campus's director of Community Engagement and Learning, and serves as the principal for the downtown Vancouver campus three days a week. Over the course of his educational career he has also taught students English, Design, and Social Studies. The academy, which offers boarding school to a small group of select students, also has International Baccalaureate trained teachers, strong academic programs, as well as an Outdoor Education Program.
"The International Baccalaureate program was founded in post-war Europe with the stated goal of bringing people from all over the world together to foster peace," said Myholm.
While history is taught inside the classroom, the history of the site itself is a colourful one.
The school's property has been used for educational purposes for nearly a century dating back to 1927 when it first served as the Strathcona Lodge Girls Boarding School for several years. The co-ed Maxwell International Baháʼí School was established on the beautiful 25-acre campus in 1988 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Canada in honour of architect William Sutherland Maxwell and his wife May who were two of the earliest Baháʼís in Canada. Students from all over the world attended the school with its educational philosophy based on the principles of the Baháʼí faith it closed its doors on its 20th anniversary in 2008.
The following year Dwight International School was founded on the grounds, which later became Dwight School Canada in 2012. The space for learning then changed hands and names again as one of the founding schools of the Brookes Education Group in 2015, which was re-branded as Brookes Shawnigan Lake in 2016 before becoming the second campus for the co-ed private day school St. John's Academy three years later in 2019. St. John's Academy has been motivating and supporting high school students since 1992.
"I helped found this school with the then Head of School Dave Pontich as well as Chris Jenkins, Tom Guo, and a few of our existing teachers, namely Travis Visscher, Jeff Trapp, Amy Heffring, and Serena Myrholm," said Myrholm. "Both Brookes, and Maxwell had very different visions. Our vision is to create a truly diverse international school while maintaining a majority of local Cowichan Valley residents. Our educational philosophy is based on the International Baccalaureate's mission of making the world a better place through education. We believe that it is not enough to give students knowledge and skills; but we develop those knowledge and skills specifically to have a positive impact on the world and to help foster global peace."
Speaking of having a positive impact on the world, Myrholm said among some the school's greatest accomplishments over the last six years is their September whole-school overnight camping and outdoor excursion, their regular Arts showcases and various project exhibitions.
"Every year our Grade 10 students complete a personal project where they can learn and create anything they want that is aligned with their own interests and goals," said Myrholm. "There is a school-wide exhibition, and then students celebrate their successes afterwards with a field trip that they help plan."
While students think green with their annual Earth Week projects the school is embarking on a new first this month that means the world to all involved as it will be the SJA's inaugural year participating in the nationwide annual Green Shirt Day which is recognized across the country on April 7.
Green Shirt Day is in honour of the Logan Boulet Effect, which supports organ donor awareness and registration across Canada. Seven years ago this April 6, Canadians were heartbroken to hear the tragic news of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash where out of 29 passengers,16 lost their lives, including Boulet who was one of the team's defencemen, leaving the remaining 13 bearing both physical and emotional scars for life.
Following Boulet's death the day after the crash, the Logan Boulet Effect was inspired by his decision to register as an organ donor, complemented by his family’s commitment to honour his wishes, and the massive wave of donor registrations across Canada that followed his example. SJA's inaugural Green Shirt Day initiative is being funded by the the school's Parent Community Engagement Group and led by their treasurer Anna Callegari.
"My interest in organizing this event is closely tied to my own families experience with transplant when my nephew Alistair Hayne was fatally wounded in an accidental shooting on Saltspring Island in 2017," said Callegari. "The only positive moment in this tragedy was when we learned that Alistair could donate to five separate recipients in a life saving manner."
While studies show that 90 per cent of B.C. residents support organ donation only one in three are actually registered. Callegari decided to approach SJA's parent group with the idea to commemorate this day in order to raise awareness of the importance of the conversation about registering for organ donation. The group welcomes attendance at their monthly meetings.
St. John's Academy held its first annual Green Shirt Day assembly on April 2, in advance of the nation-wide Green Shirt Day on April 7. The academy's first-ever school-wide Green Shirt Day event included a room full of bright green t-shirts displaying the slogan "Live Life Pass it On SJA", as well as a presentation from student council, music videos and videos from BC Transplant, and a moving account of survival from liver transplant recipient Natalie Williams who has now trained to become an ICU nurse. To help raise awareness and get the message across, SJA displayed banners about organ donation, and lit up green for the week with floodlights, and a heart shaped installation of solar green lanterns on their lawn.
"It was really touching during our assembly to hear from a survivor of organ transplant," said Myrholm. "I think it's incredibly important for students to be learning about this. One of our bigger visions at this school is to create a better world, and that is ultimately what we are trying to do through all the learning here. We don't believe it's enough to simply give students skills, and knowledge but to use them to contribute to a making this a better world.
"I think their understanding of organ transplant is fundamental to that especially since it can have a huge impact on someone's life," he said. "One of the stories was of a mother hearing her son's heartbeat in another child. She actually had asked the family if she could hear the heart, and it was just such a beautiful story. Then there are similar stories with livers and eyes where parents are able to see their child's eyes in other people's faces, and it is hugely impactful and beautiful when you think about it. There is something deeply fundamentally sacrificial about that and I think it's just a beautiful thing, and how in the midst of tragedy, how amazing things can still happen as a result."
The growing initiative of the Logan Boulet Effect is a perfect time to start a conversation with family and loved ones about the decision to become an organ donor. It just takes a few moments to register, and this simple decision has the potential to save lives. To find out how to register as an organ donor visit greenshirtday.ca or register.transplant.bc.ca.
BC Transplant also offers an annual scholarship for students who take on the role of leading an organ donation awareness project in their school or community. For more information on how to get involved visit www.transplant.bc.ca.
Those who make the life changing decision to become an organ donor can post a selfie or video while sharing their story on social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok with the hashtags #LoganBouletEffect and #GreenShirtDay. For more information or to get involved reach out to St. John’s Academy PCEG at sjaparentgroupshawnigan@gmail.com.
Callegari said that with its inaugural year they are more focused on raising awareness but hopes that future events will include fundraising.
"I suspect that many students will be going home to their parents to have discussions about what organ transplants look like," said Myrholm. "It is totally worthwhile doing. It's a huge tragedy for families when they lose a child, on when anyone dies, and the very fact that a person's organs can go on to save someone else's life I think is so touching for the family who lost their child, as well as incredibly impactful for the family that receives that life saving donation."
With so many events year round, Myrholm noted that the best way to keep up with what SJA is up to is either through their calendar, or social media page. In the six years that SJA has had their second location in Shawnigan Lake they have become known not only for their wide support of community events, but also for their faculty, their International Baccalaureate Programme, which has been hailed a global leader in international education, developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people with future-ready skills to help them not only thrive but also make a difference in the fast paced and changing world.
This is not the only area where SJA kicks it up a notch as they have also been scoring points for the development of their Football Academy, which started in the 2023/2024 school year. It is aimed at developing complete soccer players by focusing on specific fundamentals of the game such as team morale and culture as well as both mental and physical awareness of the game and technical and tactical awareness. SJA has a formalized agreement with Pacific Football Club in Langford where students are trained by former Team Canada Soccer member Jamar Dixon. They play their games against other academies as well as friendlies to stay competitive. The academy looks forward to seeing new students apply next year, and of course fans are always encouraged to attend and cheer them on.
"It's been great, since we've had the soccer academy we won third place in provincials with high school soccer," said Myrholm. "So it has been super successful in that respect, and it's been attracting quite a number of students. Several have actually been recruited, one into a European soccer league. As well we've had several students who are at the development level with Pacific Football Club so they are currently training with the whole team, even though many of them are still too young to play with PFC at this point."
When problems arise, instead of focusing on blame they focus on the four core solutions: Related, Respectful, Reasonable, and Helpful. Burkie Burgess who SJA's Director of Students as well as the current Deputy Head of School, works with students whenever there is conflict.
"At our school we believe that fundamentally teaching students how to maintain, manage and fix relationships is a core component of human life," said Myrholm. "It should also be helpful as we don't want students coming up with solutions that don't move things forward. With our young students we believe that everything is a case study and when it comes to conflicts with other students we want them to think about what they can learn from that, and what it is that they need to do to solve their problems. We do not believe that all students need to be friends with other students, but do believe they all can absolutely be respectful and kind to everyone regardless of whether they are in their friend circle or not, and we want our students to have that sense of competence that they can fix and maintain healthy relationships, which even extends to being kind when they are seeing things online that are not right."
"We regularly see students who come to us from different educational contexts where they have struggled, suffering from low self-esteem, poor self-worth, and sometimes knowledge or skill gaps," said Myrholm. "Our best work is demonstrated in the transformation of these students into young leaders who are motivated to take on the issues in the world, and who now have a strong sense of confidence and sense of belonging and support. These stories are numerous within our community and they are the greatest success that we have — building student confidence and character is our ultimate goal."
They aim to create the leaders of tomorrow.
"I hope that students leave our school with a deep care for the planet and a sense of responsibility to make the world better," said Myrholm. "Our students will make the world better and their work has already started. My hope for this little school is that it helps make the Cowichan Valley better for everyone, not just SJA families and students. We look forward to continuing to keep this community clean and providing workshops for all parents and families in the Cowichan Valley to help support them in the tough work they do — raising children."
