Annual Student-Led Conference Brings Light to Inclusion and Belonging

When 135 middle school students from five British Columbia schools arrived at St. Michaels University School on May 29, they were welcomed not by teachers or administrators, but by a team of eleven Grade 8 students who had spent months building the day from the ground up.

Now in its eleventh year, the SMUS Grade 8 Student Leadership Conference is designed by Grade 8s, for Grade 8s. Each year's planning team chooses a theme and builds the entire day around it. This year's team selected We is Greater Than Me: Together is Better, taking on every detail along the way: choosing the theme, designing the logo, developing workshop offerings, creating a registration process, coordinating dietary restrictions and other student needs, and writing the MC script they would deliver on the day itself.

Sarah Ferrante, Middle School Humanities Teacher and Student Leadership Coordinator, reflected on what the experience gave both the attendees and the organizers.

"We hope students leave realizing that inclusion doesn't have to be complicated. Often, it's the simple things, like including someone in a conversation or making space for others to belong — things we can all do. As for our student organizers, they've gained experience in collaboration, organization, and on-the-spot problem solving, along with more firsthand experience than they ever needed in managing schedules, creating spreadsheets, dietary restrictions, and sustaining middle school attention spans."

The day opened with a keynote from Benveet "Bean" Gill, a Canadian accessibility advocate, entrepreneur, and co-founder of the ReYu Paralysis Recovery Centre. Gill, who has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed by a viral illness in 2012, spoke openly about her experience navigating a world not built for people with disabilities, and what it took to find her footing again. She shared a resilience framework she calls fall, feel, rise, repeat, challenging students to sit with difficult emotions rather than push past them.

"If you ever want to feel true joy, you have to feel true sadness," she told the room.

She also asked students to take concrete action: make eye contact with people who use mobility aids, leave accessible bathroom stalls for those who need them, and talk to people with disabilities the same way they would talk to anyone else.

"How do you talk to people with disabilities?" she asked. "How do you talk to everybody else? Just like that."

Gill's message of inclusion moved from the chapel into the workshops that followed. Students from SMUS, Shawnigan Lake School, Aspen Grove, St. Margaret's School, and Southpointe Academy spread across nine sessions spanning Dungeons and Dragons, a music jam, beading, altered book journaling, meditation, STEM tower building, tennis softball, ping pong, and math puzzles. The variety was deliberate. With students arriving from different schools and different backgrounds, the sessions offered common ground and a reason to work alongside someone new.

By the end of the afternoon, students headed home with tote bags bearing the marks of the day. On one side, a set of puzzle pieces clicking into place; on the other, six colourful hands, each different, all reaching toward the same centre. Designed by the Grade 8 planning team, the images said what the day had been about: that every person has something to contribute, and that the picture is incomplete without them.