Nadine Qureshi, 19
Victoria, British Columbia

Involved with myriad groups - Free the Children, World Partnership Walk, Journey of Hope, and the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, to name a few - Nadine has been nationally recognized for her fundraising work and has been described by her colleagues as someone who is unstoppable.  As a top ranked public speaker and having a deep respect for world faiths, Nadine has received a distinguishing award for building bridges within her school and community.  But after three tireless years of planning, she initiated a special project: “Mission Against Malaria Society,” (MAMS) a registered charity which aims to create awareness of and to prevent malaria in the heart of East Africa. Nadine focuses especially on women’s rights and gender-specific obstacles in obtaining access to malaria treatment, hence her efforts target children in boarding schools, women and large families. 

In August 2008, after raising $8000 in three months, Nadine travelled to Tanzania where she hand-distributed mosquito netting to 600 families. While there, she established a connection with a boarding school and the International Rotary Club to ensure long-term sustainability of her initiative. With passion, with confidence, and most importantly, with certainty, it is Nadine’s wholehearted belief that malaria can be eradicated.

Sebastian Roberts, 19
Vancouver, British Columbia

In poverty-stricken ghettos and war-torn regions, children have little access to what UNESCO calls the right to recreation. Wanting to empower youth through sports and play, Sebastian founded Bavubuka All*Sports on the belief that “one ball can change a child’s life.” Since 2006, Sebastian has made 3 trips to Uganda. He has collected donations of over 2000 pounds of sports equipment and clothing, fundraised for shipping, and organized sporting events and networks to distribute these items to youth in Uganda, Kenya and Algeria. When the Canadian dollar fell and the economic turmoil made fundraising virtually impossible, Sebastian carried on. He took on personal debt rather than fail in his commitments.

Sebastian has spearheaded a second project: the We Got Skillz – Global Voice movement. It is an innovative, secured multimedia environment which connects youth from all over the world and allows them to access and exchange information and their opinions about culture, school life and family life. The technology is the only “secured multimedia device” currently capable of streaming multiple TV definition video in real time. WGS is changing the belief that educational web-conferencing is only for rich kids in rich countries.

Carolina Romeo, 16
Calgary, Alberta

At age eight, Carolina and her family left Argentina under difficult circumstances for a new life in Canada.   Time is the least of challenges for this remarkable young woman.  Having mastered English, she quickly joined the honour roll.  Before her 16th birthday, the University of Calgary awarded Carolina the prestigious Chancellor’s Club Scholarship and she is now going into second year at the Schulich School of Engineering.

Driven to fill every moment of her life, Carolina competes in national-level field hockey and international-level ringette.  She has gained distinction as the youngest-ever member of a UofC DINOS team playing with team mates that are two to ten years older than her.  She is also the youngest female student-athlete in Canadian inter-university sport history.  As Assistant Coach for Calgary AA ringette teams, Carolina teaches her protégées the physical and mental skills that on-ice success demands, and consciously role models the importance of young women being active and healthy in every facet of their lives.

Alex Shipillo, 19
Vancouver, British Columbia

Two ideas that began with a basic website and limited resources have become two major national projects with impact: Youth Canada and the Microcredit Competition.

Alex first started Youth Canada in 2006 when he found no central bank of information existed to point students to opportunities for personal growth.  Even without marketing, he got 18,000 unique visitors in year one, but when he connected with the student-run non-profit Impact Entrepreneurship Group, a relaunched Youth Canada really took off. 

It now is the most comprehensive online resource for high school students in Canada. Youth Canada is a complete resource for youth, parents and schools, providing a searchable database of various activities and advice on topics like scholarships, post-secondary education, leadership, volunteering, and entrepreneurship.

The Microcredit Competition teaches hands-on social entrepreneurship by providing small teams of high school students from across the country with a $100 microloan and one week to generate as much revenue as possible for a charity of their choice.

Since September 2006, Alex has reached over 100,000 individuals in 400 Canadian communities.