{mosimage}TORONTO - Catholic high school students are being offered a chance to learn the special tools of journalism in a day-long workshop sponsored by The Catholic Register.

The third annual Student Journalism Conference and Workshop will take place Nov. 29 at Brebeuf College School, 211 Steeles Ave. E. It will feature keynote speaker Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B., along with a group of professional journalists to offer training in all aspects of publishing a newspaper.

{mosimage}Christmas gifts don’t have to be expensive to be heartfelt and generous. With Christmas day upon us, there is still plenty of time to put together something memorable. To help you out, members of the Youth Speak News team have kindly shared some of their favourite gift and wrapping ideas that are   meaningful and different.

{mosimage}OSHAWA, Ont. - Providing a ministry of presence to post-secondary students is something that Deacon Bill Letterio considers the greatest aspect of Christian witness — and also the newest.

Letterio single-handedly started up a chaplaincy from scratch at Durham College at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) this past fall.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Joshua Lowe has taken the first prize in the seventh annual Friars’ Student Writing Award contest for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. (See here for Joshua's essay )

The Grade 11 student at St. Augustine Catholic High School in Markham, Ont., was one of more than 70 high school students between the ages of 14 and 18 who competed by submitting a 500-word essay on ecumenism.

{mosimage}GRAVENHURST, Ont. - The Teopoli Summer Experience, like a summer kids camp but with spiritual formation, is currently recruiting counsellors (teachers), lifeguards and health care professionals to make this 33-year-old tradition continue.

The camp offers swimming, canoeing, arts and crafts, sports, music, culture, drama, theology, daily Holy Mass and rosary.

{mosimage}A social networking site will offer humour as part of its Lenten program beginning Feb. 25.

Members of Xt3.com will be able to access a daily calendar that will include “daily readings, podcasts and music to give inspiration — and some laughter — during the 40 days of Lent,” according to a press release from the site.

{mosimage}Famille Marie Jeunesse will welcome 300 youth to join them for its 20th Youth Council — a bilingual weekend of prayer, skits, teachings and more, taking place June 26-29.

Famille Marie-Jeunesse is a movement of lay and consecrated young people living in community in Sherbrooke, Que. The community follows a Marian and eucharistic spirituality and is one of five similar households around the world.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Youth Speak News (YSN), a program run by The Catholic Register to bring you news about Catholic youth across the country.

Every year, YSN has featured a team of talented young writers from coast to coast, who provide our readers insight into youth events and issues, while sharing the challenges and triumphs they encounter in each of their personal faith journeys. In return, YSN offers them guidance in their writing, information gathering, photography and interviewing techniques.

{mosimage}Sarah Robinson of Port Dover, Ont., has taken first prize in the eighth annual Friars’ Student Writing Award contest for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Grade 11 student from Holy Trinity Catholic School was awarded an iPod touch for her essay that focused on the biblical passage “You are witnesses to these things.”

“For those who participated, it does send them back to the Scripture which is an important experience for the youth of today, and it’s one of the goals the archbishop has cited for Catholic education,” said Fr. Damian MacPherson, SA, director for ecumenical and interfaith affairs for the archdiocese of Toronto.”

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -  Government-appointed overseer Norbert Hartmann announced Feb. 5 that he is seizing control of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.