Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Mischa grew up on the south side of beautiful Mount Tolmie. After completing high school, he attended the University of Victoria, graduating in 2000 with an Honours B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Environmental Studies. At graduation, he was awarded a certificate of academic excellence by the Canadian Psychological Association for his “outstanding thesis” on the influence of meditation on the ability to sustain attention.
From September 2000 to February 2001, Mischa travelled throughout India and Nepal, travelling as far south as Kanyakumari (the southern tip of India) and as far north as Rishikesh, a tranquil city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. After returning to Canada briefly for a few months, Mischa then travelled throughout England, Germany and France in the latter part of 2001.
For most of the following year, Mischa worked for the Keating Out of School Care Society, providing day and after-school care for elementary school children and a summer camp in July/August. After tying the knot at the end of August that same year, Mischa and his wife Kalan moved to Ottawa for their ‘honeymoon’. A year later, Mischa finished his B.Ed. at the University of Ottawa, completing two successful practicums in grades one and four, and graduating summa cum laude.
With his B.Ed. under his belt, and a variety of cultural experiences from his travels abroad, Mischa sought to teach at an alternative school that supplemented the provincial curriculum with, a) a socially just set of schooling practices, b) a mindfulness program, and c) integrated yoga classes. In September 2003, Mischa began working at the Sathya Sai School of Canada in Toronto, teaching grades four and six for two and three years respectively. In addition to a full-time teaching load, he also found time to teach classes for other grades (e.g., yoga, health, drama), cover a whole host of administrative duties, and build an entire computer lab from scratch.
After six years away from the Northwest Coast, Mischa felt the pull of the Land and longed to return home. After enrolling in the Educational Administration and Leadership program at the University of British Columbia, Mischa moved back to the West Coast, settling in North Vancouver on the banks of the Capilano River.
While pursuing his Masters, Mischa worked as the Burnaby Program Manager for the Canucks Family Education Centre (CFEC) and taught on-call for a local private school. His work for CFEC primarily involved the teaching of adult-focused family literacy classes for parents living in southeast Burnaby. Consistent with CFEC’s mission, Mischa’s classes encouraged intergenerational learning, helped to develop literacy and learning skills in parents and their children, and connected parents to schools and community resources.
Mischa completed his graduate studies at UBC in August, 2011 and started working for the Burnaby School District the following month as a Community School Coordinator at Edmonds Community School. Located in the southeast quadrant of Burnaby, Edmonds is the most culturally diverse region in Canada with approximately 100 languages spoken between the Fraser River and Deer Lake. In keeping with his long-standing passion for alternative education, lifelong learning, social justice and community development, Mischa now works full-time to meet the educational, recreational and social needs of the richly diverse Edmonds community. Engaging students, teachers, staff, parents, families, community members, agencies and businesses, Mischa coordinates a variety of services and programs to enrich and enhance student learning and to develop the school as a resource for the entire community.