​We asked our Leadership Camp what the word change means to them...

Change. One definition of change is make or become different.

I want to be part of a bigger change in being more diverse in what we do especially in the school system. We learn about WW1 and WW2 but we barely learn about what happens to the people of colour in the past. We learn all about the male leaders and how great they are but we never learn about the female. Or we only learn about what happened in Europe or United States but we never learn about what happens in Canada. Indigenous peoples went through a lot in North America. And the older people who aren’t Indigenous don’t know what happened. So I want to change that because myself being an Indigenous person growing up in a society where people think I am going to give up after high school, drop out or become an alcoholic or a drug addict just because of my race is hard. Because people made a “stereotype” towards Indigenous people and it’s hard to show them the good in something when they grew up being told something else.

That’s what I want to change. I want to be able to do anything, and be anything I want to be and not have a label on me cause of my race. No one should have to walk around with a label on them. Thank you for listening.

We asked our Leadership Camp what the word change means to them...

I am Ashki and education is very important to me. I grew up moving around different countries a lot because my parents were always so worried about our safety and being able to find refuge in a country where we can settle down. So I had to miss almost two years of school.

​During that period I missed the feeling of being at school and the feeling of holding a pen and solving a math problem. At the end of grade 6, I was privileged enough to move to America because my family did not want to give up on us and our education since they were not able to receive the same thing themselves. When I got back to school in grade 7 I had to teach myself English because I did not know a single word of English. It was tough but I never gave up because I always knew that there is a kid out there who wants to be exactly where I am right now.

Education has changed my life, it has taught me to become a better person. It changed the way I think of the world right now. And that is why I believe education could be the reason to change all of our lives for the better.