Welcome participants from
Denmark The International Youth Leadership Summit welcomes the participation of our friends and colleagues from Støvring Gymnasium, Denmark . We are thrilled that you are able to join us and hope your stay in Canada is enriching and enjoyable.
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Welcome to Western Canada High School
On behalf of all the students and staff of Western Canada High School, we would like to welcome you to the second annual International Youth Leadership Summit (IYLS). We welcome our guests from across the city and beyond to our summit to engage in exciting conversations about social media and its impact on social change. We have a great lineup of guests to stimulate the conversation and to inspire our student leaders.
Marshal McLuhan, the communication visionary, said “We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us”. Our desire for easy and efficient global communication brings our cultural beliefs and values, as well as our biases and ignorance directly into view. Social media highlights local and global issues in time. In fact the local becomes global with this newer media. This important tool has the potential to reshape our conversations, our beliefs and our values. As student leaders we hope that we can inspire you to acknowledge the significant impact of social media on our conversations but to also understand the important ethical issues that arise from these important tools. We look forward to hosting this important summit and hope that it will inspire you to create and feel empowered and to continue being actively involved in the quality of life in your local and global community. Social media makes it impossible to ignore one at the expense of the other. Kim Hackman, Principal Western Canada High School |
Our Purpose
The International Youth Summit serves public education by ensuring students have the opportunity to increase their international, intercultural and global awareness and develop digital citizenship in multiple environments and
in traditional and non-traditional learning settings. |
Inspire- Global Awareness and Active Digital Citizenship
Western Canada is thrilled to be hosting this year’s International Youth Leadership Summit (IYLS). The theme of this year’s summit is social media for social change. We aim to inspire students to be responsible and active digital citizens, using innovative tools such as social media and other technologies to participate in both the local and global community. Students will explore a range of issues then work collaboratively in small groups to raise awareness of those issues by using a variety of social media tools.
Over 200 students from high schools in both the Calgary Board of Education and the Rockyview District will participate in IYLS 2013. Western Canada High School is also very pleased to welcome and host a group of students visiting from Støvring Gymnasium in Denmark. They will attend the summit then tour and visit a variety of cultural sites in and around Calgary. We are fortunate to have a myriad of talented and passionate speakers who will bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to our students. Our objective with IYLS is to engage students in discussion about relevant issues impacting our society and encourage them to use tools at their disposal to become actively involved in improving the quality of life in our local community and our global village. Julie Muhlberger, Chair IYLS Organizing Committee |