Blackville Student Council Members Attend National Leadership Conference in British Columbia

Emma Hallihan and Jorja Donovan

This year, Jorja Donovan (Gr. 10), Emma Hallihan (Gr. 10), and Emma Sturgeon (Gr. 11) of the High School Student Council attended the Canadian Student Leadership Conference in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Recently we reached out to Jorja D. and Emma H. to reflect on their trip.

Conference Location,  Theme and Purpose

Our trip was called the Canadian Student Leadership conference, or CSLC for short. It was in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The basic theme was empowering your inner resources.

The purpose of our trip was to improve our leadership skills and bring back skills and information to our fellow student council members to help better our school, and the events we hold.


Learning Experience

I learned that in order to be a good leader you need to inspire others. You need to be including of everyone when planning events for your school so you will get more participation.

 I learned that getting your school involved isn't as hard as it seems, and if you do it right getting everyone involved with school is simple.


Additional Activities

We went to a pre-conference in Vancouver. During our time in Vancouver we went to Whistler and went up the mountain on a gondola. We went from peak to peak as well. We also went to Capilano suspension bridge. It was a lot of fun.

Trip Highlights

I think the best part of my trip was meeting all these new people and opening my mind to making new friends. Also, reconnecting with old friends I have previously met was another highlight. But most of all I enjoyed staying with my billet family.

The best part of my trip was getting to meet all different people around the country, going to live with a billet family, and the pre-conference 

Re-living the Experience 

I would do it again in a heartbeat because it really was such a great experience. I met tons of new people and learned lots of new things.

I think I would do it again because it was something you don’t get to experience very often, especially with your friends, and I learned a lot. 

Important Take Home Points

Some things I took away from the conference is that in order to lead, people need to want to follow. You need to be accepting of everyone, and include everyone in anything the Student Council is going to plan for the school.

As well, something I learned is that you can't jump right into all different activities because not everyone wants to participate in things so you have to start with small and easy things for your school to do. Then work your way up to big activities so in the end you can have more people participating.