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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 19 ,2 01 8 | 32 University-bound Oak- ville student Dasha Metropol- itansky is master of the bal- ancing act. In her Grade 12 year at White Oaks Second- ary School she was a Halton District School Board student trustee and president of the Ontario Student Trustees' As- sociation (OSTA-AECO), en- rolled in the rigorous Interna- tional Baccalaureate pro- gram and completing essays and standardized testing to apply to Ivy League schools around the world - all while keeping her marks up. Now on summer break with her ticket to Harvard University in hand, she says she still gets asked how she managed her workload, and explains that it all comes down to one factor: loving what she does. "I think that there's more pressure now than ever for students to succeed," she said. She believes that, generally, students want to excel aca- demically, do what they love and make a difference by helping others, but believe it is impossible to achieve all three. "I feel like it's a lot easier to manage school work with the other things that you're doing when you are doing some- thing that you love ... I want to share my experience to show how it's possible to do all of those things and to inspire more young people to reach their full potential." Metropolitansky spear- headed a host of initiatives during her two years in stu- dent government and in her roles within OSTA-AECO, in- cluding getting student re- presentation on a number of board-level committees and transforming the student election process, but one of the achievements she is most widely known for is working with student trustees across Ontario to create a "student platform" of 16 government recommendations that in- clude a strong focus on men- tal health and suicide preven- tion. "It's the first major plat- form that students in this province - maybe even in Can- ada - have put together to say to the government, here are policy recommendations that you need to implement in your election platforms, par- ticularly for education, and it had a very significant impact in terms of making mental health a priority," she said. "I'm really proud of all the work that went into making that report and all the work we put into making sure the voices of students were heard." Metropolitansky says her main goal in getting involved with student government was to represent a variety of stu- dent voices and to make sure their individual opinions and concerns were heard. Prior to her involvement as a student trustee, she spent years com- peting as a debater on Cana- da's national team, travelling to national and international competitions, and the skills she acquired there propelled her into her next role. She says she realized she could speak confidently and had a knack for persuasion, but she wanted to hone her skills and really make a differ- ence. "I really love debate; I love it because it's intellectually stimulating ... but I think what it made me realize is when you do debate, you can give the most incredible speech in the world, but there really is no impact to the speech," she said. "I think the transition to student government was real- ly important for me because I wanted to use the skills I had actually learned in debate to impact things, particularly for students." At her final board of trust- ees meeting on June 20, Met- ropolitansky received the Jack A. MacDonald Award of Merit for a sound academic record and outstanding com- munity service and leader- ship. She says she hopes future student trustees continue building upon some of the leg- acies being left behind, but al- so that they continue to put forward projects that they themselves are passionate about. COMMUNITY Outgoing HDSB student trustee Dasha Metropolitansky shares her keys for success VERONICA APPIA vappia@metroland.com Dasha Metropolitansky received the The Jack A. MacDonald Award of Merit at the board of trustees meeting on June 20. From left to right (back row): Leah Reynolds, Tracey Ehl Harrison, Joanna Oliver, Ann Harvey Hope, Kim Graves, Stuart Miller, Donna Danielli, Amy Collard, Richelle Papin, Jeanne Gray, Andréa Grebenc. Front row: Kelly Amos, Dasha Metropolitansky and White Oaks principal John Stieva. Veronica Appia/Metroland 16 Y INTERNATIONAL CENTRE 6900 AIRPORT RD DOORS OPEN 11 AM - 6:30 PM FASHION SHOWS 1.30 & 4.30 PM 416.716.5793 / 416.876.9779 SEPT 16SUNDA Y S AV E T H E D AT E 2 1 S T A N N U A L SHOW SUHAAG North America's Largest South Asian Bridal Fashion Event&