Aurora, ON - Twenty-four outstanding students were honoured at the York Region District School Board's annual Celebrating Student Success dinner and awards ceremony. Students were honoured in the presence of their families, teachers, trustees and Board staff.
"Celebrating Student Success recognizes exceptional students, the work of our teachers and the role of parents and families in supporting students’ accomplishments,” said Chair of the Board, Loralea Carruthers. “These 24 recipients are representative of the 123,000 students who achieve success every day in our Board.”
“Celebrating Student Success honours the impressive achievements of students who are ambassadors, mentors, change makers and leaders. They are students who dedicate themselves to helping others, who overcome personal challenges to achieve success and who make a difference in their schools and communities,” said Interim Director of Education, Kathryn Wallace.
The 2017 Celebrating Student Success recipients included four students from Markham:
Antonia Racz
Pierre Elliott Trudeau H.S.
She is a member of the Principia Science Club, a discussion director of the Trudeau Book Club, the founder of OSAID (Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving), a secretary for STRUT (Students Towards Realizing a United Tomorrow), and an executive member and competitor of DECA. Over the summer, while reading about cancer, Antonia came across a recently published journal article about the relationship between the ClpXP gene and metastasis. Her interest peaked, Antonia investigated further, made detailed notes, and came up with a research question for the Sanofi Biogenius Competition: Does the overexpression of ClpXP gene cause metastasis? She spoke with many experts on the field, evaluated the feasibility of working in different settings, and finally found an enthusiastic professor who was the best fit. Her research proposal is a testament to countless hours of careful thought and hard work.
Kristen Price
Pierre Elliott Trudeau H.S.
Kristen demonstrates her leadership both in and outside of school by being an executive on both Octagon and Trudeau Mentors. Outside of school, Kristen has a tremendous passion for humanitarian efforts and is a World Vision Youth Ambassador. She is also a founding member of Creativity Through Arts Council, a registered non-profit that works under World Vision Canada and visited Kenya this past summer to see how her fundraising efforts have helped people directly. Most recently, Kristen presented a PechaKucha talk (similar to a TED talk) to Markham community members to raise awareness of the HungerFree Campaign.
Madeline Mintsoulis
Bill Crothers S.S.
Madeline participates on the soccer, field hockey, equestrian, badminton, flag football, and snowboard race team. To see a student athlete participate in so many extracurricular activities while maintaining a very high level of academic achievement is astounding. Currently, Maddie is the president of the Colts in Action Club; president of the Girls’ Club and a member of the Bill Crothers Leadership Committee.
Alice Lam
Armadale P.S.
Alice is a Grade 7 student who comes to school every morning at 7:30 to support the Breakfast program. After Breakfast program ends, she puts on her duty vest with two other peers to assume her role as Kindergarten Ambassador. She is an active leader on the Equity Ambassador team who helps to plan a variety of events and initiatives to teach students about inclusive practices. As an Equity Ambassador, she also attends parent forums to be the student voice at a table of parents who dialogue about a variety of topics.
A video and summaries of each student are available on the Board website. Photographs and interviews with students may be arranged.
York Region District School Board is the third largest school district in Ontario with over 123,000 students in 176 elementary schools and 32 secondary schools. York Region students consistently perform above average in provincial testing and the Board is one of the top achievers in Ontario. For more information about the York Region District School Board, please visit the Board website and follow @YRDSB on Twitter.
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