Student Achievement Award Winners – I Am Everything They Say I Am Not

We travel through life facing critics at every turn.  Parents and relatives, siblings, schoolmates, and educators seem to be constantly telling us to do better, do more, be different, try harder.  yet, with all those critics and constant evaluation, the worst critic often ends up being ourselves.  We know who we are and which goals we want to and can achieve.  We can prove every one of those critics, including our toughest critic – us, wrong. Students focused inward on their strengths, abilities, struggles and that was revealed in the 2023 theme for the Student Achievement Awards – I Am Everything They Say I Am Not.

Teachers and Education Worker Members are using the Student Achievement Awards, in honour of Marion Drysdale, as an essential tool in classrooms and schools to engage their students.  This year, our creative artists, whether in visual or digital/media arts unlocked their feelings to capture how their personal critics have shaped their lives and pushed them to strive for and achieve their dreams.

The 18 award winners have been officially announced and will be featured the traditional OSSTF/FEESO Student Achievement Awards video, which is part of the annual awards presentation which will be livestreamed at OSSTF/FEESOs Annual General Meeting on March 11, 2023 at approximately 9:30 am. For a sneak peek at the provincial winners, please read below.

In the Prose and Poetry Division, Morouje Sherif, of Waterloo Collegiate Institute in Waterloo, was the winner of the Intermediate Academic 9-10 category, with an incredibly well written prose piece entitled Egyptian Girl,  written after the style popularized in the Jamaica Kincaid poem ‘Girl’.  This writing piece runs through the expectations of this Egyptian girl – from the pressure put on her by family, by cultural norms, and societal expectations of how she should look, act and perform her daily activities. The pressures on young women today is enormous and the style of the prose piece exhausts the reader with the continuous flow of expectations.

Kira Contois, of Seaway High School in Iroquois, claimed the Intermediate 9-10 Applied/Essential with their brief, but pointed essay entitled I’m Human Too.  Kira looks at themselves through the eyes of others with a defiant lens.  They contrast how society sees them by focusing on their strengths and turns the tables on qualities such as savage, uneducated, proper and lack of physical strength and turns them into counterpoints of empathy, wisdom and knowledge.  They defiantly end the piece with the realization that they are enough, and “perfect in all the ways I see myself”.

Aishah Salim, a student at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in Toronto, won in the Senior 11-12 University category for their beautifully written and fierce poem called The World Isn’t Built For Little Black Girls. Aishah demonstrates passion, feminism, and strength in this poem to illustrate that Black women and girls are facing racism, sexism and unrealistic expectations at an alarming rate and on a daily basis.  She deconstructs racism and shows the resilience, acceptance the right to be who she wants to be, despite society telling her that she is nothing, she is different and she is not worthy.

In the 11-12 College/Workplace category, Venus Peters of East Elgin Secondary School in Aylmer, writes a defiant, yet proud poetry piece, Venus, Planet of Love, which embodies her strength, power and confidence as a young woman.  In her wisdom, she compares herself to oceans, storms and mountains, but also quiet spaces like libraries and forests.  She contrasts strength and vulnerability to portray that she is not one label, she is many wonderful things and, most definitely, everything they say she is not.

Daria Ilas of Humberside Collegiate Institute won the category of French Prose and Poetry 9-10 for her prose Immigrante, différente. Daria’s prose depicts a teenager thrown into a whirlwind of young adult life. This new life balances the warmth of childhood with confidence, shyness, fear, and concern about what lies beneath the unknown. The author offers the complexities of navigating life as an ‘immigrant’ who dreams of possibilities and understands realism.

In the category of French Prose and Poetry 11-12, the winner, Anjali Nalla from Humberside Collegiate Institute, moved us with her exquisitely written poem Le miroir de nos etres. Do you ever reflect on how you understand, learn, and understand your desires? Is it your heart, mind, or external forces that drive the decisions? Anjali asks these questions creatively, guiding the reader to a space of reflection.

Superior Heights Collegiate and Vocational School in Sault Ste. Marie is home to Jisun Lee, whose exceptional creative art piece entitled I’m The Only One They Say I Am Not, looks at the theme in a unique way.  Instead of looking inward at themselves, Jisun focused outward and globally at the environment through the eyes of a polar bear.  Climate change critics may say the polar ice caps are fine and the polar bears are fine – but the facts speak for themselves. As the polar ice caps melt and garbage fills our oceans, the polar bears are, indeed, not fine.  This mixed media piece is thoughtful, well executed and created by a very gifted artist.

Jason Laumann, from Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School in Angus, amazed us with their stunning and detailed painting.  Their piece, The Gift was the winner of the Senior 11 -12 Visual Arts category.  The painting features two images, one of Jason’s current self and the other, his younger self.  He portrays this inner conflict between two selves as his older self giving his younger self the gift of the power to create, of individuality, of personality, of identity, of personal expression and the ability to overcome internal and external critics. This painting is truly exceptional in its detail and colour, but also in its interpretation of the theme.

In the Visual Non-Credit category, we have a tie! The first winner is Erik Steeves of Waterloo Collegiate Institute in Waterloo, for his inspirational animation Never Give Up.  The incredibly detailed, short animation pointed straight to the theme of perseverance for pursuing your dreams, no matter the obstacle, regardless about what others think of you or say.  Eventually, your dreams will be realized if you never give up.

The second winner was a group project from the Aptus Treatment Centre in Toronto. Seven class members created individual entries as a class project called I Can Hand Art.  The students L. Palmer, Malique Fitz-Charles, Josiah Allen, Adrian Williams, Ethan Lyons, Mihajlo Ruzic and Tayshaun Smith created hand tracings, each with their individual interpretations of art, surrounded by their self recognized strengths and abilities.  Abilities such as “I can love”, “I can help others”, “I can take care of my family” and “I can make friends” moved the judges to agree that helping and loving others are the most important qualities that any person can have.

Finally, the winner of the Digital Arts 9-12 category was Odin Worsley, of North Hastings High School for his clever creation that spawned from a math/coding class entitled Target Attitude. The coding game was simple yet focused perfectly on the theme. Odin created a game that showed negative stereotypes that teenagers were given by others. By aiming at the negative stereotype and clicking on it, like a game, the stereotype turned from negative to positive.  From the negative of “You use your phone too much” to the positive of “I’m setting reminders”, Odin reminds us that while teenagers may see things differently than their parents, teenagers are thoughtful, value friendships, family and community.

 

REGIONAL WINNERS

Prose & Poetry Division

Category A-1 – Intermediate, 9-10 Academic

Region 1: Eric Zachariasz, Westgate Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 6A

Region 2: Aiden Attwood-Dixon, Northern Secondary School, District 4

Region 3: Morouje Sherif, Waterloo Collegiate Institute, District 24

Region 4: Rachel Chung, Markville Secondary School, District 16

Region 5: Yulia Wong Tsz Yau, Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School, District 25

 

Category A-2 – Intermediate, 9-10 Applied/Essential

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: Chloe Sears, Almaguin Highlands Secondary School, District 4

Region 3: Nico Lunansley, Walkerville Collegiate Institute, District 9

Region 4: Malia Thompson, Erindale Secondary School, District 19

Region 5: Kira Contois, Seaway High School, District 26

 

Category A-3 – Senior, 11-12 University

Region 1: Tucker Oleksuk, Westgate Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 6A

Region 2: Addisyn Coles, Almaguin Highlands Secondary School, District 4

Region 3: Hania Pirani, Vincent Massey Secondary School, District 9

Region 4: Harveen Grewal, Central Peel Secondary School, District 19

Aishah Salim, Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute, District 12

Region 5: Shahed Albakhit, MacKenzie Community School, District 28

 

Category A-4 – Senior, 11-12 College/Workplace

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: Venus Peters, East Elgin Secondary School, District 11

Region 4: Minaxi Sharma, Brampton Centennial Secondary School, District 19

Region 5: Shawn Easton Brown, Centennial Secondary School, District 29

 

Category A-5 – French, 9-10

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: Aspen Lillian Law, École Secondaire Cité-Supérieure, District 31 Unité 57

Region 4: Daria Ilas, Humberside Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 12

Region 5: Zikra Rahman, Colonel By Secondary School, District 25

 

Category A-6 – French, 11-12

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: No entries

Region 4: Anjali Nalla, Humberside Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 12

Region 5: Cadence MacQueen, Arnprior District High School, District 28

 

Category A-7 – Non Credit

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: Liam Foreman-Neill, John Diefenbaker Senior School, District 7

Timothy Paquette, G.A. Wheable Adult Education Centre, District 11

Region 4:  No entries

Region 5:  No entries

 

Creative Division

Category B-1 – Visual Arts, Intermediate, 9-10

Region 1: Chengcheng Li, Superior Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 6A

Region 2: Jisun Lee, Superior Heights Collegiate and Vocational School, District 2

Region 3: Joey Yaw, East Elgin Secondary School, District 11

Region 4: Nola Eisses, Bear Creek Secondary School, District 17

Region 5: Yulia Wong Tsz Yau, Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School, District 25

 

Category B-2 – Visual Arts, Senior, 11-12

Region 1: Anna McPherson, Superior Collegiate Vocational Institute, District 6A

Region 2: Abby Laporte, Lasalle Secondary School, District 3

Region 3: Hazel McNamara, Waterloo Collegiate Institute, District 24

Region 4: Jason Laumann, Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School, District 17

Region 5: Esther Heroux, Centennial Secondary School, District 29

 

Category B-3 – Visual Arts, Non Credit

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: Erik Steeves, Waterloo Collegiate Institute, District 24

Region 4: Malique Fitz-Charles, Josiah Allen, Adrian Williams, Ethan Lyons, Mihajlo Ruzic,

Tayshaun Smith, L Palmer, Aptus Treatment Centre, District 12

Region 5: No entries

 

Category B-4 – Media, 9-12

Region 1: No entries

Region 2: No entries

Region 3: Lina Hout, Westminster Secondary School, District 11

Region 4: Vanessa Wang, Richmond Hill High School, District 16

Region 5: Odin Worsley, North Hastings High School, District 29

 

Congratulations to the 2023 Student Achievement Awards Regional and Provincial Winners and thank you to the teachers and education worker Members that participated in making a difference in the lives of these students.