Tiffany RAMSUBICK'04 on Staying True to Yourself
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Written By: Kiana ROMEO'17
"You never have to choose between being mart, kind or creative."
When Tiffany RAMSUBICK'04 arrived at Branksome Hall in Grade 7, she felt like a fish out of water. With a Trinidadian background and a Scarborough upbringing, the school felt like a whole new world. "I was really shy when I first got there, which was really different than how I was back in my old school," she recalls.
She snapped back quickly, thanks to some great advice from her mother: "Just be who you are, and you will find where you belong." She shared her love of soca music and her Trinidadian heritage with classmates, who responded with curiosity and appreciation. She didn't try to fit in by adopting the weekend cottage trips or chalet stays her classmates talked about. "That wasn't me. And that is okay," she says.
That experience still guides her. "Now when I go into rooms where I feel uncomfortable, or where I feel 'othered,' I think back to that time of going to Branksome, how by being my authentic self, I was accepted," she says. "That gives me the confidence to be who I am in any room I walk into."
Branksome looked different then. When Tiffany and her sister, Chanelle RAMSUBICK'06, attended, they were part of a very small group of Black students. She was recently moved to see how much has changed at the Black Student Union's alum and student networking event in April 2026. "I can't imagine how much better it is now, having diverse people at the school and being able to have Black friends at Branksome," she says.
Today, Tiffany balances three big roles: lawyer, hotelier and mom. She credits Branksome for her pursuit of excellence and as a model of women supporting women, which she hopes her own daughter will experience. "I am so excited to send her to Branksome," she says. "I wish that all girls could go to all-girls schools."
Her fondest memories involve teachers who encouraged her imagination. In geography class with Ms. Campbell-Rogers, she pitched an invention with a full commercial and received a standing ovation. In civics class with Ms. Mouftah, she ran a mock campaign as leader of "the ILLegals," promising to illegalize everything from riding a bike to taking a hike, in Dr. Seuss-style rhyme. For reasons she can't explain, she did it while wearing a fur coat. "There's so much room for play and fun and creativity at Branksome," she says. "You can be everything."
Her advice to new students is to find out who you are, then live that truth. "Branksome is almost like Canada, in that it's a mosaic of people, and that's what makes Branksome beautiful," she says. "You don't have to go in there and assimilate. Know your roots, know where you come from and bring that to Branksome."
Tiffany is a long way from the shy Grade 7 student who once shrank into herself. But the lesson her mom gave her on the way into Branksome still holds: you can be who you are and you will find where you belong. Right now for Tiffany, that means being a lawyer, a hotelier, a mom and, on Sunday mornings, a devoted Bluey fan. In other words, everything.