Some U.S. kids have to do 75 to 100 hours of community service (volunteer work helping people in the community) before they can graduate. Do you think this would help. you? Do you think it is a . IT WAS an experience I will never forget. All the emotions, all the trast, all the openness you would never find anywhere else. Fifty students from Sutherland, Keith Lynn, Carson and Argyle were chosen to be peer counsellors and attend a three-day counselling workshop at Outdoor School. The school is located on the banks of the Cheakamus River, between Squamish and Whistler. -Peer counsellors are students who are in the schools to listen and help their peers with any dif- ficulties or obstacles they may face. judge. We are there io listen and understand. Our main goal is to give students the confidence they need to make their own choices and to help them deal with and understand any emotions they feel. We believe that these two areas are the most important because when you are a teenager there are many changes you go through. You don’t always need someone to tell you what to do, sometimes you only need someone to listen. Upon departure from North We are not there to advise or ‘YouTH NEWS | ; ea cas good idea? Peer pleasures NV student peer counsellors hone communication skills Vancouver heading for the Out- door School, we were seated on the bus beside someone who we had never seen or talked to be- fore. We were asked to start a conversatic:. with this person. It was scary at first, figuring out who would start. Neither of us knew where to begin. We started by telling each other about our likes and dislikes; we had a few laughs throughout the conver- sation. By the time the bus ride was over, we had learned a fot about each other, and had made a new friend. At the dinner table, we took turns introducing ourselves to, our fellow counseliors. I found out that they weren't just faces in the hall, they were’ people who thought and felt the same as I do. I knew that we were going to be special friends. It was hard to explain how I knew that. It was just instinct. When you feel strongly about something, other people can sense that as well. That was part of the com- munication skills we learned: how to recognize body language rather than words. Sometimes people hide behind a mask, and we learned how to look through the mask, Don’t get me wrong, we are not mind readers, but we were being trained to listen and understand. We learned to remove our masks for the three days we spent together. Some of us took ionger than others to be able to do that. We learned to trust one another, and by doing that we found we could open up and let our deepest thoughts and emo- tions flow freely. I found that if you have trust in someone, it makes it much easier to open up, remove. your mask, and share your feelings. If this trust does not exist, it is COMICS BIG NATE® by Lincoln Plerce OKAY, FRANCIS, I'M GOING TO GIVE You My NK BLOT TesT*! JUST TELL ME WHAT ‘Ou SEE... AND REMEMBER, THERE ARE NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWERS ! “phate Vera Bethan STUDENTS heiping students is the motte of the North Vancouver Secondary School Peer Counsel- ling program. Teens from every high school in the district went to Outdoor School recently io learn how to counsel! their peers. The sessions helped them kecome more comfortable, close and open with others. virtually impossible to let your feelings show. Throughout the three days we learned listening skills — how to listen attentively and how to let the speaker know you are listen- ing. We studied verbal and behavioral cues that give us in- dications when something is not right. If someone comes to us with a problem and is unable to express him- or herself we can then apply the skills we have learned. After our return home from i_ JUST SAID THAT TO Outdoor School we went to a movie, and then for coffee. We found that even though we were away from Outdoor School we still had the same strong bonds with each other. We also realized that we can use the skills that we learned to help others. Just to let others know a little more about peer counselling, we are not shrinks or practising psychoanalysts. We are people who care, understand and want to help. Any North Vancouver student can contact a peer counsellor by Last week we asked for your opinions on the upcoming constitutional referendum. I would vote yes because I think Canada and Quebec should stay together because we've been together a long time and we shouldn’t split up. 1 don’t really care if Quebec leaves. But, if I could vote, 'd just play eeny, meeny, miney, moe. If I voted yes. I don’t thiak it would really affect my country, and if I voted no I don’t think it would really af- fect my country. I'd personally vote yes because we do need Quebec and if Quebec leaves then we'd have a different lifestyle and I don’t think anybody’s ready to do that. I vote yes. Bonjour, je suis vote oui, et mon ami vote oui. As far as I’m concerned they should go south, all they do is asking about it at their school’s counselling office. There are 10 to 15 peer counsellors at each high school. We are there to help anyone who will let us. So please look in- to the pzer counselling Program in your: school. If you" Te happy, we're happy. Youth Views is written coopera- tively by the students of | Sutherland secondary school’s Video Production career prepara- tion ‘course. Teya Mathias is one the class’ five students. make us have French lessons in class when we should be learn- ing Japanese because Canada is moving sloser to Japan every year. . Vr, just a stupid little kid under 18 and going to high school. If § could vote I’d just do the eeny, meeny, miney, moe thing, but I don’t think my one little vote would do any good. But I'd like to start my own country of stupid little kids, and we could start up our own government and we'd sur- vive on our own.