Student Government

Presidents' Council:

Navigating the many responsibilities of a council president is never an easy task, but it became increasingly difficult this year due to the pandemic. In spite of this, Student Government's 9 presidents faced the challenges they met head-on. Alongside their council members, they planned amazing online events for all members of the STL community. Together, they proved that no matter what difficulties we face, the spirit, heart, and determination of the STL Lions remain strong!

Throughout the school year, STL Student Government optimized the resources accessible to them with the goal of becoming more united with the student body. Through Instagram, the STL App, Google Meet, and Google Classroom, STL’s 9 councils found new, strategic ways to connect to students with different, yet engaging events! Each council received great participation throughout the year, making the STL virtual community even more tight-knit.

This unprecedented year could not have experienced its undeniable success without the help of each and every participant, teacher, or member. While the advisors worked vigorously to approve new events, the STL community continued to show their dedication and encouragement. The 9 presidents of Student Government cannot express their gratitude enough for the endless support, and they can’t wait to see what the future holds. Thank you STL!

Written By: Nethmi Illamperuma, Tobi Adesipo and Mikaela Dai

Athletic Council:

This year the Athletic Council wanted to shed light on the importance of healthy eating and physical activity. That being said, our goal was to put a twist on new ways students can create better habits or get outside and appreciate the environment around us. Health Awareness Day shares numerous facts, statistics, or methods, which assist in creating a healthy daily routine. This is imperative for students as COVID-19 puts a damper on all of our lives, making us forget what healthy and active living is all about. Our council wanted to remind everyone that we cannot ignore our health and we have to eat better, stay more active, and look into new ways to create a balanced lifestyle. This gives insight on how to prevent future health problems, or how to get out of unhealthy patterns which we may obtain. We did this event through Instagram stories, with four topics such as, this or that, trivia, “let us know down below,” and open responses.

The Nature Photo Walk was a collaboration with STL’s Environmental Council. While it not only showed the importance of physical activity, it brought a new appreciation for the nature around us. Students took pictures of the environment, whilst on their walk, and submitted their route to be entered in a raffle. Tina Li had the longest distance overall and everyone who participated submitted amazing photos of the nature around them. Even though we are in a pandemic, healthy and active living is more important now, than ever. Athletic council helped our students achieve these goals.

Written By: Sara Arcuri and Mikaela Dai

Chaplaincy Council:

Following their successful 2-month-long event for Easter, Chaplaincy Council approached the Summer months with two more novel plans. From May 17th to May 21st, they held their annual charity drive, Change for Jesus, but with a twist! Chaplaincy collected virtual cards with messages of gratitude and support to seniors and essential workers such as police officers, health care officials, and grocery store workers. The 35 beautiful cards which were written by STL students are currently being sent to their respective recipients. Chap would like to thank STL for showing the Little Way by spreading some well-needed kindness and love!

For their final event of the school year, Chaplaincy will be hosting a new event called Faith Wednesdays! Every Wednesday in June, teachers will begin their classes with a prayer and a song that have been organized by the council members. Chap hopes that this small event will be a positive way to start the day and serve as an opportunity for members of the STL community to grow a deeper connection with their faith through music.

Despite the current circumstances, Chaplaincy Council remained resilient and worked tirelessly over the last 10 months to plan engaging and uplifting events for the students and staff at STL. We would like to thank our council members for all of their dedication, our advisors—Ms. Mariadasan and Mr. Sorrentino—for their guidance, and all of STL for their participation this year. We wish our graduating council members the best of luck in their future endeavours and hold excitement in our hearts as we anticipate what next year’s Chaplaincy Council will accomplish. Have a great summer STL and God bless!

Written By: Lydia Yoon and Tobi Adesipo

Cub Council:

While the 2020-2021 school year is coming to a close, Cub Council has continued to strive to engage students within the STL community in the comfort of their homes! By means of Instagram and the STL App, Cub Council was able to attract a grand total of 300+ participants for their 3-day Leadership Workshop Series event. This event was created to help grade nine students, alongside the entire STL student body, discover the leadership qualities within themselves and find future opportunities that they are interested in and passionate about.

In addition to the success of this event, Cub Council continued with re-posting their STL App and Website Promotional Instagram post, advocating for school resources accessible for students. As well, Cub Council collaborated with Spirit Council with a new Virtual Easter Scavenger Hunt event, where students were able to follow clues via Instagram, and explore the vast network of STL Instagram accounts! Cub Council will be concluding the school year with their Grade 9 Lottery, which is a year-round event tracking Grade 9 student involvement within their school community for a chance to win great prizes at the end of the school year!

Overall, we would like to thank the hard work of all Cub Council members as well as Ms. Perciballi and Ms. Spano, our wonderful and dedicated staff advisors. Their devotion, enthusiasm, and continued efforts have allowed Cub Council to be successful in all of its endeavors this year, contributing to the heart and spirit of STL when students needed it most. We are beyond excited for what the future holds for Cub Council, and continue to strive to find ways to serve our Grade 9s and the greater community!

Written By: Jennifer Serbanescu and Nethmi Illamperuma

Diversity and Equity Council:

Over May, Diversity and Equity Council celebrated the cultural backgrounds of students across STL. Focusing on one region of the Earth per week, D&E shared trivia, music, delicious recipes and immigration stories. The first week focused on Asia, with a special interview from Matthew’s grandfather, who immigrated from Hong Kong in the 1990s. Week two covered the cultures of Central and South America, where Gabrielle’s father shared his experience immigrating from the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies. In week 3, while exploring the cultures of Africa and the Middle East, Leya shared her own experience of immigrating from Egypt at a young age. In the last week D&E focused on Europe; staff advisor Ms. Buffa interviewed her mother about the experience of moving to Canada from Italy. These intergenerational immigration experiences show that the strength of STL, and Canada at large, lies in the rich threads of culture woven into the fabric of society. It is also an elegant way to wrap up a year of council events. We wish graduating students Sherry Yang, Natalie Messih, Renee Wu, Olivia Zhou, Alyssa Kong, Tom Overall, Mathew Estafanous, Matthew Loe, and Leya Tawfik success and happiness as they pursue their post-secondary endeavours. Furthermore, we would like to congratulate the newly elected D&E president, Sahej Saini, and wish her the best of luck as she leads this council into the future.

Environmental Council:

Though the COVID-19 pandemic brought several unfortunate obstacles, STL’s Environmental Council continued to spread its honourable message of protecting the planet and encouraging the STL community to live sustainable lifestyles. Since the beginning of February, we have been posting Enviro tips every Monday on Enviro and STL’s Instagram page to inspire and support students on their path towards sustainable living. These tips include water and energy conservation, reusing and properly disposing masks during COVID-19, and much more! A new event that Enviro brought this year was Enviro Week which took place from April 19th to the 23rd. The entire week was dedicated to engaging and assisting students in performing and understanding eco-friendly practices. Between creating Enviro memes, learning about myths and facts about climate change, and an environmental Jeopardy tournament, it was an educational week filled with fun and joy!

Enviro would also like to extend a huge, heartfelt thank you to the STL community for its support throughout the past year. Switching to an online platform was not easy, but the endless encouragement and enthusiasm we received made everything worth it. We hope that this year’s Enviro Council was able to help the St. Theresa of Lisieux school community learn how to live more sustainably during the pandemic, as well as educate about the environmental issues that our earth faces. Keep up the enthusiasm STL, and by following St. Theresa’s Little Way of doing ordinary things with extraordinary love, we are on our way to creating a beautiful and healthy Earth for all future generations to come!

Written By: Neika Zawar and Renée Colucci

Intramural Council:

As a council of sports-loving, friendly, and enthusiastic leaders, we continue to dedicate ourselves to promoting inclusivity within the STL community through sports. Although this year was vastly different than previous years, we held many new events that the STL community enjoyed. During the year we hosted several sports related Kahoots. Our virtual Kahoots gave students the opportunity to escape from the stresses of life and participate in a fun activity with their friends. In addition, our “Top 10 Highlights” allowed students to showcase their athletic talents as they competed for the top spot. Students were to submit a video of a personal highlight they accomplished in a particular sport. Another new event was our “Exercise Challenge.” The exercise challenge was a great success as we were amazed by the strength of the STL community. This was a four week challenge consisting of a different exercise every week. At the end of the week, the male and female that completed the most reps for that week’s challenge won a prize.

Intramural Council would like to thank our teacher advisors, as well as the STL community for participating in this memorable experience. Intramural Council is looking forward to once again hosting our famous drop-ins from previous years once it is safe to do so! We hope to have the continued support from the teacher advisors and the STL community as we segway into our next school year!

Written By: Ethan Morelli

Social Justice Council:

During the month of April, STL’s Social Justice Council ran Peace Days, a yearly event which seeks to promote peace and unity around our world through raising awareness about global issues. For three days, Social Justice Council posted a series of educational infographics regarding current local and global injustices. The topics included: racial discrimination, indigenous rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender inequality. Additionally, students were encouraged to share their opinions on these matters focusing on how we can come together as a global community to help combat these injustices. This event was a success and we received many responses from students about how we can bring about change in the world!

As a result of this hectic year, Social Justice Council offered a new event for students to learn about important issues around the world. On a bi-weekly basis, Social Justice Council members have been posting “Weekly World Updates” to bring about discussion around social justice topics and explain how we, as a community, can help those who face these issues. The event began with the discussion of the topic of Domestic Violence and continued by discussing other issues like Immigration Detention Centres and Access to Healthcare around the world. We are hoping to continue this event and aim to help the STL student body understand more about these important issues, so we can bring forward change through “the little way” and St. Theresa of Lisieux's extraordinary love!

We would like to thank our Social Justice Council members along with Ms. D’Elia, our advisor, for their consistent dedication, passion, and efforts in making a positive contribution this year. Their hard work, thoughtful contributions, and time dedicated to preparing our events have brought great success for Social Justice Council, despite the challenging circumstances. We wish the Grade 12 members the best in their future endeavours and are excited to see Social Justice Council’s ideas materialize for the new year!

Written by: Brandon Lac, Sabrina Arcuri and Samantha Tobia

Spirit Council:

The month of May brought Spirit council’s annual “Spirit Week” again! The week kicked off with My Wish Monday, where students were asked on Instagram “what they look forward to doing after quarantine is over”. Responses included many hopeful thoughts and wishes for the future. Next, Spirit hosted “Twin Tuesday”. Pairs of friends dressed up in similar outfits and showed off their style. After, there was “Wacky Wednesday”. Students were invited to dress up during class with crazy hats, outfits, or hair. Next, Spirit hosted “Trivia Thursday”. Students joined a virtual Kahoot and answered trivia about their favourite popular TV shows they have been watching during quarantine. Our last event of the week was Fan Friday. Students changed their google meet icons to represent their favourite singer, actor, Disney character, or sports team. Spirit council looks forward to hosting music Fridays in June where a Spotify summer playlist will be shared via Instagram. As the year comes to a close, Spirit council is extremely grateful for the opportunities to boost student morale in the STL community during this unprecedented time. We would like to thank the efforts and dedication of the council’s graduating members: Alan, Alenka, Alia, Andrei, Brian, Isabella, Ivan, Lauren, Laurie, and Sara. Spirit would also like to thank Mrs. Cammalleri and Mrs. Meschino for their time to answer questions, review proposals, and guide us to the success we have achieved in our various events. Spirit wishes everyone a fun, safe, and relaxing summer break. We hope to see everyone virtually or in person in the near future!

Written By: Alia Ginevra

Student Council:

June 2021 was an exciting month for STL as Student Council held its first-ever Student Appreciation Month, an event that put our student body at the centre of attention! The activities that were held for this event were Humans of STL, a Time Capsule, Hobby Board, the famous Student Choice Awards, and a raffle. For this year’s Humans of STL, we asked student leaders from our school various questions about their hopes and ambitions, which were then showcased on the STL Instagram account. The second event of the month was STL’s first-ever time capsule, the contents of which were put together by the student body. This Time Capsule will be opened in 2031. The third event that Student Council ran was a virtual Hobby Board, which allowed the student body to showcase their favourite hobbies, new or old! The fourth event of Student Appreciation Month was the Student Choice Awards, in which students voted on the singers, songwriters, movies, songs, and TV shows they liked the best. To conclude Student Appreciation Month, Student Council held an e-gift card raffle, where they gave away prizes to the participants of the Student Appreciation Month events! It has been a long year of online school, so Student Council hopes that this event allowed STL students to relax and have fun.

We would like to extend a big thank you to the entire Student Council for their hard work, and to our teacher advisors, Ms. Tassone and Ms. Florio, for all of their support throughout such an unexpected year. We wish Yash Khandelwal, our new president, and all returning/new council members the best of luck as they embark on their journey into a new council year. We hope that everyone has a wonderful and relaxing summer; you deserve it!

Written By: Domenic Di Stasi and Beatrice Pinsky