FUTURE LEADERS AWARDS WINNERS ARE TOMORROW’S AGENTS OF CHANGE

BY DENISE DEVEAU

The RBC Future Launch Future Leaders Award recognizes exceptional young women who are transforming their communities through innovation, collaboration and courage. “RBC is pleased to be able to acknowledge and support this award and to recognize deserving young Canadian women who will undoubtedly be part of the future and fabric of this country,” says Mark Beckles, Senior Director, Youth Strategy and Innovation, RBC Corporate Citizenship in Toronto. Here, three of the five honourees share their views on the role they hope to play in shaping that future.

Kehkashan Basu

Founder President, Green Hope Foundation; Youth Ambassador World Future Council

“When you have nothing can stop you.”

When I saw an image of a dead bird with a belly full of plastic at the age of seven, I decided I had to do something. So I planted my first tree on my eighth birthday in celebration of Environment Day.

Then I started working on the ground, trying to engage my community, going door to door talking to people and conducting workshops for my friends about what they could do to help.

By the age of 11 I was invited to my first UN conference in Indonesia. When I was 12, I attended the UN Reo+20 environmental sustainability conference, where I was the youngest delegate of the 50,000 who attended. I realized I didn’t like the lack of inclusivity of children. I founded Green Hope Foundation to engage young people, provide educational materials and teach them to conduct workshops for other children. Today we have 16 country chapters engaging children from 25 countries.

The best part of the work is going to different countries and meeting with people on the ground. I’ve also done over 200 speaking engagements. The highlight was the UN General Assembly in 2018. Being able to speak to various councils allows me to talk about work being done at the ground level.

My drive came from my parents, who taught me the importance of empathy, compassion, and thinking beyond yourself.

I believe that passion, empathy, positivity

passion, and being able to listen to others have really helped me move forward in working with diverse people around the world. For me, Green Hope will continue to be my life and I hope we will be able to engage even more youth across the world. I have grown up with the UN, and want to create change from within so that we can create safe places for young people. My ultimate dream is to become the youngest UN Secretary General – and the first female one.

Ananya Chadha

Student, Blockchain Engineer, Geneticist & Brain-computer Interface Developer, Stanford University

“At the end of the day, I don’t really think about gender at all. You can’t let it get to your head. You deserve to be there. It’s all good.”

Nelson Mandela said something that resonated with me: ‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.’

I have worked on a number of tech areas, including gene-editing, blockchain and AI. My particular passion these days is neurotech, where I am exploring brain-controlled prosthetics, remote control cars, MP3 players.

I love embarking on something new and thinking about how we can make a really cool future. We can actually build and do things that affect people’s lives, and try to make the world better and help others around the world. That idea came to me when I was 12 during a visit to the Toronto Book Bank that organizes and collects books to give out to children. I realized for the very first time I could actually do something in a little way that would affect others’ lives.

I’ve been a keynote speaker at several tech conferences. What I have found in talking to older people is that I need to be authentic and open for them to take what a little girl is saying to them. You have to connect emotionally before you can share your knowledge with others.

As for the future, a few areas are speaking to me: food tech, carbon capture and neurotech. I’m not sure where the future will lead, but I’m excited. I know I will inevitably face challenges and perhaps be faced with life-changing obstacles out of my control. But I’ll always give it my best and try to spread joy, love, passion, and humour. That’s all I can ask from myself.

Rabiah Dhaliwal Founder and Director, Voices for Hope Foundation

“I feel there has definitely been a change, but we also have a long way to go.”

I have faced a lot of adversity growing up and at one point had given up the idea of ever being normal again. I had traumatic experiences as a child, and attempted suicide at age 16. I spent months recovering in a psychiatric ward and was eventually diagnosed with PTSD, clinical depression and an anxiety disorder.

Over time I built myself up slowly to a new normal self. That helped me face what I had gone through and gave me a confidence in my abilities that I never had before. I found the strength I needed to conquer my mental health issues and was determined to do what I could to help others do the same.

I founded Voices for Hope as a non-profit start-up that aims to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health. We do that by spearheading education initiatives such as workshops and campaigns, social justice thinkpieces, policy and advocacy work, as well as providing those with mental health and addictions struggles a safe space and platform to share their experiences.

Growing up, I never saw a lot of women in positions of power who looked like me. People making decisions didn’t represent the diverse demographics of the real world. For me, representation means empowerment. What I hope for going forward is to take up that space myself.

For me, equality in representation is of the utmost importance. It’s especially important to have women in positions of power in leadership. I plan to go into medicine when I finish my BA. But I also want to do more. I hope to take a space in government working in the health sector. Through that I also hope to go into politics. My hope is I can use the experience I will have as a physician and my personal experiences to positively impact the mental health sector.