A Holy Rosary High School student is one of twelve students from across Saskatchewan who will be on the Minister of Education’s Youth Council.
Grade 11 student Nate Bergen is a member of the provincial Youth Council and will bring issues and perspectives directly to the Minister of Education Gordon Wyant and other members of the government.
“It’s such a tremendous honour,” Bergen says. “I was so excited to find out last week that I made it. This is a new program brought about by the Minister of Education and I couldn’t be more excited.”
Bergen was notified about the council in June by his teachers and Holy Rosary principal Vince Orieux and quickly applied for the position. Fifty-one students applied for the youth council and Bergen says the process was quick.
“They asked a couple of questions of what I could bring to the youth council and how I could impact the people around me and then they asked a few questions to Mr. Orieux about how he views the whole youth council.”
Orieux applauds the program and says the voice of the youth is sometimes unaccounted in the education system. He says Bergen is a model student and his interest in learning the inner workings in the school system is one of the reasons they chose pushed him to apply for the position.
“He’s very bright and social,” says Orieux. “He’s very interested in learning how things work in the school and he’s always interested in giving up his time to make our school and community better.”
Bergen hopes to make the minister aware of what it’s like to be an everyday student in Lloydminster and hopes it will improve the school system.
“I’m hoping to bring a unique perspective on the school systems because [there are people] from everywhere in Saskatchewan [in the youth council] and I want to share my voice on what I think could make the school systems better or make a positive impact everywhere.”
Bergen has done some volunteering in the community including helping the Lloydminster Health Foundation with their gala promoting “Project Sunrise.” Bergen says he wants to help in the discussion on mental health in schools.
“It’s a big aspect of what goes on in the school system and I think we need to make people aware of how to improve mental health.”
The first meeting of the youth council is on October 19 in Warman.