Harbord Collegiate Institute

Harbord Collegiate Institute (HCI or Harbord) is a public secondary school located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in the Palmerston-Little Italy-Annex neighbourhood, situated on the north side of Harbord Street, between Euclid Avenue and Manning Street. From the 1920s to the 1950s, about 90 per cent of the student body was Jewish, while today the student body largely consists of students of East Asian and Portuguese descent.[1]

Harbord Collegiate Institute
Address
286 Harbord Street

Toronto
,
Ontario
,
M6G 1G5

Canada
Coordinates43.661228°N 79.414272°W / 43.661228; -79.414272
Information
School typeHigh school
MottoVirtus et Doctrina
Founded1892
School boardToronto District School Board
SuperintendentMike Gallagher
Area trusteeChris Moise
PrincipalSteve Yee
Faculty50
Grades9–12
Enrollment979 (2019–20)
LanguageEnglish, French
Colour(s)Orange and black   
MascotBengal tiger
Team nameHarbord Tigers
Websitewww.harbordci.ca

History
Knox College, Victoria University, Trinity University, Harbord Street Collegiate Institute 1900-1925

Harbord was opened in 1892 as the Harbord Street Collegiate Institute. Harbord's first centennial was celebrated in 1992 and included the inauguration of the Harbord museum, a repository of Harbord memorabilia. To mark the event, Harbord's alumni group, the Harbord Club, published a 300-page history of the school entitled The Happy Ghosts of Harbord, which traces the history of the school from its opening in 1892 to 1992. The original school building was Jacobethan Revival and replaced with the Collegiate Gothic wing in 1932.

On November 11, 2005, a Remembrance Day ceremony took place at Harbord. With the donations from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation and many other corporate sponsors and individuals, the rededication of the 1921 World War I monument back to its original splendour was held. In May 2007, a second monument created to remember World War II was revealed in another ceremony.[2]

Harbord Club

The Harbord Club has 2600 members. It was established in 1978 by Elsie Affleck, who brought along other alumni including Ken Prentice, Willie Zimmerman, Johnny Wayne, Max Goldhar and Julius Molinaro. The Harbordite, founded in 1979, is the Harbord Club newsletter that keeps former students of the school in contact with one another and up-to-date on Harbord activities. The Harbord Charitable Foundation was also created at this time, supporting both student scholarships and alumni activities. The Directors of the Harbord Club are as follows: Syd Moscoe, Ben Lee, Sid Ingham, Belinda Medeiros-Felix, Vasan Persad, Diana Dasilva and Sierra Medeiros-Felix.[3]

Notable alumni
Comedy duo Wayne and Shuster met as high school students at Harbord

Demographics
HCI before 1932 featuring the original Jacobethan Revival façade

From the 1920s to the 1950s, about 90% of the student body was Jewish. Today, the student body largely consists of students of Korean and Portuguese descent, which is representative of the surrounding neighbourhoods. Many of the clubs at Harbord are reflective of the ethnic groups present. The Harbord language program offers courses in Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, Latin, French, Portuguese and German.

Harbord has three French programs: Immersion, Extended and Core French. These classes offer students an opportunity to become bilingual in Canada's official languages. There is a French Club within Harbord. Harbord also has a full ESL (English as a Second Language) program which helps all students new to Canada to learn English.

Clubs

The Student Activity Council, or SAC, is one of the largest student-run organisation at Harbord Collegiate Institute. TigerTalk is Harbord's official newspaper. It covers topics related to the school as well as a variety of other topics. It has won multiple awards from the Toronto Star's high school newspaper competition.

The Harbord Athletic Council (HAC), is a club at Harbord that organises most athletic events, such as the annual Athletic Banquet and intramural games. The Harbord Debating Society is a place to enhance students’ political awareness as well as their oratorical skills. Each year, students participate in tournaments, such as the Ontario Model Parliament and the Southern Ontario Model United Nations Assembly. The Empowered Student Partnership is a new club at Harbord that works with the TDSB, the Toronto Police Service and the Toronto Catholic District School Board to make the school and the community a safer and better place. They work towards minimizing violence, drug use, graffiti, guns and racism.

The Key Club is an international student-led organisation which provides its members with opportunities to provide service, build character and develop leadership."[5] Members of Harbord C.I.'s Key Club have volunteered for Epilepsy Toronto, the Canadian Cancer Society, The Liver Foundation, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon and many other non-profit organisations.

The Business Club gather at lunch and/or after school to learn about business topics. They participate in business competitions including DECA and JA Titan. The "Tiger Techs" are Harbord's robotics team. They participate as team 919 in the FIRST Robotics Competition.[6]

Sports offered at Harbord are:

Visual arts

Harbord offers a visual arts program for each grade exposing students to materials, concepts and skills. Studios offer lessons in drawing, painting, ceramics, printmaking, photography, animation, design, and life drawing. Studies in design allow students to partake in fashion design (an annual fashion show), architectural design and interior design as well as text and graphic design. Art history is woven into the assignments as is theory in aesthetics.

Harbord has alumni studying visual arts and design at post secondary institutions throughout Canada, including Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Concordia, Ryerson, and OCAD university. Student work can be viewed at the Creative Arts Festival held every year.

Band

The band program goes from the Grade 9 Beginner Band to the Grade 12 Senior Band. Harbord's Jazz Band is conducted by Mr. Alberts. Instruments in the band include flute, clarinet, saxophone, French horn, trombone, tuba, bass guitar, keyboard, drums, baritone and trumpet. The band performs at many assemblies and concerts including the Remembrance Ceremony, Senior Showcase, Feeder School Concert, Commencement and the Farewell Assembly.

Vocal

The classes range from Grade 9 Beginner Vocal to Senior Vocal. There is a Cantemus Choir at Harbord that sings for events inside and outside of Harbord. The choir has participated at the Kiwanis Festival multiple times.

Strings

The classes include the Grade 9 Beginner Strings, the Junior Strings and the Senior Strings. Instruments available for strings at Harbord include: violin, viola, cello and bass. Harbord's String Quartet won First Prize at last year's Kiwanis Festival. The Chamber Orchestra has performed at other venues such as Massey Hall, and George Weston Hall. The Strings Chamber Orchestra plays at school events such as the Awards Assembly, Feeder School Concert and Senior Concert, and accompanies the Cantemus Choir.

"Onward Harbord"

"Onward Harbord" is Harbord's official song, and is sung along with the school band playing at the same time. It is sung to the tune of the popular fight song "On, Wisconsin!"; Harbord is one of some 2,500 schools using some variation of this piece as their school song.[7] Generally at the behest of the principal ("One more time!"), the song gets sung twice. The lyrics were written by former band teacher Larry Bond. The lyrics are as follows:[8]

Onward Harbord, onward Harbord,
On to victory!
The orange and black are on the track,
We pledge our loyalty. Rah! Rah! Rah!
With a Virtus et Doctrina
We will reach our goal.
And yours will be eternally
The spirit we uphold.
Virtus et Doctrina
Is our battle cry.
We shout and fight for the orange and black
And the honour of H.C.I.
Sha-boom-Hey! Sha-boom-Hey!
Sha-boom-boom-bah!
Hey Harbord! Hey Harbord!
Hey! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Yea Harbord!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Gr-r-reat!

See also

References
  1. Gee, Marcus (7 April 2017). "Harbord Collegiate celebrates 125 years as Toronto's famous immigrant launching pad". The Globe and Mail.
  2. World War Two Monument by Jared Malcolmson, from Tiger Talk Newspaper, issue #6 June 2007, June 2007.
  3. Harbord Club
  4. Principal's Address by Ms. Parkin, from HCI Yearbook 2004-2005, February 2006.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-02-20. Retrieved 2007-04-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/919
  7. "Tradition: School Songs". Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. 2010. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2010.
  8. HCI Agenda 2013-2014
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