The Power of Global Connections
There’s so much we can learn from each other. Forging global connections deepens our understanding and enhances our ability to care for each other and the world we share.
From September 28 to October 6, UTS had the pleasure of welcoming 22 Danish students and two teachers from Copenhagen’s Rysensteen Gymnasium high school into our school community, an exchange that has been a UTS tradition since 2018, as part of our Global Citizenship Program.
For 19 of our families, this became an opportunity to take part in a deeper cultural experience, as they volunteered to host a Danish student, or in some cases two, in their homes.
The exchange is deeply reciprocal – our students and staff learn and grow from our experience of each other. In the spring, UTS students travel to Copenhagen and stay with Rysensteen families, experiencing Danish culture and taking part in RysMUN, a Model United Nations conference that is very different from what students can experience in Toronto. Rysensteen Gymnasium is a public high school dedicated to global citizenship that holds partnerships with several international schools; their Model UN is a true united nations, providing an opportunity for our students to deeply engage in international issues with students from around the world.
The Rysensteen students who visited UTS this fall have studied Canada in depth since grade 10. The primary focus of their visit is learning as much as possible about the lives and issues facing Indigenous peoples in Canada, which can relate to the Kalaallit, Inughuit and Tunumiit of the Inuit from the Danish territory of Greenland. The Danish students attended our school’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Assembly on September 30, witnessing the musical premiere of pinâskiw, which in Northern Cree means ‘The Season of Falling Leaves.’ With the Indigenous composer Cris Derksen in the audience, the experience provided a pivotal moment for our guests, demonstrating that Indigenous peoples and cultures are vibrant and alive in Canada, contributing in a contemporary way to our country, and not something deep in our past.
The rest of their trip built upon this experience. For a joint Drama-Global Citizenship workshop, Rysensteen and UTS students worked together online since early September, sharing lessons and ideas. During their visit, they met in person, with UTS Drama Teacher Gabrielle Kemeny employing theatre techniques to connect and put them at ease together before the students presented a joint staged reading of the play Someday by Ojibwe playwright Drew Hayden-Taylor about the Sixties Scoop, where Indigenous children were removed from their homes and adopted into non-Indigenous families. The staged reading portion was co-facilitated with brilliant guest artist guest artist Brefny Caribou of Cree/Irish-settler descent and the workshop was also attended by the University of Toronto Head of Drama and Distinguished Professor Dr. Kathleen Gallagher, as well as several of her colleagues.
UTS Global Citizenship Coordinator Richard Cook led the Danish students on a walking tour of First Nations Public Art in Tkaronto, which included a visit just across Bloor Street to Paul Martel Park. There, a vibrant mural called Interconnections, painted by artist Joseph Sagaj, Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) of the Sturgeon Clan, from a small community northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, brings to life the gathering of spirit animals, passing traditions, pollinators and bears, a canoe and much more. The students also attended the Royal Ontario Museum’s First Peoples Art and Culture Exhibition, toured the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and Niagara Falls, taking part in the rekindling our relations Indigenous audio tour of Niagara Glen, and much more.
The Danish students and teachers are also very interested in discovering the secret of the extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity that thrives in Toronto. Experiencing the home lives of UTS students provided a great window into this diversity as UTS students come from many varied cultures and backgrounds – thank you to all families who were able to share their homes and hospitality! Denmark has a much more homogenous culture than Canada, and while there are newcomers, tensions can escalate. The students’ joined Mr. Cook’s World Issues class, taking part in group discussions on how Toronto as a city manages to bring together so many people from different backgrounds so well and other discussion points.
These conversations can take on a life of their own, and the relationships that form on these visits are what make partnerships like the one we share with Rysensteen Gymnasium so worthwhile. The UTS students who went to Denmark in the spring were incredibly excited to see their Danish friends again. Even two members of the Class of 2025 who graduated last June came back to meet our visitors at the airport and also joined our Danish guests on their weekend visit to Centre Island, relaxing and having fun together while fostering the deeper global cultural connections that are so meaningful for our students and our school.
