Student Government

Athletic:

There is no doubt that this past year has been quite challenging for students. However, as Athletic Council, we have been working hard to plan events that will resonate with students and reignite their STL spirit through this school year. Prior to the Christmas break, our council ran Sports Night at STL. We decided to bring back this event to better engage with our student body, especially those learning from home. As hundreds of students participated in this event, it became a complete success with 3 prize winners! Thank you to everyone who participated in this event with positivity and great sportsmanship. We look forward to your continued participation in upcoming AC events.

Athletic Council has some exciting events in store for the next couple months. These events include a collaboration with Intramural Council to help kick off the Winter Olympics. During this event, our council is hoping to broadcast Olympic sports within the Cafeteria. This is expected to take place during the second week of February. Students will have the opportunity to watch live games, receive updates, and cheer on their favourite Canadian athletes during lunch. Another fun component of this event includes a daily medal count for the top 5 countries. This will be created through a decorated chart and it will be posted in our main hall for students to view.

Health Awareness Week (HAW) includes a full week of health related videos that will take place in March. Starting the week of March 7th, we will be broadcasting different videos over the announcements such as exercises and health tips for students. To get students engaged in this event, Athletic Council is working to bring in Booster Juice sales during lunch for students to enjoy! But it doesn't stop there--we are also planning to introduce a motivational speaker to speak about the importance of health awareness.

Through these events, Athletic Council hopes to make this year memorable for students. We hope these events will help students feel more engaged during these unpredictable times and strengthen their STL Spirit!

Written by: Romelo Perera, Kaitlyn Anderson, and Sarah Bruno

Chaplaincy:

On November 1st, Members of the Chaplaincy Council and any other student volunteers decorated the main hall with cut-out poppies. The event proceeded in the same manner as in past years, with our setting up a table in the main hall with the necessary supplies. We also collected donations for poppies from students. This event commemorates and honours those who fought and died for our country on November 11.

In December, we had a few members go to St. Mary Immaculate Church to film part of the liturgy that was presented to the STL community. We also prepared and distributed wreaths and candles to each classroom for Advent. Our goal was to remind children that the true meaning of Christmas is found in the birth of Jesus, and that through Him, we can find comfort and pleasure if we put our confidence in Him. In addition, by exposing the students to the significance of the four Advent virtues, we can help them adopt a more positive attitude toward the Christmas season, despite all of the tragic circumstances.

Additionally, we are planning for our Lent/Easter event. We have created and published a short promotional video (3-4 minutes long) on Lent/Easter, which was uploaded on the STL and Chaplaincy Instagram sites. The event chairs and the Chaplaincy president filmed this video. On Ash Wednesday (March 2nd), they posted a video showing us recite the prayer that is traditionally spoken before the Distribution of Ashes. Alongside these videos, we had a huge board where students wrote something they are grateful for in their lives during their Lenten season on a sticky note. This was presented during lunch, on March 3-4. Our hope is to educate students on the significance of the Lenten season and offer them an understanding of how and why we regard Easter as the most important event in our faith. We also hope that our film will explain the importance of fasting during the Lenten season. The prayer video will be made so that students may stay spiritually engaged as the Lenten season begins.

Written by: Lydia Yoon

Cub:

Staying true to our mission, Cub Council has worked hard this year to welcome grade 9’s into the STL community by organizing the Cub Classroom and Christmas Card-making events. To accommodate the unique circumstances at school, we are planning a hybrid of virtual and in-person events for the new year to accommodate all students at STL.

This school year saw the inaugural kickoff of the Cub Classroom in the fall. Cub Classroom is a school-wide Google Classroom created to help students access information about the current club and council activities at STL. In an effort to help new students complete their service hour requirements, this classroom also serves as a great central outlet to find all the latest volunteer opportunities at STL and the greater community. Currently, Cub Classroom has nearly 300 members, which has been a great success for the students of STL.

Near the holidays, our council also ran a Christmas Card-making event, where students of all grades were encouraged to make Christmas cards for children and youth at the local non-profit, 360 Kids. In recognition of a growing student demand for community service hours during this pandemic, we incorporated the opportunity for students to gain volunteer hours for participating. In the end, our council raised over 100 Christmas cards in the span of just 4 days, thanks to the

generosity and compassion of STL’s student body! Thank you to everyone who helped spread positivity by doing small acts with great love.

Overall, Cub Council had a great end to 2021, but our quest for engaging students in the school community hasn’t ended there! Our council is planning a social Easter event, where grade 9 students will compete in interactive outdoor activities and win prizes. Additionally in the works are our much anticipated Leadership Workshop series in May. We hope to make Semester Two just as exciting with lots of great ideas in store. Stay tuned for our upcoming events by following our Instagram page: @cubcouncil.

Written by: Benjamin Lawrence, Saira Pascua, Tina Li, and Miriam Youssef

Diversity & Equity:

Hey STL! Last November, D&E hosted its most successful Where You At event! With students actively participating in our Google Form, we were able to collect almost 500 responses that granted us an opportunity to make an interactive map reflective of a large portion of our school community. This map can be found at the following link: https://bit.ly/3xwUVVi, where you can hover your mouse above different countries to see how many students have a background there, as well as utilize the legend for a general number. The buzz around Where You At was seen and heard throughout classrooms, as students were interested in knowing more about the backgrounds of their peers and discovering just how diverse our school is. We would like to thank all those who participated in the event, and hope that Where You At will continue to be a well-loved and successful event in the future!

Our council is working hard to bring forth the various cultures present in our school through our new Cultural Calendar Initiative. For the entirety of semester 2, students will be able to learn more about different celebrations and holidays from cultures around the globe, with many being celebrated by our very own students! In addition to Instagram posts and announcements, students will have access to a Google Form to input extra celebrations they know of that they would like to be acknowledged through this event. With this initiative, we hope to create a welcoming environment for all students!

This month, Black Heritage Month is back with a new theme: The Future Isn’t Far! With this theme in mind, each week of February, following the introductory week, will be dedicated to a specific topic, with week 2 looking at Black Canadian contributions in pop culture, week 3 diving into Black Canadian contributions in technology, politics, and inventions, and week 4 being a call to action. Throughout all four weeks, Rosie, a 16 year old Black student, will be our host and bring students through classroom activities and week-end recaps, giving students a chance to connect to the importance of Black Heritage Month through her. On the 28th, we would like to welcome Jeff Martin, a transformational speaker who has been using his platform to inspire people from all over the world in efforts to help others find their true potential.

With much more to come, the Diversity and Equity Council would like to thank STL

for their support and enthusiasm in showcasing the diverse spirit present in our school. Check out our Instagram page (@stldiversityandequity) for more information on all our current and upcoming events!

Written by: Sahej Saini, Michelle Wan

Environmental:

Since our transition back into in-person learning in September, STL’s Environmental Council has been working on a variety of initiatives that will educate and inform the students of the STL community. Before the Christmas break, we designed and created an informative display on the bulletin board outside the cafeteria about plastics in seas. Using recycled materials, our members presented students with an eye-catching and insightful collection of information that explained the negative effects of plastics in seas, as well as the efforts made by organizations such as Ocean Conservancy to remove these plastic products. In this way, students will already be aware of where their money is going during our upcoming Ocean Conservancy fundraiser. We encourage all members of the STL community to donate to this worthy cause!

STL’s Environmental Council is looking forward to bringing back our traditional events, while also preparing for new, innovative ideas with both online and offline accessibility. In the near future, we will be restarting our traditional recycling program, which will consist of google forms being sent out to teachers, reusable laminated “reminder” stickers, and our Friday distributions. We will also be beginning our Monday Tips initiative, which will take place on the STL and Enviro Council Instagram pages, and hopefully inspire and encourage students to live a more sustainable life. Finally, we look forward to working with STL’s new Sustainable Fashion Club to possibly produce STL’s first ever thrift sale and sustainable fashion event!

Enviro would like to extend a huge thank you to the entire STL community for their participation and support. As we enter the second semester of the school year, we hope that our initiatives will bring attention to the environmental issues we face today, while also providing unique solutions and ideas to educate students and create a brighter future for all. To find out more about our events, initiatives, and ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle, follow us on our Instagram page @stl.enviro!

Following St. Theresa of Lisieux’s little way, Enviro will continue to serve our school community by inspiring others to make small, environmentally-friendly changes in their lives. Together, our actions can create a significant impact!

Written by: Savita Perera, Yoojin Han (edited)

Intramural:

STL’s competitive and fun spirit was let loose in November, when our council hosted a Jr. Dodgeball Drop-In. This is what our council is all about, bringing everyone together through inclusive, friendly competition! The highly-anticipated atmosphere was vibrant and energetic, with students finally being able to play some sports alongside their peers after a long and stressful lockdown. The event was a huge success, as our play-off winners took home cafeteria cookies after gaining the most points in a round-robin tournament. Thank you to all of the participants for coming out and contributing to the excitement of our first event of the year. Everyone had a great time and we hope to bring this type of energy into our next event!

Our council is committed to continuing hosting quality events for the STL community to enjoy. After receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback with the Jr. Dodgeball Drop-In, a repeat of the event could be soon coming around the corner – but for seniors! On top of that, with the 2022 Winter Olympics, Intramural hoped to collaborate with Athletic council to introduce exciting Olympic-themed initiatives. Most importantly, we all cheered on the Canadian National Team to rack up the medals!

Make sure to stay updated with our upcoming events!

Instagram: @stl_intramural_council

Written by: Victoria Pergola, Apollo Cezar, Robert Zhang, and Maya Korvat

Social Justice:

When we think of Christmas, we usually imagine a holiday spent with loved ones while surrounded by gifts, food and decorations. At the same time, however, there are countless people in our community who do not even have access to the basic necessities in order to survive. WE can change that.⁣

⁣ 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥’𝐬 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐭. 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 (𝐎𝐒𝐍) 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫! Together with everyone's help, we donated about 5000 items to local charities such as 360 Kids and Good Shepherd. In past years, our school has helped sustain the inventory of these charitable organizations for an entire YEAR! Thanks to the generosity of our community this year, we were also able to donate $3000 to the Metis Council of Ontario for Indigenous families in need. A special thank you to everyone who contributed to putting a smile on many faces and making this Christmas a special one even for the less fortunate.

⁣

As our patron saint, St. Theresa of Lisieux said, “Do the little things with extraordinary love.” Let’s come together and be the little way!⁣

Social Justice Council

Teacher Advisors: Mr. Saggese & Ms. Talotta

Student President: Fatima Varela

Student VP: Callista Tan

PR: Connie Xie

Council Members: Kiana Hosseini, Tara Lee, Rylie De Ala, Jolie Nakhla, Iieesha Wijayaratna, Joy Morgan, Celine Kang, Bremmi Theepan, Niki Alizadeh Saghati, Amber Dhall, Michael Wang

Spirit:

Hey STL, it's Spirit Council here! This past semester we’ve hosted many fun events! This included the Halloween Costume Contest, the Pumpkin Carving Contest, where we were able to see so many creative pumpkins and costume! We also held our annual Christmas Spirit Week and Karaoke! We were able to hear many students sing their favorite Christmas songs individually or in groups! We hosted our Valentine's Day event! We had a colour-themed civvies day where students wore Valentine's Day colours. That’s not all! Spirit week is coming back with a lot of fun themes and activities for each day, including exciting games and contests, such as twin Tuesday. Plus, Spirit Council cannot wait to bring to STL our Battle of the Grades and so much more! Spirit council has been working extra hard to bring some enthusiasm back into the school after a long year of virtual learning, and we are SO excited to share what we have in store! We would like to thank all students for their participation in our events. We look forward to hosting more events this school year. Keep up the spirit STL!

Written by: Spirit Council

Student:

This Christmas, STL’s Student Council held their first ST’ELF on The Shelf event. A traveling elf came to visit our wonderful school community during the last week of classes in December to help spread Christmas joy and Christmas spirit. However, shortly after he arrived at the school, he went into hiding. Student reports have said that he was spotted in the library, the Student Government board, the trophy case, the social science work room, and the audio visual booth above in the cafeteria. Student Council sincerely thanks all those who helped look for the elf, letting us know that he was out of harm's way. In order to reward those who helped, we will be selecting winners from a raffle of those who submitted photos with the elf and give them $10 cafeteria cookie vouchers! Those winners will be announced at the beginning of semester 2! Shortly after Christmas break began, Student Council received an email from the elf, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, also adding that he is sure to return next year! The elf didn’t neglect to mention that he took a couple of cafeteria cookies and brought them back to the North Pole to share with Santa and the other elves.

Written by: Domenic Di Stasi & Yash Khandelwal