On Friday, March 6, The Bishop Strachan School played host to the first annual DREAM fundraiser. On stage performing were bands, solo acts—even a ballerina. A raffle dished out great prizes, from Britney Spears tickets to Microsoft products. There was even a marketplace where various companies and organizations purchased $50 tables and sold their wares.

A few weeks later, DREAM organizers were still counting money, but had raised close to an estimated $3500 for Right To Play. The night was a great success.

The event wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of DREAM co-head and co-founder, Dana Shum. Dana, 16, and her friend, Shirley Huang, both had brilliant ideas at the same time. “For a couple of weeks I was telling my roommate that I had this great idea, that boarding should have a variety night or a coffee house,” says Dana. When she found out that Shirley was having the very same thoughts, they decided to team up. “We came up with the name, we came up with the cause. We wanted to represent boarding because it’s underrepresented at BSS, and also we wanted to give back to the community.”

Because the boarding community is so diverse (78 girls from 25 separate countries) Dana, a Grade 11 student, and Shirley, who is in Grade 12, wanted to give back to the world, not just one place. Right to Play was a perfect fit for their inaugural benefit (DREAM may change its selected charity every year), because it provides sports equipment and play opportunities to children in disadvantaged parts of the world.

DREAM stands for Defying Reality. Everyone Always Matters. It’s a sentiment that Dana embodies on a daily basis. “Dana is very approachable and she shows diligence and patience. Based on those characteristics, girls generally jump onto her philosophies and anything she puts her hands on basically turns into gold,” says BSS’s Dean of Boarding, Eleni Gicas. Although there isn’t a formal mentoring program, the boarding community looks up to Dana. “They really take to her. Just the way she speaks to girls—it’s in such a pleasant manner, she really knows how to engage girls, whether they’re quiet, or outgoing like herself,” says Ms Gicas.

Ms Gicas worked closely with Dana on the DREAM project, and applauds her for being driven by the concept of DREAM, as opposed to the numbers it generated or its popularity. “Her dedication was so forthcoming and so wonderful when it came to this project,” says Ms Gicas. “We just developed what we called Teflon skin, and because she was able to grow that layer of skin, she saw this through. If she didn’t have the maturity and capability to do so, she couldn’t have.”

When she isn’t mentoring her peers or organizing groundbreaking benefit concerts, Dana also sits on residence council, helps plan for Black History Month, keeps up terrific grades and gives support to her younger sister, Christabel, who is in Grade 8. “Having my little sister here is perfect because even though we don’t really see each other much, I know that I’m not alone and I know that she’s not alone and it just gives us that extra comfort.”

The sisters started at BSS in September 2007. It was sad to say goodbye to their family in Ghana, but Dana has embraced the BSS boarding community (just as it has embraced her) wholeheartedly. She credits teachers and counsellors for helping her transition into the School seamlessly. “The support never dies in boarding and also the boarding staff is phenomenal...it’s more like a family to me.”
Dana says that at any time of night she can ask a Grade 12 student for support, just as many of the younger students lean on her. “Most of the time I just tell them to cherish the times they have in BSS because they won’t come again,” she says.

Dana appreciates the experience in diversity that boarding provides. “What’s really special about boarding is the fact that 78 different girls from so many different backgrounds can get along,” she says. “We don’t always get along, but we learn to accept each other and I think that’s what’s really great, because you don’t only learn about living with people or accommodating other people, you learn a lot about yourself and how you can make yourself better for other people, and how you can make yourself better for yourself.”

Dana is very ambitious, but also goal-oriented and extremely focused. In the short term, she’d like DREAM to be continually successful. “I hope everybody at BSS can support DREAM next year so that we can raise more money for a charity, because there are a lot of people that don’t have the luxuries in life that any of us have here, and it’s just unfair.”

Her attitude towards charity shows her maturity: “I think that people, even if they’re not supporting DREAM, should support something they feel very strongly about. No matter how big the problem might be, if they chip in a cent they’ve done a little something. If they plant a tree, they’ve done something,” she says.

In the long-term, after university, travelling the world is definitely a priority. As well as buying a house in Italy with her best friends, Dana hopes to return home to Ghana someday.

“It’s always been my dream to go back [to Ghana] and start a home for kids who don’t have homes, or kids who are running away from a hard life. They could sleep there, they could come and get some food and a warm bed, and then hopefully I could start a school for those kids,” she says. “And that’s my long shot, far-away dream.”

Long shot? For Dana, probably not.

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