✨Hey everyone! This is my bulletin board where I share my experiences, opportunities and advocate✨
☆Preview's☆
The People's Voice Article
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"After receiving 8 scholarships worth $250,000, at 19 my new project has been supporting students in securing dozens of students in receiving full ride scholarships worth $896,000"
- Founder, Stephanie Slen |
Fresh Roots Stories: SOYL Alumni
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"At 13 I experienced a life changing program that set me on my journey to work with urban agriculture across the lower mainland, at 14 I returned as a mentor teaching special needs students, and at 18 I had the honour to return as staff, supporting thousands of families and kids in receiving low cost organic produce".
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☆At 16 I Co-Founded a non-profit Nurtured Youth Community☆
CBC Kids News: A teen-run mental health organization wants to help youth
PREVIEW
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"In the last four years we have provide free therapy and mental health services to youth experiencing unsupportive parent guardian relationships across Canada"
- Stephanie and Geertika |
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"Now, on the cusp of turning 20, I am nominated for the 2025 YWCA Young Women of Distinction Award for all of Metro Vancouver for my contributions for supporting the lives of tens of thousands of families across Metro Vancouver"
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At thirteen I witnessed my mom getting handcuffed and dragged to the psychiatric hospital. My mom suffers from schizophrenia bipolar-disorder. Combined with my family being low income in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, I learned at a young age that if I don’t speak up for myself or take initiative, then nothing will happen.
SOYL, a summer-long farming program from Fresh Roots, provided me with directions when I was lost. I farmed across the Lower Mainland. Urban agriculture nurtured my heart and felt community for the first time. We packaged hundreds of meals for families during the pandemic and interacting with my community brought me joy. During those scorching hot days, I was 14 years old and finding myself with dirt all over my face. I had been weeding out this huge patch of land with my SOYL peers. In the afternoons we would harvest hundreds of fresh produce from radishes, cabbages, pea’s, herbs, squashes, processing garlic and so much more: to give out and sell to families at a low cost. With the veggies we harvested we learned to cook every week to make meals for each other. Feeling the impact of what the community could do, I returned as a mentor, teaching farming skills and facilitating activities. This inspired me to start Beyond the Plate at Britannia Secondary School. For four years I taught 100+ students how to farm, empowering them to plant, weed, harvest and cook the vegetables we grew. I wanted to share the positive impact sustainable urban agriculture had on me with others. We were the first and only club to manage the garden beds at Britannia. We have accomplished a range of things from bake sales, repairing all the garden beds in the Mary Joe gardens, cooking chinese foods, baking jam cookies and other cultural delicacies. As president, I took the initiative to build this club from the ground up - being responsible for organizing meetings, facilitating workshops, and teaching students gardening and cooking skills (even learning a few skills myself). Through my leadership and mentoring students felt empowered to take on initiatives themselves and build the confidence to continue and grow the community of Beyond the Plate. I strive to spread awareness and teach about the importance of urban agriculture and “Farm to Table” through an uplifting environment.
I realized that it only took one person to uplift my community: me. Since I was thirteen, I’ve volunteered over 2800 hours with neighbourhood gardens and various non profit organizations including Environmental Youth Alliance and Vancouver Sustainability Conference as a youth delegate, led the ‘Adopt-a-Plant’ initiative as a sustainability coordinator at Strathcona Interact Club, participated in beach clean ups and ocean conservation projects and run a clothing swap event at Ocean Wises Youth to Sea Program, all while working with kids at the Writers Exchange, an after-school literacy program. Environmental Youth Alliance working at Strathcona neighbourhood gardens, Strathcona park gardens and restoration work at Renfrew Collingwood's neighbourhood with an emphasis on protecting and preserving indigenous plants native to the lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation. In 2019 I had the honour of serving as Britannia Secondary School’s head delegate for the Vancouver school Board Sustainability Conference. Where I attended meetings to plan exciting yearly events, organize, inspire and collaborate with like minded individuals passionate about spreading the importance of Urban Agriculture within the school system. In September of 2021 I was elected as a sustainability coordinator at Strathcona Interact Club in Vancouver's Chinatown Downtown Eastside, serving from September 2021 to August 2023. Strathcona Interact Club organizes several campaigns to help impact change in our community. Interact clubs are self-governing and financially independent. As a sustainability coordinator, specific projects I led included organizing garden meet-ups, facilitating and leading hands-on gardening workshops on sustainability and urban agriculture, as well as leading the “adopt-a-plant” initiative for youth 6-18 years old. I assisted with Winter toy drives, breakfast with Santa volunteers, community garbage pickups, as well as developing and disseminating mental health packages, high school packages, and elderly packages that included supplies, resources and tools targeted directly to the community. My interest in sustainability extended to my curiosity of our vast oceans. Out of 400 applicants, I was selected to join the Youth to Sea cohort of 80 participants. Youth to Sea is an OceanWise Program with various locations across Canada. Throughout my involvement, I actively engaged in various activities, including shoreline cleanups, invasive plant removals, and outreach events, all aimed at promoting ocean conservation. Over the course of this commitment, I completed 240 hours of community service including hosting a large clothing swap event at Stanley Park. I found interest in finding solutions for fast fashion impacting climate change and contributing to rising ocean levels. I spent months emailing schools and organizations to support us, I collected old loved clothes from dozens of people, and won a grant of $500 to build the event. We provided food, snacks, a community and free clothes people came to swap with. With a deep-rooted commitment to ocean conservation, I proudly identify myself as an ocean conservationist, driven by a desire to protect our planet's precious marine ecosystems. After spending 9 months from June 2021 to March 2022 I am now a proud Alumni. In my sustainability journey I had an epiphany that my passions in life were specifically working with people. After my mentorship at Fresh Roots I was offered a Teen Leader position at the Writers exchange from 2019-2023, a non profit after-school literacy program that catered to at-risk youth, new comer refugees and all kids in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. As a teen leader my heart never stops growing for caring about the kids, my knowledge is ever expanding for the funny jokes and fidget toys. I learn something new every time I come to work. It could be about a new Pokémon or hearing a quiet kid talk for the first time, I’m in awe every time. I supported hundreds of kids writing stories in Writers Exchanges annual book lunches and supported kids in partnering with Rain or Shine in Vancouver to create special ice cream flavours to fundraise money. Although I had no choice but to work part time to support my family I realized how my efforts could impact kids in my neighbourhood.
I found purpose in giving to others, however, it was challenging offering that compassion to myself. At sixteen, my mother started showing signs of paranoia again. In addition to school, extracurricular and my own health, I had to run the house and raise my 3 younger siblings. My mental health manifested itself as sport, I resulted in running every single day. I ran in the rain, clouds or shine until my legs were numb and I would black out just to forget. I felt alone and had no choice but to call social services. After pleading for help multiple times, social services deemed my mother mentally unstable. My mother barricaded herself in her room; I could hear her shouting for help. I begged them not to harm her, but The S.W.A.T. team broke into our house through the back door and dragged my mother out to a psychiatric hospital again. I remember sitting in my home, not knowing if we were going to be homeless, not knowing what our next meal would be and most importantly how I was going to stay a strong older sister to hold my siblings together. Still to this day, my feelings are indescribable. Why was I not heard? How come I find ways to help people, but no one could help me? I realized I needed to be an advocate for myself and others. If no one’s going to speak up for me, then I will.
In 2020, I was accepted into the International Baccalaureate program at Britannia Secondary school, and I ran for student council grade 11 representative for my voice and advocate for others to be heard. In 2023 I was student council President. On council, I’ve carried out Covid information tables, fundraised $700 for Ukrainian war aid, and fought for LGBTQIA2+ SOGI representation on council, which successfully resulting in more inclusive representation across the Vancouver School Board District. As president, I planned the Terry Fox run for 500+ students and we held the most successful spirit weeks in six years. Every spirit week was motivating upon my promise to all the students in my school, whether you were a kid who ate lunch alone in the basement or you were a library book worm in grade 8, you would feel safe participating in all the events. I continued advocating in 2023 for those not heard as Youth Representative on my community centre’s Board of Management. As a youth representative and a board member, I represent and speak up for all youth in the Britannia Secondary at the Board of Management meeting every month, speaking up for youth at the Britannia Renewal Plan to trustees from the Vancouver School Board. Working on the Britannia Renewal included tens of millions of dollars worth of new apartment buildings for low income families , elders and artists in our community. Additionally the Renewal Plan included the discussion of the new development of all our public facilities on site. We constantly collaborated with the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library, the Vancouver School board and other necessary avenues. I believe it’s important for youth to have a say in future facilities that directly affect them. I was one of the twelve on the board of management that weighed in on approvals for 7 million dollars of fiscal budgets for our community resources in all departments including our public swimming pool, our public ice rinks, teen centre, events, public library and various child care subsidy programs. Additionally the board of management has a sub committee that allowed me to further advocate for Anti-Racism initiatives within my community. Advocating and fostering an inclusive space, LGBTQIA2+, anti- racism and environmentalism within the community for all youth. In 2022 I was accepted into
SHAD Canada at York University, a S.T.E.A.M. Entrepreneur Program on a full Scholarship. SHAD revolved around one design and entrepreneurship project (DE). This year's topic was “How might we improve the mental health of Canadians?”. My DE group created a first of its kind “BraceBand'' for our non-profit organization BRACE4Help. The mission of BRACE4Help is to use the understanding of individuals' identities and experiences of the homeless community in Canada to provide them with opportunities for better mental health. Targeting homeless people and individuals seeking help from addiction, the Braceband prototype was a harm reducing technology including features like an overdose sensor (senses low blood oxygen levels through rapid pulse and high blood pressure), access to ping emergency contact (someone of choice, given through organization, or emergency services), and solar panel charge capabilities (store charge, small backup battery). Through our organization's website, we have resources for shelters, food banks and more. The target market for our product will be organizations and groups that work directly with the homeless population. I was inspired due to my experiences living right next to the Downtown Eastside, and seeing all the effects substance abuse has on my community. Additionally SHAD gave me opportunities to visit the LinkedIn Headquarters, meet like minded people like me and attend lectures from those who specialized in Nuclear Energy and Artificial Intelligence Robotics. Having the privilege to attend all of these events made me reflect on how hard I worked in high school despite my circumstances and perform well receiving the principal's list and honour roll. I continued furthering my education outside of school attending Stanford and MIT taught in the Inspirit Artificial Intelligence program. My academia and hardware was recognized by the school and I was privileged to be nominated by my high school for the Cinderella’s Project, to attend Prom with my dream dress and makeover.
Inspired by my project at SHAD Canada at York University, I co-founded a non profit, Nurtured Youth Community to provide resources to youth across Canada experiencing unsupportive parental/ guardian relationships, providing mental health packages, therapy bursaries, and more. This is what I needed and I’m proud to provide support opportunities to youth like me. It is most important to me to continue to remove barriers youth face in achieving their dreams. Recently featured on the CBC News, Nurtured Youth Community was a winner of the $5000 Oxy Canada grant this year, allowing us to host free therapy workshops and we recently launched the ambassador program to inspire other youth across Canada to advocate for free healthcare. At one point I didn't know it wasn't normal to walk home along Hastings and see struggling people overdose in front of me. It was difficult to see young people I grew up with turn to substance abuse, gang violence and many passing away. My goal for Nurtured Youth Community is to provide positive opportunities for kids affected by homelessness, drug abuse, poverty, food insecurity; all barriers I faced as a low-income youth.
I will not stop advocating for important social issues. I want to make an impact on my community and prevent what happened to me from happening to others. One day I will improve our flawed systems that failed my family and others by pursuing a law degree and one day hopefully having the honor of becoming a judge.
I am honoured to be the recipient of 8 scholarships, including being one of the ten scholars 2023 Simon Fraser University Uggla Family Full Ride Scholarship, the SHINE Beedie Luminaries Scholarship Award, one of the four Canucks Trevor Linden Community Spirit Scholarship Award, the Vancouver recipient of the BC Superintendents Scholarship Award, Skills for Hope Foundation Scholarship, Allan Ross Scholarship Award, Britannia Class of 77’ Scholarship and Student Council Scholarship Award. Additionally I was one of the 25 accepted into the SASHA Program at Western University. I cried after hearing about the news on every phone call and letter in the mail. I have won a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships. I found myself saying out loud, “I believe in myself and now there are other people who believe in me too?”.
I am currently an aspiring law student taking classes at Simon Fraser University in Political Science and legal studies as a full ride scholar of the Simon Fraser University's Uggla Family Scholarship. Everyday when I wake up in my dorm, eat all my meals and attend school all for free it feels like a dream. It feels like a dream to be attending a professional photoshoot with my other Uggla Family Scholars, and attend events such as the President and Vice Chancellor distinguished Award and meet inspiring deans and the 10th president Joy Johnson on a Friday night. At one point I had no food, and now I have all the food I need. I have all the academic support including access to early class enrolment, and amazing support directly from my scholarship Managers Bernard Ryu and Helena Ferh. And, to wake up and find out that as a 2023 Canucks Trevor Linden Community Spirit Scholar I was in the Canucks fund scholarship seen by a 4x Olympic Champion on the board, is surreal.
After working at the Writers Exchange for 4 years I came back to Fresh Roots as a Market Manager in the 2023 summer teaching dozens of kids the exciting ways in the urban agriculture sector. Farming on Fresh Roots Vancouver Technical Secondary School and David Thompson farm sites, supporting Youth and Delegating Market Task at Italian Cultural Centre (Vancouver) and Suwa’lkh Elementary School Locations (Coquitlam), $10K+ in organic produce sold, 100+ families received "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) boxes, 10,000+ lbs of produce harvested, 40+ youth mentored in community service. During the school year I work at Pathways to Education as a site support worker to support hundreds of inner city high school students every week succeed in their academics, scholarship applications, food security and mentor students. This summer I was accepted and attended my dream school at the University of Quebec in Montreal to learn French and in the summer 2024 I was an instructor at the University of British Columbia Recreation Camps teaching Debate in the forestry building and running various other recreational programs to hundreds of students. And in the end, all that pent up stress from running wasn’t just for my mental health, it bloomed into a full-time passion starting from joining cross country in high school, competing in BC Cross Country Championships twice and achieving running 10 half marathons and 1 full marathon from Vancouver to Seattle.
Now my new project at 19 is called “The People’s Voice Article”, A nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students succeed in securing scholarships & highlighting 'pillars of the community' in an annual article. As the founder I am so excited to have supported dozens of kids from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in winning a quarter of a million dollars, estimated $488,000 in scholarships to pursue their dreams in attending post secondary school. Last year I had 3 students on my caseload and this year I have 25 including Meara, Benny, Nagham, Eleni, Tamid, Salina, Rassell, Khalid, Zackarya, Eileen, Magfire, Shereese and so many more . I meet with each student through zoom or take them out to cafes. I prioritize creating a safe space and providing food for them to feel comfortable being honest about their family situations, academic performance, financial needs, trauma, and their trust. Furthermore I have built the People's Voice Article from the ground spending over 3000 hours on the website, writing the essays, meeting with the youth, sending the reminders, talking to all my contacts and researching scholarships, universities and supporting them with the application process. Starting December I have begun working on writing articles separate from their essays to publish on the website as a platform to establish and recognize their amazing journeys. The hours recorded do not reflect the outside time I spend mentoring each youth on their life about their career decisions, academic dreams, self empowerment and learning to feel proud of one's self. This includes supporting youth to start their own initiatives like I did. I am proud to have supported Jenna in launching a non-profit this February on supporting the Jewish community through acts of kindness and community involvement. Although I cannot support them more than a meal, I can spend my time on them, and taking the financial burden off on low-income families. I have the power to support these kids, whether they are first generation immigrants, refugees, or alone change the outcome of their lives. I estimate by June, I will have secured a $1,000,000 worth of scholarships.
Now, on the cusp of turning 20, I am nominated for the 2025 YWCA Young Women of Distinction Award for all of Metro Vancouver. Thank you the staff at the Writers Exchange for believing in me and putting forward my nomination application! I am proud to have impacted thousands of lives across multiple cities in the lower mainland, and I am deeply honored to be a nominee. Additionally thank you to Cynthia Low the Executive Director for Britannia Community Centre, Alexa Pitoulis the former Executive Director of Fresh Roots and current Executive Director of BC Family Doctors, Jennifer Macleod the Former Executive Director and Author Stacey Matson for sending in letters of support. Notably, thank you to my supporters, including Lance Uggla, the Founder and CEO of BeyondNetZero, former CEO of IHS Markit, and founder of the Uggla Family Foundation; Will Meldrum, a consultant from the Uggla Family Foundation; Trevor Stokes, Director at Streetfront, and marathon coach featured in People magazine; Mitra Tshan, a supporter of my family and the Director of Girls Who Leap; Yulanda Ng; Trevor Linden for the Canucks Scholarship; Helena Ferh and Bernard Ryu, my scholarship managers at SFU; Pam Nanson, a Director at the UBC Sauder School of Business; Susie Poulson, consultant and manager of VanDusen Gardens; and, most importantly to me, Teresa Pan, the Senior Advisor to the Dean at the UBC Sauder School of Business.
For the first time in our lives my family says “I love you” to each other, I have a close relationship with my siblings, and my dad is not only healthy, the backbone of my family but is my number one supporter.
I am not defeated by my poverty, my address or my experiences. I am hardworking, passionate, smart, resilient and a leader for all. I am Stephanie Slen, a first-generation Vietnamese- Canadian woman, Asian and someone who overcomes it all.
SOYL, a summer-long farming program from Fresh Roots, provided me with directions when I was lost. I farmed across the Lower Mainland. Urban agriculture nurtured my heart and felt community for the first time. We packaged hundreds of meals for families during the pandemic and interacting with my community brought me joy. During those scorching hot days, I was 14 years old and finding myself with dirt all over my face. I had been weeding out this huge patch of land with my SOYL peers. In the afternoons we would harvest hundreds of fresh produce from radishes, cabbages, pea’s, herbs, squashes, processing garlic and so much more: to give out and sell to families at a low cost. With the veggies we harvested we learned to cook every week to make meals for each other. Feeling the impact of what the community could do, I returned as a mentor, teaching farming skills and facilitating activities. This inspired me to start Beyond the Plate at Britannia Secondary School. For four years I taught 100+ students how to farm, empowering them to plant, weed, harvest and cook the vegetables we grew. I wanted to share the positive impact sustainable urban agriculture had on me with others. We were the first and only club to manage the garden beds at Britannia. We have accomplished a range of things from bake sales, repairing all the garden beds in the Mary Joe gardens, cooking chinese foods, baking jam cookies and other cultural delicacies. As president, I took the initiative to build this club from the ground up - being responsible for organizing meetings, facilitating workshops, and teaching students gardening and cooking skills (even learning a few skills myself). Through my leadership and mentoring students felt empowered to take on initiatives themselves and build the confidence to continue and grow the community of Beyond the Plate. I strive to spread awareness and teach about the importance of urban agriculture and “Farm to Table” through an uplifting environment.
I realized that it only took one person to uplift my community: me. Since I was thirteen, I’ve volunteered over 2800 hours with neighbourhood gardens and various non profit organizations including Environmental Youth Alliance and Vancouver Sustainability Conference as a youth delegate, led the ‘Adopt-a-Plant’ initiative as a sustainability coordinator at Strathcona Interact Club, participated in beach clean ups and ocean conservation projects and run a clothing swap event at Ocean Wises Youth to Sea Program, all while working with kids at the Writers Exchange, an after-school literacy program. Environmental Youth Alliance working at Strathcona neighbourhood gardens, Strathcona park gardens and restoration work at Renfrew Collingwood's neighbourhood with an emphasis on protecting and preserving indigenous plants native to the lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation. In 2019 I had the honour of serving as Britannia Secondary School’s head delegate for the Vancouver school Board Sustainability Conference. Where I attended meetings to plan exciting yearly events, organize, inspire and collaborate with like minded individuals passionate about spreading the importance of Urban Agriculture within the school system. In September of 2021 I was elected as a sustainability coordinator at Strathcona Interact Club in Vancouver's Chinatown Downtown Eastside, serving from September 2021 to August 2023. Strathcona Interact Club organizes several campaigns to help impact change in our community. Interact clubs are self-governing and financially independent. As a sustainability coordinator, specific projects I led included organizing garden meet-ups, facilitating and leading hands-on gardening workshops on sustainability and urban agriculture, as well as leading the “adopt-a-plant” initiative for youth 6-18 years old. I assisted with Winter toy drives, breakfast with Santa volunteers, community garbage pickups, as well as developing and disseminating mental health packages, high school packages, and elderly packages that included supplies, resources and tools targeted directly to the community. My interest in sustainability extended to my curiosity of our vast oceans. Out of 400 applicants, I was selected to join the Youth to Sea cohort of 80 participants. Youth to Sea is an OceanWise Program with various locations across Canada. Throughout my involvement, I actively engaged in various activities, including shoreline cleanups, invasive plant removals, and outreach events, all aimed at promoting ocean conservation. Over the course of this commitment, I completed 240 hours of community service including hosting a large clothing swap event at Stanley Park. I found interest in finding solutions for fast fashion impacting climate change and contributing to rising ocean levels. I spent months emailing schools and organizations to support us, I collected old loved clothes from dozens of people, and won a grant of $500 to build the event. We provided food, snacks, a community and free clothes people came to swap with. With a deep-rooted commitment to ocean conservation, I proudly identify myself as an ocean conservationist, driven by a desire to protect our planet's precious marine ecosystems. After spending 9 months from June 2021 to March 2022 I am now a proud Alumni. In my sustainability journey I had an epiphany that my passions in life were specifically working with people. After my mentorship at Fresh Roots I was offered a Teen Leader position at the Writers exchange from 2019-2023, a non profit after-school literacy program that catered to at-risk youth, new comer refugees and all kids in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. As a teen leader my heart never stops growing for caring about the kids, my knowledge is ever expanding for the funny jokes and fidget toys. I learn something new every time I come to work. It could be about a new Pokémon or hearing a quiet kid talk for the first time, I’m in awe every time. I supported hundreds of kids writing stories in Writers Exchanges annual book lunches and supported kids in partnering with Rain or Shine in Vancouver to create special ice cream flavours to fundraise money. Although I had no choice but to work part time to support my family I realized how my efforts could impact kids in my neighbourhood.
I found purpose in giving to others, however, it was challenging offering that compassion to myself. At sixteen, my mother started showing signs of paranoia again. In addition to school, extracurricular and my own health, I had to run the house and raise my 3 younger siblings. My mental health manifested itself as sport, I resulted in running every single day. I ran in the rain, clouds or shine until my legs were numb and I would black out just to forget. I felt alone and had no choice but to call social services. After pleading for help multiple times, social services deemed my mother mentally unstable. My mother barricaded herself in her room; I could hear her shouting for help. I begged them not to harm her, but The S.W.A.T. team broke into our house through the back door and dragged my mother out to a psychiatric hospital again. I remember sitting in my home, not knowing if we were going to be homeless, not knowing what our next meal would be and most importantly how I was going to stay a strong older sister to hold my siblings together. Still to this day, my feelings are indescribable. Why was I not heard? How come I find ways to help people, but no one could help me? I realized I needed to be an advocate for myself and others. If no one’s going to speak up for me, then I will.
In 2020, I was accepted into the International Baccalaureate program at Britannia Secondary school, and I ran for student council grade 11 representative for my voice and advocate for others to be heard. In 2023 I was student council President. On council, I’ve carried out Covid information tables, fundraised $700 for Ukrainian war aid, and fought for LGBTQIA2+ SOGI representation on council, which successfully resulting in more inclusive representation across the Vancouver School Board District. As president, I planned the Terry Fox run for 500+ students and we held the most successful spirit weeks in six years. Every spirit week was motivating upon my promise to all the students in my school, whether you were a kid who ate lunch alone in the basement or you were a library book worm in grade 8, you would feel safe participating in all the events. I continued advocating in 2023 for those not heard as Youth Representative on my community centre’s Board of Management. As a youth representative and a board member, I represent and speak up for all youth in the Britannia Secondary at the Board of Management meeting every month, speaking up for youth at the Britannia Renewal Plan to trustees from the Vancouver School Board. Working on the Britannia Renewal included tens of millions of dollars worth of new apartment buildings for low income families , elders and artists in our community. Additionally the Renewal Plan included the discussion of the new development of all our public facilities on site. We constantly collaborated with the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library, the Vancouver School board and other necessary avenues. I believe it’s important for youth to have a say in future facilities that directly affect them. I was one of the twelve on the board of management that weighed in on approvals for 7 million dollars of fiscal budgets for our community resources in all departments including our public swimming pool, our public ice rinks, teen centre, events, public library and various child care subsidy programs. Additionally the board of management has a sub committee that allowed me to further advocate for Anti-Racism initiatives within my community. Advocating and fostering an inclusive space, LGBTQIA2+, anti- racism and environmentalism within the community for all youth. In 2022 I was accepted into
SHAD Canada at York University, a S.T.E.A.M. Entrepreneur Program on a full Scholarship. SHAD revolved around one design and entrepreneurship project (DE). This year's topic was “How might we improve the mental health of Canadians?”. My DE group created a first of its kind “BraceBand'' for our non-profit organization BRACE4Help. The mission of BRACE4Help is to use the understanding of individuals' identities and experiences of the homeless community in Canada to provide them with opportunities for better mental health. Targeting homeless people and individuals seeking help from addiction, the Braceband prototype was a harm reducing technology including features like an overdose sensor (senses low blood oxygen levels through rapid pulse and high blood pressure), access to ping emergency contact (someone of choice, given through organization, or emergency services), and solar panel charge capabilities (store charge, small backup battery). Through our organization's website, we have resources for shelters, food banks and more. The target market for our product will be organizations and groups that work directly with the homeless population. I was inspired due to my experiences living right next to the Downtown Eastside, and seeing all the effects substance abuse has on my community. Additionally SHAD gave me opportunities to visit the LinkedIn Headquarters, meet like minded people like me and attend lectures from those who specialized in Nuclear Energy and Artificial Intelligence Robotics. Having the privilege to attend all of these events made me reflect on how hard I worked in high school despite my circumstances and perform well receiving the principal's list and honour roll. I continued furthering my education outside of school attending Stanford and MIT taught in the Inspirit Artificial Intelligence program. My academia and hardware was recognized by the school and I was privileged to be nominated by my high school for the Cinderella’s Project, to attend Prom with my dream dress and makeover.
Inspired by my project at SHAD Canada at York University, I co-founded a non profit, Nurtured Youth Community to provide resources to youth across Canada experiencing unsupportive parental/ guardian relationships, providing mental health packages, therapy bursaries, and more. This is what I needed and I’m proud to provide support opportunities to youth like me. It is most important to me to continue to remove barriers youth face in achieving their dreams. Recently featured on the CBC News, Nurtured Youth Community was a winner of the $5000 Oxy Canada grant this year, allowing us to host free therapy workshops and we recently launched the ambassador program to inspire other youth across Canada to advocate for free healthcare. At one point I didn't know it wasn't normal to walk home along Hastings and see struggling people overdose in front of me. It was difficult to see young people I grew up with turn to substance abuse, gang violence and many passing away. My goal for Nurtured Youth Community is to provide positive opportunities for kids affected by homelessness, drug abuse, poverty, food insecurity; all barriers I faced as a low-income youth.
I will not stop advocating for important social issues. I want to make an impact on my community and prevent what happened to me from happening to others. One day I will improve our flawed systems that failed my family and others by pursuing a law degree and one day hopefully having the honor of becoming a judge.
I am honoured to be the recipient of 8 scholarships, including being one of the ten scholars 2023 Simon Fraser University Uggla Family Full Ride Scholarship, the SHINE Beedie Luminaries Scholarship Award, one of the four Canucks Trevor Linden Community Spirit Scholarship Award, the Vancouver recipient of the BC Superintendents Scholarship Award, Skills for Hope Foundation Scholarship, Allan Ross Scholarship Award, Britannia Class of 77’ Scholarship and Student Council Scholarship Award. Additionally I was one of the 25 accepted into the SASHA Program at Western University. I cried after hearing about the news on every phone call and letter in the mail. I have won a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships. I found myself saying out loud, “I believe in myself and now there are other people who believe in me too?”.
I am currently an aspiring law student taking classes at Simon Fraser University in Political Science and legal studies as a full ride scholar of the Simon Fraser University's Uggla Family Scholarship. Everyday when I wake up in my dorm, eat all my meals and attend school all for free it feels like a dream. It feels like a dream to be attending a professional photoshoot with my other Uggla Family Scholars, and attend events such as the President and Vice Chancellor distinguished Award and meet inspiring deans and the 10th president Joy Johnson on a Friday night. At one point I had no food, and now I have all the food I need. I have all the academic support including access to early class enrolment, and amazing support directly from my scholarship Managers Bernard Ryu and Helena Ferh. And, to wake up and find out that as a 2023 Canucks Trevor Linden Community Spirit Scholar I was in the Canucks fund scholarship seen by a 4x Olympic Champion on the board, is surreal.
After working at the Writers Exchange for 4 years I came back to Fresh Roots as a Market Manager in the 2023 summer teaching dozens of kids the exciting ways in the urban agriculture sector. Farming on Fresh Roots Vancouver Technical Secondary School and David Thompson farm sites, supporting Youth and Delegating Market Task at Italian Cultural Centre (Vancouver) and Suwa’lkh Elementary School Locations (Coquitlam), $10K+ in organic produce sold, 100+ families received "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) boxes, 10,000+ lbs of produce harvested, 40+ youth mentored in community service. During the school year I work at Pathways to Education as a site support worker to support hundreds of inner city high school students every week succeed in their academics, scholarship applications, food security and mentor students. This summer I was accepted and attended my dream school at the University of Quebec in Montreal to learn French and in the summer 2024 I was an instructor at the University of British Columbia Recreation Camps teaching Debate in the forestry building and running various other recreational programs to hundreds of students. And in the end, all that pent up stress from running wasn’t just for my mental health, it bloomed into a full-time passion starting from joining cross country in high school, competing in BC Cross Country Championships twice and achieving running 10 half marathons and 1 full marathon from Vancouver to Seattle.
Now my new project at 19 is called “The People’s Voice Article”, A nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students succeed in securing scholarships & highlighting 'pillars of the community' in an annual article. As the founder I am so excited to have supported dozens of kids from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in winning a quarter of a million dollars, estimated $488,000 in scholarships to pursue their dreams in attending post secondary school. Last year I had 3 students on my caseload and this year I have 25 including Meara, Benny, Nagham, Eleni, Tamid, Salina, Rassell, Khalid, Zackarya, Eileen, Magfire, Shereese and so many more . I meet with each student through zoom or take them out to cafes. I prioritize creating a safe space and providing food for them to feel comfortable being honest about their family situations, academic performance, financial needs, trauma, and their trust. Furthermore I have built the People's Voice Article from the ground spending over 3000 hours on the website, writing the essays, meeting with the youth, sending the reminders, talking to all my contacts and researching scholarships, universities and supporting them with the application process. Starting December I have begun working on writing articles separate from their essays to publish on the website as a platform to establish and recognize their amazing journeys. The hours recorded do not reflect the outside time I spend mentoring each youth on their life about their career decisions, academic dreams, self empowerment and learning to feel proud of one's self. This includes supporting youth to start their own initiatives like I did. I am proud to have supported Jenna in launching a non-profit this February on supporting the Jewish community through acts of kindness and community involvement. Although I cannot support them more than a meal, I can spend my time on them, and taking the financial burden off on low-income families. I have the power to support these kids, whether they are first generation immigrants, refugees, or alone change the outcome of their lives. I estimate by June, I will have secured a $1,000,000 worth of scholarships.
Now, on the cusp of turning 20, I am nominated for the 2025 YWCA Young Women of Distinction Award for all of Metro Vancouver. Thank you the staff at the Writers Exchange for believing in me and putting forward my nomination application! I am proud to have impacted thousands of lives across multiple cities in the lower mainland, and I am deeply honored to be a nominee. Additionally thank you to Cynthia Low the Executive Director for Britannia Community Centre, Alexa Pitoulis the former Executive Director of Fresh Roots and current Executive Director of BC Family Doctors, Jennifer Macleod the Former Executive Director and Author Stacey Matson for sending in letters of support. Notably, thank you to my supporters, including Lance Uggla, the Founder and CEO of BeyondNetZero, former CEO of IHS Markit, and founder of the Uggla Family Foundation; Will Meldrum, a consultant from the Uggla Family Foundation; Trevor Stokes, Director at Streetfront, and marathon coach featured in People magazine; Mitra Tshan, a supporter of my family and the Director of Girls Who Leap; Yulanda Ng; Trevor Linden for the Canucks Scholarship; Helena Ferh and Bernard Ryu, my scholarship managers at SFU; Pam Nanson, a Director at the UBC Sauder School of Business; Susie Poulson, consultant and manager of VanDusen Gardens; and, most importantly to me, Teresa Pan, the Senior Advisor to the Dean at the UBC Sauder School of Business.
For the first time in our lives my family says “I love you” to each other, I have a close relationship with my siblings, and my dad is not only healthy, the backbone of my family but is my number one supporter.
I am not defeated by my poverty, my address or my experiences. I am hardworking, passionate, smart, resilient and a leader for all. I am Stephanie Slen, a first-generation Vietnamese- Canadian woman, Asian and someone who overcomes it all.
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