Samuel W. Shaw school in the city’s southwest is hosting the annual Alberta Junior High Leadership Conference Friday and Saturday.
This year marks the first time a Calgary school has been selected to host the conference for over 500 participating students and teachers.
Over the two-day event, students will discuss issues around student activities, school climate, student government and more.
This year representatives from Aboriginal communities and students from the LGBTQ community and gay-straight alliances take a central role in the conversations.
“We need to create an inclusive area and we need to make sure everyone feels happy and everyone feels safe,” Jasper Hollings, a grade 9 student at Samuel W. Shaw said.
Keynote speakers include the co-founders of non-profit Mealshare and motivational comedian David Edward Garcia.
“Our biggest pieces of advice are be passionate about what you’re doing and set goals and work towards accomplishing them,” Mealshare co-founder Andrew Hall said. “We grew up and realized that the system was a little bit broken and we weren’t really satisfied with our corporate careers that were just making rich people richer and kind of wanted to do something for the community that would make a greater impact.”