High school students from across the division got a crash course on leadership during an inspirational conference last week.
It all began in the fall when three students from each of Interlake School Division’s high schools — Collège Stonewall Collegiate, Warren Collegiate, and Teulon Collegiate — attended a five-day Canadian Student Leadership Conference in New Brunswick.
Four staff members also attended the conference — Curtis Grieve and Deanna Johnson from Collège Stonewall Collegiate, Fallon Campbell from Warren Collegiate and Chelsea Myer from Teulon Collegiate.
For Grieve, it was clear to see the positive impact of the Canada-wide conference at the local level.
“It was a good learning opportunity for the students and advisors. The benefit after you run these sort of events is you see energy. Being around other students that have a similar passion, it ignites a fire in the belly of your own students,” he said.
“Then those students are able to transfer that information to other students in your leadership group and other students in your high school. It’s a way to get more people involved.”
The nine Interlake School Division students who attended the Canadian Student Leadership conference spearheaded several local events last week, with support from the four staff members who joined them in New Brunswick.
On Monday, March 18, students from all three high schools had the chance to hear motivational speaker Ian Tyson speak at Collège Stonewall Collegiate.
Then on Tuesday, students gathered at the Heritage Arts Centre for the Horizons Leadership Conference, which provides motivation, inspiration and information to the school community.
Lexi Anderson-Schmidt, a Grade 12 CSC student, served as the master of ceremonies while also taking photos for the school’s yearbook and Instagram account.
“This is my second Horizons Conference that I have put on and the third that I have attended, so this one was not daunting in the slightest,” she said.
“I love putting on these events and really enjoy planning these out and seeing them through. Looking out at all of the faces and watching students come together for the purpose of learning what it means to be a leader is so fulfilling.”
The event featured the motivational messages of both Ian Tyson and Jermaine Frazer.
“Ian Tyson has been a professional speaker since 1989 and he performs for tens of thousands of people each year. He is very well-known in the Canadian student leadership world. He has spoken at the Canadian Student Leadership Conference, many Horizon events, as well touring across the country each year,” she said.
“He has a wide range of knowledge in the topics that he spoke about. He has a wonderful talent of including the audience in his performance and keeps everyone engaged throughout. I have had the privilege of hearing him speak numerous times and learn something new with each presentation.”
Similarly, Jermaine Frazer aims to help youth understand their purpose and live through it.
In the afternoon, Anderson-Schmidt led some games as well as discussions about leadership and how to get out of your comfort zone.
“At the very end of the day, we had each group come up with their own chant. Then we all joined in unison and gave huge thank you to everyone who had made the day possible. The highlight was seeing people come together,” she said.
“We had schools from all around the Interlake come and participate. The reaction from the students who were involved was very positive. I felt like there was a lot to take away — and many things that students could possibly add to their school or add into their leadership team.”
The goal of these events is to share experiences with other students about what it means to be a leader in school, she added.
“Both of our keynote speakers at the Horizons Conference touched on topics of participation and belonging in school and what, as leaders, we can do to make that happen,” she said.
In the evening on March 20, parents from across the school division had the chance to hear Tyson speak as well. A video link will be sent to all parents in the Interlake School Division so they can watch the presentation online.
Grieve extended thanks to the speakers, who shared messages about resiliency and how it’s OK to fail. Parents and teachers also learned about the importance of responding rather than reacting to students, since they don’t know what experiences kids are carrying with them.
“Each of our schools is trying to make a connection in our community, and we had a lot of engagement,” he said.
“Thank you to our administration teams in all of our high schools. Without them we’re not able to host this. A shout out to how supportive our divisional admin team and board of trustees is. Lastly, a little shout out to Access Credit Union, which we received a grant from to help make hosting Horizons possible.”
At the same time, Anderson-Schmidt expressed gratitude to the teachers who helped make the event possible.
“They were very enthusiastic and allowed our team of students to have full artistic discretion of how we thought the day would play out,” she said.
