Skills Ontario is encouraging students to participate in various competitions throughout the school year. Sudbury Catholic students learning both in-class and remotely have been eagerly participating in the various challenges with remarkable results. 

International Day of the Girl Virtual Activity Series
The International Day of the Girl (October 11^th) was established by the United Nations in 2012 and is recognized as a day to acknowledge girls and their rights, education and opportunities. This year’s theme was “My voice, our equal future”.

Students at Marymount Academy were fortunate to have participated in the Skills Ontario’s International Day of the Girl Virtual Activity Series.

Construction Sector- Iron Worker- Marshmallow Towers

In 2009, the 859 ft tall, Aqua skyscraper was designed by Jeanne Gang and built in Chicago becoming the tallest building in the world. In this challenge, students were asked to design and build the tallest free-standing tower using toothpicks and marshmallows. Grade 7 students, Maili Jutila and Lylah Jebreen placed first with their design!

“Girls can be great leaders in the Iron Work & Construction sector. We kept building until we got it right!  Girls can do anything they set their mind to,” they said.

Paper Dresses 1920’s Style

Coco Chanel revolutionized the fashion industry in the 1920’s by designing and marketing casual outfits that were both elegant and comfortable to wear, a sharp contrast to the bulky corsets and petticoats that were popular at the time. Her designs helped give the 1920’s their iconic and distinct style and her fashion house is still producing stylish and unique clothes to    this day. Skills Ontario challenged students to follow in the footsteps of Coco and design and create a dress in the 1920’s style! Students were asked to use specific items as ‘fabric’ and only glue, staples, hole punch & yarn/string to ‘sew’. Milena Raso placed third in the Service Sector’s Paper Dress 1920’s Style challenge.

“Doing the fashion design contest has helped me expand my knowledge of sewing and working with different materials! I am used to working with fabrics and durable materials. While I was working on my paper dress, I had to remind myself to be careful as my material was very delicate. I followed a 1920s flapper dress theme and it helped me learn about a different time era and focus on specific details from that era,” she explained.

“We are always excited to promote experiential learning initiatives as a fun way of engaging and encouraging our youth to consider the pathways in the skilled trades and technologies,” said Peter Prochilo, Superintendent of School Effectiveness.

“It’s exciting to witness our students continuing to excel in these challenges. It’s amazing to see the level of enthusiasm they put into their submissions,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education. “We value our partnership with Skills Ontario which provides our students with hands-on learning opportunities and look forward to continuing to work with them throughout the school year to promote our students with engaging and meaningful learning opportunities.”