Local students gain lifelong experience

Times Reporter

 

Travelling across the country to meet people who have the same interests as you can promote lifelong friendships and enhance learning experiences. 

This is something five Strathmore High School, SHS, students were most excited about when speaking about their separate experiences with Encounters with Canada.  

This year SHS will send a total of nine students on the weeklong trip to one of Canada’s largest youth forums in Ottawa.

“They were nominated because they have all achieved a mark, last year we’re talking about of course, of 80 per cent or greater in Social Studies 10. So they were nominated by their teacher and then a teacher from another subject also had to agree to the nomination,” said Rob Pirie, a SHS social studies teacher. 

“I think what it does, to me it exposes them to a broader range of opportunities throughout the country. I think what they really are saying when they say they made friends, they mean like-minded people who are enthusiastic about education, about learning about Canada and the government.”

“Each week is themed, so Jenna (Gigantelli) and I went to medicine and health, so then there was workshops based on medicine and health and every week does a cultural activity,” said Morgan Janzen.

Each of the students can pick a different week to attend, learning about medicine and health, arts and culture, law, science and technology and a variety of other topics. 

“I think that seeing as how we all picked a week that we had an interest in the topic, that’s going to help us later on because we’re going to remember what we learned when we went there,” said Gigantelli. 

“That will help us later on because if we get into that field we’ll always remember back to the things that they taught us and the people that we met.” 

“It was so cool to find out different things of how each province is different. Like you think Canada is just all the same but each province is unique,” said Janzen.

Keean Bexte and Robert Jacobs attended during the science and technology week.    

“I want to be a microbiologist when I grow up. It was interesting, I like science,” said Bexte, laughing. 

Jacobs said he was interested in learning more about the fields to help him potentially pick a future career. 

“It gives you an interest in stuff. I don’t think it really teaches you really about different subjects and separate classes but it gets you interested in stuff you like,” said Bexte.

Tynan Nelson attended the sports and fitness week, which he said he went to just for fun. All five agreed that making friends was one of the things that stand out the most to them. Bexte said it was tough at the end, though, having to say goodbye. Each had a fond memory to come back with, and a few of them plan to return to our nation’s capital in the future.