In front of some 850 Living Sky School Division students, parents, teachers and staff members, four students from Spiritwood High School and three from Unity Composite High School took on the guest speaker role at LSSD’s annual Student Hall of Fame celebrations.
Superintendent Jim Shevchuk said that any number of schools could have presented; the two chosen were “just two shining examples.”
Spiritwood students McKayla Gaboury, Anne Clark, Dalyce Epp and Angelia Maglabe, shared some of the ways their school’s Green Team makes a difference. Within the school, the team of approximately 30 students and staff focus on promoting respect, responsibility and safety. After members attended We Day a couple of years ago, the team expanded to help individuals not only in the school but in their community and province.
Each student gave at least one example of a project the group organized to benefit others, ranging from trips to serve meals and do laundry at The Lighthouse, an emergency shelter in North Battleford, to working within the school to eliminate racism, bullying and homophobia. The Green Team organized a day of in-school workshops, such as yoga, painting, meditation and more – to give students tools for handling anxiety. In December, they collected toys, books and other items from their community and delivered them to Saskatoon a week before Christmas.
The girls also spoke about the personal benefits derived from being involved with the Green Team, including an increase in self-confidence – a trait on display as they stood on stage and shared their experiences with the capacity crowd at the Battleford arena.
Living Sky superintendent Tonya Lehman presented the four guest speakers from Spiritwood High School with gifts after their presentation, saying, “Ladies, you are a shining star in our future.”
Shevchuk introduced the second set of guest speakers – Kira Vlietstra, Becky Krentz and Kennedy Mielke from the Unity school’s Activate Team. The 12 students on the UCHS Activate committee work to encourage a sense of belonging and inclusion in the school, and for the last two years have also hosted a contest encouraging other schools across the province to “activate” positive behaviours and choices.
Again, each Unity student took a turn at the microphone. They also had a Powerpoint presentation with highlights of some of the projects they had carried out at their own school. The Powerpoint included video, several of which can be seen on their own website, https://activatedotuchs.wordpress.com/.
Random acts of kindness are one focus of the Activate group at Unity, including paying other people compliments on social media such as Twitter and Instagram. A video showed the smiles on peoples’ faces as they became the recipients of RAKs. The video’s backtrack was Selena Gomez’s Kill Em With Kindness.
The video also showed students taking the Activate pledge: “I hereby pledge from this day forward to always try my best to include, respect and be kind to those around me. I will accept that we all have differences – but also realize we have more similarities and I will work with those around me to come together as one.”
The UCHS Activate committee, for two years now, has expanded their program to encourage students from other schools anywhere in the province to create an Activate project. The projects can also become a school assignment, with examples of applicable classes and outcomes on their website.
Kira concluded their presentation by encouraging participation in their contest, saying, “Bring activate into your school to promote inclusivity and kindness.”
Shevchuk said the three speakers and the UCHS Activate committee “truly understand leadership and their school community, their wider community and our division is better for them.”
