Student Government

Athletic:

These past months have been some busy and successful ones for the Athletic Council, along with STL athletics. After planning and executing a flawless Teacher vs Student Basketball Buy-In, the council was able to raise close to $1000 dollars, which was donated to aid Social Justice’s Sponsor A Child, and STL’s very own Guatemala trip. The game was a nail biter until the very last second, leaving the teachers just short of a win. The final score was a neck-in-neck 87 - 85 win for the students. Congratulations to all who participated, and a big thank you to all the students and teachers who attended and supported the event. Our very own STL swim team had a successful YRAA meet, with multiple swimmers advancing to OFSAA, including many Single Boys swimmers, and Multiple Team swimmers. Congratulations to all who advanced! Our swim team was also able to bring home YRAA banner two and three!

The Athletic Council is still busy continuing to plan upcoming events including the popular Health Awareness Week during the second week of March, as well as a new event being introduced called Body Break which will occur in our grade nine classes during the month of April. Make sure to participate in the Minute-to-Win-it Games in the main hall during Health Awareness Week to win a Booster Juice drink!

Written by: Parto Foroughi & Maevis Meadows

Chaplaincy:

St. Theresa of Lisieux’s Chaplaincy Council is filled with students who are dedicated to spreading the little way of their patron saint, by doing small acts of kindness with great love. As the Lenten season begins, they have many events planned that focus on giving and embracing our Catholic faith. On Ash Wednesday, these students went from class to class, conducting small services that blessed students and teachers with ashes. Furthermore, they are preparing for their next confession session, which will be held sometime in March. Students and teachers will be able to confess their sins to a priest, as they prepare for Easter. Finally, Chaplaincy council is currently preparing for their bi-yearly drive, called “Change for Jesus”. They will be collecting loose change from students, and all proceeds will go to ShareLife. Chaplaincy Council strives to continue spreading St. Theresa’s Little Way in any way they can!

Written by: Tobi Adesipo

Cub:

Cub Council is officially one semester into the 2019-2020 year, and anyone can agree that it has been an extremely productive first half into the school year.

First, Cub Council held their annual Open House event on December 6th, 2020 showcasing each extracurricular opportunity that remains open to all students to join. The event was a huge success, encouraging students school-wide to become more involved with the various clubs and committees STL has to offer.

Next, Cub Council further pushed forth the Christmas Spirit by running a Christmas Card booth in the main hall. Students of all grades were invited to decorate and design cards for long-term care patients at the Mackenzie Health Hospital in Richmond Hill. The cards were delivered just in time for Christmas, thereby cheering up the patients in anticipation of the exciting holiday season!

Lastly, Cub Council conducted their annual exam preparation workshop for the grade nine students. Cub Council executives presented an in-depth, detailed, and informative seminar that contained all the tips, tricks, and facts that have been observed to make exam writing much less stressful. The event was a success, as grade nine students left the workshop more prepared to take on their very first high school exams.

Overall, Cub Council has had an astounding first half of the school year, and they are keen on making the rest of the year just as marvellous, as they have so many more great ideas in store!

Written by: Jennifer Serbanescu; Edited by: Nethmi Illamperuma

Diversity & Equity:

Diversity and Equity has had a busy few months, conducting some events while planning for even more. Christmas Around the World was celebrated during December, where students had the chance to participate in events and games to understand how other countries celebrate Christmas. D and E’s next big event is Cultralicious, an evening of cultural entertainment and food that will turn the halls and gyms of STL into a festival where one can get a taste of the world! Students are encouraged to sign up now to run a booth or perform in the cultural talent show. Stay tuned for all the exciting things coming to STL from Diversity and Equity Council!

Written by: Sherry Yang

Environmental:

Environmental Council has had a very successful 2019-2020 year so far. Last year, we became a certified Eco-School for the first time in the past 4 years, receiving Silver Certification. In October, we hosted our annual Recycling Awareness Week, or RAW! To promote the concepts of recycling, reducing, and reusing to our school community, our council hosted games at lunch, like Eco Ball, Trash Toss, and a Kahoot, and we showed informational videos. We also held Park Cleanup after school to pick up trash around our school. It was a great success, and we hope to continue to build and improve the event next year. In December, Enviro ran another annual event, Christmas Movie Night. To celebrate the season, and raise environmental awareness, we invited students to build gingerbread houses, play some trivia games, sing karaoke to our favourite carols, and watch not one, but two classic Christmas movies. In January, we ran our first new event, Lights Off Day. In order to save energy, and remind our school community to turn lights off when they're not in use, we challenged all classes to turn their lights off for just fourth period. It was awesome to see so many students and teachers taking part in this event.

While the closing of schools has cancelled our Natural Living Week and Earth Week spring events, we are continuing to spread our message of environmental stewardship by providing weekly sustainability tips on our school social media. Whatever happens in the future, STL can count on Environmental Council to work hard to ensure a clean, green, and pristine school environment.

Intramural:

As a council of sports-loving, friendly, and enthusiastic leaders, we continue to dedicate ourselves to promoting inclusivity within the STL community through sports.

During the month of February and March, we held our Intramural Week dedicated to supporting 360kids and the March break mission trip to Guatemala. Despite losing 2 days of the week to inclement weather, we were still able to collect many items from our Sports Equipment Drive which included balls from a variety of sports, hockey equipment, shoes, and clothing. We are so happy that many STL students took the initiative to donate to those who are less fortunate and may not have the same access to such sports equipment. The week featured different activities each day. Our biggest event, the dodgeball drop-in, was a huge success with over 70 students participating. Even with the snow days, our council continued to push hard and thankfully with the participation of our STL students, our week-long event was an immense achievement.

Adding to this accomplishment, we ran our annual famous Basketball Drop-In which encouraged a healthy way to stay active along with a bonding moment for the students to come together in a friendly game of basketball.

Intramural Council would like to thank our teacher advisors, as well as the STL community for participating in this memorable experience, and we hope to continue to receive their support as the year goes on!!

Written by: Mark Colavita

Social Justice:

Social Justice Council’s winter season saw many successes, including our annual Operation St. Nick food drive, Valentine’s for Vets, and more community outreach at 360Kids. OSN took place on the second week of December with the slogan “We the Givers” to relate the Raptors’ championship achievement to STL’s own community achievement. Despite a slow start, the STL family came together on Thursday and Friday of that week to donate a total of over 12,000 items! Countless families in our community enjoyed a better Christmas season thanks to everyone’s generosity. We received a diverse range of non-perishable food items as well as various clothing items, all of which were donated to Scott Mission to be distributed to the less fortunate. Overall, Operation St. Nick was an excellent example of how the Little Way lives on at our school.

On the Tuesday and Wednesday preceding Valentine’s Day, our council gave students the opportunity to write Valentine’s cards for veterans. We collected hundreds of unique, thoughtful cards for Veteran’s Affairs Canada and could not be more impressed with STL’s participation. We also continued with our community outreach on February 7 at 360Kids, where some of our members volunteered to help clean the facility, serve food, and wash dishes. Lastly, we continued with our monthly awareness booths in January and February, educating students on the topics of mental health and access to education. Social Justice Council would like to thank the STL community for their amazing participation throughout the winter season.

Written by: Mark Maulucci and Jinal Rajawat

Spirit:

Spirit Council has had a busy and exciting couple of months! Right after our Battle of the Sexes event ended, planning for Christmas was underway. This year, to put our STL community in the holiday cheer, Spirit Council put on a number of exciting events. The annual door decorating event was a hit; fourth period classes all over the school decorated their classroom doors for the season. The creativity, effort, and thought put into each and every door was amazing. From chemistry themed Christmas trees to doors depicting the reason for the season, STL’s spirit really showed through this event. Spirit also held its annual Christmas Idol event, asking second period classes to make Christmas themed parodies to their favourite tunes. Our two finalists 一Ms. Tedesco’s class and Ms. DiBernardo’s class 一made music videos to their parodies. After the student body voted, Ms. Tedesco’s class won the popular vote with their Christmas themed “Old Town Road” and they were given a sweet treat. Christmas Spirit Week brought more fun-filled Christmas events with Christmas classics playing in the hallways between classes, games in the cafeteria and a Christmas sweater day. Students especially enjoyed the Christmas Karaoke in the cafeteria and the Christmas Mad-Gab event. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Next up was Valentine’s Day. This year, Spirit Council sold Lindor chocolate grams that students and staff could send to each other with a message attached. It was a pleasure to see the happy faces of the people receiving special rose-grams from their friends and put the school in the Valentine’s mood. Spirit Council also played love songs between classes and the “best-friend game” in the cafeteria during lunch. In the best friend game, two best friends would come up and try to guess things about each other like “what is your best friend's favourite movie” or “how many siblings does your best friend have?” It was an exciting and busy event that got the whole cafeteria involved.

Written by: Pe’er Krut

Student:

The past winter has been very busy for students at STL, so Student Council has worked to reward all their hard work! We entered the winter with STL’s very special Semi Formal for all grade 11 students. This year's theme was Enchanted Garden and the students enjoyed a night of dancing, eating, and dressing up with all their friends. To spread some December Christmas cheer, Student Council set up Santa’s Workshop where students had the chance to take photos with Santa and all of their friends. Continuing into the new semester, Student Council held their annual Valentine’s Day Guessing Contest where students were able to make their lucky guess to win a jar of Valentine’s Day candy. Delicious! To conclude the month of February, Student Council will be hard at work making delicious pancakes to hand out to the students to reward them for all their efforts over the exam period and into second semester. Winter has been a busy season for Student Council, but an even busier time for students. This is why Student Council wanted to show them its appreciation.

Written by: Julia Bullard