Quebec Educational Project Comes to an End and Finds a New Beginning
Quebec-based non-profit Youth Fusion takes over student press initiative Learning for a Cause and sets to making it a project aimed at countering drop out rates among the province's high school students.
Online, September 28, 2010 (Newswire.com) - The non-profit student press Learning for a Cause was started at Lester B. Pearson High School by educator Michael Ernest Sweet in 2004. The project initially published a book by kids and just five years later was attracting celebrities such as Martin Sheen to write alongside the Montreal-North teens. This week, the project folds into the Montreal-based Youth Fusion, an award-winning organization founded by Gabriel Bran Lopez, which aims to counter drop out rates by creating innovative partnerships between universities and high schools.
Learning for a Cause has published more than a dozen books by high school students both in Montreal and around North America. The initiative has received countless endorsements from the likes of legendary author Farley Mowat to environmentalist David Suzuki and even Hollywood billionaire Candy Spelling. Two Quebec Entrepreneurial Awards, an Indie World Book Award and a Prime Minister's Award also grace the walls of the small press formally run from Lester B. Pearson High School.
"We celebrated our fifth year last year very successfully. As part of the celebration we looked for ways to expand, to get this opportunity out to more students - to make more students authors. Youth Fusion is a solid organization with a vast network in Quebec schools. This organization can make this publishing project even bigger and even better. I am very happy with this move. I have done my part and am thrilled about what others might be able to do with this project. It's not a sad time for us, it's an exciting time," said Learning for a Cause founder Michael Ernest Sweet.
"We are pleased and excited to be taking over such a project. Unquestionably, the Learning for a Cause project comes with a reputation second to none in Canadian student publishing. Becoming authors and getting work published are just the sort of things that might help inspire students to stay in school," said Gabriel Bran Lopez, Youth Fusions founder.
The Learning for a Cause publishing model will begin at Youth Fusion as soon as possible. Find more details at www.youthfusionquebec.org or www.learningforacause.org.
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Tags: drop out rates, English Montreal School Board, Gabriel Bran Lopez, Learning for a Cause, Martin Sheen, Michael Ernest Sweet, montreal schools, Quebec Education, Youth Fusion Quebec
