First World Café for SWLSB! - Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board

LJHS GIRLS BECOME PARTOF “GIRL TALK”A MAGAZINE BY GIRLS FOR GIRLS“Laval Girl Talk” is a project initiated by Lise Montagne, the coordinator of the Community Learning Centre (CLC). She created amagazine that was written solely by girls in our senior school in 2009. It was published, in collaboration with the Courrier Laval, inOctober 2010 and distributed to over 130,000 homes across Laval. This year, we are thrilled to have sixteen of our own junior highstudents become a part of this wonderful adventure. The project encourages the girls to work together as they come up withideas that eventually become the articles they publish. This group of girls, along with Betty Aliftiras , our student supervisor, meeton a weekly basis with Lise Montagne. The girls kicked off the new school year with the launch of the magazine at Maison desArts last October.Guest speakers are also invited to meet the girls. These speakers bring their expertise to the group. The students engage in activitiessuch as art design, photography, and journalism. Last spring, Maya Johnson, a CTV reporter, visited the school and met withthe girls. This visit became an actual broadcast and will be a lasting memory for everyone.An Intriguing Experience at CTV NewsBy: Joanne Gracioppo, Secondary 2, Laval Junior High SchoolOn January 30, 2012, the students of Laval Junior and Laval Liberty High Schools, the Career Learning Centre newspaper, and LavalGirl Talk, had the opportunity to embark on an adventurous trip to CTV News. This was courtesy of our coordinator, LiseMontagne, and assistants Betty Aliftiras and Christina Karamalis. Once we entered the building, we so graciously received a tourfrom Maya Johnson, a news reporter. Maya showed us everything that occurs behind the scenes of the shows. We had the goodfortune of being introduced to editors, producers, and many more people connected to the news and visited the control room.When I looked around at the other girls’ faces, they were just as astonished as I was about being exposed to a much differentenvironment than we’re accustomed to. Later, we witnessed Mutsumi Takahashi, and Paul Karwatsky, closing up the show, andwatched Lori Graham broadcast the weather. We took pictures with them, and got an explanation of the computers inside Pauland Mutsumi’s desk, and how the backdrop of the weather map works. On television, everything seems so simple but there is somuch work and effort that goes into putting on the news. The people involved make it look effortless when it really is not.After our long journey of touring, we hopped back on the buses, and drove back to school, with Maya Johnson tagging along, sowe could interview her. We learned thatshe knew very early on that her dreamwas to become a reporter. She wasinvolved in many activities, that made herlove for journalism grow stronger.I would like to thank everyone at CTVNews, and the coordinator and assistantsof Laval Girl Talk. That outing was a trulyexciting experience. Being exposed to thiskind of atmosphere only confirms mydreams of becoming a future newsanchor.SIR WILFRID LAURIER SCHOOL BOARD Page 42 VOLUME 3 · ISSUE 3 · March 2012