There is more to see outside of the Horizon School Division.
And that was a big part of the Horizon school Division Student Day on May 3.
Director of Education, Kevin Garinger, says the focus this year was on inspiring students to be leaders.
Along with four sets of students who have displayed these skills by doing doing different things in their schools and across the province, the day also included Live Different from Hamilton, ON. and homegrown Code Prevost.
“This was a great opportunity for students to learn from that,” says Garinger.
Garinger wants students to take these lessons and pass them on to their fellow students since 3 per cent of students attended.
“We bring new students every year and continue to build upon their learning and that’s critical.”
Garinger heard from many students throughout the day that they were having a fantastic day.
Two schools discussed projects that they did in their own schools that held a positive impact; Leroy School with their Day of Pink and Winston High in Watrous with their Mental Health Awareness Day.
Garinger says that Winston students really engaged all 200 plus students with their presentation.
The grade 5 and 6 students from Leroy had their own play about stopping bully which Garinger says the students really appreciated presenting but their fellow students also appreciated them being there.
Two other presentations were from individual students who traveled outside the province to do amazing things; three students from Englefeld and their trip to Ottawa for Forum for Young Canadians and a student from Annaheim who travelled Newfoundland to participate with the SHAD program.
Hannah Moellenbeck presented with fellow students, Bing Bing Zhang and Khrystyna Ostrovsky about their trip to Ottawa.
They had an amazing time speaking with MPs and staff on Parliament and Mollenbeck says she wants other students to try new things.
Fear is something that holds people back from amazing opportunities, fear of rejection or fear of the process. Moellenbeck thought that she did not have much of a chance of being accepted into the program but realized she would not have any chance if she did not apply at all.
Remington Rohel spent a month at Memorial University sharing ideas.
“They show you a lot of different areas and career paths that we wouldn’t have opportunities to see in high school.”
Along with lectures and trips around St. John’s, groups got together to compete at a final project that they have spent the month working on based on the theme, ‘Why don’t you go play outside.’
Rohel’s group created an app where people could sign up and get rewards for supporting businesses that the team partners with.
Rohel’s team won best prototype and best overall Memorial and had the opportunity to represent Memorial at the SHAD Entrepreneurial Cup where they got third.
SHAD was a great experience for Rohel, he says, and he was open to telling fellow students about it, even challenging them to go on similar programs.
Saskatchewan students did not seem to feel confident going into Canada wide programs.
Moellenbeck says they did feel like they would not know as much as students from other provinces.
“In reality were all just students. We come from different backgrounds but we’re all just here to learn.”
Rohel saw the way Saskatchewan was represented with around seven students attending and Newfoundland having around 99 even with less of a population.
These kids did amazing things and their fellow students got to share in that, says Garinger.
Live Different, a group out of Hamilton, who did a fantastic job about making the world a more positive place, says Garinger.
Steve Klassen from Live Different brought three speakers, videos, and the band, Everglow from Newfoundland.
The band and presenters change for every stop along their cross Canada tour.
The theme for their presentation was ‘Own Your Story’ and that means owning everything in a person’s life. For Klassen,
“If you’re not about to be in a healthy place, then you’re not able to help the people around you either.”
Rose Valley High School’s own Prevost talked about doing what you want with you your life.
“It certainly said to students there is great potential in all of us and there’s great potential in all of us.”
To cap off the day, Horizon’s E-Journalism also presented their findings from the day in a video, find the video at http://bit.ly/1T1teLh.
