When Naomi McDonald started at Havergal as a Boarding student in Grade 9, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Her brothers loved their experience as Boarding students at Upper Canada College, so Toronto-born and Brampton-raised McDonald chose this option over a long daily commute. Four years later, she credits the experience with making her time at Havergal so special. “It was like having 50 older sisters,” she says about her fellow Boarding students, an international group of girls spanning Grades 9 through 12. “You learn so much from them, because you get a Grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 perspective — the whole array of high school.”
She also relished the sense of community that comes from living in close quarters. “If you’re friends with one person, it’s easy to be friends with their friends as well,” she says. Boarding students naturally check in on one another during stressful times. And when McDonald was learning Mandarin, her Chinese floormates happily stepped in to help.
Having a roommate also taught McDonald valuable life skills, such as independence, cooperation and compromise. “Rooming with someone 24–7 can be hard,” she admits, pointing to differing routines and lifestyles. In Grade 9, for example, she lobbied hard for lights out at 9:30 pm. “I was an early sleeper. I really like routine.” The experience taught her to consider other people’s perspectives. “At first, we didn’t want to confront each other, but we learned that addressing the problem was the first step.”
This year, McDonald has her own room. “Grade 12 feels like a good time for that,” she says. This year, she’s also taken on a big role as School Captain, a position she was elected for with a speech equal parts authentic and funny. “My opening line was, ‘Sometimes, life is like toilet paper,'” she laughs. “And then I connected my goals, my morals and what I wanted to bring forth as School Captain.”
I love music and going to choir so much because I’m still being productive, but I’m also taking a break because I’m with all of my friends.
Not surprisingly, many of her initiatives focus on strengthening the community, especially in the Junior School. “I remember in Grade 9, you’d see the Junior School students from a distance, but you didn’t really get to interact,” she explains. “So I wanted to take that big sister/little sister model a step further.” The result is PlayPals, where Grade 12s spend recess with students from JK to Grade 3, while Middle Schoolers (Grades 7 and 8) get paired with students in Grades 4 and 6. “The goal is, if you’re a Grade 6 student, you’ll actually have a friend and some guidance when you come to the Upper School in Grade 7.”
The program was embraced from the start. “I thought it would take longer to initiate,” McDonald admits. “But after talking to the right people, sending lots of emails, following up and just being really organized with it, it was a quick turnaround.” One of the highlights of the role is her monthly meetings with Havergal’s Principal, Dr. Samson. “She’s really busy, so I’m honoured to be able to speak with her.” McDonald also leads Prefect meetings, rotating through different councils to offer help where it’s needed.
While she concedes that things “can get a bit busy,” given she co-created and co-leads the 3D Printing Club, is a member of the Debate and Steel Pan Clubs (she also teaches workshops during Black History Month), sings in the Choir, plays on the Basketball and Tennis Teams, is part of a robotics team on the weekends — including mentoring younger girls and encouraging them to pursue STEM — and plays the harp and in a steel pan band with her siblings called Young Legends of Pan, McDonald has wanted to be School Captain since she first arrived at Havergal in Grade 9. “So far, I’m loving every second of it.”
The role has given her an appreciation for the many facets of leadership. “There are so many different steps to leading and so much happening behind the scenes that you don’t initially think about.” McDonald’s various initiatives as Captain are preparing her for her future by encouraging her to consider ideas from all sides. “It teaches you how to critique it yourself,” she says.
She put that skill to work completing her first novel, Midnight Warriors: The Last Breath, in Grade 12. Inspired by the Kenyan Legends, it tells the story of a group of siblings on opposite sides of a war. “Every chapter is a different sibling’s perspective,” she explains. She couldn’t have finished the book — the first in what she hopes will be a trilogy — without the help of her English teachers, Ms. Barr and Mr. O’Donoghue. “Mr. O’Donoghue was really kind and just so supportive throughout,” she says. When the book was self-published, “he was the first to buy a copy.”
In June 2025, McDonald participated in a two-week summer program in Beijing. “I got to apply what I’ve been learning over the past three years on a larger scale,” she says. Highlights included experiencing a Peking Opera and visiting the Summer Palace. “Hearing about the history and culture behind it, all the emperors and how far their history goes back is so amazing,” she says. “And just even touching the Great Wall — I never thought I’d do that in my life!”
One of the best things about Havergal, says McDonald, is its unique courses, including Kinesiology — “I didn’t even know that was a class!” — and specialty programs such as Havergal’s Next Surgeon program. “I knew I wanted to go into medicine, and I was leaning towards cardiology,” she says, “but that experience made me want to be an actual surgeon.” During the four-day program, students interacted with cardiologists and cardiac surgeons and observed open-heart surgery at St Michael’s Hospital. “I actually saw the physical heart there, which was amazing.”
McDonald’s interest in medicine arose in part from a serious illness. At the start of Middle School, she was diagnosed with papilledema — pressure buildup in the brain — and nearly lost her eyesight. “It was a close-to-death experience,” she shares. “It’s taught me so much, like being positive and not taking things for granted. I’d always loved reading and knowing I was really close to losing my sight led me to want to write.”
Living with a life-threatening illness was tough. McDonald immediately had to stop her favourite sport, speedskating, because of concussion risks. And in Grades 9 and 10, she played on the Division 2 team, which she found hard initially. “It felt like a setback, because I wasn’t as good as I was before getting ill. But I still felt really valuable, and it taught me to persevere.”
Cured of papilledema at the end of Grade 10, McDonald was keen to give back, starting with her doctors at SickKids hospital. “They’re the reason I’m alive,” she states. She launched a fundraiser for her book, with proceeds going to a neurology clinic. “It’s for more research, so, someday in the future, doctors will know what caused my papilledema.”
Serious illness shaped McDonald’s identity, without a doubt, but so has serving as Co-Head of the Black Student Affinity (BSA) group. Moving from a classroom of 30 students in Brampton to Havergal in Grade 9 was “a bit of a shock,” she says. “I only had one other Black student in my class.” While everyone at Havergal is supportive, it’s within the BSA that she feels fully understood. “It’s different being actually immersed in your community,” she shares. “Sharing the same culture, the same jokes. Just having that safe space — deeper conversations mixed with light-hearted ones.”
This year, McDonald introduced Emancipation Day Prayers, and Havergal hosted its first speaker, Dr. Jean Augustine, Canada’s first Black female Member of Parliament and the founder of Black History Month in Canada.
With her busy schedule, McDonald views extracurriculars as a break. “Playing basketball is a way to get hyped and reset,” she says. Playing music is another way she unwinds. “I love music and going to choir so much because I’m still being productive, but I’m also taking a break because I’m with all of my friends.”
With university around the corner, McDonald is taking a “go-big-or-go-home” approach, including heavy hitters such as Harvard, Brown, Duke, UNC, Cornell, Stanford and Princeton. Like most teens, she worries about making friends. “I know there are so many people, so it seems like it would be easier,” she shares, “but I don’t know how I’m going to find the kind of community I found at Havergal.”
Published April 2026
2025–26 Issue
This narration was produced using an AI-generated voice.
Some variations in pronunciation may occur.
