Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, formerly known as Overlea Secondary School, is a high school in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada within the

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

area, and part of the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

. Until 1998, this school was part of the East York Board of Education. It is the host school of the Talented Offerings for Programs in the Sciences (TOPS) program, a math, science and English enrichment program. The TOPS Program was originally merit-based, but was turned into a Randomized Admissions program since September 2023.

History

Overlea Secondary School, the third high school in the former suburb of

East York East York is a district and former municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The borough was dissolved ...

, opened its doors in September 1972 by the East York Board of Education with 250 students as one of the first open concept schools in Canada. On September 4, 1973 it had 400 pupils and 42 staff. On October 16, 1987, Overlea S.S. was renamed 'Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute' after Canada's first

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Marc Garneau, who regularly visits the school and its students. It hosts the TOPS program and has offered pilot courses in Earth and Space Science, Science Journalism, and Cisco Networking. The school was built in the jurisdiction within

as opposed to East York. Valley Park Middle School is the main school that feeds students into MGCI but there are other schools as well such as Cosburn Middle School. In 1993, MGCI was honoured with the Roberta Bondar Science and Technology Award in recognition of the school's achievements in numerous student programs, particularly its

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) is a non-profit international student organization whose purpose is to drive space advocacy of space exploration and development through educational and engineering projects. Hist ...

chapter, which no longer exists. Renovations to the school in 1998 removed many of the open concept elements of the school's original design. On December 31, 1997, the EYBE was dissolved and Marc Garneau Collegiate became part of the new Toronto District School Board the following day.

Student life

Some of the clubs include chapters of FBLA, DECA, Law Society, MGCI EcoTeam, MGCI Muslim Student Association,

Student Council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

, ''The Reckoner of MGCI'', and the

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. Key Club International is the high school branch of the Kiwanis International family, classified as a Service Leadership Program ...

. The school has had several first and second-place finishes in the International FBLA Competition and the International DECA Competition. Other extracurricular activities include the Concert Band, String Orchestra, Music Council, Musical Theater, Mock Trials, Reach for the Top, Math Club, Computer Science Club, Cybersecurity Club, Game Development Club, and Physics Club. Garneau provides students with a wide variety of sports teams including: Football, Rugby, Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball, Baseball, Field Hockey, Ultimate Frisbee, Cricket, Tennis, and an annual ball hockey tournament. The official mascot for the school is the cougar. Drama students at Marc Garneau perform musicals and plays, and participate in many activities, such as the Canadian Improv Games and the Sears Festival. ''The Reckoner of MGCI'' is the school's newspaper. ''The Reckoner'' was named "Best Volunteer Newspaper" at the "

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

High School Newspaper Awards" in 2014 and "Best Electronic Newspaper" in 2011 and 2014. In 2015, The Reckoner was named "Best Electronic Newspaper" once again by the Toronto Star.

Recognition and awards

In 2004, ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'' is a Canadian magazine founded in 1905 which reports on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, trends and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian ...

'' magazine ranked the TOPS program at MGCI as among the best schools in Canada, suggesting it was the top-ranked program for students pursuing science or mathematics in their later studies. The September 2006 issue of ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eati ...

'' also stated that MGCI was the best high school in Toronto for mathematics and science, largely crediting the TOPS program. MGCI also frequently places in the top 3 in various University of Waterloo math contests.

Notable alumni

* Saad Bin Zafar - Canadian national cricket player * Charles Khabouth - nightclub owner * Alex Cai - Olympic Foil Fencer

References

External links