The Ontario Public Student Trustee Leadership Scholarship is an award jointly provided by the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) and the Public Board Council of OSTA-AECO. This scholarship is based on an outstanding initiative accomplished during the student trustee’s term and how the initiative positively impacted the students in their board. Two scholarships, in the amount of $500 each, are awarded each school year. Congratulations to the recipients of the 2026 scholarships!
Jacklyn Saddler, District School Board of Niagara Student Trustee Saddler was determined to set a precedent at her board to promote fairness and clarity around student use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). She spent “tens of hours” investigating best practices in AI use, from creating anonymous student census surveys to researching AI’s impact on adolescent cognitive development and critical thinking. Then, she consulted the DSBN AI Planning Committee and pitched her idea – a re-imagined AI framework designed to align student understanding with teacher expectations. Jacklyn also invited committee members to Student Senate meetings to better understand differences across schools. Together, they meticulously brainstormed ideas and refined them, eventually developing a tiered AI-Integration Scale (0,1, 2, 3, Infinity) outlining acceptable use. After months of collaboration, the initiative was implemented for the 2025-2026 school year. Today, it reaches over 13,000 secondary students, with posters displayed in every high school class. Described by a teacher as an enthusiastic and engaged “Renaissance woman who can do it all,” she will be attending Harvard University this fall, where she plans to double major in Human Biology and Economics.
Kaitlyn Hou, Halton District School Board
Through comforting a friend through a panic attack and speaking to many fellow students throughout her time in high school, Student Trustee Hou realized that no matter how many mental health resources the HDSB offered, it was the stigma and education surrounding “mental health help” that deterred students from getting the support they needed. This “authentic, compassionate and empathetic” Student Trustee – as described by Halton DSB’s Vice-Chair – realized a board-wide version could give students a day to decompress, learn coping strategies, access school resources, and normalize mental health conversations. After being elected, she founded the HDSB Mental Health Day Taskforce, a group of six students who spent over 240 hours developing a pitch for the Director of Education and a Mental Health Flex Day handbook for student leadership groups across the board. They presented to the Committee of the Whole, Admin Council, school principals, and even brought the conversation to student trustees at OSTA-AECO. The initiative was approved by the Director of Education and has since reached over 25,000 high school students across every HDSB high school. There is now a plan to expand it to elementary schools. She will be attending Harvard University, concentrating in Economics and Philosophy, with a minor in Government.
