Mississauga East Diversity Equity Wellness Conference
I felt honoured to have been invited as a Guest Speaker for the Mississauga East Diversity Equity and Wellness Day at Father Michael Goetz Catholic Secondary School today. I presented to grade six, seven and eight students from the Mississauga East Family of Schools.
We arrived early, well before the students, and we were warmly welcomed by one of the 2019 Diversity, Equity and Wellness Conference Committee member, Mr. Kalaparambath, who is also the Vice-Principal at Canadian Martyrs Catholic School. He escorted us to the gymnasium, where most of the day’s events were scheduled to take place, including my Public Speaking presentations.
A few high school students helped to unload my van and to carry the items required for my presentation to the gymnasium. Set up took a little while but was quite manageable. It was all up, and ready to go, as the students started to arrive. The students came into the gymnasium wearing red, white and yellow t-shirts. One of the first schools to arrive was Corpus Christi. I was so glad to see Mr. Caronzo, a grade eight teacher from there, whom I met back in January. He was equally delighted, as he came over to see me.
Mr. Zammit, a 2019 Diversity, Equity and Wellness Conference Committee member and Vice-Principal at Philip Pocock Catholic Secondary School, welcomed all the students in attendance and introduced Father Michael Goetz Chaplain, Deacon Frendo, who provided a beautiful opening prayer and entertained all the students with a Catholic Education Week Singalong. Following the liturgy, Mr. Zammit introduced the honourable Elder Isaac Day, who provided the Key Note address to all in attendance.
The three workshops started afterwards, and all the students were scheduled to attend each one on a rotational basis. The one workshop, of course, was my Public Speaking presentation.
My first audience was the YELLOW group. These were students from the following schools:
- St. Timothy
- Sts. Peter and Paul
- Father Daniel Zanon
- Charles Garnier
- St. Sofia
- St. James
- St, Thomas More
My second audience, which followed immediately afterwards, was the RED group. These students were from the following schools:
- Canadian Martyrs
- Queen of Heaven
- St. Teresa of Calcutta
- St. Pio
- Martha and Mary
- Corpus Christi
- St. Philip
After lunch, my last audience was the WHITE group. These students were from the following schools:
- St. Domenic
- Metro Andrei
- St. Alfred Bishop Scalabrini
- St. Vincent de Paul
- St. Basil
- St. Edmund
Each audience listened very well and appeared to appreciate it. Some students and teachers approached me after each of my presentations, and told me, how much they enjoyed it. For this event, the 2019 Diversity, Equity and Wellness Conference Committee had furnished each school with Exit Tickets to complete at their respective schools, so I did not provide my Exit Tickets to the students at this Conference.
The 2019 Diversity, Equity and Wellness Conference was a memorable event for all the students in attendance and I am grateful to all its’ committee members for choosing to invite me, as a Guest Speaker. I feel blessed to have been one, of the many distinguished presenters today.
