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3 · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Oakville student has the ear of Education Minister By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF An Oakville teen is taking part in a groundbreaking initiative that will see Education Minister Kathleen Wynne listen to students. Clarisse Schneider, a Grade 9 St. Ignatius of Loyola student, is one of 60 youths on the Minister's Student Advisory Council. The mandate of this new council is to provide ideas and advice on issues related to the publicly-funded education system. The advisory council is one aspect of Student Voice, the provincial government's student engagement strategy. Schneider applied for the council late last year, despite a hectic schedule that sees her balancing violin lessons, hockey, school band, debate team, student council and homework. She was thrilled to be accepted last month, saying she is happy to make time for any initiative that allows students to be heard. "I had visited other student forums before and met the Minister when I was in Grade 7 at a student forum and she seemed really sincere and inspired me," she said. "I think the idea of the student advisory council is to get our ideas out, because we all have a lot of great ideas and we all want to be heard. Having a Minister's Student Advisory Council may give our voices some light." Schneider, along with the group of students from grades 7 through 12 selected from English, French, Catholic and public school boards across the province, met last week for the first time at the Macdonald Block, a government building in downtown Toronto. Following icebreakers, the group hunkered down and got to work through an open space forum. By the end of the day, the students had written approximately 25 reports on issues they decided were important to youths. The group also voted on the reports in order of priority, so that when they arrived at Minister Wynne's office, the most important reports would be read first. "There was a broad spectrum (of issues for the reports)," Schneider said. "There was stereotypes, technology, how we can get people more interested in math, let's be equal, lot. People who never got in trouble and the people in between. We had every type of race and a good balance of male and female. It was really cool getting to meet all the students." The advisory council will meet several times during the year. Although there is no salary for sitting on the council, Schneider considers herself lucky to be a part of it. There were close to 1,000 students across Ontario who applied to be part of the Minister's Student Advisory Council. Schneider said she already has several issues in mind that she hopes to bring to the attention of Minister Wynne. "Some things I hope to bring up are stereotypes, the issue of technology in our schools where there are less and less teachers who know how to use it, as well, transitions between elementary and high school and what students need to know," she said. As a serious musician, who spends three hours practicing violin every day, funding for music programs in schools is also an issue she would like to raise. "Out of the arts, the music department needs the most funding and gets the least," she said. "A large amount of money is needed to keep music programs going." O'Connor MacLeod Hanna LLP welcomes Megan M. Brown OAKVILLE BEAVER FILE PHOTO YOUNG ADVISOR: Loyola high school student Clarisse Schneider practices the violin every day and hopes to plead the case for funding for music programs in her new role as a member of the Education Minister's Student Advisory Council. drugs in school and how to prevent that, there was everything. They are all going to be looked at, but we let her know what we thought were the most important." Some of the reports that ranked highest were on equality and issues surrounding the information age. Minister Wynne stopped by twice during the day to say hello to the students. "We got to ask her questions and talk to her," Schneider said. The day was very exciting, according to Schneider. She especially liked getting to know the other members of the council. "I was really impressed by the broad spectrum she (Minister Wynne) invited to join," she said. "We had people who got in trouble a Megan practices in the areas of estate planning and administration, incapacity planning, trust planning and administration, family business succession and charities law. 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Megan can be reached directly at Tel: 905.842.8030 x 3342 Fax: 905.842.2460 Email: mbrown@omh.ca 700 Kerr Street, Oakville, ON, L6K 3W5 www.omh.ca Inside Living......................................................13 Auto........................................................17 Artscene..................................................22 Sports......................................................25 Classified.................................................29 For home delivery & customer service call (905) 845-9742 Mon., Tues. and Thurs. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Wed. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Fri. 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sat 10 a.m.-3 p.m. NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS call (905) 845-9742 or subscribe online @ www.oakvillebeaver.com See inside today's paper for special subscription offer. 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