Leah Creaser of Acadia First Nation is a fourth-year student in the Honours Biology program at Acadia University. Leah’s Honours is focused on incorporating citizen science in fish biology. Leah is the president of the Indigenous Student Society of Acadia, ensuring that the campus is an open inclusive space for all Indigenous students to feel safe. She is also active on campus in initiative committees and councils at high governance for the university as an Indigenous student representative. Leah created a first-year biology lab incorporating Mi’kmaq Traditional Knowledge as a research topic, the lab was implemented as a curriculum in 2020 as a part of the required core biology course. Leah works as a research assistant in the role of a field manager within a fish laboratory at Acadia University, working on multiple projects that work with Mi’kmaq Conservation Group and Confederation of Mainland Mi’kmaq. Outside the classroom, Leah is the first Mi’kmaq woman skateboarder to be sponsored by Limitless Skateboards. She is a traditional drummer/singer of Melgita’t Women. Leah practices traditional beading and lives life by the four sacred teachings of the medicine wheel. Leah plans on pursuing a master’s degree focusing on Fish Biology with the Two-eyed seeing perspective.

Georges-Philippe Gadoury-Sansfaçon is a Chancellor’s Scholar studying Applied Psychology and Mathematics at Bishop’s University (Quebec, Canada). He served on the Students’ Representative Council as the 20-21 Vice President of Academic Affairs and is a coordinator for the Bishop’s Online Learning and Technology Consultants program. He is passionate about building spaces for students to be partners in the design and delivery of a 21st century liberal education. His interdisciplinary training, made possible by taking the opportunity of the Liberal Education offered at Bishop’s, allows him to take a holistic and creative approach to leadership and innovation in fields ranging from Ethics in Mathematics and Educational Technology to Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs).

Taylor Goodon hails from the historic Metis community of Turtle Mountain in Southwest Manitoba. She is a proud citizen of the Metis Nation and member of the Manitoba Metis Federation. She is in her third year of a Bachelor of Science Honours degree at Brandon University, majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Biology. As a result of her academic achievements, Taylor was selected to work in the research lab of Dr. Michael Charette and has presented her work at scientific conferences at the provincial, national and international levels. Inspired by the experiences of her great-grandmother, Taylor’s dream is to become a doctor and medical researcher. She has won numerous awards and scholarships, including two NSERC awards, a national Indspire scholarship, a Manitoba Indigenous Youth Achievement Award and was recently named a future leader under 40 by CBC Manitoba. Through her motto of “leading by example,” Taylor is working to challenge stereotypes of Indigenous women in science, by mentoring and inspiring other Indigenous women to pursue careers in STEM.

Felicity Hauwert is a fourth-year undergraduate student living in Algonquin territory in so-called Ottawa. Felicity is currently completing an Honours degree in Sociology at Carleton University, with a co-op option. Her interests lie in qualitative research practices exploring the occupation and reclamation of colonial spaces through radical social movements that incorporate various forms of contemporary mixed media art practices. As a student leader, Felicity has held the role of Co-President for both CUSFSAR (Carleton University Students for Scholars at Risk) and SASA (the Sociology and Anthropology Student Association). In the former role, advocating for academic freedom and for scholars who have been detained and/or those who face academic persecution; in the latter role, facilitating opportunities for students to connect with department faculty and explore opportunities post-grad, as well as advocating for systemic change at the administrative level to remove barriers to post-secondary education for BIPOC and first-generation students. Both within and outside of her academic involvements, Felicity strives to center the voices of community members in all her work. Through narratives of radical love, abolition, and relationality, she aims to amplify the voices and work of those on the frontline of community movements here in so-called Ottawa and across Turtle Island.

A proponent of encouraging minority populations to seek leadership and higher education, Tasha founded the Women’s Empowerment Lunch and Learn, an organization aimed at mentorship and supporting women and other minorities in the dentistry by having conversations about pertinent issues in the profession. Later, she founded the first annual Women in Dentistry Leadership Conference which encompassed a panel of female leaders in the profession who spoke about their personal journeys in leadership. She is now working on creating the first Canadian chapter of the America Association of Women Dentists in order to create a unified national organization for females in dentistry to encourage confidence through mentorship in minority individuals. On the philanthropic side, after raising over $120,000 for charities that provide oral health to underserved patients in inner city Edmonton, she volunteered to provide free oral care to minority populations in Peru. Tasha continuously strives to create a voice for minority individuals in her community.

Chaten Jessel is a third-year student in the BSc. Neuroscience program at the University of Calgary. He is deeply involved in his school community as he serves as the president of numerous campus clubs, works with the Leadership and Student Engagement Office, and was elected by his fellow students to serve as a representative on his university’s Students’ Union. As a member of the Students’ Union, Chaten was able to impact positive transformative action through the creation of a scholarship program aimed at promoting EDI advocacy, and projects aimed at lowering student costs through the adoption of open education resources in classrooms.

Throughout all these experiences, Chaten has been deeply motivated by the desire to make a lasting positive impact for all students at the University of Calgary. Another one of Chaten’s passions is doing academic research. He has been an undergraduate student researcher at the PsychPGx lab for the past three years and has loved every second of it. Though Chaten is unsure about what comes next in his career journey, he knows that wherever he goes, he will carry his positive attitude and commitment to others with him.

Devon is a fourth-year student from Kingston, Ontario, studying English at St. Francis Xavier University. He is a former varsity athlete and one of six inaugural recipients of the Frank Mckenna Centre for Leadership’s inaugural Racial Justice Leadership Grant—a grant designed to support advocacy, outreach, and research projects by BIPOC students in the area of racial justice. Devon’s project is the “Anti-Racist Film Review”—a film review site that analyzes anti-racist discourse within film while critiquing superficial, exploitive, and misrepresentations of contemporary racism. Devon hopes to create a more educated audience for anti-racist film and anti-racist discourse, while also highlighting narratives that portray oppression with nuance and depth. In the last year and a half, Devon has been a guest panelist on the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government’s 2020 Election Panel, involved in planning StFX’s 2022 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Summit (a conference that spotlights BIPOC academics and students in Atlantic Canada), and also appeared at national and regional undergraduate conferences to discuss anti-racist discourse in film. Following his undergraduate studies, Devon plans to pursue either a master’s degree in critical race theory or attend Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law with the goal of contributing towards racial justice in Canada.

Kevin Roy is a second-year medical student at the University of Ottawa. Prior to beginning medical school, Kevin completed an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences also at the University of Ottawa. Kevin is driven to reduce the financial barriers that students face to access post-secondary education in Canada. He is currently leading a team of students that are building an open textbook for a large, undergraduate course in the Faculty of Science. He hopes his project can help inspire other students around the country to advocate for the adoption of open textbooks in their post-secondary courses. During his undergraduate degree, Kevin worked on a research project that evaluated the effects of the Growth & Goals module, an open educational resource, in an undergraduate course setting. Kevin is very passionate about the student experience and has organized many social and networking events for his peers during his three terms on the executive council of the Science Students’ Association. He also enjoys being active and playing sports such as ultimate Frisbee and Spikeball.

Samia Sami is a senior undergraduate student studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and is one of Canada’s Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25. Samia has improved the educational experience of students at USask by providing one-on-one mentoring as an Engineering Learning Coach, through student advocacy as an Academic Commissioner of the Saskatoon Engineering Students’ Society, and by facilitating weekly sessions on skills for academic success as a co-leader of an Engineering Learning Community. She organized the IEEE Illumination Conference 2020 and serves as Global Ambassador at the WomenTech Network. As Vice President of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USask Chapter, Samia organizes gender inclusion initiatives at her university. She has researched in the area of renewable microgrids and the observability of solar integrated distribution systems. She has presented research via various platforms including WISE National Conference in Toronto. Samia is named as Canada’s Top IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Scholar. She has co-founded the Saskatoon Solar Shelter project to provide access to sustainable public transit. As Chair of the USask IEEE PES Student Chapter, Samia is committed to providing an international platform for students to advance their careers and education in sustainable energy.

Sam is heavily involved in both the UVic athletics and economics communities as a varsity rower and as a B.Sc. Honours Candidate. With a teammate, he spearheaded a project known as “Imagine If They Stayed” that provides mentorships to young University athletes by older athletes to combat athlete neglect and its associated negative physical and mental health effects which are all too common in competitive sport. Sam is also a Director of the Economics Course Union, a student-run volunteer organization where he has overseen the transition of a Peer Tutor Centre for introductory economics courses and has run volunteer-led Final Exam Review Sessions to help students succeed. Sam has mingled his passion for economic thought and health promotion into his current research which advocates for a more socially acceptable measurement of cost-effectiveness analysis for the funding decision problem of In-Vitro Fertilization infertility treatments. Sam plans to pursue a career that continues to combine medicine and economics by working in preventative medicine and public health.