HAMILTON-WENTWORTH CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
Cathedral High School students join team of future problem solvers

By Marisa Mariella
Head of Student Services, Cathedral High School

Thanks to Celeste Licorish, Access Program Manager from the Office of Community Engagement at McMaster University, four grade 12 students from Cathedral High School had the opportunity to join a team of future problem-solvers!

^{Grade 12 students Ebun Soneye, Tobiloba Ogungbe, Kalifat Abu and Daniella Chukwu hold their "Designing Canada" certificates with Principal Mark Daly.}

Designing Canada - The Masterclass was a limited enrollment, one-day event at McMaster University on Saturday, January 18 dedicated to the challenges facing Canada. Hosted by McMaster's Socrates Project and Wilson Leadership Scholar Award, a group of distinguished speakers facilitated an engaging dialogue on their contributions to public policy, healthcare, the economy, education, democracy and technological responsibility.

"We were delighted to be able to invite local Hamilton high school students to participate in Designing Canada," said Licorish. "McMaster's Access Strategy is all about opening opportunities for students to see themselves at University and Cathedral students did a great job, asking questions and participating."

"It was a great honour to attend because this was the first time that high school students had been invited. I learned a lot about how budgeting impacts housing, pensions, and the healthcare system," shared Kalifat Abu, a grade 12 student interested in pursuing business.

The Socrates Project, which includes other events like this one, offers university students opportunities to extend their awareness of and engagement with significant global issues.

"We addressed many difficult topics including racism and the injustices. The one topic that caught my attention was the situation facing the Indigenous people and poor access to clean water in our country," stated Ebun Soneye, who hopes to study social sciences at McMaster in September.

Two of the main sessions were entitled "What Canada Needs to Get Right in the Next 10 Years" and "What Canadian Postsecondary Education Needs to Get Right in the Next 10 Years."

When asked how it felt to be among university students, the Cathedral students all agreed that although a little intimidated at first, they quickly overcame their fears and began contributing to the discussions.

"We were the only high school students there amongst university students. The students were so knowledgeable that it made us realize how much we really don't know. At the same time, it was so inspiring because it made us realize that would be us one day," said Ebun.

"At first, it was very overwhelming because there was just so much information. University is really interactive! Instead of the speakers giving the answers, we were in a position to really think for ourselves and come up with solutions."

"It would have been easy to just watch and listen but we all participated, sharing our thoughts and opinions. In fact, the speakers didn't even realize that we were high school students until the very end."

The other two students were Daniella Chakwu and Tobi-Loba Ogungbe, both eagerly awaiting acceptances from McMaster University.

Impressed with the Cathedral students, the conference organizers invited them to two upcoming events, a career exploration talk on careers in working in policy and the awards event for the 20 Wilson Leaders semifinalists where they will have an opportunity to meet Hon. Filomena Tassi, MP, a graduate of the HWCDSB.

For more information about the event the students attended, check out https://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/articles/mcm ... .