Jasper Jr./Sr. High School students spent the morning of March 16 sharing their ideas on education with the Government of Alberta at a Speak Out forum. 

The forum was one of many that are being held across the province as part of Speak Out, a three-year-old initiative by the government to gather ideas from the very people using the education system – the students themselves. 

Jessica Karpo, a member of the Jasper high school’s sustainability class, acted as a student facilitator for her peers for the event. She was impressed with the number of students who participated, and were engaged in the process. 

“It feels good to actually be listened to,” she said.

Karpo said that many of the ideas that came up at the forum were ones she hears all the time in the hallways of the school. The forum was a great place for students to take a real interest in their own education, she added. 

“The more they do this, the more they’re going to get out of their education,” she said. 

Not all students are in the school’s sustainability class, and the 18-year-old student said the forum was a great opportunity to get the rest of the school involved. 

The Speak Out forum is a precursor to the Speak Out conference that will be happening in Edmonton on April 15. Leslie Dolan, youth/teen outreach worker at Community Outreach Services, has organized a group of five students to attend that conference and represent the Jasper region. 

The conference is open to any Alberta students, but Dolan wanted to make sure a group from Jasper was able to go. She had originally hoped to get representatives from across the Jasper to Edmonton corridor, including Hinton and Edson, but is happy with the group of five Jasper students she gathered. 

“It’s an interesting group I’m bringing,” Dolan said. 

The local Speak Out forum was something Dolan had hoped the group would be able to experience before they headed to the province-wide edition. She teamed up with Adam Robb, who teaches the sustainability class to help bring the forum to Jasper. 

While the event was shorter than she would have liked, Dolan said it was important to gather ideas from the students because education has changed in the last few years. 

“Kids are different now,” she said. “They need a different response.”

Dolan said new education approaches need to be developed to work from each student’s individual strengths, and to respect different types of intelligence. 

The forum was put on by the Grand Yellowhead Public School Division, École Desrochers and Community Outreach Services. Students were asked a few different questions, and talked about them in groups. The first question asked students what learning looks like at its best. Many of the groups came up with similar ideas. Engagement and involvement were ideas that appeared more than a few times. Getting out of the classroom, doing hands-on projects and using real world problem solving were interesting ideas posed by the students. 

Rick Moyse facilitated the event and helped each student facilitator keep the discussions rolling. Moyse said the students are used to being passive and not involved in decision making, and the forum allows them to be heard. It also encourages them to think as they will when they are adults. 

“This is the opportunity to say what you would do,” Moyse said. 

Kelly Bessette, student engagement co-ordinator from Speak Out, says the program has actually been applying student ideas into new education models. 

“That’s why this program has been so successful; we do act on what they’re saying,” Bessette said. 

The information generated at the sessions reaches the appropriate Ministry of Education staff, and often those officials actually meet with students at the Edmonton conference. 

The program started in 2008 and is set to host the third conference in April. Bessette said that the regional representation has been great, and rural communities like Jasper have been well-represented at each conference so far.