It’s not uncommon that the average workday for Eleni Gicas will conclude late into the evening. Before calling it a night she checks her email one last time and shoots off a reply where needed. Then she rises from her desk and walks out her office door. She takes a few steps down the hallway and allows herself to “park the car”—to put aside until tomorrow what may still need to be addressed. “Parking the car” is a term she uses with the girls at BSS to help them com¬partmentalize.

Ms Gicas has learned to park her car quite quickly because, after only a few paces, she is already home. An enviable commute to work, she lives in the Dean of Residence apartment attached to the boarding facilities at BSS. At the end of this summer she will be celebrating her first year on staff with BSS and her first year in her new home. Though living and working all in the same place might drive some people mad, Ms Gicas wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love it, I really do,” she says. “I think that’s what helps me get through a typical day.”

“Typical” for Ms Gicas means being accessible to the 78 boarders any time of the day and night for reasons ranging from conflict management to homesickness. In addition to this, she performs her more mainstream duties such as developing a residential curriculum and planning educational and fun events. Though it sounds like enough to overwhelm, Ms Gicas handles it with ease.

“If it’s in your core and you really are passionate about it, I think it comes easy, it comes really easy,” she says with her bright and genuine smile.

Ms Gicas’s various personal and educational experiences, which include, amongst other im¬pressive credentials, a Master of Science in Education and an MBA, all meld together to make her ideal for the role of Dean of Residence. When the position became available, BSS was looking for someone to further develop the residential curriculum, which required both a knowledge and understanding of business, education and programming. Ms Gicas possesses strength in all these areas.

With my business background and my passion for education bridged together it made this really good connection... I think that's why they hired me," she laughs.

Ms Gicas taught physical education and also worked as a guidance counsellor before coming to BSS. Her passion for physical fitness flourishes at BSS as she coaches the volleyball team and inte¬grates fitness into the boarders’ weekly schedule.

Before becoming a teacher, however, Ms Gicas worked as an activities director for children aboard a cruise ship—an experience that still inspires some of her work today. If living and working with six and a half dozen girls sounds like a challenge, imagine being an activities coordinator for 500 kids on a cruise ship. Some of the most rewarding experiences Ms Gicas had during her time as the activities coordinator were when she could take the children to experi¬ence other cultures by visiting schools or sharing meals with locals in Jamaica, Mexico, and other countries. She also used her time aboard the cruise ship to volunteer, another passion of hers. She reached out by donating leftover food or clothing to the communities she visited.

“I’m [glad of] the sensitivity that I’ve established and grown to all the various cultures and understanding of all the cultures and ages,” she says.

Multiculturalism and diversity is an everyday reality at BSS, especially for the boarders. A map of the world in the residence hallway is crisscrossed with colourful gimp that makes the connection from a smiling face to a geographical place. Kazakhstan, Nepal, Mexico, Taiwan, Barbados, Ghana and many more countries are marked with a pushpin tying them to a BSS girl. Ms Gicas beams with excitement when she looks at the map. She points at her girls and the creative embellishments they’ve drawn next to their home countries.

“We’re a quilt from all over the world—we’re so diverse and so multicultural here”, she says. She embraces the assortment of cultures, languages and ethnicities that comprise BSS boarding.

“What is really important about BSS is that they don’t focus on the similarities, they focus on the differences,” she explains. “By fo¬cusing on differences rather than similarities I think it promotes acceptance and respect by understanding how unique everybody is.”

Ms Gicas has reflected this belief in some of the new programming she has brought to the residence.

Mmmonday’s is a program that takes place every Monday and is intended to educate and connect the girls; it stands for movement, meditation or mayhem. A Monday night will always involve the girls eating together and connecting with their School families as well as engaging in an enriching activity.

“We don’t just try and sit there and have dinner,” explains Ms Gicas. “We’ll incorporate an activity. If it’s a diversity workshop staff will prepare a workshop or we’ll bring someone in.”

Past Mmmonday’s have featured a Police officer speaking on safety and a group promoting Black History Month and African American culture. Recently Ms Gicas invited an etiquette expert in to speak with the girls about international rules of propriety.

Her only regret from the past year is that she didn’t find the time to be directly involved with volunteerism and charity. However, the spirit of volunteerism is still very alive in her and has rubbed off on some of the girls. Near the beginning of the school year she was ap¬proached by two students who wanted to host a fundraiser for Right to Play—an international humanitarian organization that promotes sports and play programs in disadvantaged communities. She gave her full support to the students and was delighted with the outcome.

“Although I didn’t get to volunteer I got to promote the concept of volunteerism,” she says.

DREAM (Defy Reality, Everyone Always Matters) was a benefit concert hosted by the boarders on March 6. Ms Gicas is proud of the event’s success and hopes it will become a tradition. She is also pleased with the appropriateness of the organization the girls chose to endorse.

“What I loved about the charity that they picked is that it specifically appeals to so many countries around the world and we as a community have that diversity already within the community... We’re so diverse and so multicultural here that it definitely made that connection,” she says.

For Ms Gicas, seeing the girls embrace their differences and extend compassion and help to others is one of the most satisfy parts of her job.

“I would love for the girls on the volunteerism side to realize that you don’t necessarily have to do it because you’re going to be compensated for it but because you’re getting something out of it just by doing it. It’s innate.”

In the coming year Ms Gicas plans for more changes and developments to the residential curriculum—all focused on promoting the spirit of education and diversity.

• What it takes to be a BSS Board member
• All Unnecessary Etceteras
• Profile - Student: Outstanding Boarder? Olympic Bound? Or Both?
• Spotlight - Old Girl: Meet Caitlin CRONENBERG '02
• Feature Story - When Life Serves You Lemons... Just Hop The Fence.