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Branksome Hall News
Paying it Forward
Thanks to her overwhelming positive experience as a financially assisted Branksome Boarding student, Becca McCORMACK Scarratt’79 is passionate about returning the gift of opportunity to other students.
Becca met her lifelong friend, Judy GARAY MacKay’79, in Grade 1.
Becca told Judy she’d “keep in touch” when the family relocated to Nova Scotia three years later. Thanks to financial assistance, Becca was able to return to Branksome as a Boarding student in Grade 9. Judy and Becca have remained friends till this day, travelling and attending their 25-year reunion together.
“As a bursary recipient myself, I am passionate about giving back,” says Becca, who truly got the most out of her Branksome experience, surprising herself at every turn thanks to the school’s invitations to push oneself beyond one’s perceived limitations.
She now owns a physiotherapy clinic in Rimouski, Quebec. It took courage for her to set up a successful private clinic in a francophone environment (armed only with her Senior School French classes!).
“Branksome taught me to set my own objectives and achieve them,” says Becca, crediting the school’s values for her acquired ability to just go for it, undaunted by challenge.
Her recent Annual Fund gift to Branksome was a gesture of gratitude for an education she appreciated more in hindsight, on her post-graduate career journey.
As the only Boarding student on sports teams in Grade 9, including running, tennis, swimming and basketball, Becca received special privileges to go straight to dinner in her athletic wear. By the time she was in Grade 13, she was a Prefect and captain of the basketball team.
“Branksome was a real springboard to learn how to see beyond my own arm’s reach,” says Becca. “I’m giving back back because I got so much out of Branksome and I want to give another girl an open door to opportunity.”
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We wish to acknowledge this land on which Branksome operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and go to school on this land.
Setting the new standard for girls' education everywhere takes collective action. From all of us.
