Essay Question 1: Students have tremendous potential to be ambassadors for change and lead meaningful action. What is the best way to educate, engage and empower youth to bring about positive change in the world?

Answer in 400 words or less:

In today’s digital world of electronic devices, apps and social media, I think it’s important to step back sometimes and go old school. That is to say, speaking in person and interacting with youth in person is very important. A great way for youth to interact with other like-minded youth, and to learn and be mentored by community leaders is through leadership conferences. The best way to educate, engage and empower youth to bring about positive in change in the world is by providing opportunities for youth to develop useful leadership skills and also providing avenues for them to use those skills.

For example, I think leadership conferences are a very good way of engaging youth and enlightening them about the importance of community involvement. I myself have attended more than 4 leadership conferences at places like Ontario Educational Leadership Centre, Central Ontario Leadership Seminar and The Global Vision Economic Round Table. I truly believe that it is my experiences at these conferences that have helped me become the leader I am in my community today. Those conferences even inspired me to create and run my own leadership conference called MYLEAD (Middle School Youth Leadership Empowerment and Aspiration Development), which provided youth in my city, Brampton, with the opportunity to build leadership skills and group dynamics, which they will use to better their middle schools and community as a whole.

I believe that the examples I have given are truly a testament to manifestation of skills learnt from leadership conferences, and I don’t think there will ever be enough leadership conferences for youth. These conferences are also a great means of networking for youth, and I believe that networking is an essential skill that a lot of youth are lacking today. Networking is a skill with many real-life applications, especially in the workplace. For example, in the business world networking is a great way to make connections and get affiliations and partnerships for your organization and right now I believe that many youth are not learning this skill. When students go through leadership conferences, they depart with a wide array of skills that will help them navigate the world of today, and will help push them to become students leading change in their communities.

 

Essay Question 2: What is the most important action you’ve taken as a student to create change? What was the result?

Answer in 200 words or less:

I think that the most important action I have taken as a student to create change is running for the position of Student Trustee of the Peel District School Board. Running for election was a big step for me, and it required a lot of confidence but I was able to overcome the hurdle and I was elected as the student trustee. I think this is the most important thing I have done to date because it has helped me make positive changes that have affected multitudes of youth in the Peel Region and in Ontario as a whole. As student trustee, I represent the 160,000 students in the Peel Region on the board and as one of the executive members of the Ontario Student Trustee’s Association; I help represent the 2.4 million

students in Ontario. The result of this is that I have been able to make integral decisions and influence important stake holders in education to make the system better for students. On a regional level, I have helped students by doing things such as lowering cafeteria prices, helping student council’s get fair budgets and uniting the student council presidents of Peel.

 

Please describe your interest in a career in Capital Markets. (maximum 300 words)

In September 2015, I started my first year at Western University studying business with an inclination towards finance but no real idea of what I truly wanted to do. An upper year friend of mine encouraged me to attend meetings at the two major finance clubs at our school and through these meetings, I began to learn more about finance. I found that the problem solving, numerical and detail-oriented aspects of it appealed to me and I decided to pursue a career in finance. I secured a position as the Director of Events of Western Capital Markets, the largest sole finance preparation club at Western.

 

Throughout the year, I spent time increasing my financial acumen by self-teaching, attending club meetings and participating in various conferences and competitions. Everything I learned aided me in securing a summer internship at Scotia Wealth Management. Now, I am the Director of Education of Western Capital Markets; in this role, I help teach vital financial basics to all our general members. This summer, I am working as an Investment Banking Analyst at the Toronto office of Kirchner Private Capital Group, a merchant bank with six offices in North America.

 

I believe that a career in finance will provide me with endless opportunities to challenge myself and develop both personally and professionally. Working in finance also requires one to be adaptable between working on your own and working with a team which is something that appeals to me because I am very adaptable between various social settings and dynamics. I have worked very hard to get to this point and I implore you to give me the chance to convince you of what I already know and believe – I have the conviction to make it in the world of finance.