PCHS to host Canadian Student Leadership Conference 2010

Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School will have the distinct honour of hosting the Canadian Student Leadership Conference in 2010.

The event held annually across Canada will serve to teach high-school students all about building strong community ties. Their training will include workshops on how to be good leaders, lectures from key note speakers, and various activities. “We’re hoping the governor general, the prime minister of the time and provincial MNAs well attend,” said Nancy Battet, the Lester B. Pearson School Board's representative for educational excellence. “We’ll also be hosting a few events downtown so (the students) may better understand the Montreal culture.”

The week-long event is expected to attract up to 800 students, according to Hugs Bertrand, responsible for bringing the conference to Quebec. The PCHS teacher has been sitting on the leadership conference committee and says the school is "ideal." “(PCHS) is such a large building, and we’ll need the room,” Bertrand said. “I know the school well (which will help in the organizing).”

The conference is open to high schools nationwide and promises to be the experience of a lifetime for students. This year, Bertrand will be travelling to Prince Edward Island, where the conference is being held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. “(The Canadian Student Leadership Conference) is the Super Bowl of conferences,” Bertrand said. “Three students from every high school are picked. I picked the ones who do not necessarily have the highest grades, but the ones who gave the most (to the most), and this will complete their leadership experience.”