The Alberta Student Leadership Conference (ASLC) starts this Sunday at Drumheller Valley Secondary School.
    The school plays host to 52 different schools from Alberta and one school from Nunavut for the event.
    This is the 28th year for the annual conference, which will see 600 students and 100 advisors taking part.
    Conference chair, teacher Cindy Karpa, said the goals at the conference includes helping students learn that both they and their contributions to the world are valuable.
    “It’s inspiring students that they have a voice, and it can be heard, and they can make a difference.”
    Karpa said leadership development events will include having the students attend keynote speakers on different topics such as facing challenges and overcoming adversity, accepting and embracing your own individuality, and social activism and enterprises.
    “Having them attend keynote speakers - that gives them an opportunity to experience things that they normally wouldn’t outside their school.”
    It’s a good opportunity to bring in speakers that an average, rural school wouldn’t regularly have the budget for.
    The conference is bringing back Rachel’s Challenge, which first visited DVSS in 2011, and then again in 2012.
    Rachel’s Challenge is an organization that helps youth with acceptance, kindness, compassion, and respect of others.
    Karpa said Rachel’s Challenge had an impact with the school, and they’ve seen positive changes as a result.
    And it encourages and motivates the students.
    “It’s empowering them to step forward and do those things and believe in themselves.”
    Karpa said there will be small group workshops that students get to select from. Some are hosted by local teachers and local community members, as well as those  from outside the community and province.
    70 students from DVSS called “Spirit Leaders” will be heading up the student groups  called Spirit Groups, consisting of about 30 kids, with 2 of the 70 students as leaders working together with the group.
    Another 30 students have given their time to work on the tech crew for the conference, and there are a number of students volunteering.

A Drumheller girl has worked hard over the last year to make her way to Argentina, but her work is far from over.

Brianna Watson, 17, daughter of Dave and Shauna Watson arrived in Buenos Aires last weekend. She wanted to take on a new challenge and found a company that presents adventure excursion travel. As a 17 year old, she was able to work out a volunteer opportunity in Buenos Aires working with orphans.

“This was the only way through a non-religious group that would allow me, at 17, to go to another country to do mission-like work,” Brianna told inSide Drumheller. “There’s a series of orphanages on the outskirts of the city that I will be working at.”

The job entails working in a guardian-like capacity for the children.  Her day starts by getting them up and taking them to school. It also includes preparing meals and helping with homework, six days a week.

“It will be long days,” she chuckles.

At 17, she is a well-seasoned traveller, taking trips to New York and Washington. She spent a summer in Spain and a few trips to Mexico.  Argentina may be her furthest excursion yet.

This trip wasn’t planned at the spur of the moment. Brianna set her sights on this over a year ago, and made arrangements to graduate from high school early. While many students are picking out prom dresses, she was working on learning more about the culture of Argentina.

“I had to get permission from the principal to graduate early and then I started cramming courses to graduate in January. And then I had to work for a few months to get the money to do this,” said Brianna.

   The excursion is for three months and she will be back at the end of July.

   This is a path she wants to continue for her professional career.

   “I am going to the University of Alberta and I’m doing a major in biology with a minor in political science. I want to do international environmental projects, and like the name implies there would be a lot of travelling,” she said.