This is the fourteenth in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Logan Graham

Each year, 83 outstanding scholars from around the world are awarded a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Eleven of these students are from Canada and only one from the Province of British Columbia. Past Rhodes Scholars include former Prime Minister John Turner, former President Bill Clinton, former premiers Bob Rae (Ontario), Danny Williams (Newfoundland) and Allan Blakeney (Saskatchewan) as well as Andrew Wilkinson the MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena and Minister of Advanced Education. This year, Oak Bay High School graduate Logan Graham joins the Rhodes Scholars Elect class of 2015. In so doing, his name is added to a distinguished group of 108 previous British Columbia Rhodes Scholarship winners since 1904.

During our interview with Logan, it became obvious to us why he was awarded a 2015 Rhodes Scholarship. In just twenty years, Logan has accomplished more than many people achieve in a lifetime. And he’s done so while facing significant health challenges, having been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 4 and suffering massive complications from the illness between ages 4 and 8 years.

Logan is in his final year at UBC working towards an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Economics through funding from a UBC Major Entrance Scholarship for outstanding leadership, academics and entrepreneurship and the ConocoPhillips Centennial Scholarship administered by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada for young Canadian visionaries. But Logan’s family roots are here in our community. Remarkably, and coincidentally, I found out during our discussions that his uncle was James Graham (now a Fine Arts professor at the University of Lethbridge). James and I were good friends in high school and both graduated from Oak Bay in 1979. While some might argue that we are all only six degrees of separation from each other, in Victoria it’s more like one degree it seems!

Prior to moving to Victoria with his family, Logan, who was born in Vancouver, attended West Point Grey Academy until Grade 7.  At the tender age of seven, when most grade two children are focused on school, their friends and playing, Logan set out to form a foundation to advocate for children afflicted with rheumatic illnesses. That year Logan made a remarkable New Year’s resolution: “I’m going to hold a car wash and raise money for kids with arthritis”. The car wash raised $10,000 and since that first fundraising event, the Children’s Arthritis Foundation that Logan established with his parents and sister has raised over $160,000.

To date, Logan, as Founder of the Children’s Arthritis Foundation has delivered presentations to over 5,000 people across Canada and the U.S., developed matching partnerships with donors and recruited several hundred students to help him run fundraisers. He’s done all of this because “kids with rheumatic illness have a really small say in the medical and political world that affects them. So over the past fourteen years, we’ve done things like provide the right shoes to kids for free, initiate the establishment of a research chair at UBC and train the next generation of health practitioners”. His motivation for starting the foundation came from a desire to help his friends – other children he had met with similar conditions.

When his family came to Victoria, Logan skipped grade 8 and went straight into grade 9 at Oak Bay High School. Not surprisingly, he excelled academically and was elected Valedictorian for his 2011 graduating class. During grade 9, he was part of the founding group of Oak Bay youth who worked with a municipal councilor whose goal was to make Oak Bay a youth-friendly place. He participated in the Leadership program at Oak Bay High and was on the Student Council. In 2010, he helped co-organize and lead an Oak Bay delegation and presentation to a Vancouver Island symposium on the recession.

As President of the local Rotary Interact Club from 2010 to 2011, Logan worked to raise money in support of a project in Rwanda. He also coordinated a “Memory Café” through partnership with Oak Bay Lodge to hold youth-senior discussion sessions.

While in his last years at Oak Bay High School, Logan took up debating under the direction of Tim Bradshaw, an inspirational teacher who Logan described as the “sort of teacher where you look back and say he’s the one who opened up my eyes”. He excelled in debating and participated in several competitions including Oak Bay High’s annual Golden Gnome debate tournament, Model UN sessions, and a BC Commonwealth Debate competition hostedat St. Michaels University School.

Logan’s interest in financial economics, which ultimately took him to UBC, were nurtured and inspired by Chad Jacques, a teacher at Oak Bay. He recalls his teacher walking into business class one day and asking, “Do you know what today is”.  Nobody responded. “Today is the start of a recession,” proclaimed Chad Jacques. For Logan, these words were motivating. He couldn’t believe that society could mess things up so badly; Logan went off to the library to start pouring through economics books.

In grade 10 Chad Jacques also wrote a letter in support of Logan’s desire to attend a month long summer program at Oxford University in International Economics. Despite the prohibitive cost to register, Logan was determined to go.  So during the course of the year he used his entrepreneurial skills to set up an estate management and home care company that allowed him to subsequently earn the $10,000 required. Clients were easy for him to come by, as his compelling story about wanting to attend the program at Oxford University was a door opener.

Ever since Logan was ten years old, he knew that Oxford was “a place I want to end up”. During a family vacation “his eyes lit up” at the magnificence and splendor of Oxford’s collegiate architecture. And sure enough, in 2015 Logan will fulfill his dream as he starts an MPhil in Economics.

Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family environment, Logan knows what it means to take risks, show leadership and develop a strategy to reach one’s goals. In his first year at UBC, he founded the UBC Social Enterprise Club, as a place for student to apply “business techniques to real-life situations in order to solve social issues”. His passion for social enterprise together with his recognition of the need to facilitate ways for students to become involved in innovative business ventures that have significant social impact, has ensured the club has been a huge success. Through the club, hundreds of students and high-profile social impact professionals have come together to help bring ideas into reality. The club has created three employment opportunities by establishing Canada’s first student social venture consultancy and consulting with nine fast-growth local social ventures.

Last year, while attending the Global Social Business Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Logan had the good fortune to meet 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank (known as the Bank of the Poor) and the concept of microfinancing in Bangladesh during the 1970s. Inspired by this workshop that was designed to bring young social entrepreneurs together with established more seasoned world leaders, Logan, along with three of his peers, launched another organization called: Yunus & Youth. This online platform connects young entrepreneurs and pairs them with world-renowned mentors, trains them with these experts and connects them with a global support network.

Logan has a strong desire to continue to travel the world. After an exchange to the National University of Singapore in 2013 he had the opportunity to backpack around parts of China and was fascinated by what he witnessed. Logan commented to us on how China’s remarkable economic growth in recent years can be viewed as the world’s “single best poverty reduction program”. Sometime in the future Logan see himself spending time working in China, perhaps Guangzhou, a city he found to be most welcoming and exhilarating.

An article from the UBC Vancouver School of Economics aptly notes that Logan is “an entrepreneur with a passion for using the principles of economics to solve social problems”. Whether at school, in business, or DJing under the catchy handle “Logarhythm”, Logan excels in all that he does. Yet family, and in particular his sister, are incredibly important to Logan. They struggled together as Logan battled rheumatoid arthritis at an early age. Logan is never short of praise for his family. He described his sister Tookie as “the smartest most caring person I know” and on social media when letting his friends know about his award he started off by saying: “Before anything else, I want to say that my biggest mentor, educator and inspiration has always been my sister Tookie Graham. From the moment you first tried to drag me through the bars of my crib, you have always been trying to show me the world.”

Logan views the Rhodes Scholarship as “a free path to learn about anything and then challenge everything”. I’m sure he had no idea how inspiring it was for me to hear him describe his academic aspirations in such terms. Whether it is poverty and homelessness, global population growth and sustainable development, climate change and water availability, or sustaining global biodiversity, the world’s greatest challenges require creative approaches in developing innovative solutions. We need visionaries in today’s youth to emerge as our political leaders of tomorrow. And it is our job, as the decisison-makers of today, to remove the barriers that otherwise would limit these social entrepreneurs from succeeding. Thank you Logan for all that you do.

This is the thirteenth in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Chloe Van Neutegem

It’s customary on Wednesdays and Fridays for evenings to include reading through the local Oak Bay and Saanich News. This past Friday was no different. But imagine our surprise. We were in the middle of putting together the finishing touches on this article when lo and behold, and to our great delight, there she was…featured in an article about Oak Bay High School’s Youth Against Cancer Group — a group co-led by Chloe. When we interviewed Chloe just a few weeks earlier she had enthusiastically described to us her plans with the Youth against Cancer Group. It was wonderful to see their ideas come to fruition.

Chloe was born in Southampton, England and moved Victoria when she was eight. She attended Monterey Elementary for Grades 3 and 4, Willows elementary for Grade 5 and Monterey Middle School for Grades 6 to 8. She has been at Oak Bay High School since Grade 9 and is currently in her graduating year. As one might imagine, she’s an exceptional student, with a 90% average in Grade 11.

Chloe has been extensively involve in school and community activities for which she was recognized last year in receiving Oak Bay High’s Green and White Award for excellence in school and community service. Most recently, Chloe describes being humbled by her humanitarian efforts on the “Hero Holiday” in 2013, when she travelled to Mexico with a group of students from her school to help build two homes for Mexican families. “It was an experience I’ll never forget. It opened my eyes up to things we can never really understand unless we experience them. I’ll tell my kids about the trip someday so they will care about this too”. In order to take part in the Hero Holiday, a lot of fundraising had to be done. Chloe was involved in 3 major fundraising events: a “Jail or Bail” event, a Mexican Fiesta Night and a Silent Auction.

While on the hero Holiday, Chloe became close with an “adorable” seven-year-old girl named Ana Jasmine. Ana Jasmine possessed limited English but that didn’t stop them communicating with their own form of sign language. Ana Jasmine loved piggyback rides, as did all the children they encountered there. And she especially “liked to play with my hair”. As a parting gift, Chloe gave her a beret as a keepsake. But in her broken English and unique sign language the seven-year-old let Chloe know that she couldn’t take it as it looked so good on Chloe.

The Oak Bay students stayed with families in the community while they worked on the house-building project. Chloe warmly recalled how they were made to feel “like a part of the family” and that their hosts “had the best food!” She was inspired to become involved in the Hero Holiday by her 13-month older sister Ella, who had participated herself previously.  In fact, Chloe praised Ella numerous times during the interview as being a wonderful, positive role model in her life; they are very close.

Two initiatives that Chloe has devoted enormous time and energy to are Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock and the school’s Youth Against Cancer group. Last year, she cut 17 inches off her hair to raise $2,500.00 for Cops for Cancer. She and her very good friend Ana Adams also organized a bottle drive that brought in $5,500.00 for this year’s campaign. This year she also coordinated a live grad auction for Cops for Cancer — grad services (including things like dinner preparation) were “purchased” for a week. Chloe’s leadership role in the school’s Youth Against Cancer Group has meant working to increase awareness of issues such as the risks associated with tanning beds and the dangers of flavoured tobacco. The Youth Against Cancer group also holds school fundraisers — including Muffin Morning Mondays — with proceeds being donated to the Cancer Society. As noted in the Oak Bay News article, they prepare Smile Packages for cancer patients who are in for treatment during the Christmas season. This year they went one step further by decorating Canadian Cancer Society’s Vancouver Island Lodge.

Chloe adds volunteering at the Royal Jubilee hospital on Wednesdays to her already packed list of activities. There she chats with patients, delivers books and “gives them an ear – someone who will listen”. While some of conversations revolve simply around complaints about the food, more often than not, they are “really interesting” and she’s heard “a lot of amazing stories”. She thoroughly enjoys these visits and hearing from the largely elderly patients she encounters.

Chloe is presently taking a heavy load of mathematics and sciences in her final year in preparation for university where she hopes to enroll in a Kinesiology or Human Kinetics program. She eventually wants to practice as a physiotherapist or occupational therapist.

Summers are also a busy time for Chloe. For three years now she has been employed as an assistant teacher in the Victoria International High School Program. There she facilitates interactions between the international students and takes them on outings such as hiking and kayaking. In addition to supporting the students as they improve their English, Chloe helps with organization and program development. She also somehow manages to hold down a part time retail sales clerk job.

While noting there are many great teachers at Oak Bay High, Chloe has been particularly inspired by Roxanne Taggart, the sponsor teacher for Youth Against Cancer, who “is always there when you need her help” and Murray Allan “who really steps up and motivates us – although he can be hard on us, it helps us achieve our goals”.

Chloe loves sports, especially soccer; she’s played with Bays United since moving to Victoria at age 8. Chloe also enjoyed basketball and played on her school team in Grades 9 and 10 as well as the in the local Night League. In 2011 Chloe played on the school volleyball team and in the past she has coached a Grade 6 girls’ team at Monterey Middle School.

Chloe has learned the importance of teamwork through sports and her many extracurricular activities at school and in the community. She is a born leader and someone who can be counted on to follow through with any commitment that she makes. The fact that she is able to accomplish so much outside of school while still maintaining a very high average in a challenging academic program is a testament to Chloe’s dedication, commitment and organizational skills. She’s a proven team player and team leader. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that ten years from now, Chloe is the head physiotherapist working with a semi-professional, or professional sports team. Thank you Chloe for all that you do to improve the lives of those in our community.

This is the twelfth in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Rebecca Tran

Rebecca loves volunteering; she loves keeping busy, and she loves spending time with family and friends.  Rebecca’s enthusiasm is infectious and her vivacious personality inspirational to those around her. She is compassionate and possesses a strong commitment to bettering her community and the less fortunate in our society.  A generation of children will be incredibly fortunate to be taught by Rebecca once she becomes an elementary school teacher in the not too distant future.

Rebecca was born and raised in Victoria, attending Northridge Elementary, Glanford Middle School and Reynolds Secondary, where she is currently in her graduating year. In her last year of middle school (Grade 8), Rebecca discovered the Flexible Studies Program at Reynolds. It was a perfect fit, and she credits her middle school Principal, Mr. Louis Scigliano, “a leader [she] really looked up to”,  with encouraging and supporting her in her decision to apply.

As noted in the program description,  Flexible Studies at Reynolds Secondary “is designed for students interested in a structured inquiry-based approach to education, where students engage with their peers, teachers, community and environment as they pursue their academic potential.” In order to be eligible, a student needs a reference from a teacher and they must complete a number of essay questions, like, for example, “in what way do you hope to make a difference in your community?”

Rebecca decided the “Flex Program” was the right fit for her. She thrived as one of 30 English and 30 French Immersion students selected to enter the program in grade 9. Rebecca described how in the Flex Program the prescribed learning outcomes in the curricula mandated by the Ministry of Education are catered to individual students. As one example, she noted that in an English class a major project could involve writing a book or documenting a travel experience. In addition, she pointed out that the Flex Program allowed students greater opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities. And as you might imagine, Rebecca took full advantage of this flexibility.

Rebecca is involved in numerous activities at her high school, including leadership (since Grade 9), marching band (since Grade 9) and dance (Grade 9 and 10). She has been a big contributor to the Cops for Cancer “Tour de Rock” campaign ever since her Grade 6 days at Glanford Middle School. She has dedicated time to car washes, scrap metal drives, bottle drives, movie nights, skate events and bake sales – it’s fair to say Rebecca knows how to get the job done. She will “never forget the energy in the room” when it was announced that Reynolds had raised $107,000.00 (final tally) this year.

Despite the challenge of starting the 2014 term with the teacher’s striker, the school obtained yet another extraordinary fundraising result. Rebecca told us about the resolve of the students, who were “going to do this”; they used the missed school time to hold meetings, get organized and start planning fundraising events. Rebecca was determined “to use the strike as strength”.

There are countless more examples of Rebecca’s school activities and volunteer involvement: Halloween for Hunger (collecting food for food bank); Tour Guide for Information Night (directing parents and students to numerous locations in the school and answering questions); Middle School Presentations (speaking in front of multiple Grade 8 classes); preparation for multiple school assemblies, and many more.

Rebecca is also the Reynolds Secondary Student Trustee Representative. One student trustee is selected from each School District 61 high school to work with the District Superintendent. Student trustees provide input on educational matters and offer a student perspective at meetings of the School District 61 Board of Trustees, as well as the Education Policy and Operations Policy and Planning groups.

Rebecca has been on the Honour Roll since Grade 9 and has earned awards for Excellence in Academic Achievement, Leadership Service and the Teacher’s Choice Award. As a member of the Graduating Class Executive Committee, she has been involved in organizing dances and school spirit events. She has been a Peer Mentor since Grade 11, which involves mentoring new students and connecting them to activities, teachers and friends so that all students feel valued at Reynolds. While she is modest about her many achievements, it is clear Rebecca is a gifted leader and a hard worker.

After graduation, Rebecca plans to proceed towards post secondary education in Social Sciences or Education at either McMasters, Bishops or the University of Victoria. At least part of her desire to become a teacher can be attributed to the inspiring mentorship of two Reynolds teachers: Ms. Sarah Reside who “changed the way I look at education” and Ms. Heather Coey, who runs the leadership program and the school’s Green Group. Ms. Coey “is incredible and makes a huge contribution to our school”, with initiatives such as the Salad Bar, where teachers and students are provided with nutritious salads once per week made from produce grown in the school garden. Rebecca is one 3 managers of the weekly Salad Bar program.

Ten years from now Rebecca would like to be teaching in Victoria. The high caliber of teachers she has encountered at Reynolds has left her with a profound appreciation of the teaching profession. Rebecca is passionate about education as you “can change the way students look at themselves or even the world.”

For fun Rebecca loves walking, hiking and taking jazzercise classes. She also enjoys volunteering in the community, including visiting patients at Victoria General Hospital and serving dinner at Our Place homeless shelter once a week.

Rebecca played on the field hockey team at Reynolds from Grade 9 to Grade 11. She also manages to hold down a part time job, working 12 to 15 hours per week at a local café since 2012.

Interviewing Rebecca was an absolute delight. She is enthusiastic, joyful and pleasure to be around. She is one of those people who just rolls up her sleeves and gets the job done. And she does so in a thoughtful and humble way.  Without any doubt, Rebecca will become an outstanding teacher one day. She’ll inspire a new generation of students just as she has already inspired her peers at Reynolds and so many others in our community.

This is the eleventh in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Cetareh Mohsenzadeh-Green

The accomplishments of the youth we’ve been interviewing over the last several months continue to amaze us. Cetareh’s diverse interests, academic achievements and demonstrated leadership skills are no different. It only took us a matter of minutes to understand why Cetareh’s long term goal was to become a doctor with a general practice that would allow her to work with families and in particular, children. She is bright, caring, personable and loves interacting with people. Many of her extracurricular activities involve healthcare, in one way or another, and Cetareh was focused, genuine, and authentic throughout our interview with her.

Cetareh was born in Saskatoon and moved to Victoria, where she attended school and is now in grade 12 at Oak Bay High School. She has been in French Immersion since Kindergarten and is presently taking a heavy course load in preparation for university in 2015.

Cetareh has outstanding academic achievements, earning Honours with Distinction and a GPA of 5.0 in both grades 10 and 11 (with something like a 95-96% average). She has applied to a number of universities across Canada with the singular goal of eventually earning a medical degree. It’s pretty clear to us that Cetareh will be accepted into every program that she applies for, and the only uncertainty is the level of entrance scholarship that she will be awarded.

Cetareh has been a volunteer at Royal Jubilee Hospital since 2013. She volunteers on the nursing units, spending time talking to patients and taking them on walks. Most of the people she interacts with are elderly and many have dementia. In volunteering to “see what it’s like in a hospital setting”, Cetareh discovered that she loves interacting with people of all ages: infants to elderly. She looks forward to further volunteering with the Victoria Health Unit, helping with immunization preparation, weighing and measuring babies, under the supervision of an RN.

In June 2014, Cetareh was selected as one of 94 students from across North America, and one of nine from Victoria, to spend time at a medical school in Grenada. They spent ten days in an intensive medical training program taught by professors (complete with exams) that included case studies and learning how to diagnose patient illnesses and ailments. Although gruelling in terms of its workload, with daily classes and work nonstop from 06:30 to 22:00-23:00, Cetareh thoroughly enjoyed the experience and believed she learned a tremendous amount. Cetareh noted that she “knew I wanted to be a doctor, but this experienced was confirmation for me.”

An accomplished musician, Cetareh played flute from Grade 6 to Grade 9, then switched to saxophone. While still in Middle School, she had an opportunity to play at Hermann’s, a local jazz club. She has been in Oak Bay High’s Senior Concert Band since Grade 9.

Cetareh has many interests and activities outside of academics. She has been in the Leadership program at Oak Bay High since Grade 10, undertaking large projects in Grade 10 and Grade 11 such as serving as Project Manager for the Victoria Middle School Conference – a one day conference for 200 middle school students. She’s coordinated elementary school visits, organized an Olympic Games day and a school 28-hour famine event which raised funds for African Aid Angels. She also volunteers as a Peer Tutor and Peer Counsellor for fellow students and was involved in the Philippines Typhoon Relief Project where, along with teachers and students, she put together a bake sale on Oak Bay Avenue and raised over $2,000.00 to assist typhoon victims. She “really likes people, and enjoys interacting with and helping people.”

Helping people, particularly children, is what motivates Cetareh.  “It’s inspiring to see smiles on kids faces,” she notes. Cetareh also conveyed to us several “unforgettable moments” including one that happened very recently. Cetareh has worked as a swim instructor, for children aged two to nine, at the Crystal Pool with Tyee Aquatic Club since 2011. Several weeks ago, when her beginner swimmers finally put their heads under the water for the first time, she recalled the smiles on their faces and the joy it brought them “It is the little things that change peoples’ lives that I find inspirational.”

Cetareh has been swimming since elementary school when she was a member of her school’s swim club. In middle school she participated in the biathlon, swimming 600m and running 2.2km to win the silver medal. The following year she won bronze in the same event. Cetareh is presently working towards qualification as a lifeguard.

Cetareh has entered the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair in 2009 and received several awards for her projects, including the Foundation Certificate of Merit and a 2nd place award Overall at the Intermediate level. Her entries in the Science Fair were further recognized by the Association of Professional Engineers and Geophysicists of BC (Gold and Silver Achievement) and VIA Rail Environment (Expo Award).

Like many of the student leaders at Oak Bay, the Cops for Cancer campaign has great importance for Cetareh. She recalls being profoundly impressed when she first saw the Tour de Rock team of riders arrive at her school in her Grade 9 year. She thought “Wow, I want to be a part of this” and has been a passionate participant in the campaign ever since. She has been involved in fundraising and was Project Manager for the Kid’s Fair held at Willows beach this year, where $2,000 was raised. Cetareh is proud of her schools’ accomplishments and how the money raised this year ($44,000) will provide funding to send 25 children to Camp Goodtimes.

Other activities Cetareh enjoys are hiking, camping, running, reading and baking.

In 10 years’ time, Cetareh hopes to be finished her medical training and practicing as a physician. She loves Victoria and hopes to return home someday. Her love of connecting with children and passion for medicine are very evident; it’s clear to us that she will become a wonderful, caring doctor. Children and people of all ages will benefit from the hard work and dedication Cetareh puts into everything she does. Our community already benefits greatly from Cetareh’s numerous volunteer activities and will benefit even more so when she sets up her family practice here in the years to come.

This is the tenth in our series of stories celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of youth in our community. These inspirational young adults are enriching our lives with their passion and commitment to the betterment of society.

Olivia Cavanagh

On February 3, 2014 Olivia was part of a group of youth who visited my constituency office on Shelbourne Street. They came with a simple message — one that was being delivered to MLAs across our province. In 2007 British Columbia promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 33% relative to 2007 levels by 2020. MLAs were being asked by youth to “Defend our Future” and commit to the 2020 reduction targets. I did.

But the irony was not lost on me when we met Olivia at Discovery Coffee on Oak Bay Avenue on October 10. Just the day before I had delivered my response to the Speech from the Throne . In it I challenged all MLAs to find the courage and leadership to recognize the challenge of global warming for what it is. I challenged all MLAs to recognize the folly of solely basing our economy on hypothetical exports of a commodity that may or may not find a market elsewhere.  I argued that we could, and should show leadership in the development of a diversified, sustainable, 21^st century economy and subsequently introduced an amendment to the Throne Speech to add:

And that the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia accepts the responsibility of demonstrating the leadership to choose growth, to move forward and create a legacy for our children, but also recognizes that this leadership means not gambling our future prosperity on a hypothetical windfall from LNG, and instead supports the development of a diversified, sustainable, 21^st century economy.

My amendment was defeated 65-1 and so I wondered just whose future was actually being defended.

But having the opportunity to interview Olivia the next day was both uplifting and inspirational. Being in the presence of Olivia’s infectious joy and passion made it impossible for me to remain saddened by what had transpired in the Legislature the previous day.

Olivia is incredibly passionate about the environment and she has immersed herself in numerous environmental initiatives both inside and outside of Oak Bay High School. For example, having been a member of the Oak Bay High Environmental Club since Grade 9, Olivia and a friend decided to head up the club this year.  Olivia describes herself as more of an activist than a leader and believes we all need to step up to protect our environment for future generations. Particularly motivating for Olivia was the impassioned speech given by Emma Watson, British actor and Goodwill Ambassador to the UN, at the recent United Nations Climate Summit. Olivia was quick to quote from Emma Watson “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Olivia was born and raised in Victoria, attending Monterey Elementary, Margaret Jenkins Elementary (for one year while Monterey was being seismically upgraded and turned into a middle school), back to Monterey Middle School (for Grade 8) and she is currently in her graduating year. She’s been on the honour roll at Oak Bay ever since she first arrived there in Grade 9.  In addition to taking on a heavy load in the sciences this year, Olivia is also studying ceramics — her favourite course. Now in her third year of school ceramics, and a regular on her potter’s wheel at home, Olivia describes it as a “calming and relaxing” creative outlet for which “you can always improve”. In addition to her studies, Olivia has enjoyed playing soccer with Bays United since she was 6 and rugby with the Oak Bay Girls’ Team since Grade 10.

Olivia is very interested in food security issues and in spring 2013 she travelled to Hornby Island where she stayed on an organic farm to learn about their food production. This opportunity arose through World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farmers (WWOOF), an organization that, in return for volunteer help, offers food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles. During her time on Hornby, Olivia developed a sincere “appreciation for the amount of work [required] to produce the majority of your own food”. In addition, she was fascinated to learn how to grow and harvest willow shoots for making baskets. Olivia has had opportunities to share her knowledge with others, including giving workshops on veganism and conscious eating. Twice she has presented workshops on food security and water security at the annual student-driven Youth Climate Action Summit, run by YesBC (Youth for Environmental Stewardship), a locally based non profit organization dedicated to empowering young environmental leaders.

For the past 3 years, Olivia has been attending regular meetings with the Sierra Club of BC’s Youth Environmental Leadership Program (YELP). This has provided her with opportunities to give presentations to elementary and middle school students on a variety of environmental issues. Of course, Olivia is active locally in attending as many environmental rallies as she can; particularly those related to proposed heavy oil pipeline and coastal tanker projects.

During Olivia’s grade 11 year, she was in charge of coordinating the school’s recycling program. She lends support to the students running the program this year and “views sustainability of the program as important as the program itself. Olivia credits Derek Shrubsole, a teacher at Oak Bay High School, as someone who has been particularly inspirational to her. He “helped us with the whole recycling program and is the teacher-sponsor of the Environment Club at Oak Bay High”. Mr. Shrubsole describes Olivia as a very positive, genuine person who has a mature outlook and understands how to make connections relating environmental sustainability and the protection our environment for future generations.

Recently, the Environment Club was approached by a local resident concerning a potential development on Yale Street in Oak Bay where 20 out of 22 mature Garry Oak trees on the lot would be cut down to make way for townhouses. Olivia and her friends were affronted by this apparent disregard for nature and immediately took up the cause, including enlisting me in a video they produced to raise public awareness.

Somehow Olivia also finds time to volunteer in the community. She has been a dedicated volunteer with Operation Trackshoes for 7 years and has volunteered with the Oak Bay High Cops for Cancer Tour de Rock campaign. Last year she shaved her head for the cause.

Olivia also ran a bake sale to raise funds for Tour de Rock. Olivia works part time at 2 local sustainable-food restaurants, typically clocking 8-10 hours per week. And from a very young age, she has always enjoyed being outdoors, loved camping, biking, hiking and, more recently, surfing and kayaking.

Olivia’s future goals include a commitment to convince others about the importance of environmental awareness and stewardship. She has realized how much we have to lose unless we take action to protect what we have. She made a point of telling us that she “takes care of her body to live healthy, so why wouldn’t we want to take care of the environment for the future?”

Olivia may take a gap year following graduation, possibly traveling with World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farmers to Indonesia or New Zealand, but plans to further her education and study Marine Biology at university. At the same time, she notes, “I plan to be an environmental activist and I want to surf”.

Olivia is a wonderful, joyful, and engaged young woman who was an absolute delight to interview. We are convinced that Olivia will continue to make a positive difference to the world around her through her proven dedication to environmental stewardship and sustainability.

Thank you Olivia for all that you do to make our community a better place to live in and thank you for empowering me with motivation and enthusiasm on a day that that I woke up feeling somewhat defeated.