New Myrnam School Students Attend Gener8/Navig8 Summit!

by Sydney Chanasyk

Back in March, I was lucky enough to be one of 6 students selected to attend the Generate/Navigate summit put on by Inside Education in Canmore, AB. The summit spanned over the third weekend of the month, starting on Thursday and concluding on that Sunday. This was the 12th annual summit and it was attended by over 120 students and 40 teachers from across Alberta and even into BC! Our group was split into two teams, the gener8 team (energy based), and the navig8 team (water based). It was an amazing opportunity for us to experience being surrounded by professionals in all fields regarding energy, water, and climate leadership! Everyone gained so much valuable knowledge that we were able to bring back to incorporate in our project based work. The first day of the summit started with the official kickoff. First was a scavenger hunt with sustainability based questions in order to collect all the pieces to a hydrogen powered car. Then, a test to see who could get their car to run first! Although we were not the winning team, we still had a great time working together, and testing our sustainability knowledge. Our team closed off day one by going on a walk around Canmore, and doing some GeoCaching! Day two started off full of insightful panels & discussions for both teams. These panels consisted of professionals in their field sharing helpful information to all the schools, and were followed by a Q&A. After this, we went on another scavenger hunt, this time around the town of Canmore! We were also able to participate in round table discussions, where we were able to speak to different companies and professionals one-on-one in order to gain more knowledge and insight into our project. To conclude the second day, we had a formal Gala dinner, with keynote speaker Sam Effah, who in July 2010, Effah became, what was then, the fourth fastest Canadian ever after running a 10.06 in the 100 meter. At the 2009 Canada Games Effah won the gold medal in the 200 m. It was such an action packed day, and the next day was just as busy! We started day three with a youth panel, where we were able to hear about two youths' actual experiences in the energy and water industry. Then, we were given more time to work on our energy project, ‘Leading Our Community Towards Net Zero.Our project focuses on reducing Myrnam's carbon footprint. Our team started our work with a forensic energy audit of the Village of Myrnam’s CTEC facility, discovering that an enormous amount of energy can be saved by reducing the amount of time the HVAC system is running. They presented their findings to the Village of Myrnam Council in November 2022. The second phase involves adding onto the 6KW grid tied solar array that we installed in a previous project. By the end of the conference, we had added so much more information to our project! After this, we had the opportunity to learn from even more professionals with some hands-on experiences in the different energy and water sec- tors. Our last activity of the conference was touring around different parts of Canmore. The schools were divided into different teams, each going to different places around Canmore and learning about different things! After all the engaging activities of the day, we ended with a western style social evening, including a dinner and dance! This gave us an opportunity to engage with other students, and make friends!

The final day consisted of more time to finalize our project and figure out how to put it into action in our community. We were also able to discuss other schools projects with them, and give them insights into their work, while they did the same for us! It was such an amazing opportunity to attend such an insightful event put on by Inside Education. Our entire team gained so much knowledge that we will be able to use not only for our project based work, but for the rest of our lives! It was very inspiring to meet people who are doing similar work to us, and those who have been able to make it their career. Thank you to everyone on our team who made this happen, everyone who attended the summit, and to all those who put the whole event together! We all appreciate it greatly!