Mrs McLean and the SAC

The SAC is a council at Brentwood consisting of over 100 members and a 13-person executive led by Mrs McLean and Megan A, Alex ‘18. It is a council dedicated to finding activities and generating excitement within the school. The three main areas that the SAC focuses  on are international dinners, fundraising for international trips (with this year’s trip being to Swaziland) and other external school activities. There are many people on the council and duties are well spread out amongst the students. Each person on the executive has a specific role and area of focus. For example, a specific person on the counsel is in charge of the international dinners that take place in Crooks Hall. The international dinners we have had at the school so far are Filipino, Indian, Mexican, Latin American, Australian, British, Chinese and Korean. Student volunteers help out at each dinner to serve food and represent their country. Other external activities that the SAC has organized at this school are Fright Week, Spirit Week, Kindness Week, The Spring Formal dance, Welcome Back dance and more. Fright Week took place in late October during Halloween, and many spooky yet fun activities such as pumpkin carving spiced up our busy daily schedules. Spirit week at the beginning of February brought Brentwood colours to classrooms and the gymnasium, and the week was occupied by events such as Pyjama Day, Burger Cook-off, Jersey day etc. Right now we are in the midst of Kindness Week, with Pride Day and Pink Shirt Day. This is Mrs McLean’s third year as the Staff Sponsor of the SAC. Prior to coming to Brentwood, Mrs McLean worked as a dietitian and was involved in the catering field before joining Brentwood as a tennis coach. Since her arrival at Brentwood, she has made tremendous changes to students’ lives by creating events of all kinds suitable for every Brentwood student. Originally built around Showcase games, Spirit Week was created two years ago, and after realizing it was tremendously well-received, Mrs McLean decided to make it a Brentwood tradition. Kindness week was created in an attempt to bring people together to celebrate kindness, joy and grit. Mrs McLean realized that by condensing events into one week and making posters to advertise each special week, a lot of positive spirit and anticipation are being injected into the school. Every day, students check the poster hung up in their houses and look forward to the events that are happening on that day. When asked about her favourite memory in the past three years, Mrs McLean said that the first Spirit Week at Brentwood was definitely a memorable time. She felt immensely accomplished and pleased when she saw a gym packed full of Brentwood students cheering in the spirit of the events. Another activity that she particularly enjoyed was Spring Formal, and she felt the same joy looking at all the senior students in gorgeous outfits celebrating the peak of their youth. A major challenge that the SAC faces is weighing the work put in versus reward. It is important to make sure certain events do not overlap with other major events happening at school, since it would be underwhelming to plan an elaborate event but to only have a few available students. Ultimately, the main goal that Mrs McLean has in mind when creating all these events is to bring happiness to students and provide diverse opportunities for students of different interests to socialize. She says that at a school like Brentwood which can get intense in aspects of academia, sports, and arts, it is extremely important not to overlook the crucial element of socializing among friends old and new. Grace L, Allard ‘18