Jing Wang wants to trumpet student voices and the environment in her role as the Vancouver School Board’s second student trustee.
The Vancouver District Student Council elected the Prince of Wales student to the position May 20.
Wang says the VSB’s first student trustee, Nick Milum, gave her good advice.
“He said to have a couple of goals in mind at the beginning of the school year so that if I ever do get lost I can always go back to that list and remember where I started from and what I want to accomplish,” she said. “And that there will be people that don’t support everything I say… so having that backup plan always there is a good way to guide me. It’s like a road map.”
Wang represented her school at the district student council when she was in Grade 10 and represented students this past year on the VSB’s planning and facilities committee.
In addition to student politics, Wang enjoys participating in Chinese traditional dance, singing and reading. The resident of Kitsilano was born in Tokyo, the rest of her family in China, and she’s pleased her mother pushed her to try traditional Chinese dance.
“It made me realize that going back to your roots is extremely important,” Wang said.
Milum is proud that a motion he suggested on behalf of the Kids for Climate Change Action group to the VSB requesting a full-scale health assessment of the Fraser Surrey coal docks expansion passed in December. He encouraged the board to include students in facility consultations and that provided a student voice at the table.
Milum advises future student trustees to speak up.
“You’re sitting there at that big board table and it can be intimidating in the very beginning, but just to make sure that your voice is heard because that’s the job of the student trustee,” he said.
The amount of talk the board heeds surprised Milum, especially regarding the VSB’s budget and its revised sexual orientation and gender identities policy.
“I had never thought that there was that much consultation and that the trustees were listening to the public that much,” he said. “I was actually really pleased to see that.”
Milum was one of six student trustees in B.C. last year. He said the B.C. School Trustees Association passed a motion at its annual general meeting in April asking the provincial government to amend the B.C. School Act to allow more active student trustee participation in board activities.
Milum could suggest but not move motions as student trustee and couldn’t vote.
Student trustees have served on school boards in Ontario and New Brunswick for years. Milum said former Vancouver District Student Council presidents Leah Bae, Jennifer Yoon and Chansey Chaing deserve credit for making sure Vancouver students got a representative at the board table.
