YPI Brings Volunteerism to Life for LCC Students

Posted on September 27, 2010 by admin

The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative is a great opportunity for grade 10 students to reach out into the community and make an impact in so many ways. Over the course of the school year, students divide themselves into small teams and choose a small, local, grassroots organization. Each team must prepare a presentation that outlines the organization’s mission, programs, impact on the community, and they must try to prove why their organization is worthy of the $5,000 prize offered by the Toskan Foundation. Although it may not seem that significant, the prize money can make a huge difference for these organizations. Event though they are all worthy of receiving the financial assistance, only one can be chosen as the winner in May.

However, money is not the only factor that determines the impact that students can have on the organization that they choose. In fact, the simple act of volunteerism—only five required hours of service to each organization—makes such a difference because they can always use a helping hand. Year after year though, students make the personal choice to spend more than just the minimum required hours volunteering at their organization because they realize how much their efforts mean.

My personal YPI experience was so rewarding, not only because my group won the prize, but also because we developed such a great relationship with the Executive Director Adrian Bercovici and his wife Natalie from Generations Foundation. They appreciated our help so much, and supported us every step of the way through the preparation of our presentation, offering all of the information and resources that we needed to demonstrate their organization’s importance.

YPI is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that teaches students the importance of volunteerism, and will certainly remain an important aspect of the grade 10 curriculum for many years to come.—Cory Oringer ’11 (grade 11)

Conférence sur le bilinguisme

Posted on May 10, 2010 by admin

Voici des commentaires d’élèves qui ont participé à la conférence sur le bilinguisme dans les écoles du QAIS, le 29 avril, 2010.

J’ai aimé la conférence sur le bilinguisme car c’était intéressant d’entendre les histoires des anciens étudiants. Ils ont dit que c’est très important de continuer le français après l’école secondaire car les langues aident tout le monde à communiquer et à s’exprimer avec plusieurs personnes du monde entier. Je suis d’accord avec ce message et je vais continuer de parler le français pour le restant de ma vie! —Alexandra Bélanger, 10e programme accéléré

Je crois que la conférence était d’une importance capitale pour ma perception de la coexistence des langues française et anglaise au Québec. Je sais maintenant qu’il est primordial de savoir et de maîtriser les deux langues et de ne pas passer trop de temps sans pratiquer l’une des deux. Aussi, j’ai découvert qu’être bilingue n’est pas si exceptionnel qu’on pourrait le croire. —Benjamin Dawson, 10e programme accéléré

Je suis très heureuse d’avoir eu la chance d’aller à la conférence sur le bilinguisme. Je pense que cette expérience m’a vraiment aidée à réaliser que maîtriser plusieurs langues est très important dans la vie. —Gabrielle Gendron, 10e programme accéléré

Leaving Kenya with a Heavy Heart

Posted on February 23, 2010 by admin

These last two weeks have been unforgettable. After a tough weekend climbing the Machakos hills, I only spent three days at school. Once school finished on Wednesday, mid-term break began.

I spent 10 hours on the road to Mombasa on a bus with 30 other students. Our final destination was Turtle Bay Beach Club in Malindi. That afternoon my friends and I had already met a couple of teenagers from Britain, and we still keep in touch with them now. The first morning there, we travelled another hour to “Wild Waters,” a water park in Nyali. Most of the older boys thought it would be childish, but to our surprise, we had even more fun than the younger students! There were over a dozen water slides, an arcade, a food-court, and even bumper-cars. It took a while for us to leave. The next morning we checked out what the beach-venders had to sell. Bargaining was the game we had to play, and we played well… I think.

That afternoon we were taken out on a glass-bottomed boat to the marine park. We were able to throw on some goggles and jump in the water with the friendly fish. If you were brave enough, you could go in with some bread, and have the fish swarm you. It was really an amazing site. I was also able to witness my teacher “swim” for the first time.

The next day was a relaxing day for everyone, except me. I woke up early to go scuba diving. After I prepared all of my equipment, the dive master and I set out to Mooch Reef. At this point the ocean floor dropped into the deep blue sea. It was like nothing I had seen before. I spent that day valentines-less, but at least I got a good sleep!

Once I was back at school, it was all about spending the most time possible with all of my friends. I couldn’t imagine never seeing them again. But, the safari in Nairobi National Park (on Thursday) made me feel a lot better. I was able to see giraffe, zebra, buffalo, gazelle, impala, bushbuck, waterbuck, hartebeest, crocodiles, and even some ferocious lions!
The next morning, my P.E. class and I travelled another 4 hours to Mt. Kenya’s “10to4” bike race. We camped for the night and woke up at 5 a.m. to get ready. While everyone else participated in the 35 km race, I participated in Africa’s most distinguished 50 km race. The race was a journey itself and I now believe that if I put my mind to it, I can accomplish anything. This race pushed me to the limit, exploring my boundaries almost like this exchange. As I said before, I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon. Even though I live so far away, Kenya will always have a place in my heart. –Jesse Mikelberg ’11

Mackay Center & LCC: Bonding @ Camp

Posted on December 10, 2009 by admin

MackayCenter The journey began bright and early on Monday, November 9, 2009. Giving up our ped. day sleep in, our team—comprised of Greg Sigler, Noah Schouela, Elsa Schlemm, Chloe Collier, Tiffany Chamandy, Lauren Piccoli, Alysha Fedele and Blair Hardiman—arrived at the Mackay Center to pack up the bus and get the ball rolling. Once organized, we headed to the handicap-friendly Camp Massawippi in the Eastern Townships. From that moment on the fun did not stop. We were kept busy by the kids’ desire to remain active, bond with their new friends and experience nature to its fullest.

The activities that completed this expedition included multiple nature walks around the campsite and surrounding community, picking out our “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree and many diverse arts activities that we planned ourselves before our departure.

The weather was exceptional and although it was 15C outside, the lake was much, much colder! The fun continued indoors as well. The kids made picture frames around stunning dried leaves, painted pumpkins, blended smoothies, and even got to paint their own faces.

The Mackay kids, who were for the most part severely physically and mentally disabled, taught us so much about ourselves and our ability to help and make a difference. Perhaps this trip, although planned for the MacKay kids, touched and changed us—the forever busy and distracted LCC crowd—to be new people.
— Noah Schouela ’10 & Greg Sigler ’10

Inspired to Make a Difference

Posted on September 17, 2009 by admin

YPIPhoto When I first heard about the Youth Philanthropy Initiative, I must admit that I thought it would just be some more work that I simply would not have enough time for. I was not really looking forward to it. However, I soon realized that this was an extremely rewarding experience in which I had the opportunity to learn about small charities in Montreal.

We first decided on the Native Women’s Shelter as our charity because we were very impressed with the way the charity helped a small and often overlooked minority. We felt like they could seriously benefit from the grand prize of $5,000. We met with some of the workers at the shelter and even one of the women benefitting from their services. She said that the shelter had changed her life when she managed to get away from her old existence and start anew. She had been with, as she put it, a “bad man” and had been using many drugs. When we were introduced to her, she had been clean for eight months and was looking to move out on her own in the near future. This woman greatly inspired us when it came time to create our presentation.

Though in the end we came second in the YPI competition, we knew we still wanted to help the shelter in some way. Therefore, we organized a bake sale in which we enlisted the help of many people in our grade and raised $400 in support of the organization. There was also a free dress day at school in which everyone brought in one item of clothing. The school did not know what to do with them, so we offered to take all the garments off their hands and bring them to the shelter. The workers at the shelter were overjoyed and we felt like, however small, we had made a difference. Read about LCC in the NWS newsletter.

—Liane Bernstein ’09

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