Youth Speak News

Most of my childhood Sundays were spent below the stained glass windows of a beautiful church filled with incense. I was a “cradle Catholic,” baptized in a white gown and confirmed when I still had braces. However, some Sundays I spent in a modestly decorated Pentecostal church. 

Sixteen-year-old Justin Alvarado has practice every day after school during the cross-country and track-and-field seasons. He is also a member of the FC Emery soccer club, with practices two to three times a week. 

I don’t go to a Catholic high school, but I have friends who do. Some of their stories suggest a failure in the Catholic education system that makes me feel relieved that I’m not their classmate. But I think if schools continue down this path, we are endangering the future of Catholic values in society, which is disheartening to me.

Because of the Canada Summer Jobs program’s new attestation, the summer camp where I work will run with staffing changes, reduced programming and an increase in registration costs. 

It took a trip to Peru for Grade 12 student Carolyn Lee to gain a new appreciation for her classroom in Toronto.

When I was elected student trustee for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board a year ago, I had no idea what to expect. What I have learned leaves me both grateful and hopeful.

Eunice Gichuhi is half a world away from her native country, but that has never stopped her from reaching out to help. 

It has been one year since I graduated from the Bachelor of Commerce program at the University of Manitoba and I can’t help but think back to a time when I was drowning in the stress of exams. 

When relativism is the widely accepted doctrine on university campuses, backed by the feel-good motto of “you do you,” it’s easy to imagine how young Catholics might be swept away by the notion that there is no objective truth. 

When the afternoon of May 12 comes, I will walk across the stage, robed in a graduation gown, ready to take on the world.