Ali Al-Hanaswi December 2019 “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” proclaimed Greta Thunberg in her passionate speech before world leaders at the UN in New York, “and yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying.” The 16 year-old Swedish activist gave her speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, where plans to prevent the average global temperature

Mitchell Fox November 2019 Note: This is the extended version of an article in the printed edition from Semester 1. The 2019 cross-country season was incredible for the Woodlands Secondary School’s team, but the highlight came at the end of the season when the Junior Girls team ran their way to an OFSAA-berth. Along with being a part of the team myself, I got the pleasure of interviewing these

Olivia Hendrikx and Shiao-Tang Guo October 2019 Through the months of September and October, the Be Like Terry crew at The Woodlands Secondary School worked diligently to ensure that their 15th year of donating towards the Terry Fox Foundation would be better than any previous year. This year, aside from the annual Terry Fox barbeque hosted by Prefects and the Terry Fox walk, the Be Like Terry committee h

Mitchell Fox October 10, 2019 Each year, The Woodlands Secondary School is home to many incredible sports teams. What many people do not realize, however, is that the Cross Country team is one of the first of these teams to practice, compete and find success. This team starts their training in the second week of school, and this year, even had a meet the following

By Minhah Amin Each year, Voice awards a deserving grade 12 student with The Voice Legacy Award. Throughout the entire year, Voice fundraises money for the Legacy Award, so they can assist their older peers with the next steps of their education. Any grade 12 student can apply for The Voice Legacy Award, if they meet all the terms and rules of the award. This includes that the grade 12 student needs to have attended Woodlands for both their elementary and secondary school ye

By Minhah Amin This year, the Woodlands elementary student council, known as VOICE, hosted another dance for the elementary students of the school, and it was a huge success. This dance was Spring-themed due to do the fact that, of course, Spring was just around the corner. The students at the dance had a wonderful time, even mentioning that this dance was better than the Halloween dance that took place earlier in the year. During the dance, VOICE entertained the crowd with

By Ridhi Gopalakrishnan “One, we are Ontario! Two, a little bit louder! Three, I still can’t hear you! Four, more, more, more!” The iconic Team Ontario cheer was sung loud and proud by all members of the DECA Ontario delegation; among them, members of DECA Woodlands. This year’s DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) saw 37 members of DECA Woodlands travel to Orlando, Florida to compete at the highest level of competition that the organization has to offer. W

By Brendan Lin It is difficult to describe debating to those outside of the tight-knit debate community. Contrary to what many people believe, “debate” is not a synonym for “yelling at people who disagree with you”. Rather, it is a highly structured team competition with all the fun of DECA but none of the mind-numbing rote memorization. Woodlands debate has contributed to this underappreciated art form far more than most people at our school realize. Last year was one of our

By Mitchell Fox The Woodlands Secondary School is proud to be home to a plethora of sports teams, and therefore a large quantity of quality athletes. While The Woodlands is not a large school, and while it does not have million dollar, state-of-the-art equipment and training facilities, it has the one thing that is most necessary for any sports team, school or individual: passion. This is a quality that is well-reflected by the school’s basketball program, which is

By Ali Al-Hanaswi On Thursday, May 9, and Friday, May 10, 2019, The Woodlands Theatre Company put on a production of The Laramie Project, a play chronicling the events after the brutal beating of a gay 21-year-old from Laramie, Wyoming. The story focused on the murder of Matthew Shepard, after his encounter with two other men at a bar. Told from the perspectives of Matthew’s friends, the sheriff, employees of the bar, and other citizens of the town, it provides an in-depth lo

By Yaoxiang Song Were you one of the people settled in a seat on the sunlit Thursday evening? Had your ears become friends with the compelling sounds of endeavours that our students displayed? Not only was it a spectacular showcase, but The Woodlands’ Springfest embodied the ideals of what it means to be a student, a teacher and even a community. On May 16th 2019, we had our senior, intermediate and junior bands, as well as the choirs, give off a performance that meant much m

By Sarra Shaker The event we’ve been all waiting for. The event we’ve put months of planning into. The event that once attracted media attention, and might be the greatest event of the year... International Bazaar! International Bazaar is an annual event here at The Woodlands, and it is an incredible opportunity to travel the world in 80 minutes! Between the incredible food and the breathtaking performances, it is 80 minutes of a person’s life that cannot be missed. On April

By Nidhi Vasani Our global community is a combination of so many authentic cultures. We all love to travel and explore the diversity our world holds. For students at The Woodlands Secondary School though, travelling is not the only way to discover these wonders. The International Bazaar is a trademark event at The Woodlands Secondary School, where students and staff members alike can showcase their own backgrounds, and embrace those of others as well. The 2019 event took plac

By: Manpreet K. Gabi and Sarra Shaker The results of the girl's elementary flag football team are genuinely unbelievable. They went from not having a girls team at all, to placing second overall. Congratulations! They put in unparalleled amounts of hard work and dedication by showing up to every team practice, showing vast amounts of team spirit (including an all-new chant: “Hey Woodlands girls- Pull yourself together!”). At Tecumseh Public School, the twelve girls def

By Anna Nasirzadeh Mental illness has been a problem we’ve faced for centuries but now, it is more prominent than ever. The suicide rate in North America has increased by a staggering 25% in the last twenty to thirty years, making it account for 24% percent of deaths of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 as well as 16% of all deaths among people ages 25 to 44. Yet, there is still an incredible amount of stigma and shame associated with mental illness as it is often seen

By Nidhi Vasani DECA is a worldwide not-for-profit organization that has been ‘preparing emerging leaders’ for their futures since its founding 70 years ago. Those who partake dedicate much of their time studying case study performance indicators and business-oriented multiple choice questions - often spending more time than they do on homework for an actual course. Those who don’t always ask the same question: Why voluntarily join a club that takes so much work? Some s

By Mitchell Fox In the last few years, the Woodlands School has revived their hockey program, and although it is smaller and less developed than other schools in Peel, the resurgence of hockey at Woodlands appears to be a success. Last year, with the leadership of grade 11’s and 12’s, and the remarkable passion of the grade 9’s and 10’s, the team managed to not only play in the ROPSSAA season (a feat in its own for many schools in Peel), but also won a game. Although

Written By Ridhi Gopalakrishnan With alumni delegates ranging from Barack Obama to Ryan Seacrest, conferences held in countries around the globe, and a wide spectrum of issues hotly debated by student delegates, Model U.N. is perhaps one of the most diverse and unique extracurriculars out there. With the aim of simulating the actual proceedings of the United Nations and allowing students the opportunity to debate and reach decisions via the use of diplomatic processes, t

By Yaoxiang Song We’ve all gotten through those first few months of the school year. Whether it delighted or disappointed us, it drew us back into a student mindset or, in other words, a stressful mindset. The once warm summer days are now nothing but a fading fantasy, gone like a marshmallow in a cup of hot chocolate. However, MEDLIFE is bringing back the feeling of that very warmth by introducing “Hot Choctails”, their hot chocolate event that is taking place in the caf

By Sarra Shaker and Minhah Amin With the break right around the corner, elementary students at The Woodlands spread the holiday spirit with their friends and teachers. During this time, VOICE, the elementary SAC equivalent, organized events for the elementary students in the school. Elementary's Ugly Sweater Day was one of these VOICE events. Students and teachers alike wore their hideous sweater to show their holiday spirit, with students being given Jolly Ranchers as