Youth Summit

Wow, the summit closed on Saturday and it was a experience i wont forgot, in my previous blog, i mention the background and the events of Friday, in this one, the events of Saturday.

Saturday came, an early rise, to the fairmont hotel by 8am, upon arriving I signed up for the group I wanted to create an action plan for and present for.

The action plan i chose was education. there are many things we can do to improve the education system.

• strengthening the education system (infrastructure, course, quality)
• provide transitions from school to work (work-terms, co-op)
• reduce student debt, and the cost of education

these where the man topics we focused on. 5 people from our group each working on one. My chose to work on "strengthening the education system"

Along with my group members, we discussed the issues that need to be addressed,

• number of classes
  
• class size
• upgrade facilities
  
• offer practical life skills in k-12

Each playing an important role.

One issue was the number of classes offered, one person in my group stated "i'm on the waiting list for September 2010, and i applied last year" another "i've applied twice, both times the course was canceled"

we felt that distance education and virtual teachers could address this problem, we also felt that reduced class size would increase the quality of education.

Upgrading facilities needs to happen now, we need to be able to work in state of the art, up to date labs, have the newest equipment, and be experienced and confident in our work. I myself have been working out of a half-assed, homemade lab for 2 years, missing labs, spending most of our time making up some homemade contraption to do a job, that a simple piece of lab equipment could do.

And practical life skills in k-12, this is one that we felt we could involved private citzens and business in. we think that students in k-12 should learn basic skills, such as home maintence, basic financial information, taxs, basic law, cooking, and basic information on how to live on your know.

In the afternoon, we where joined by invited guests to present our ideas and actions. Premier Danny Williams had a very empowering speech.

"our richest resource is not on the grand banks, its not under the ground, its not onshore, its here in this room, Our Youth"

"we will remove out migration from our vocabulary, as we removed have not"

I had the opportunity to quickly met and introuce my self to Danny Williams, and i pointed out a few issues, including our lab.

I also met a few people from FINALY (futures in Newfoundland and Labradors Youth) an organization which i will be joining.

During our presentations I had the opportunity to present our ideas, to many people, inculding Mary Pratt, Business Leaders, and education leaders. One such person was the VP of College development/advancement for the College of the North Atlantic, and i made my point loud and clear to her that we need a adequate lab.

The overall conference was great, met some great people, and felt like I made a difference in this province, i can't wait to read the final report, and see the video.

Cor