Student wins trip to Ottawa
Video turns into ticket to national capital
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, September 19, 2016
HAY RIVER
A student from Princess Alexandra School will be heading to Ottawa in November as a result of a video about her project in the NWT Heritage Fair.
Rochelle Smith won first place in the Hay River Heritage Fair and third place overall in the NWT Heritage Fair in Yellowknife in May.
Afterward, she was invited to make a short video about her project titled The Fight to Become a Person which focused on the Famous Five, a group of women who fought to allow women to sit in the Canadian Senate. The project featured Smith dressed as a suffragette and singing a song about women's rights.
"I'm really excited," said the 11-year-old Rochelle of winning the trip to Ottawa. "I've never been that far away from home before."
The Grade 7 student found out in late August that her four-minute video had won her the trip. She will be one of two NWT students from to participate in this year's Young Citizens program.
The other is Shae McMahon of Paul William Kaeser High School in Fort Smith. His video is entitled Raised in the Hood? and examines traditional clothing in the North.
The two NWT students will be attending a Canada's History Youth Forum for 26 winners between the ages of 10 and 15 years from across the country.
It's part of the Young Citizens program, a complementary component to heritage fairs. It is an annual event where students present the results of their research on Canadian heroes, legends and key events in the country's history.
