Saint Elizabeth Catholic High School, RAP Program, part 6

Partnerships was (and I believe, still today) an important feature to the RAP program.  During my work as Department Head, I enjoyed many opportunities to meet with potential partners.  Selling the opportunities to the Arts Department Team members was very challenging for me.  Each partnership was unique and included a "give-and-take".  I remember attending many off campus meetings to discuss possibilities and arrange valuable experiences for our students in all arts disciplines.  Some experiences with our partners would require arranging field trips, and investment of time, and of course prior preparation.  I was convinced of the enormous value of all the partnerships we worked very hard at, to establish in each school year.  Of course it was challenging to balance everything we were trying to do.  I mean, we in the arts were responsible for all the in-house events, delivering daily challenging curriculum, and now, the added stress of sustaining the partnerships, I can understand that it was a bit too much to ask my colleagues to add to their full plate of work.  I thought of the partnerships as very rewarding.  In fact, the partnerships served as professional development for me in so many ways.  We had partnerships with York University, Esprit Orchestra, McMichaels Art Gallery, TIFF, Stratford, Canada's Wonderland, and more.  Some of these partnerships created opportunities for summer school work for our students as student leaders at Harbourfront!  School bus transportation would be involved and the summer experience would later evolve to employment opportunities for some of our students, who would be invited to return.  Partnerships included attending artistic events and working in workshop style with many artists.  While the RAP certificate was not recognized by Universities or Colleges, the High Skills Major Certificate was recognized and our school was able to offer RAP students an opportunity to gain special seal at Graduation, since most of the credits were covered by the Arts specialization at our school.  It was a simple matter of making sure each interested student would complete all the necessary credits as identified by the Ministry of Education.  The Guidance Department would help with this.
While Partnerships did challenge and our students, (and school) in so many ways, they were rewarding and offered our RAP program something that made us different, and probably appealing.  Certainly provided our open houses with material to present and be proud of.  These extra additional experiences offered our students opportunities to network, visit other sites off campus, meet others, and expanded / stretched our thinking and problem-solving.  The expectations and responsibilities were high, but the rewards were equally high as well.
Bye for now.