Interview with Joey

4;00-4:30

What Joey says about the last meeting:

"I was sitting there, Deanne was on my left and Ann was two my right at the head of table. Ann was lovin' it. We started talking about the ideas that were up on the board, and we talked about what we could add to what was already there. There were ideas of the board of things that could help make the changes we want. I suggested a music program or something to do with music."

Linda:What does youth advocacy mean to you?
Joey:It's wicked, we need it. Children, teenager mainly, and children, everyone should get a say in what they want to do because everyone is different and everyone is interested in different things, so we have to have a say in what we do. We know what we like, and yes we know what we have to and sometimes we don't wanna do it, but that's why we have adults there man.

Linda:So you believe in enforcement?
Joey:No I believe we should have a say in what we do but we can't go crazy with it, we have to have some certain amount of.... like parents know best for their children obviously. Honestly, our parents do kind of own us, because we do come from them.

Linda:What would be the major change that you would like to see next?
Joey:The changes we are going to work on as a group.. Well there's so many things I can think about because we can try to start working with with the actual youth. We have to get that lounge done. I am excited to help out with it and I have good ideas! At one of the meetings we talked about the lounge and there was a lot of different people there (an open meeting) and people were giving ideas about the lounge and it was really good because we got a lot of ideas done. We chose virtues and I was going through and picking good meanings that apply to us, and Roger was going through taking some out too. An idea suggested was to put the words somewhere like on the floor or ceiling or stain glass. I suggested stain glass words that would shine into the lounge. Another idea was taking the ceiling boards and different groups can decorate it. And then Carol suggested to have a tree (an artificial one) in the lounge! Good stuff. Good ideas. We're going to put murals up, I think.

Linda:How do you make your everyday curriculum and lifestyle in school as alternative as possible?
Joey:I do usually post-pone tests in biology, and I find that the teachers are a lot more easy going; they actually respect you and they understand that you are there because you couldn't deal with high school. You couldn't just, talk, throughout high school. I talked a lot in high school. I consider the amount of respect I get from the Murphy Centre as alternative to high school.

Linda:If you had done something differently in high school, what would it have been?
Joey:I would've been more involved with high school. I look back and I regret not being a part of the community. I was involved in the musical and choir but I could've easily been someone to stay on Student Council, and I regret not doing as good as I could have. I do understand why i didn't do good and it was because I simply didn't want to- I didn't want to do anything. I just went to school and I was social, barely did a thing. Although i find when I have something important going on in life i tend to do better in school. Like when I was in the musical, I kept all my grades up.

Linda:What's a challenge you feel at the M.C right now?
Joey:A challenge? A challenge to stay on course. I was doing a lot better in the beginning than I'm doing now. I'm still doing good in biology and English, but I have a low mark in math. I don't think the school could help me, it's just me.

Linda:What are you passionate about?
Joey:You know what I'm passionate about? Fund raising. I think that we need to start fund raising because we do have a bit of money there but we are going to need more if we want to make as many changes as we can within this school, and then maybe someday into the community. so when you look at it it's going to take a lot of money. This is really going to go somewhere and we need to have the funds to back it up. We could have car washes, or a show, or even for the older students a pub crawl. It is important because if we want little things done (lounge, etc) we're going to need money. So why not start the fund raising?

Linda:Would you be interested in the idea of a talent show?
Joey:*BIG SMILES*

Our meeting has to be cut short because I have to go to work. Cya everyone!