When I first joined this program in September, I did not feel like I was the right fit for the course. I was a super quiet kid, and felt very out of place compared to everyone else. Because of this, I made my original course goal to be more extroverted, and to step out of my social comfort zone. Looking back now, I can confidently say that I am definitely more outgoing, and I am much more comfortable in a social situation. Putting me in a leadership position made me grow more confident and set me up for my future. I can take the leadership skills and confidence I gained from this course into my real life after high school is over.

I gained many valuable friendships through this course, and I also learned how to work collaboratively with others. I learnt valuable communication skills in a group setting which will be essential for post-secondary education. I believe my time in this program was extremely valuable and will be a happy memory to look back on in the future.

I enjoyed organizing events for the student class, and also fixing problems that randomly occurred during the events. Having this responsibility on my shoulders as a leadership student was very exciting and fun.

My key takeaway from Leadership 12 is that the small things matter. Being on time, going to meetings, and saying my ideas in a group setting was much more important than I thought. Showing my dedication to the course put trust in my peers and allowed everyone to work together more efficiently. Because everyone in the course was so accepting, saying my ideas felt rewarding and satisfying.

Overall, I am extremely happy with my choice of taking this course, and I am forever grateful to the teachers and students that helped me along the way. I believe that every student in high school should take leadership at least once for the growth and experience. I can confidently say that the course has made me a better person.

April 14th, 2025

Event Participation: Briefly describe your involvement from start to finish.

For this event, my role was to prepare by baking cookies for the cookie decoration activity and to be in the library for the family relay during the family fun event. Unfortunately for me during this month, there was a lot of complications and I could not participate as much as I wanted to. However, I made sure to let my point people know ahead of time if I was missing a meeting or leaving early. To bake the cookies, I went during ESS and worked together with Matthew and Jayden to make some of the best cookies at the event. During the event, my role was to prepare the family relay and my job was mainly focused on the egg on spoon race. Due to complications, I had to leave the event early at 6:30 and could not be there for the end of the event and the photos.

Curricular competency:

“Be a visible and confident leader within the school/community.” From Theme 2

During the family fun event, my main goal was to be seen as a confident leader for the kids and I tried to step outside of my comfort zone to be an extrovert. This relates to my course goal at the start of the year to be more confident and less shy. I really tried to focus on my course goal and I feel that I did well in that aspect. I was loud and energetic in front of the kids and did not show any of my shy features during the event.

“Develop communication strategies with members of the class when verbal conversations might not be possible.” From Theme 4

I also communicated well with both teachers and point people during the event. When I was missing the team recap meeting on the 10th of April due to a doctors appointment, I sent a message in the teams. When I needed to leave the event early due to hockey photo day, I sent an email to the point people and Ms. Rioux. They both responded with permission and I was able to leave the event knowing that my activity will be covered by one of the point people.

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency.

Before: Before the event started, I attended all mandatory leadership meetings on Wednesday after school, however, I unfortunately could not make the recap team meeting due to a doctors appointment. I asked my friends to recap the meeting for me and I was able to understand the main points of the meeting. My other duty before the event started was to bake cookies for the cookie decorating activity. I worked with Matt, and Jayden for the baking of the cookies. My main role during this was to make the cutouts of the cookies and to watch them during the baking process. I believe that the cookies turned out extremely well and looked beautiful. I also witnessed Minseop, Sean, and Ryan burn their cookies until the cookies were unrecognizable and helped them out by eating the cookies. (images below).

During: During the event, my main role was to set up and and facilitate the family relay activity in the library. I worked with the others in my group to set up the egg relay race and we did this by making 2 lines using the tables and chairs in the library. We adapted to the situation given to us and used objects laying around in the library into a fun activity that helps parents engage with their kids. I watched the parents race their kids and it was very cute to see. Although most of the kids did not understand the point of the game and just started holding the egg. I had to leave the event early by around 30 minutes and missed a group of kids. I am very sad that I could not see more kids do the race, however, with the little time I had, I enjoyed seeing the smiles on the faces of the parents and children.

After: After the event was done, I unfortunately was not there. Because of this, I could not help clean up the library or any other parts of the school. I am very sorry to my group and thank them for doing extra work because I was not there. During the reflection for the family fun event, I only talked a couple of times, however, this is an improvement from other reflections where I did not talk at all so I am quite happy.

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence.

Evidence 1: I used the tables, chairs, and pillar in the library in the form of a two-lane race that we built on the day of the event without prior planning. This shows how my group and I adapted to the situation and shows that we are a versatile group of students. We thought quickly on the spot to make the experience for the kids as great as possible.

Evidence 2: I communicated well with point people and teachers to let them know when I will not be there for meetings or event. This ensured that they could find a replacement for me during the event. I also communicated with my friends over call and they filled me in with the details of the meeting so I did not miss out on crucial information. This shows that I used my communication skill to improve my abilities to help during the event and to help the event run smoothly by finding a replacement for me.

INSERT PHOTOS HERE TO SHOW YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT OR THE GROUP PHOTO. 

My Cookies:  🤩                                        Minseop’s Cookies: 🤮   Family Relay Photo:

February 14th, 2025

Event Participation: Briefly describe your involvement from start to finish.

For this event, Leadership students had to sell and hand out notes and sweets for valentines day. I had many roles during this event and my first role was to be on the marketing team. Me and Jayden Kweun were tasked to create a poster to advertise the event and we made one on Canva. My next role was to sell the notes and sweets and I worked with Jayden and Horace during lunch to sell them. We worked hard during the lunch block to advertise the event and got a lot of customers because of it. The week before valentines day we needed to create the bouquets and I came for all the meetings and tried my hardest to create good bouquets. My last role for the event was to hand out the candy and I was tasked for upper B during block 4. My group quickly covered the floor in under 10 minutes and handed out the candy with no disruptions and full satisfaction from all teachers. To prepare for this event, I attended all meetings including planning and building for the notes and sweets. I tried my hardest to have as many roles to help this event and attempted to be as good of a teammate as possible.

Curricular competency:

“Be versatile and willing to understand your team members and help them to navigate resolving situations within the event” From theme 4 

“Recognize why it is important to be a team player” From theme 1 

During this event, my main focus was to be a team player and to try to be open to more roles during the event. Because of this, I tried to be very versatile and asked to help in any way possible when I felt that I could help the team. My course goal was to be more confident and less shy, I showed this during this event by speaking up during meetings and letting the point people know that I could do a certain role. I tried to step out of my comfort zone during this event and felt that I was speaking up a lot more than regular.

Another one of my goals at the start of the year was to improve my communication and I believe that I did this in all of the roles that I played in during this event. While making the poster, selling the notes, creating the bouquets, and handing out the candy, I felt that I was communicating to the best of my abilities and being a good team player. I found the importance of being a good team player during this event and I felt that the whole event overall went very smoothly with no errors.

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency.

Before: Before the event started, I was a part of the marketing team and I created the poster with Jayden Kweun to help advertise the event. I feel that the poster stood out in the hallway and helped students know about the event. I also came to all the meetings to help plan and build the notes and sweets. I made many of the bouquets and helped tape together the notes and sweets during our meetings. I also spent one of my lunch blocks to advertise and sell the notes and sweets which I felt when extremely well. I got many of my friends to buy notes and sweets which also got them to tell other people to come on other days.

During: During the event, it was very fast and quick with no errors. I spent only 10 minutes of my block 4 to hand out the notes and sweets and it went extremely smoothly. My role was during the event was the hand out candy during block 4 at upper B. My group went through all the classes extremely quickly and all the teachers seemed to have positive reactions to the event. For Mr. McDonald’s class, they were writing a test so I quietly went up to him and told him about the notes and sweets, he gave me the directions of the students that received the candy and I quietly handed the candy to the kids without creating a distraction for others.

After: After the event was over I made sure that our box of notes and sweets was empty and returned to A109. My group returned the box to the class to where it belong and left quietly. I had one regret during this event and that was my lack of participation during the end of event reflection we had on the 26th of February. I felt that I did not contribute as much as I could and was not a very good team member at that moment.

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence.

Evidence 1: I volunteered to join the marketing team of the event and to create the poster with Jayden Kweun during the meeting when I was not given the role. I did this because I wanted to be a better team member and to contribute more to the event. We created a very pleasing poster that stood out in the hallways while also giving all the information necessary for the purchasing of the notes and sweets. I gave a picture of the poster that we created below.

Theme 1: “Recognize why it is important to be a team player”

Evidence 2: I was being a very respectful leadership student while handing out the notes and sweets and was a good role model for the kids in the class. While I was handing out the notes and sweets in Mr. McDonald’s class while his class was doing a test, I was being a good role model and giving a good representation for leadership students. I showed problem solving skills by stepping up and speaking with Mr. McDonald without making a huge scene in front of the class which would have distracted the students taking the test.

Theme 5: “Demonstrate and apply problem solving skills”

INSERT PHOTOS HERE TO SHOW YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT OR THE GROUP PHOTO.

Our poster:                                    Making the bouquets:

December 20th, Block 3 – Lunch

Event Participation: Briefly describe your involvement from start to finish.

For this event, I was given the role to be a talent manager and my talent was Esther Lin. My role for the talent show was to make sure everything went smoothly with my talent when she was performing, however, during the talent show I was given the role to go backstage and help the different talents get on stage. To help prepare for this event, I kept communication with my talent and attended the meeting where I also talked with my talent about some issues we had. I also kept in touch with the point people who were Minseop and Matthew to know about the event before the event started. I called them both in our freetime and discussed how the talent show will proceed and how to make the event go as smooth as possible. We communicated well in our calls and tried to tidy up the plan of the event before it was finalized. During the talent show, there was no problems backstage and everything went perfectly to plan.

Curricular Competency: My two curricular competencies I focused on this event was “Develop communication strategies with members of the class when verbal conversations might not be possible” from theme 4 and “Be versatile and willing to understand your team members and help them to navigate resolving situations within the event. (don’t just bark orders, lead & teach)” also from theme 4. 

In my course goals, my main goal was to be more confident and to be less shy. I worked hard on this goal for this event and I showed this by communicating with the point people in my free time and calling them at a time that works for the both of us. Since it was hard for us to meet in person, I called them online and discussed the event. I had to take a step out of my comfort zone for this and I am very glad I did because I felt a lot more involved in the planning of the event due to the steps I took to talk to the point people. The second curricular competency was to be versatile and a team player, I think I showed this by taking the role to go backstage during the event. I expected to be a simple talent manager during the event, however, I spontaneously took the role during the event to go backstage and helped manage the talents and to keep them in order. I had to be versatile to change my role during the event and I was very willing to help and change for the team as a team member. I feel like these examples showed my confidence during the event and aligned with my course goals to be more confident as a person in leadership.

Another point in my course goals was to have good communication, I think that I showed this by communicating with my talent about her song length before the event started and also relaying this information to the point people and Ms. MacPherson during the meeting to let them know what the problem was. Because of this communication, I was able to resolve the problem with my talent and her performance went perfectly well during the show.

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency.

Before: Before this event started, I was the talent manager for Esther Lin and she informed me that her song length was too long in a teams message she sent. I told this information to Ms. MacPherson in the meeting that occurred the next day and she told me to tell Esther to try to cut a chorus and achieve a reasonable time. Esther did do this after I told her, however, the length of the song still was longer than the limit that I had told her, fortunately, I told Minseop and the situation was resolved where Esther was allowed to sing her song with a slightly longer length than originally allowed. To help prepare for this event before it started, I went to the meeting and also communicated with the point people to help plan the event. I came early for block 3 and waited for Esther’s turn for the sound check, once she was done, I was told to go to room 789 to bring the first three performers back stage. However, I stayed backstage for the whole event because it was a bit chaotic backstage and helped each talent go on stage when they were called.

During: During the event I was primarily backstage and organizing the talents to make sure they got on stage at the correct time. I was not prepared to have this role for the event, however, since no leadership students were backstage at the start of the event, I stepped in and got the first three talents in the choir room to prepare. Fortunately, other leadership students joined me later in the event and helped me manage the chaos happening backstage. During the event, I was also told to inform the teachers (that were performing) when their turn was and I had to go to their preparation room and inform them when they were next to preform. During the performances, I also helped move equipment on stage when necessary, this came in the form of moving microphones and pianos.

After: After the event ended, I helped clean up all of the stage and was one of the last leadership students to leave the stage. Me and Jerome moved a lot of the equipment and helped carry wires to the choir room, by the time we were done the stage looked spotless. I missed part of my block 4 class but luckily got away with it because of my green shirt :).

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence.

Evidence 1: I went above and beyond what was asked for me as a talent manager and had a completely unrelated role during the event which was not asked for by anyone else. This role was not in the plans for the event and I showed my effort during the event by filling in a hole that no one else had filled. By going backstage and helping with the event after my role as a talent manager was done, I showed that I do more than what is asked of me.

Theme 4: Be versatile and willing to understand your team members and help them to navigate resolving situations within the event.

Theme 5: Work as an effective team member.

Evidence 2: I stayed long after the event ended with Jerome when most other leadership students had left to help continue to clean up the stage and made sure that the stage looked just as good as it did before the show. This showed our effort during the event and we did more than what was “necessary” as people in marketing or talent managing.

Theme 5: Work as an effective team member.

INSERT PHOTOS HERE TO SHOW YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT OR THE GROUP PHOTO.

November 27, 2024

Event Participation: I was a part of the marketing group for this event. My job for this event was to advertise to the grade 9s and make sure they know where to go to participate for this event. To prepare for this event I attended the meeting to know what my role was for this event. To help advertise for grade 9 day, I went to the library after school with Ryan and we made a poster together that would show the grade 9s where the event was being held while also reminding them that there was an event throughout the day when they saw the poster. I also attended the event and was supervising over a group of grade 9s as their monitor to track their score.

Curricular Competency: Theme 4: Use effective communication skills in a group setting, which will be sensitive to everyone’s ideas, while still being efficient. + Create diverse and interesting announcements, posters, and other media to get information to the student body or intended people.

This core competency aligns with my course goal to be more confident and to use more effective communication. I showed this by making plans with Ryan who was also in the marketing group to meet up after school and to work on the poster. We listened to each others idea while making the poster to make the poster as good as possible. We made a poster because it is a simple but effective way to get information to the grade 9s because of the size of the poster.

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency.

Before: To prepare for this event, I attended all the meetings that was held for both the grade 9 day as a whole and also for the specific meetings for the marketing team. After the meeting, I talked with Ryan about the idea of creating a poster together and we worked together to find a day that would work for both of us. On the day we planned, we met up after school and went to the library to buy and build the poster together. We used effective communication to plan out the design for the poster and what our vision for the poster was.

During: During the event I was not required to go to the event, however, I came and was put in the role to watch over a group of kids as their monitor to keep their score. I kept track of their score during the event while also talking to them and asking them about their experience at pinetree. The group of kids I was monitoring actually won the trivia event which was great to see.

After: After the event I continued to talk to the grade 9s and got to know them and then helped to clean up the event by stacking the chairs in the library.

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence.

Evidence 1: Before the event started, I communicated with Ryan and we made plans to make a poster to help advertise the event to the grade 9s. To make this poster, we spent time after school to meet up and to buy the material we needed for the poster. This example is evidence of using effective communication skills and is under theme 4 of curricular competencies.

Theme 4: Use effective communication skills in a group setting, which will be sensitive to everyone’s ideas, while still being efficient.

Theme 5: Work with others to create an effective promotional component to the project.

Evidence 2: I attended the event that was not required for marketing students and I took the role of a leadership student that was in the trivia group. I monitored a group of kids because there was not enough leadership students and helped the event go smoothly because every group of grade 9s had a monitor to track their score. This example is evidence of being versatile and understanding my team members which is under theme 4 of curricular competencies.

Theme 4: Be versatile and willing to understand your team members and help them to navigate resolving situations within the event.

Theme 5: Work as an effective team member.

INSERT PHOTOS HERE TO SHOW YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT OR THE GROUP PHOTO.

October 30th, 2024

Event Participation: Briefly describe your involvement from start to finish: 

For this event, I attended both meetings and was in charge of monitoring lower B wing during the scavenger hunt and to put up the stickers before the event. My main role for this event was to watch over lower B wing during lunch and to advertise to any students I saw about the event that was going on at the moment.

Curricular competency: Theme 4: Public Relations and Forms of Communication                                                   Use effective communication skills in a group setting, which will be sensitive to everyone’s ideas, while still being efficient + Be versatile and willing to understand your team members and help them to navigate resolving situations within the event. (don’t just bark orders, lead & teach).

• This aligns with my course goals to be more confident and to acquire communication skills.
• This also relates with my personal growth goal which was for teamwork and communication.
• I overcame my personal challenge of being an introvert by advertising the event to others during the event.

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency:

Before: Before this event I participated in both meetings to brainstorm ideas for the event and how we can improve them. I also took some time outside of the meetings to talk with Ray who was my partner in lower B wing to make sure we understood our role for the event and how we should prepare. Because of my communication with Ray and my group leaders during the meetings, I knew to pick up the stickers during ESS block and to hide the stickers around lower B wing.

During: During the event, I made sure to communicate with Ray where we will both be during the event and what our roles will be. We made sure that at least one person was monitoring the hallways at all times if another person was going to the bathroom or advertising the event. I used effective communication skills when advertising to people walking around the hallways to let them know about the event while holding a poster with all the information for the event.

After: After our event ended, I checked to make sure we were done and went around telling people that the scavenger hunt was over. When our meeting ended after school, I went around asking other groups if they needed help with their events which would occur the next day. I also went around the school taking down posters for both the Halloween movie nights and also the scavenger hunt.

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence. 

During the event, I went around lower B wing to all the groups of friends sitting on the floor and advertised the free candy that was being given out if they found a sticker, because of this, dozens of students learnt about the event and started participating to find the hidden stickers.

During the meeting we had the day before the event, I asked the group leader after the meeting if there was any more I could help for the event, this was how I got the role to set up the stickers during ESS. Because of my communication with the leader after the meeting, I found ways to help the group set up for the event.

Photos:

INSERT PHOTOS HERE TO SHOW YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE EVENT OR THE GROUP PHOTO.