PEN Education Centre wins 2 golds and 2 silvers

Music Fest accolades validate enrichment education

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With a mission to support and enhance the Canadian education experience, PEN education centre has gone from success to success in its barely three-year existence. 

Pivoting to distance learning after facing the challenges of opening just before the pandemic, PEN has gone from 150 students to 400 in the blink of an eye.

In the same period, it has become an accredited high school, so it can now offer credit courses in its enrichment program. It has also become a Duke of Edinburgh awards centre and is a candidate to join the Round Square program.

At Music Fest, four PEN ensembles reached medal standards. Two were awarded gold: the Groove Masters 10 to 16-year-old instrumental jazz ensemble; and the Junior Force vocal group, aged 7-10. 

Attaining the silver medal standard requirements were the 9 to 16-year-old Classical Chamber ensemble and the Girl Power ensemble, a group of 10-16 year-olds performing vocal jazz.

The Music Fest awards are a significant achievement. Unlike many competitions, where medals are based on relative performance and depend on the strength or weakness of the competitive groups, Music Fest awards medals based on strict performance measurements against an established standard.  

This speaks to the remarkable faculty PEN has attracted, many with graduate degrees who also hold positions in Universities and Community Colleges. It is possible for a PEN student to be mentored at PEN by someone who will be their professor once they get to post-secondary.

PEN seeks to provide a two-way window: from the outside world into Oakville and from Oakville to the outside world. This made the school attractive first to new Canadians, and PEN has made a special point of helping international students and parents understand the democratic nature of Canadian education.

The three key areas PEN focuses on are those which often are only peripherally dealt with in the public system: Art, Music, and Computer Science.

"With the pandemic over, PEN is excited to welcome local Oakville children of all backgrounds," says Principal and Director of Music Joseph Amato.

PEN seeks to use education as a bridge between Canadian and different cultures. In a world where suspicion is rearing its head in international relations, PEN sees its mission as contributing to understanding between cultures and countries in the international languages of Music and Art.

Founder Becky Zhang, a Cape Breton University graduate, talks of a multi-dimensional view and of cross-cultural pollination in non-threatening spheres.

"If communication happens here, where there is no threat, we hope the understanding created will spill over into more sensitive areas, and our school will make a difference, if only in a small way, to international cooperation."

The international students who attend PEN become ambassadors for Canada, she points out. "So we have a domestic mission and international mission."

Oakville parents wanting to give their children the benefit of enrichment and credit education in music, the arts or computer science can contact PEN through its website here. PEN is clearly headed in the right direction and moving fast. Its students will have their horizons broadened and their educational experience enhanced.