Student Leadership-History

The members of the first Board/Student Consultation Group, who recommended the creation of the Sun West Student Leadership Program. Each student represented one Sun West school that had a Grades 10-12 component in 2007.

In 2006, the Sun West Board of Education discussed that it wanted to get student input into its decision-making process. To make this happen, every Student Representative Council (SRC) or similar body in each Sun West school with a Grades 10-12 component was asked to select one student to represent them on a Board/Student Consultation Group. The representatives from these schools met several times in the 2006-07 school year and held meetings in their schools and conducted a survey of Sun West students to find out what issues students wanted brought to the Board of Education.

The first meeting between the Board of Education and the student representatives took place in May 2007, with the students bringing up a number of issues that were significant at the time, including recently introduced requirements that volunteer drivers have one million dollar liability insurance and all volunteers must have criminal record checks. This led to a fruitful and respectful conversation that provided the Board with the opportunity to explain the rationale behind these measures and led to greater understanding of these issues among the students and the wider community. The Board was very happy with the dialogue with the students and wanted continue meeting with the group in future years.

At the same first meeting with the Board, the students also recommended the creation of a Student Leadership Program and a Student Leadership Conference. The Board strongly supported this recommendation and this led in the following year to the establishment of Team Sun West as a sub-group within the Student/Board Consultation Group. Team Sun West organized the first Sun West Student Leadership Conference, which was hosted by Outlook High School, in April 2008. Also in that year, some members of Team Sun West volunteered to assist at the bi-annual Sun West ROADS TO SUCCESS Career Fair. This led in 2010 (Career Fairs being held every two years) to Career Fair becoming another project that the Sun West Student Leadership Program was heavily involved in.

There have been changes to the program over the last number of years, but since it's beginnings and continuing to this day, the Sun West Student Leadership Program has been strongly supported by the Board of Education. It provides excellent opportunities for students to both enhance their own leadership skills and make a difference within their school division and their communities.

Over the years, many videos have captured some of the excitement and achievements of the Sun West Student Leadership Teams. A number of these can be found here on a Play List on the Sun West YouTube channel.

Below is a video produced in 2017 celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Sun West Student Leadership Program featuring pictures and videos from the first ten years.