The ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards, run by Youth Central, recognize awesome youth ages 13-18 for the remarkable ways in which they have chosen to live. In 2012, there were 269 finalists spread across 9 categories, more than doubling the number of nominations from last year. We’ve managed to narrow it down to three finalists in each category. The recipients of each award will be announced at the ceremony on May 5 at the Calgary Zoo. Here are more details about some of the most incredible youth Calgary has to offer:
Advocacy
Supporting cancer research has motivated 17-year-old Judy Zhu for many years. It started in elementary school, when she grew her hair for wig donations. In junior high, she canvassed for the Lung Association. At Sir Winston Churchill High School, Judy is co-president of Young Cups, a school organization that involves students in the CIBC Run for a Cure Event. She also organized a shave your head campaign, where she raised over $6,000 for cancer research from door-to-door campaigning.
As an executive member of the Amnesty International Club as Western Canada High School, Prudence Iticka has declared March as Women’s Rights Month. She is leading a group of 60 students to spread awareness about Women’s Rights. Prudence comes from an African country where women are not respected, and beating is the norm. Because of Prudence’s personal understanding of the violations of women’s rights, it has pushed her to become the voice for those who are victimized. Prudence believes it is her duty to put an end to it, and to let people know about the injustices and the voice women and girls face on a daily basis.
Grade 12 student Yara Hattab has been an executive member for the past two years in Amnesty International Club, but has led the club to focus their aim on spreading awareness about human rights violations in our world. When Yara organized an event which brought awareness about the human rights violations in Palestine, she was faced with an entire community mistaking the project as being biased and considered not safe for the student population. On the day of the event, Yara and her team were told that the project had been shut down due to complaints because of the nature and issue the event touched on. The Amnesty club was silenced. But from this silence, it brought awareness to people all over Calgary of the issues faced by Palestinians.
Arts and Culture
Gordie Beingessner is one of the most dedicated volunteers at the Loose Moose Theatre Company. He regularly volunteers up to 20 hours per week at the theatre. He is there every weekend, helping with the front of house, backstage, running lights and performing. He’s consistently at classes and has made huge strides in becoming a skilled improviser. Many of the senior players rank Gordie as the top up and comer with a bright future in acting.
Mayor’s Youth Council member Nandini Thogarapalli is the founder of One Art, a project that fosters teamwork in children through collaborative art. Through One Art, Nandini has engaged groups such as Millennium Kidz n’ Kare and the Bowness division of the Boys and Girls Club. Nandini also explores issues of artistic opportunity for youth by participating in forums like Calgary’s 2011 Art and Youth Forum, hosted by the Michaelle Jean Foundation.
Sarah Troy Clark is a passionate singer/songwriter who has now released four CDs independently. It was Sarah’s idea to create YoUthtopia, an annual event now in its third year. She wanted to create an opportunity for young artists to perform on a professional stage. Sarah curates the event and even raises funds to cover expenses. She also coaches other young musicians and emerging artists within the community at no charge to them.
Environmentalism – Group
The members of the ECO Club at Lester B. Pearson High School hope to create a more sustainable environment starting within their school, homes and community with the belief that change starts locally, but can widen with time. They run activities that promote a greener school, including Bin It to Win It, Get Caught Recycling, and the Golden Broom Award. They also organized and participated in a community clean-up event and promote the reduction of electricity used in classrooms.
The TD Youth Earth Ambassadors is a committee of youth who are representing their school’s environment club. These youth recognize the power of many, and by sitting on the committee, they are working together to create change. Last year, the group spearheaded the Green Life Challenge, a project where youth track their eco footprint. They also organized a Green Youth Gathering, an interactive conference with engaging speakers who were hands-on in explaining environmental issues.
The Western Canada High School Environment Club consists of a large group of students that gather at lunchtime to discuss and plan environmental events. They strive to raise awareness of issues locally as well as globally through events like the Green Life Challenge, Bike-In, Adopt-A-Park, Battery Recycling, Eco Movies, and more.
Environmentalism – Individual
West Island College student Mila Mezei is a member of the TD Youth Earth Ambassadors as well as her school’s Roots & Shoots Club. Through Roots & Shoots, Mila has organized and participated in many projects, including a screening of The Cove and petition against dolphin slaughter. Mila also helped her school obtain a $10,000 grant from BP Energy that is being used to implement a renewable energy education program at her school, which she is currently leading.
Sheetal Patel joined the Western Canada High School Environment Club in Grade 10 and now, in Grade 12, she is co-president. She is also a co-chair of the TD Youth Earth Ambassadors. She leads and plans environmental events, including helping a junior high develop a proper recycling program, numerous garbage pick-ups and Yellow Fish Road projects. After high school, Sheetal plans on travelling and learning about the environment while volunteering, then pursuing a career in environmental studies.
Leadership
Sir Winston Churchill High School student Ayat Saleh believes that change comes gradually. Ayat is a coordinator of the Heart and Stroke foundation club, student council and school leadership team. She also coordinates Right to Learn, a youth-in-action group that raises funds for Free the Children, and a member of the United Nations Association of Canada Ripple Effect Group.
17-year-old Shane Scott acts locally and globally to enhance youth voice and works to empower others to do the same. He is one of the co-founders of Forest Lawn High School’s Principal’s Advisory Council, and was a key organizer in their anti-bullying campaign. Shane has also spearheaded a gay-straight alliance at the school. At this year’s Alberta Education Speak Out Conference, Shane will teach a session about raising awareness of issues for First Nations, Metis and Inuit students in Alberta’s classrooms.
As a junior high student and newcomer to Canada, Jovey Sharma was bullied by his classmates. He joined a group with the Bridge Foundation and began volunteering with Youth Central, where he found a more positive environment, and it was here that Jovey made his commitment to educating others about equality and making a difference in your community. Jovey joined the Multicultural Youth Action with the Canadian Red Cross, and now gets everyone around him interested in issues like poverty, recycling or children being used as soldiers in war-torn countries.
Peer Support
It doesn’t matter if you’re a stranger or his best friend, if Grade 12 student Daymen McNulty sees that you aren’t having the best day, he will stand up for you and do everything in his power to make sure that you are safe and happy. For example, when his nominator and friend Chantelle was going through a tough time in her life and dealing with an abusive relationship, fighting with her parents and not attending school, Daymen was the person she could turn to. He would drop everything to comfort her and helped her get her life back on track.
17-year-old Nilufer Hasanova was bullied and picked on before she learned to stand up for herself. Now, she is doing everything she can to make sure none of her peers go through the same thing. She knows that a kind word can make someone’s day, so she compliments her peers constantly. She has had friends tell her that she stopped them from committing suicide, and they now look at life in a different way. Nilufer is also a part of the NOW program, where she helps newcomers adjust to life in Canada.
Sir Winston Churchill high school student Sikta Samantray is involved in a variety of community outreach programs covering children, youth and seniors. At Girl Power, she is the recreational lead for underprivileged girls. She plans and conducts activities to boost their confidence and self-esteem. At Amaan, she spent a month conducting creative workshops for the orphans in Egypt, inspiring them to learn in a collaborative environment. At Big Brothers Big Sisters and Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association, she mentors youth and elementary children. And through Project Friday, she assists the autistic and disadvantaged children in a literacy program.
Perseverance
Originally from war-torn Burundi, 17-year-old Ernest Dushime has spent much of his life fleeing conflict. When the civil war escalated, his family of 14 siblings and his mother were forced to flee. After it was safe to return home, Ernest discovered that his father had been killed in the conflict. In the subsequent fighting, Ernest lost seven siblings. When his home was raided Ernest hid under the bed with his mother and remaining siblings. They were ultimately pulled out by soldiers and his mother was ruthlessly killed in front of her children. Shortly after, Ernest’s uncle took the family in and together, they fled Burundi and travelled through Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya before finally settling in Canada in 2006. Now, as a community outreach assistant for the YMCA, Ernest uses his understanding of conflict and loss to help others who have also experience trauma or transition.
At 14 years old, Kayla Bennett came out as a lesbian. She was ostracized by close family members. After Grade 9, Kayla got involved with drugs and alcohol. Kayla became homeless and several times a week she would get high on ecstasy with a close friend who would use cocaine, ketamine, and several other substances. This caused her friend to develop a seizure disorder, and passed away shortly afterward. Kayla knew she didn’t want that for herself and began the long and challenging path to sobriety. Now, at Discovering Choices High School, Kayla has become a role model amongst her peers. She was a leader in raising $5,000 for the Kids Cancer Care Foundation, even shaving her head for the cause.
16-year-old Raeleigh Boss’ struggles with clinical depression and ADHD led her down a dark path to drug and alcohol abuse. By the time she was 12, she was an addict. If that wasn’t enough to handle, she was sexually assaulted at 12 years old and left pregnant. She realized she was too young to give the baby the life it deserved, and an abortion was not an option for her, so she gave the baby to her aunt and uncle to adopt. She started focusing on school and after dealing with the death of a few friends from drug overdoses and overdosing herself, she made the difficult decision to sober up and stay clean.
Sportsmanship
Throughout high school, Armin Rouhi has been involved with a sport in every season. Even if he does not make the team, he volunteers to help with a program. Armin started a Facebook page for Crescent Athletics on his own volition and updates it constantly. He has done so much for the Crescent Heights High School athletics program that they created an award for him called the ‘Spirit and Dedication Award.’
Grade 12 student Hailee-Jean Lindgren is passionate about athletics, in particular, basketball. Unfortunately, a knee injury has kept Hailee-Jean from playing on any school sport team since her Grade 10 year.
However, this has not kept her away from athletics. She is the president of the Casey spirit council at Bishop Carroll High School and has dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours to making this council a success. She is also manager of the junior girls basketball team and mentors a boy with a learning disability, tandem bike riding with him for hours on weekends to help improve his balance.
17-year-old Jordan Crowell donates his time to help coach community basketball, and is a positive role model for youth. He always has the best interests of his teammates in mind, and his chosen positions of setter in volleyball and point guard in basketball to reflect this ideal. In Grade 11, when there were discipline issues on his basketball team and proper sportsmanship was not shown, he chose not to participate and took a stand against it. He earned the respect of many by standing his ground for what he believed in, even though it meant he would not be participating in his favourite sport.
Volunteerism
On average, Grade 10 student Bryanne Barlow spends about nine hours a week assisting many different organizations and causes in and outside of Calgary. She coordinated a school-wide fundraiser called Pennies for Patients, which raised over $7,000 for Leukemia research and patients in Canada. She also promotes Project Love, an organization that focuses on giving school supplies to students in Africa. She collected over 200 bags of school supplies for Ethiopian students.
At the age of three, Luqman Musse moved to Africa and for six years, Luq helped his grandmother cook food for the community to battle starvation. Then, as a 15-year-old living in Malaysia, Luq volunteered at a camp targeted to high needs and at-risk kids who suffered from economic hardship. Now 19 and living in Calgary, Luq has sought local volunteer initiatives like volunteering at the Foothills Hospital, with immigrant youth, and on the Discovering Choices Youth Council.
18-year-old Naveed Kawsar has volunteered at the Calgary Public Library for nearly four years, and is a Peer Leader with the Calgary Bridge Foundation. Naveed also feels strongly connected to his school, Crescent Heights. As part of the Crescent Heights Track and Field, Cross-Country, Fitness Training Club and Badminton Club, as well as the editor for the school newspaper, he strives to positively portray his school’s community.