Your TessArray Project
The Approach
Students who know their values, interests, and leadership style navigate transitions—from applications to life changes—with greater confidence and clarity. Learning how to share this knowledge with others via compelling stories positions students for future opportunities that are right for them.
Over 2 days, you'll engage in hands-on activities that blend drama and engineering-informed techniques. You'll analyze opportunities, improvise solutions, and craft practical plans. By the end of the program, you'll have concrete tools, a draft video application for a post-secondary opportunity, and most importantly, a clearer sense of who you are and what matters to you.
This isn't about becoming someone different. It's about discovering and communicating who you already are.
Module overview
Module 1
Discovering Your Unique Design
What You'll Do: Use mind mapping and personal analysis tools to identify your values, strengths, and significant experiences. Connect these to future opportunities and begin understanding what makes you unique.
What You'll Learn:
How to identify your core values
Recognize your key strengths and how they show up in different situations
Understand how your experiences have shaped who you are
See connections between your values and your goals
Module 2
Mapping the Mosaic
What You'll Do: Learn affinity diagramming to map the barriers and opportunities ahead of you. Brainstorm strategies to navigate complexity with confidence.
What You'll Learn:
How to analyze complex situations and identify what matters most
Recognize both obstacles and advantages in your path forward
Develop strategic thinking skills
Build resilience by understanding how to work with, around, and through challenges ahead of you.
Module 3
Leadership by Design
What You'll Do: Explore different leadership styles through interactive activities to better understand how you currently lead (spoiler: everyone can be a leader in different ways!). Plan how to expand your authentic influence as a leader.
What You'll Learn:
Your natural leadership characteristics
How different situations call for different leadership approaches
How to lead authentically—not by copying others, but by understanding your own style
Practical strategies to increase your influence while staying true to yourself
Module 4
Refining Through Feedback
What You'll Do: Master practical strategies for giving and receiving feedback through role play activities. Gain awareness of how you operate in teams and how feedback shapes growth.
What You'll Learn:
How to give feedback that actually helps people grow
How to receive feedback without defensiveness
Group dynamics and your role in them
Skills to navigate power dynamics in feedback conversations
Module 5
Courage Building
What You'll Do: Through improv activities, build confidence managing stress-inducing situations. Develop practical strategies to operate confidently outside your comfort zone.
What You'll Learn:
How challenging situations can help build resilience
How to manage anxiety in uncertain situations
Practical tools for staying calm under pressure
How to turn nervousness into productive energy
Module 6
Crafting Your Story
What You'll Do: Develop written and oral pitches for a post-secondary opportunity of your choice. Learn to articulate your value proposition and receive constructive feedback.
What You'll Learn:
How to tell your story in compelling, authentic ways
How to highlight what makes you unique without exaggerating
How to connect your story to future opportunities
How to present yourself with confidence
Module 7
Building Your TessArray
What You'll Do: Present a 2-minute pitch sharing your interest in and suitability for a chosen opportunity. Set intentions to maintain momentum beyond the workshop. Celebrate your growth with your peers.
What You'll Learn:
How to deliver a compelling, authentic pitch
How to move from self-awareness to action
How to build sustainable goals based on your values
Reflect on what you’ve learnt about yourself
By the end of your TessArray Project, you will:
Understand your values deeply and how they guide your decisions
Tell compelling stories about who you are and what you bring to the table
Discover your leadership style and how to lead with confidence
Navigate feedback with grace and use it to grow
Build courage to operate outside your comfort zone
Articulate your value proposition for future opportunities
Develop reflective practice as a tool for navigating any transition ahead
Why Drama + Engineering?
Drama teaches us to step into new perspectives, take creative risks, and understand human emotion and motivation. Engineering teaches us to break complex problems into manageable pieces, iterate, and build systematic solutions. Together, these approaches create a powerful learning environment where you can:
Explore who you are creatively
Build practical tools and frameworks
Connect self-understanding to real-world applications
What makes TessArray different?
The TessArray Project isn't a test prep course. It's not about university and college applications, though it absolutely helps with those. It's about equipping you with tools you'll use for every transition in your life—career changes, relationship shifts, personal challenges, unexpected opportunities. Most students focus on what they want to achieve. We help you understand who you are first. When you know that, navigating the path to your goals as they evolve becomes clearer and less stressful.
Program logistics
Dates & Times: November 14-15, 2026 (Saturday and Sunday), 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM each day
Location: B Street Arts Hub, 1100 Bathurst Street (Bathurst & Dupont)
What to Bring
Pencil and paper (for notetaking and activities)
Digital device with internet access (phone or laptop)
Lunch (not provided)
Class Size
Up to 25 students can be accommodated per cohort, creating an intimate environment where everyone is supported. The program is designed to create a safe space for students to explore, take risks and be vulnerable. Parents are welcome to attend the final presentations on the afternoon of Day 2 to celebrate their student's growth.
What You Take Home
Workbook with activities, reflections, and tools for future use
Draft video application for a program of your choice
Network of peers who are also navigating the transition beyond high school
Program Cost
$300 (discounted for this session only) charitable donation to PAIS (our partnering arts organization). Tax receipt provided.