THE student leadership council of North Vancouver's Sutherland secondary was one of three B.C. school groups recognized by the B.C. Council for International Cooperation as leaders in civic and global engagement.
According to a written statement, the B.C. Council highlighted the groups through videos and written profiles on its website (bccic.ca/IDW2012), as part of International Development Week, Feb. 5-11.
The annual week is intended to highlight the work of Canada's development community and this year's theme was We Make a Difference, with emphasis on empowering women and girls. The goal was to inspire Canadians of all ages to act on local and global issues of social justice. The Government of Canada provides funding for the initiative through the Canadian International Development Agency.
Sutherland's student leadership council is dedicated to inspiring their community to take global responsibility personally. They're making a difference in the empowerment of women and girls in Nepal by raising funds to support a school where young women receive vocational training while working hard to rouse their peers to become leaders of social change. Students organize year-round fundraising and awareness campaigns in both their school and wider community.
Over the past six years their efforts have raised more than $10,000 for non-profit organizations working in Nepal, including the Vancouver-based Trans-Himalayan Aid Society and the Nepal Library Foundation. They are currently working to fund a social justice course that would see Sutherland students travel to Nepal to learn alongside students studying at the school, which they've helped fund.
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West Vancouver resident Lynne Quarmby, a Simon Fraser University cell biologist, spoke to 30 top-flight American high school science students and their teachers Feb. 16 at the American Junior Academy of Science's (AJAS) annual conference held at SFU's Burnaby campus.
According to a press release, the conference dovetails every year with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference, which was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Feb. 16-20. The AAAS is the publisher of the journal Science and is the world's largest scientific organization bringing together scientists, policy-makers and the public to advance science and science education.
The AJAS is touted as the United States' only honour society recognizing and inducting American high school students producing outstanding scientific research as lifetime fellows. AJAS delegates take advantage of the two conferences' coincidence to tour local science institutions, share their research and attend the larger conference's sessions.
In her speech, Quarmby discussed the importance of basic research and next-generation researchers being able to balance human curiosity and creativity with technological advancement.
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North Vancouver resident Lelia Kostiuk, 10, has been accepted into Ecole Supérieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower in Mougins, France, an internationally known pre-professional dance school, for September. She will be the only Canadian in the school at that time.
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On March 2, students at Balmoral junior secondary participated in the 24 Hour Fast, which sees participants collect pledges and fast for a day to learn about poverty and hunger around the world. Students raised more than $5,000, which will be put towards building a school in Haiti through Free the Children.
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North Vancouver's Gibbard Hoffart Financial Group and Karen Gibbard were recently named mortgage brokerage company of the year and mortgage broker of the year, respectively, in the Canadian Real Estate Wealth magazine's Reader's Choice Awards.
Both are also finalists in the Canadian Mortgage Awards' mortgage brokerage company of the year and mortgage broker of the year categories.
The winners will be announced in June.
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