Woburn Collegiate Institute

Woburn Collegiate Institute is a secondary school on Ellesmere Road in the Scarborough district of Toronto. Its motto is Studium Eruditionis Crescat.

History
Woburn CI began in 1847, when it was established that Scarborough needed more schools for its growing population. Sixteen "school sections" were created, including what would become Woburn, SS #6. SS #6 was a one-story, 23 by 33 foot frame building.

By 1862, a larger school was needed, so the frame building was moved to Old Danforth Road and converted into a house. A new brick school was built, and two new rooms were added in 1896. In 1956, the school became so run-down that it could no longer be used. The school's students were sent to Golf Road Public School and SS #6 was boarded up. Plans were made to convert it into a museum, but the building was too decrepit to be moved.

In 1963, the old SS #6 building was demolished and Woburn Collegiate Institute opened. 

Campus
Woburn is a single building, containing 72 classrooms, 2 large gymnasia (which may be divided into 4 smaller sections), a weight training room, an auto shop, two music rooms, two tech shops, and a library (resource center). The school also has a main office, a guidance office (student services) and an office for each of its departments. The building encompasses a rectangular garden in the centre, referred to as the "quad", which is famously known throughout the school for a peculiar statue by Romanian-Canadian sculptor Sorel Etrog entitled "Soma". Identical statues can be found inside the Yonge-Eglinton Centre and York University's Accolade East building. Behind the school is a 400-m track, football field and goalposts for outdoor sports activities. 

Students
As of 2004, 1266 students are in attendance at Woburn. Of these, 581 (46%) are female and 685 (54%) are male. 694 (55%) have a primary language other than English, and 26% have been living in Canada for less than five years. Woburn represents over 70 different languages and a multicultural environment. Gang-related activities have been noted in the past but new initiatives such as the hiring of two hall monitors and the placement of security cameras have notably deterred it.

The school has been the home for Scarborough's gifted programme for exceptional students since 1978. 

Prefects
Prefects are the good-will ambassadors of Woburn. Working closely with faculty, the Prefects of Woburn are responsible for making sure school events run smoothly, such as Welocome Day, photo days, and other various fairs such as the career and volunteer fair. Furthermore, the Prefects also plan an annual event for the children at Woburn Jr. called Springfest.

Mathematics
The flagship subject of Woburn academics is a part of many Woburn student's lives, and it is rightfully considered an extracurricular activity in itself. Perhaps the best method to describe Woburn's strength in mathematics is to look at the school's representation in the International Mathematical Olympiads (IMO). Canada first began sending the now six-member team to the event in 1981. Beginning with Woburn's first student representation at the event in 1986, over the next 18 years Woburn would be represented at the IMO an impressive eleven times, exceeding the representations of more famous academically elite high schools such as Earl Haig Secondary School (seven times), and Upper Canada College (five times).

Physics and Chemistry
In addition to the IMO, Woburn students have also gone on to represent Canada in the International Chemistry Olympiads (IChO) and International Physics Olympiads (IPhO).

Programming Enrichment Group (PEG)
PEG is a group of students who meet on a weekly basis after school to study advanced computer science topics, discuss algorithms and approaches to difficult problems, often on the level of the International Olympiad in Computer Science. Topics covered and types of problems approached vary depending on competition entries.

The learning methods used vary as well: sometimes students meet in study groups with their leader teaching them and solving practice sheets or programming problems, sometimes they are taught by one of the senior students, sometimes they work on the problem as a team, and sometimes they are taught by their coaches.

PEG students meet after school typically two nights per week to prepare for competitions in programming. Every year, members take part in competitions at provincial, national and international levels. PEG has additionally started its own competition, called Woburn Challenge, to draw in both students from other schools and university students. This contest has grown to become province-wide (occasionally wider).

Since its formation in the early 1990s, PEG has competed successfully in a large number of competitions.

Robotics
The Woburn Robotics Team has a decade-long legacy. It is a team of students who build large, complex robots to compete in FIRST Robotics, the largest high school robotics competition on the planet.

They began in 1995 under the guidance of Mark Breadner and Roly Anderson, and in 1998 became the first non-American team to compete in what was then called USFIRST. In 2001 the team played a major part in bringing FIRST to Canada, with the founding of the Canadian Regional - the first regional event to be held outside of the United States. For their enormous effort they were rewarded with the Chairman's Award, the competition's most prestigious award.

Over the years the team has established itself as a strong presence both on and off the field, with their excellent robots, trademark red-and-white hockey jerseys, experience and team spirit. They continue to participate in FIRST competitions held in Canada and the United States.

Team 188, Woburn Robotics, came 3rd at the Waterloo Regional Competition this year. Furthermore, an alumni of Woburn Collegiate, Shawn Lim, received the prestigious Woodie Flowers Award which is given to a mentor whom shows notable contributions to the team.

Woburn Music
The school is notable for its music programme, consisting of several hundred students in band and choir classes, a Madrigal Choir, a concert choir, a Chamber Choir, two concert bands, a Wind Ensemble, and two jazz bands and a combo. The music department is headed by teachers Laura Houghton and Brian Farrow.

The ensembles of the music programme have regularly been invited to perform at national-level competitions and often make excursions to the US, including most recently Orlando, Florida in mid-May, 2006. The Wind Ensemble and Madrigal Choir have done particularly well in competitions, consistently placing at or near the top of the standings. On Friday, February 17, 2006, the Wind Ensemble travelled to the Musicfest competition held at the Le Parc Hotel, in Markham, Ontario, playing at the highest level, B500. The band received an enthusiastic gold rating.

Woburn's music department is student-represented by way of the Music Council, a body of elected students who help to keep the programme running smoothly. The Council pans and runs many events and fundraisers through the year that would not exist without their assistance. 

Woburn Rookie Drama Festival
See Woburn Rookie Drama Festival.

SAC
Woburn's Student Activity Council (SAC) is known for running most of the events which take place at the school each year. Notable events run by the SAC annually include Gr.9 Day ( September), Charity Week (November), Spirit Week (February) and Gr.12 Day (June). The way in which a student is elected to the SAC varies depending upon the position one is running for, though it is generally determined by a student vote.

Roles consist of (Those named are for the 2007/2008 school year.):
 * President: Elected by all students. (Ben Varughese)


 * Vice-President: Elected by all students. (Janani Velauthampillai)


 * Administrator Assistant: Elected by all students. (William Lu)


 * Senior Treasurer: Second year after being junior treasurer. (Vicky Lee)


 * Junior Treasurer: Chosen by teachers through an interview process. (Amanda Jessica Cullman)


 * Grade 12 Representatives: Elected by the Grade 11's of the previous year. (Dinesh Arulraj, Thusy Kannan)


 * Grade 11 Representatives: Elected by the Grade 10's of the previous year. (Abhi Vivekananthan, Thusanth)


 * Grade 10 Representatives: Elected by the Grade 9's of the previous year. (Jerome Paul)


 * Grade 9 Representative: (To Be Determined)
 * Advisor: Due to special circumstances, the position of advisor is given to students. (Murtaza Hitawala)

Reach for the Top
Reach for the Top is a national high-school trivia competition in which Woburn has traditionally done very well. In 2005, Woburn's A team placed third overall in Ontario and just barely missed advancing to Nationals. In the 2005-2006 season, Woburn cruised through the regional championships defeating their B team in the final match of the regional championship for the second straight year by a score of 450-230. This qualified the team to advance to the provincial stage against 37 other regional champions and runner-ups across Ontario.

In the round-robin at provincials, Woburn won every match and finished with 7 wins and 0 losses. In addition to being undefeated, Woburn also had more points than any of the other teams and hence earned the right to be the top-seeded team going into the TV round. Woburn cruised through the competition by winning all four games by an average score of 500-232.5, defeating the University of Toronto Schools (UTS) 450-300 to ultimately win the Ontario Championship in the final match. Woburn and UTS both earned the right to represent Ontario at the National Championship in Edmonton.

In Edmonton, Woburn once again became the only team to go undefeated in the round robin (the second best team finished with a record of 5-2) winning all seven of its games to earn the top seed going into the television round. After receiving a bye in the first round, Woburn won its next three games including its closest game of the season, a 510-470 win over the University of Toronto Schools in the National Championship Match.

The members of Woburn's 2005-2006 Reach for the Top championship squad were: Sinan Ulusoy, Ron Dayaram, Evan Akriotis, Scott Reynolds and Andrew (Andy) Hunter. Scott Reynolds and Evan Akriotis are returning in 2006-2007 as veterans of the team.

Notable Alumni
Steven Page and Ed Robertson - Members of the band Barenaked Ladies

Hannah Sung - Former MuchMusic personality

Des McAnuff - Tony award-winning director Sudz Sutherland - Award-winning filmmaker Brad Duguid - Liberal MPP for Scarborough Centre Bob McKenzie - Sports Broadcaster for TSN Tyler Anthony - Blue Jays Assistant Coach

Ramanan Sivaranjan - Member of the band The String Hoppers

Monika Schnarre - Actress and former winner of the Ford Supermodel of the World Contest.[10] Fabian Rayne - Former CFL player and member of Rugby Canada 7's team Brad Tapper - NHL Player Matthew Lau - Prominent Woburn catcher

Allan Cole - SportsCentre-TSN producer

Sofie Kouleas - SportsCentre producer-TSN

Steve Kouleas - Sports Broadcaster - The Score

Michael Ium - Professional Poker Player