Rosetown recently played host to the Sun West Leadership Seminar back on October 5th, as after two years the Sun West Student Leadership Program finally returned with live events.

The past two years featured online meetings and conferences, as returning back in-person this year, the students (especially the veterans) who had weathered the pandemic were so very happy to finally see each other in person once again.

So too were their advisors Vanessa Lewis and Kristin Sampson, as any interested Sun West student in Grades 8-12 are able to attend the Student Leadership Seminar.

47 students from 14 Sun West schools took the opportunity that saw them become introduced to the Sun West Student Leadership Program, and then students participated in leadership skills and team building sessions.

"If they like what they see, they can then apply to become part of the Student Leadership Program for the 2022-23 school year," stated the release, "Members of the program will organize the annual Sun West Student Leadership Conference or be part of the Youth Consultation Group who brings students views and ideas to the Sun West Board of Education."

Looking at the day's events, highlights included a presentation from four veteran members of the Student Leadership Program. Macy Norrish from Loreburn Central School, Cheyenne Jans from Elrose Composite School, Jill Dobbin of Kindersley Composite School, and Emma Torrens of Kindersley Composite School explained to the students the roles and responsibilities of being part of the program.

Other members of previous years’ teams also made an appearance to demonstrate and lead motivational activities such as “Hot-to-Go” and the “Party is Over Here". The Sun West release also shows students listened to Farrah Low, a Grade 11 student from Davidson, who talked about her experience creating the student leadership podcast “The Sunny Side.”

The plan is to have the podcast become a part of the Sun West Student Leadership Program in the future, and other things students also reviewed were the Provincial Education Plan. This was in order to provide their feedback that will be provided to the Provincial Education Plan Implementation Team, that includes all Saskatchewan school divisions as well as numerous other education stakeholders.

The group in Rosetown would use this background information as they got a chance to show their leadership potential.

After being divided up into groups with most students not knowing anyone else in the new setting, group members worked together to design and deliver a plan for an exciting youth conference. As stated in the release, this included finding speakers, along with ideas for motivational activities, themes, songs and everything else that makes a great conference. After that, each group presented their plan to everyone including leading them in motivational activities and team introductions.

"The students blew their advisors away with their creativity and amazing ideas! Their ability to work together with people they had just met and develop powerful ideas that they explained to their peers in fun and engaging ways was truly a sight to behold."

The uber successful day made it clear that these students have the potential to make a positive difference for themselves, their schools, their communities and school division as a whole. They look forward to seeing (most of) them again very soon as they make 2022-23 an incredible year!