Dear RLC alumni,
How many of you remember being on this campus when the first blanket of snow arrived? Maybe you were one of the many who found it impossible to restrain yourself from throwing snowballs, laughing, in good fun, celebrating this special time of year.
It has happened. Already, in mid November, our campus is adorned with winter’s perfect artistry. Our students, especially those from distant countries, are having a blast with the change of season. Yesterday a grade 10 Outdoor Education class was out in our woods identifying different tree species, and I had to suppress a laugh watching them trying to avoid throwing snow at each other. We have great students here, and they love this place, as much as you did.
For all of you now having moved on in your lives, I hope you can picture your days and experiences here at RLC in the winter. There is a magic at this time of year that is so special on this campus. Please, if you are able to, come by your home away from home, and walk the RCMT, or just to say hello and take time for a coffee or tea.
If you are gathering as alumni celebrating and sharing stories, send us photos. It would be great to showcase how RLC alumni come together spreading cheer and spirit. Further, I hope to see as many of you as possible at the annual KB’s Christmas Gathering on December 8. Please join us.
You can expect copies of the Rosseau Review to arrive in your inboxes soon. We are excited to share with you the magic we continue to enjoy here at RLC. I am so proud of this school and confident of its continued success.
On this note, please watch for the Annual Giving Letter. It is vitally important that we all recognize that admissions runs the school, and giving grows our school. Your donations will elevate the student experience and help us achieve our mission. These students deserve it, and I know how much you care for RLC and the direction we are heading. It is an honor to be at the helm, and your support means so much to me, our staff, community, and again, these students.
Sincerely,
Dave Krocker
Head of School
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In this issue
- Major Sam Leibel '03, CD, PMP, Deputy Commanding Officer, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, reflects on what Remembrance Day means to him
- An interview with Ouelhore Diallo '22 on the transition to post-secondary, and much else.
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Remembering those who have made the choice to help others
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 For Remembrance Day this year we reached out to alumni who have served in the armed forces. The responses were all equal parts touching, insightful, and powerful (as was that from Sarah Mahon '03) and we'll share more in the months ahead.
The response here is one we received from Sam Leibel '03, who is Deputy Commanding Officer / Officer Commanding Normandy Company, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. This is what he said when I asked him to describe what Remembrance Day means to him:
From my perspective, this day is about remembering those who have, over the course of our history as a nation, made the choice to help others. I think of those who overcame great obstacles to fight for the freedom we enjoy today.
My unit, The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, was formed in 1860 and is the oldest continually serving infantry regiment. Its history is great, as are its contribution to Canada. I remember the fighting spirit and courage of those who came before.
In my unit's case, we remember our fallen in a very particular and significant way. Once qualified as a soldier in the unit, each soldier is given a coin of remembrance. Each coin bears the name of a unit member who was killed in action. It is that soldier's duty to learn about their fallen solider, and to remember them.
In my case, the name on my coin is Rifleman Bruyere. He was a member of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada during The Second World War and was killed on D-Day, having reached 21 years of age, at Bernières-sur-mer (Juno Beach). I had the opportunity to visit his grave at Bernières-sur-me which was a very surreal and moving experience.
I also remember in a very personal way, those whom I have served with that are no longer with us. I think of who they were and what they gave in service of Canada and its people. I often think of the line from John McCrae's well-known poem In Flanders Feilds, "Take up our quarrel with the foe: to you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high." We have an obligation to remember those who have fallen, take up their cause and carry on in their stead.
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For Ouelhore Diallo '22 RLC brought a sense of place, community, and perspective.
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 “It’s very different from Rosseau,” she says. “No one really knows what’s going on, so we’re figuring it out together as we go.”
I reached Ouelhore Diallo ’22 at Western University where she’s enrolled in the first semester of the Health Sciences program. She’s being honest, though given her disposition, as far as figuring it out goes, it’s easy to imagine that her peers are looking to her more than she’s looking to them. At RLC she was a prefect, a house leader, and simply a remarkable presence. She arrived at Western as recipient of a President’s International Admissions Scholarship, one of only five of its kind given each year. The citation notes that it is given to those who hold “an exceptional academic record [and] who have the potential to make outstanding contributions both in the classroom and beyond.”
"You felt heard and cared for"
Ouelhore first came to Rosseau Lake College in Grade 10, already wordily in all the best ways. She had lived in a list of countries, having moved every three or four years for her mother’s work. So she’d seen a lot. (When I ask her about her experience with outdoor education, she says “we had done outtrips to Mauritius. We did skiing and hiking. I remember the year before I came we went on a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro where we hiked up.”) But being worldly isn’t just about the destinations, it’s also about the perspective that thinking globally can offer. And Ouelhore has that, too: a calm confidence, a sense of being comfortable in the world, aware of the opportunities it can present.
Ouelhore’s last school prior to RLC was an international British school in Tanzania. “My mom thought it might be a good idea for me to go abroad,” perhaps specifically to North America. “When we came across Rosseau, I just really liked the idea of the community, and the outdoors.” She visited during that summer and enrolled the following year.
Unlike some of the other places that she had lived, this was different. “I really felt that I was close to everyone. It’s crazy because I felt connected to everyone.” Despite the cultural, linguistic, and personal differences represented within the student body—or perhaps because of them—they all felt like kindred spirits. “It just felt like we all were in the same boat,” she says. “Everyone could just relate and talk to each other. … and you could have conversations. You felt heard, and cared for, and I really appreciated that.” Academically “everyone would just seek different ways of learning, or different ways to bring your ideas forward. It was that creative aspect of learning, of not just being black and white. And I think that really helps when you come to university. It helps you to find your way, to study, to prepare for things. That idea of looking beyond the assignment, or the project, or the equation, or whatever you’re doing, and finding other ways, connecting things.”
She mentions the Discovery Day projects as an example of learning about how different things are connected, bringing together seemingly disparate aspects of the curriculum. “That really helps me here when you’re doing a major in something, and you have all these classes,” she says. “I’m able to anticipate exam questions, because I’m able to come up with, like, Discovery Day questions, connecting all the different classes together, and just thinking beyond.”
"I don't know what I want to be ... I just know where I want to be"
“I just feel like RLC just opens up your perspectives on life,” she says. “Ever since I went to RLC I’ve been very focussed on perspective, and just open mindedness. I feel that has sort of become my motto, and I think that’s what’s going to push me forward in this field.”
The program she’s in at Western is interdisciplinary and, as she says, is both deep and broad; it’s as much about wellbeing and resilience as it is about biology and chemistry. “The program just brings it all together. And, actually, at Rosseau I think it was in Grade 11, I took this humanities course, and you did anthropology, psychology and sociology. And, I felt like that really made me understand what field I wanted to enter.” She adds that, “I don’t like doing the sciences and just leaving it at that. I like thinking about other things, like the social aspects of life.”
For her, it’s all about focus. “There is this new idea of global health. It's a more holistic view,” one that considers how we practice medicine, including how we measure health, and working away from just the physical aspects of the discipline. “It just makes more sense.”
It really does. I ask her what she wants to do with the degree, and her answer says more than perhaps she is aware. Some might say something like, I want to open a practice, or I want to go into research and teaching. Instead she says, “I want to do something that helps people. I don’t know what I want to be, to be honest, I just know where I want to be. I want to be using my knowledge to help people. Honestly, that’s all. I want to talk to people, and be more connected to people. To really understand them.”
Clearly, she’s well on her way.
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How great is this?!
Colleen and Len Beaulne visited RLC parents Winsome and Lionel deMercado '76 in Grand Cayman while they were on a cruise with RLC parents John and Sharon Koncan. Colleen and Len were house parents to both Michael Koncan '03 and Colin deMercado '10.
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