A Life of Purpose with Hayley AvRUSKIN’87

In the final episode of Season 1 of PrincipalED, Grace McCallum welcomes Hayley AvRUSKIN’87— Branksome Hall alum, long-serving School Counsellor, dedicated coach and co-founder of Let’s Grow Learning and Living Hub for adults with complex disabilities.

After graduating as Head Girl of the Class of ’87, earning a Master’s of Education in the UK and returning to Branksome as an educator, Hayley has spent the past 30 years shaping lives across generations. Whether guiding students as a counsellor, building inclusive communities through her nonprofit work, or coaching the Knightlanders Ultimate Frisbee team to a championship title, Hayley has always led with purpose and care.

As she prepares for retirement, Hayley reflects on the experiences that influenced her path, the evolving needs of students over time and the importance of creating spaces where every individual can thrive. She also shares insights on leadership, advocacy and the value of staying connected to your “why” — both in work and in life.

Join us as we look back on a remarkable career and celebrate Hayley’s lasting contributions to Branksome and beyond.

Follow us on Instagram at @principalEDpod and listen to the PrincipalED podcast Spotify playlist at bit.ly/PrincipalED.

Follow and subscribe to the Branksome Hall YouTube channel, where you can see the video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@branksomehall.

The PrincipalED podcast is produced by Branksome Hall, Toronto's leading independent International Baccalaureate (IB) World School for girls. www.branksome.on.ca

Episode keywords: Hayley AvRuskin, school counsellor, inclusive education, student well-being, alumni stories, Ultimate Frisbee, special education, disability advocacy, retirement, coaching, student support, life after teaching, nonprofit leadership

Show keywords: Branksome Hall, Grace McCallum, podcast, education, girls’ education, leadership, school leadership, independent schools, private schools, girls, teens, women, academic success, social-emotional learning, resilience, well-being, future of education, university preparation, women in leadership

Transcript

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the seventh episode of the PrincipalED podcast.

As you can see, if you are a watcher as well as a listener, we are coming to you today from yet another location as we wait for our official podcasting studio in the iCAST building to open next year.

It's going to be so exciting.

We're coming to you today from the Senior Middle School Resource Center, and I am delighted to have someone who is an absolute icon here at Branksome Hall with me today, Ms. Hayley AvRuskin.

I want to say a little bit about the wonderful Hayley for you all at home to know a little bit more about her.

She was the head prefect in her time at Branksome.

Hayley's journey at Branksome goes way back to 1987 when she graduated as a prefect, and then she found herself in England playing Ultimate Frisbee and taking a Master's of Education before coming back home to Branksome to be a teacher.

Fast forward three decades later, and she has been one of our long-standing school counselors and has co-founded Let's Grow Learning and Living Hub for people with complex disabilities.

Hayley is now looking forward to a wonderful new adventure, retirement.

She is going to be missed in Branksome's halls so profoundly, as well as outside of them.

Hayley shares her life with her fellow Ultimate Frisbee-loving husband Phil and their two young sons, two young adult sons, Jake and Harry.

And it's fair to say her impact on both the Branksome and broader community has been profound.

During the 30 years that she has spent at Branksome, she has shaped the lives of thousands of students, forging meaningful connections with parents, providing steadfast support to colleagues, and creating lasting memories for our alums.

And we are so delighted to have her here with us today.

Welcome to the podcast, Hayley.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for that very, very nice introduction.

Oh, it was well deserved.

How does it feel to hear us say you're an icon, you're an icon at Branksome?

It feels a little surreal, but it feels it's very generous and nice.

And true.

It's very true.

Did you see we have your books?

I noticed.

That's my graduation yearbook right there.

Yeah.

Amazing.

You've even grown up at Branksome and Branksome's grown up with you.

Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah.

I remember the first time I met you, Hayley.

Hope you don't mind if I tell the story.

I like the story.

I was here for my transition visit coming in as the new principal.

I got to come to Branksome three times the year before and visit and do some transition.

And the first transition visit, I was, I mean, I'm nervous coming into a new school.

I had met dozens of people that morning and I was crossing the streets and I saw you, I met you and you saw you, Grace.

And I said, yes, I'm Grace.

You said, do you have, do you have some time?

Yeah.

I was like, I can always make some time.

Do you want to come, come with me?

I want to show you something.

And I said, sure.

I didn't know if you were going to take me to a dark alley or.

You took me to the opposite.

You took me to a place of joy and purpose.

You took me to Let's Grow, which is held in the building just beside our school and is such an amazing program.

And then I learned that we have kind of the soul connection with our history.

Maybe you want to share a little bit about your story and how it connects.

And then I'll share a little bit of mine.

Sure.

I remember.

Well, let's rewind for a few seconds.

Sure.

Because I actually met you the day before you were there and you remembered my name.

So I'll just say that I remembered my name.

I met you for 30 seconds the day before.

I went, oh my gosh, that's Grace.

And then I stood up and introduced myself at lunch.

Right.

You came to the cafeteria.

You just came like wanting to meet everybody.

And then the next morning when I took you over to Let's Grow, you said, Hayley, do you have any questions?

Or like I see that you have a question, Hayley, and you said my name and you met Jake and Harry, and you danced for Jake.

I remember this.

Very good.

You did.

He asks a lot of people to dance for Jake.

That's for Jake.

And you met both of them and that's how we first met.

And you said yes.

So I'll remember that.

It was one of my favourite memories from the transition.

And when I met you and I've been so nervous, I remember thinking, oh, this is going to be great.

Like I just had that.

I was like, she's going to be a safe person.

Everything's going to be great.

Branksome's amazing.

You made me feel so welcome and so at home.

And I was so honored that you would invite me to Let's Grow.

And later on in the podcast, we're going to learn more about what that means and why it's so important and why it had such a profound impact on me and the incredible work that you've done with it.

Okay, so let's rewind back 30 years, Hayley.

You have been a Branksome.

You've been here most of your life when you think about it.

And I would love to hear about what was it like?

I mean, looking back, the profound ways that Branksome shaped you as a young woman.

I'd love to hear about, it must have had an impact on you because then you came back for 30 years.

So I'd love to hear about the beginning and how did it shape you?

So as a student, Branksome pushed me out of my comfort zone.

And there are stories that I can tell.

And the one that I'm thinking about, I bet I can't.

One weekend, I went on a tall ship because at that stage, Branksome was also doing Duke of Edinburgh.

And that was one of the experiences that you could choose to do.

So I went on this tall ship adventure in the Toronto Harbor with people that I did not know.

And I remember staying up from 2 to 4 in the morning, scrubbing the little, I don't even know what you call them, the little silver things on the boat, and climbing up like 30-foot rigs, like ropes.

And that was kind of, that's sort of an example of what Branksome did.

It pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I loved, I looked up to older students.

So I have lots of like, you know, role models who went ahead of me.

And big sisters.

Yeah, big sisters.

And so that's kind of, I think what drew me back is, and that is also what I, what I tell my students and they will tell you this, is that I say, just, just try something, try something new, try something different.

And the more you do that, then, you know, then the more confidence you get.

The more comfortable you get with taking risks and being a risk taker.

Is there anyone in particular that was a mentor to you?

Yes, there were many mentors.

And when I think back, oh, there are so many.

I will, I'm going to name two.

And one of them is, is she was a science teacher.

She was my grade seven science teacher, Mrs.

Chilton.

And one of the reasons we loved Mrs.

Chilton so much is because she could teach us science for five minutes and then we could get her off track and talk about other things.

And yes, isn't it?

And it just, she was so, she loved talking about human things and people.

And she, she, she just, she was open and we loved her for that.

And then my other role model is someone who still works here, as a matter of fact.

I bet I know who it is.

You do.

Want to take a guess?

Carrie Winslow it is.

So Carrie actually also did her teacher training in Cambridge.

So when I, she did, she did it at Hamilton College, which is where I did it too.

And when I finished, when I graduated from university undergrad here in Ontario, I wrote her, well, first I traveled around a little bit, and then I wrote her a note for my travels.

Like in those days, it was writing a physical note.

It wasn't like an email, hi.

And she said, I wrote to her and I said, Carrie, is it true that you did your teacher training in England?

I'm kind of curious about it.

I'm thinking about it.

She took the time.

She wrote back.

She said, here's where it was.

Yes, this is what I did.

And that inspired me to go and do my teacher training in Cambridge.

Isn't she amazing?

She's amazing.

She's incredible.

And now I know you have been that role model for so many of our students here as well.

As a school counselor, you have been a constant presence for our students and a real source of support for them at Branksom.

I would love to hear, what do you believe are the most significant ships that you've observed in social-emotional landscape for young women?

Because you've seen quite a span over 30 years.

The problems that students were coming to you with 30 years ago, I wonder if they're the same, have they changed?

It's a great question.

The answer is both.

Some of them are the same because students will always have conflicts with their friends and will always have problems that they need to solve and they need somebody to talk to about those things.

And I will say, there was a student, when I was in the middle school in Grades 7 and 8, a Grade 8 student came and she said to me, Ms. AvRuskin, and she was very upset and really crying, very upset.

And so somebody called me ugly and I just, and I said, well, was it a friend?

Who was this person?

And she said, I don't even know.

She said, because in those days, Facebook had just started and there was something called Honesty Box and people could write anonymous posts.

And I think it was meant to be a good thing, but it quickly turned into not a good thing.

And I think as social media has become more complex and complicated, so have young women's problems and conflicts.

And they're very layered and they're very complicated.

And social media has really not been a great thing for young people, I think.

So the same and yet now more complexity with social media.

Yeah, it's so hard, you know, even in my career, which is not been as long as yours yet.

You know, I see a difference in it used to be that the drama or the hard things or the challenges happened at school.

Exactly.

You know, during the school day at recess in the classroom, in the hallways, by the lockers.

Now it's happening silently, away from us, online.

And it's really, it's such a challenge for the adults in the building who want to be there as support.

It's really hard.

It's really hard for the young people because it's constant.

It's 24-7.

They can never get away from it.

And it also, we never used to compare ourselves with other people so much.

And also just even, yeah, I mean, comparing each other and seeing what other people are doing and where they are.

We never knew that before.

Like people would go away and do other stuff without you on the weekends.

And you never knew about it.

It wasn't in your face all the time.

In comparison, it's the thief of joy.

We know that.

And I feel for these kids so deeply because we didn't have to deal with that.

And when something did happen at school, we could sometimes, not all the time, we could see it and we could intervene.

And even if it felt like they didn't want you to do that, deep down they did.

Yes, of course.

And now we don't see it and it's hard for us to intervene when we don't know what's happening.

And I really wish that we could help.

I think there is, I mean, not to always look on the bright side of things, but there is some positive change happening.

People are realizing that this is very damaging.

And students themselves are also saying, I need to check out, I need to go to camp for a month, I need to turn off my phone, go get engaged in other activities.

They are recognizing that, but it's taken a little while and it definitely took its toll.

I'm seeing a trend of more and more teens self-selecting away from social media, which I think is fantastic.

We're seeing it with some young adults as well, but I love seeing that.

And I hope that that continues, because it's hard enough.

It's hard enough to be a teenager in the world.

That's very true.

Yeah, I agree.

I would love to think about just the impact that you've had in our students, Hayley, and your time here and the advice that you've shared with students.

I know you've shared a lot of advice over your years as a school counselor.

Is there anything you can think of that you hope will just continue to resonate with them long after you've stopped in your counseling role?

Yes, yes, there is.

And it's going to sound very, very simple.

But it is a piece of advice that comes up again and again and again, which is just to be yourself, because how you are matters and makes a difference in the world.

And it's also not about what you achieve, what you do, your medals that you have, it's what kind of person you are.

And so that's my, my, I mean, basically, yes, it's being yourself.

And of course, I always like to throw in a little bit of just have some fun, enjoy your life, don't take it too seriously.

Have some fun.

Yeah, have some fun on this big journey.

Yeah, we just get one.

That's right.

I want to move on to Let's Grow.

It's such an important program.

It's your nonprofit organization.

I think it's such a testament, Hayley, to who you are, to your dedication, to your love for all people.

And can you share a little bit with us the genesis of Let's Grow and how your personal experience, how has this fueled this passion that you have to support adults who are dealing with different needs?

That is a great question.

And I will say, I didn't, it's not like I said to myself one day, okay, I'm just going to start this big program.

And basically what happened is it was the pandemic.

It was the spring of 2020.

Nobody was in school.

Everybody was at home.

Phil and I were trying to do our full-time jobs and look after Jake and Harry at the same time.

And that was challenging, like very challenging.

Can you share with our listeners a little bit about your boys?

Oh, sure, sure.

Yeah, so Jake and Harry are 25 and 23 respectively.

And they are very fun and they have lots of great things about them.

And they also have some challenges, which is like Jake has autism and he uses a wheelchair and he is very, very verbal.

It's just, you know, he talks about what he wants to talk about.

Right.

And Harry is non-verbal.

He also uses a wheelchair.

And so they have, you know, they really rely on us for all their activities of daily living.

And they have complex needs.

We've been lucky because they don't, medically, medically speaking, they have been quite good.

I mean, they don't have a lot of challenges that way.

But yeah, they, you know, they need looking after, basically.

They need a lot of support from you and Phil.

And that must have been really hard during the pandemic.

Yes, it was.

Because you must have outside support sometimes.

But then during the pandemic, that would have been really complicated.

No outside support during the pandemic.

I mean, for the first six months.

Yeah.

So we were looking after them and trying to work at the same time.

And I just, you know, the day that I remember when we first thought, we have to do something here.

Yeah.

Jake was puking on the floor.

Harry had just flipped out of his wheelchair because one of us forgot to put his strap on.

Phil was in a meeting.

I was trying to organize something.

It was just, it was like...

Unmanageable.

It was unmanageable.

And we just looked at each other and we went, what are we going to do?

Yeah.

You know, and for most families, this was, you know, many families had dependent children at the time and they could see an end in sight.

Like, the pandemic will end, then our kids will go back to sports and school and, you know, and we'll have those kinds of supports in place.

But just, I don't, I'm not sure if people know this, but Jake and Harry were in the TDSB in non-aggregated schools from until they were 21.

Right.

Then once they turn 21, those supports completely disappear.

There is nothing, there are very few programs.

There's no bridging program.

It's just an end of support.

It's end.

They leave their schools, their communities, their friends.

That's hard.

Basically, Jake did spend several months watching TV and going on walks, but I think a lot of people did at that time.

Yeah.

He's not alone.

Yeah, exactly.

We just went, we have to do something and we had friends who also had a son in a similar situation.

I remember we had calls and we just said, we have to do this.

Was born out of a necessity.

That's what it was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I hear you because my mom at that time, so I've told you a little bit about our story as well, and I won't share his name necessarily just for his own privacy.

No, it's okay.

With my mom, we have my wonderful, who we call our brother who came to live with us when I was a teen.

My mom's a human service counselor and works with adults, similar to your lovely boys.

Then he came to live with us and he's been part of our family ever since.

During the pandemic, I remember thinking, no one is talking about this, that there are families out there who are used to having some support systems or not that you need a break, they're your kids and you love them.

My mom, of course, loves my brother.

But it's about you need the support, you need the break and it was just not existent.

When I heard about what you did and how this was born, I thought, of course, you need to have this support.

You have another friend who has a son with similar needs and you decided to pair together and come up with something.

We did, yes.

Their son had gone to a program that was not in the city, so very far and not really like an option for us.

We just thought, okay, let's just take it day by day and call a few people and see if they might be interested in joining the program.

We just kind of did step by step, like a little bit at a time every day, did some interviews, hired a director.

It was quite something at the time.

It's incredible.

And they say innovation is born of necessity.

It really was in our case, for sure.

Wow.

So you hired a director and then you found a space.

Yes.

How did you do all this with COVID protocols?

I guess it was at the tail end or?

It was near the tail end.

So things were starting to come back up.

Right.

And I do remember the very first day of the program when we opened.

We had five team members.

We called them team.

Our participants are called team members.

Right.

I love that.

Yeah.

And I remember it's right here.

We met in a park.

We wanted to do a little test drive.

So we met in a park and we, we just, you know, it was, it was, it was five people kind of sitting there going, looking at each other going, okay, like this is it.

This is, you know, we, we started with nothing.

Yeah.

And then we slowly but surely built up the program, got some supplies, you know.

Yeah.

And then more people heard about it and joined.

Because how many team members do you have now?

I was going to say last time I was there, I would say it was about 10.

Yeah.

Oh, fantastic.

Yeah.

Oh, that's amazing.

It is.

That's something at the seams.

Yeah.

It's pretty, it's pretty incredible.

I would love to hear about a challenging barrier to establishing Let's Grow.

Something that our girls here at Branksome, as you know, with our noodle program and everything we're doing with innovation, we're really trying to model for them.

You have these great ideas, your passions behind it doesn't always work.

It's true.

It doesn't always work.

Was there a barrier you faced that you could share?

We started with a parent company who oversaw, like we didn't know how to do payroll and benefits and all that stuff.

We started with a-

That would have been a learning curve.

It was.

Well, we didn't, and also we didn't have time.

We're both working full-time.

So we started with a parent company and about maybe six to eight months in, the parent company.

We were on a call with them and things seemed to be going along swimmingly.

Right.

They kind of in the middle just said, oh, we're moving in a different direction now.

We're not going to support you anymore.

You have a few months to kind of figure it out, see what you're going to do.

Basically, they dropped us.

That was a huge challenge and that was very scary.

Because we thought, how are we going to do this?

Anyway, that set back, which is so often the case, kind of forced us to look at what we needed to do next, was to become our own charity.

That's what we did.

That's how you did it.

Tell us a little bit about what the team members do during the day.

Sure.

So there's a robust program.

Yeah.

We have a wonderful executive director who used to be our program director and our program director.

So they organize outings.

They play lots of games.

They listen to tons of music.

They do things together.

What else do they do?

We used to do a bit of cooking.

We don't do that so much of that anymore.

We have students who come, actually, from many of the colleges, and some of them are studying to be DSWs or PSWs.

We have recreation therapists who are like recreation students who come and do their placements.

We have like many, many placement students.

So we have art therapy.

We have music.

We have a fair bit.

There's swim at times.

There is swim at times.

Right.

That we're trying to kind of get back going.

Exactly.

Had to be paused for a little bit, but we're working on getting that back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I know one of the remarkable aspects of Let's Grow is how you have made this incredible connection to Branksome and given our students the opportunity to learn from these amazing team members that you have at Let's Grow.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I think it's so special.

Oh, my gosh.

I will tell you how it first started.

I mean, Let's Grow is quite new, but the very first time that some of our Branksome students got kind of a taste of that other world, like a different kind of world, I guess, is back many years ago.

And I was a guidance counselor in grade seven and eight, and I had an advisor group.

And my advisor group, we were sitting around one day and we were thinking, okay, well, because the advisor group, you know, we wanted to do something service-oriented, but we didn't know what to do.

And I really thought, you know what?

Why don't I take a couple of students up to Sunnyview School, which is a congregated school in the TDSB, and we could volunteer in the classrooms, we could help them out a little bit.

And I went to Joanne Colwell, who was our Dean of Students at Student Life at the time.

And I said to her, Joanne, here's our idea, what do you think?

Do you think we can do it?

And she said yes.

And I love telling that story because it is, lots of times it's about when people say yes.

There's so much fear in the world and people say no a lot.

And she said yes.

So I took a couple of students up and they loved it because, for just a whole number of reasons, which we can get into, and then more students wanted to join.

And then more students wanted to join.

And then we ended up thinking, okay, well, this is getting bigger and bigger.

Now, one of the students who was part of Sunnyview, wanted to do a project, like her cast project.

So, she decided that she would, she wanted to do the yearbook.

Actually, I think I even asked her, would you consider doing something like a project, like a yearbook for Sunnyview?

They don't have one.

So, she did a yearbook.

They had a fundraiser to fund the yearbook.

We have the, and every time some, like a new idea would come up, it would be a yearbook, and then it would be, we'd do a fundraiser, and then sometimes kids would go on field trips with each other.

And it just kind of grew and grew.

And then it had a whole leadership group.

So each year, students at Branksome really wanted to be the club head at Sunnyview.

And, you know, like the leadership opportunities here were also, you know, born out of that.

I love that.

Yeah, yeah.

It says such an impact on the students here.

Honestly, when you hear the students talk about the impact that it has, and I get to read all of their reflections.

So I was reading some reflections a few weeks ago because we were signing off on our reflections.

Students don't love writing the reflections, but I love reading them.

And one student, there have been several that have really stood out to me.

And one of them recently was about Let's Grow.

And she said, when I volunteer at Let's Grow, these aren't the exact words, but it's something like I was introduced to a whole new world, and it just makes me understand what I have, and I'm so grateful for what I have, and it gives me so much perspective.

And we hear those comments quite a lot.

I mean, it's an amazing thing that our students have the privilege to be involved in, and I'm so grateful to you for that opportunity for them.

You know, when I think of you, Hayley, I think you've really spent your life making the world a better place.

You know, you have.

And that's what we say at Branksome that we want our kids to do, right, is to go out and make a difference.

And you are doing that with this program.

And it's pretty incredible.

And I just wonder, it's not just for your sons, it's for countless others now that have been affected, whether it's our students who are affected by being there, or the other team members that are there and get to take part in the program.

What do you think when you think about that?

What's the most critical conversation that we need to be having as a society or as educators that we're not having right now?

When it comes to people like your wonderful sons or like my brother, what are the conversations that we're not having that we have to have?

Okay.

I think it's such a great question because I think, especially at a, I would say, a highly academic and achievement oriented school and all schools really, and I feel like we have a fairly narrow view of what success is and what achievement is.

And I think, and it's just, that is the way, like our school has very high standards.

Our students want to get into highly academic universities.

The big aspirations.

It is about what success is and what it looks like, and that it doesn't have to be about achieving the best marks and getting into the best universities.

And that's, you know, it's like redefining.

Yeah, it is.

Redefining success.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's, it's interesting to hear.

I'm seeing your two worlds interconnect right now.

Your counseling mind.

Oh, yeah.

And this amazing kind of programmatic minds that you, that you have as well around Let's Grow.

Well, Hayley, as you prepare for this next journey and retirement, when you think about your legacy at Branksome, both as an alum, a student alum, and very soon a teacher alum.

A teacher alum.

Yeah.

What do you, what do you want that to be?

What do you hope your legacy is at Branksome?

Okay.

I, I feel, I feel like I have a kind of a, like an optimistic outlook.

So that, that I want people to think, to find the good in things, find the good in people, be optimistic, that general, that sense of, you know, being positive as much as you can.

Like sometimes it's hard.

Yeah.

But, you know, meeting those hard things and doing those hard things and doing it kind of optimistically, I think that's kind of what I want people to remember.

Yeah.

I think that's beautiful.

And that is very Hayley.

You have such a positive outlook.

And you're just, well, you're sunshine around these halls.

And when you leave, they're going to be a little darker.

So we're going to need you to come back and fill us up with your sunshine.

I will.

Your story is really incredible.

And it's one of commitment and both professional, professionally and to our community and your family's personal journey as well.

What advice would you offer to young women today, particularly those here at Branksome Hall, who they also want to dedicate their lives to service and to championing causes that they deeply believe in?

Yeah.

So I think, I mean, I mean, you kind of, you said it.

It's little steps at a time.

Right.

I never started out thinking that I was going to start this whole program.

You know, honestly, sometimes it's just day to day, you know, you know, pack a good lunch for, you know, like little things.

And so I never started thinking this is going to be this huge big thing.

And I'm like, you know, take little steps and also Chip away at it.

And keep going, keep trotting, like that is one thing.

It's just don't give up because there will be humps.

And I always say this actually in all of my intro interviews, when I'm meeting new students, I always say, they're going to be bumps on the road.

And, you know, that's kind of what I'm here for.

Like, don't expect everything to be smooth sailing.

There will be bumps.

You can do this.

Bumps are good for you.

Let's do this together.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's so true.

I love that you say that.

Something I talk a lot about is finding your why.

I think it's so easy to get swept up in a current of something you think you should do or you're supposed to do, but really anchoring in why.

Why is it important to you?

I would love to hear about what do you think is the importance of finding your why in both career, but also in your personal passions?

I think that's been really significant for you.

Yeah.

I mean, I think your why often, as we talked about, comes out of necessity, really.

And what gets you excited and what bugs you and what can you do about it?

So I think understanding that and understanding yourself helps to, you know, it helps you.

It helps you get done what you want to get done.

I also want to say, I don't even consider the last 30 years as like a job.

I love what I do because I love people and I love getting to know people.

And I am so lucky that I got to do what I love for my job.

So do what you love, you know.

Oh, it's so true.

It's what they say.

Do what you love.

You'll never work a day in your life.

That's right.

And it's an old saying, and I'm sure people are rolling their eyes as they're listening.

Like, oh, but I really believe it.

I really, really believe it.

And this teaching, working in schools, working with people, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

Right.

And if you can find your why in that, just it all comes together.

Okay, Hayley, we're going to move on to the rapid fire questions.

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Are you nervous?

A little bit.

Yeah.

Good.

Should I be?

No.

Hayley, what song would you play or do you play on repeat?

Um, Forever Young and a cassette tape and it had about 16 times.

Oh, 16 plays of Forever Young.

Just over and over again.

Over and over again.

Well, we're going to add it to our Spotify playlist.

What's a guilty pleasure that you would never give up?

Watching Survivor.

I love it.

I love it.

This is not an ad because anyone's wondering.

If you could switch lives for a person with a person for a day, who would it be?

Jeff Probst.

Oh, my goodness.

Most of Survivor.

You are a super fan, right?

I'm a super fan.

I love it.

I'm not quite as good as the super fans, but yeah.

I don't know.

It sounds it sounds pretty good.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Be yourself.

Love that.

And, Hayley, what would you like to be remembered for here at Branksom Hall?

My delusional optimism.

I love that.

I love that, Hayley.

It has been such a pleasure and such an honor to have you on the podcast.

Thank you so much for what you've done for this community.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for how you've supported me in this first year.

I'll never forget it.

And I'm just so happy for you and so excited for you to write that book that we've been talking about in retirement.

Everyone, thank you so much for listening.

And if you're watching, thank you so much.

We have had a wonderful first season of The Principal Podcast.

This is our last episode as we're heading out to the summer.

And I can't wait to see what season two is going to bring.

So thank you everyone for subscribing and liking.

We've been overwhelmed with the love for this podcast around the globe.

And we're so grateful.

So we will be back for season two and bye for now.

Keep well the road.