Peggy Revell
Thousands from across the province applied, but St. Francis’ student Sydnee McLeod was chosen as one of 60 students to advise the education minister about issues within the provincial school system.
The Grade 7 student recently was selected to sit on the Minister’s Student Advisory Council—made up of students ranging from Grades 7-12 across the province from both the English and French systems, as well as public and Catholic boards.
“I just thought ‘maybe I’ll try it and see what happens,’” McLeod recalled about first applying for the committee.
And when she received the phone call saying she had been chosen, it was an exciting moment.
“I was wondering ‘why me?’ because there’s so many people in Ontario,” she admitted. “But I always want to learn more and just open my horizons, so I was excited for it.
“And it was a great feeling because I’ve never been chosen for anything special.”
“She should be very proud of herself, and we’re very proud of her,” said St. Francis principal Teresa Dennis, noting this appointment follows the school receiving “Speak Up” grants—another initiative from the Ministry of Education to increase student involvement—which has allowed its student council to organize ongoing program to improve school spirit and community.
“I’m just so proud of her,” stressed Dennis. “Because when all of [the paperwork] comes to the school and we give it out, there’s so many initiatives, and both with the ‘Speak Up’ grant and the ‘Student Voice,’ they both were successful.
“It’s very exciting.”
McLeod already flew to Toronto last week for the first of several of the committee’s meetings.
“I’ve never been to Toronto, it was exciting being there,” she enthused. “Toronto was very different from Fort Frances—very big, lots of shops and malls, and different people from all around the world.”
Besides meeting Education minister Kathleen Wynne, the trip also gave McLeod a chance to meet the other students on the committee.
“I expected it to be very professional, but there was a lot of fun and friendly people, and everyone got into an open chat and talked,” she recalled.
Students spent this first day going through a list of topics they had selected that mattered to them—a wide range of issues from school safety to “harder topics” like suicide, McLeod explained.
“For some people, school safety was more of an issue,” she noted. “This one girl, her name was Emily and she’s from a French school, it wasn’t very safe because there were no windows in her school and there’s thick walls and she was concerned about that, so we talked about that and how to make it better.”
McLeod said there were so many different people from different places.
“Some were Grade 12s, so it was different for me because I’m a Grade 7 to hang with a Grade 12, but they made me feel
included, too.
“Everyone was one big group . . . and I made some good friends.”
Meanwhile, there are plans underway back at St. Francis to give McLeod the chance to speak with fellow students about what she’s doing, noted Dennis.
“I’ve been talking a bit with my friends, and listening to students if they’ve got complaints, or what they think could improve,” she explained.
One thing McLeod hopes to bring up at future meetings is reducing class sizes.
“I feel like I’m taking on something very big because I’m representing this whole school,” she admitted.
“I’d like to get everyone’s opinion on what I should bring to the next meeting because it’s hard for everyone to give their own little voice, so I’m speaking for everyone in my school,” she added.
