New Year, New Adventures

SJS students started off the new year with some incredible experiences. From showing off their brain power to performing on world stages, take a look at the exciting things our students are up to outside of class in this Good News Roundup.

Dancing Dynamo

This January Claire, Grade 10, took part in the UK Open, an international dance competition in London, England. Having been dancing since Grade 4, the same year she joined SJS, Claire is no stranger to competition. It was her second year at the UK Open, this time competing in the Pro Am category—the category for professional-level amateurs who are dancing with a coach or teacher. She competed in both the youth and the young adult groups, with her teacher Alexey Kauralov as her partner.

For the competition, dancers are required to perform in all five categories of latin ballroom: cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and jive. Claire’s hard work and talent paid off and she achieved the silver medal in the youth category! Up next she’ll be taking her dancing shoes to San Francisco for another international competition, as well as the Canadian Nationals later this year. Congratulations Claire!

Physics Olympiad!

The Physics team competed in the Physics Olympics at UBC on February 28. It was a full day of challenging rounds that included quizzics, fermi questions and two different labs: one focused on buoyancy and the other on cratering. For the first time in SJS history, the team participated in one of the pre-build competitions, where students were tasked with building an apparatus to launch a hacky-sack. What may sound simple was controlled by very strict rules around what and how they could build the contraption. In the end, SJS was one of the few teams to successfully launch! Congratulations Andy, Angel, Brian, Darren, Edward, Eva, Ezra, George, Harvey, Jolie, Kai, Kyle, Liam, Mandy, Mark, Purab, Tom and Yacine for your hard work, and teammates Annika, Darcy, Julie and Julio who unfortunately couldn’t be there on competition day. 

Trivia Talent

The Trivia team, led by Grade 12s Edward and Amelia, took part in a trivia competition on Saturday, February 28 at UBC. The tournament consisted of several rounds where two teams of four players competed to answer general knowledge trivia, with topics ranging from history to science, pop culture to politics and so much more. One particular highlight came during a jackpot question. This is when the teams can have up to four clues to answer one question, but ten points are deducted per clue used. Team member Eva took a Hail Mary guess on the first clue provided, which turned out to be correct and earned their team 40 points. The team was also impressed with Anabelle, Grade 8, who really stepped up and was a great help in her first time playing on a trivia team. 

While the team was a bit nervous for their first tournament of the year, they really found their groove as the day went on and had a lot of fun in the process. Team captains Amelia and Edward encourage everyone to join in the future—no knowledge or expertise needed. Congratulations to Amelia, Anabelle, Angel, Edward, Eva, Jolie, Mandy and Nate for a great showing. Good luck at the next tournament!

Skating in the Big Leagues

Dylan, Grade 8, had the opportunity to skate alongside the Canucks during the national anthem on January 27 before their game against San Jose. Dylan, a goaltender for the Vancouver Thunderbirds Minor Hockey Association in U15 A2, looked right at home standing alongside Canuck goaltender Kevin Lankinen. Thanks for sharing this exciting experience with us Dylan! We can’t wait to see where hockey takes you. 

Speed Skating Brothers 

Jayden (Grade 7) and Kayden (Grade 1) continue their speed skating excellence by competing in the Provincial Long Track Speed Skating Championships. Jayden earned bronze, placing him in the top ten skaters in Canada, while Kayden won gold in the Club Skating group in what was his first provincial competition. Keep up the hard work, boys. 

The Keys to Success

Casey, Grade 5, had a wonderful weekend in New York in January. For the fourth consecutive year, Casey claimed first prize at the Elite International Music Competition at Carnegie Hall, New York. Congratulations Casey, all your practice and hard work is paying off. 

Continuing on his squash journey Jayden, Grade 4, has had some great recent successes.. As the number one ranked player in Boys Under-11 in Canada, he earned bronze in the Canadian Squash Juniors in December, and won the Jesters Pacific North West Junior Championships. Well done Jayden.