Participating Schools

Over twenty schools from Canada, the United States, and Japan took part in the first Youth Nuclear Peace Summit. Each school sent at least four students and one supervising teacher. These are the schools that came:

Manitoba

  • Argyle Alternative High School

  • Children of the Earth High School

  • Collège Jeanne-Sauvé

  • Collège Louis Riel

  • Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau

  • École communautaire Réal-Bérard

  • École Secondaire Kelvin High School

  • Garden City Collegiate

  • Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School

  • Maples Collegiate

  • Miles Macdonell Collegiate

  • River East Collegiate

  • St. John's High School

  • Vincent Massey Collegiate

  • Wanipigow High School

Canada

  • Olds High School — Olds, Alberta

  • Toronto Waldorf School — Toronto, Ontario

United States

  • Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High School — Los Angeles, California

  • Lincoln High School — Portland, Oregon

  • Taylor High School — Cleves, Ohio

Japan

  • Kansai Soka High School — Katano City, Osaka Prefecture

Eight topics were prepared in advance. Teams from seven Manitoba schools and one from California trained through three full-day sessions, each taking a topic to research in depth. At the Summit itself, those students led the discussion of their topic with everyone else.

Topic Led by
Nuclear Energy and Power River East Collegiate
Environmental Impacts Children of the Earth High School
The Role of Education in Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School
Economic Costs Alliance Dr. Olga Mohan High School
Human Costs Miles Macdonell Collegiate
Overcoming Barriers to Global Peace Maples Collegiate
Global Opportunities Vincent Massey Collegiate
History of Nuclear Weapons Development St. John's High School
Topics and Guiding Q's

Learning Villages

Students were sorted into groups of six called learning villages. Each school's four students were assigned to four different villages, so that the people they worked with for three days were people they had not met before. The eight research topics were presented into these villages by the student facilitators.

Teacher and Student Resources.

Preparing students for a summit

  • Become familiar with UN treaties. Advance knowledge of how treaty language works and what it is for makes a real difference to what students can do once they arrive.

  • Research. Give students time to learn the state of the nuclear world before they come, so they arrive with a working baseline. Have them explore broadly first, then narrow to what genuinely interests them.

  • Set expectations. Talk about what you expect from them when they come home. Follow-up activities, action in the school or community. Students who know there is an after are more focused during.

  • Review the agenda together. Knowing what is coming helps students prepare for it and get more out of it.

  • Talk about networking. Discuss what it will be like to meet peers and professionals. Reach out to new people. Find like-minded peers. Swap contact details. Ask questions. Be curious.

  • Gather ideas. Stress that the point is to collect strategies from other people, because the real work starts when they get home.

  • Find common ground. Encourage reflective, collaborative dialogue rather than debate-winning. Students should bring their own community's experience and perspective into the room.

  • Keep a journal. Written or electronic, kept before, during and after. It becomes the guide for follow-up work and helps students stay connected to the people they met.

  • Explore your local context. Consider a town hall or a community survey. Make sure students encounter a genuine range of views, not just the ones they already hold.

Helpful Links

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Donations are processed through our registered charity partner, the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties via Canada Helps. You'll also receive a charitable tax receipt!

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