Leadership in Focus: Jasmeet Sidhu
By Elisa Birnbaum
July 6, 2009
This month in our Leadership in Focus series, we feature young leader Jasmeet Sidhu. At the age of 16, Sidhu founded the Peel Environmental Youth Alliance - an umbrella organization working to implement environmental programs and train environmental leadership in Peel Region schools. Her activism runs the gamut, from HIV/AIDS, to violence against women, youth empowerment, and climate change. Among other accolades, her passionate efforts have recently resulted in her receiving the Credit Valley Conservation's Young Conservationist Award.
CharityVillage: What motivated you to launch Peel Environmental Youth Alliance (PEYA)? How did you succeed in getting it started?
Jasmeet Sidhu: I started it five years ago when I was 16, a senior in grade 10. We started an environmental club at school but we thought it was lame because we didn't have much money, didn't know what to do. I was thinking it would be great if there was a forum for student environmentalists because I always believed that by speaking with other people and speaking about your problems, you can think of solutions by expanding the people in your immediate circle. It would be way to connect common interests and to work together on the problems students are having in their schools.
My first thought was whether there was already something out there. I did my Google searches but couldn't really find anything in Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon that was specific for young student environmentalists. But I did find something similar for adult environmentalists in the Peel region, at the time called the Peel Environmental Network. So I contacted their coordinator, Stephanie Crocker, and said, "I love the idea you have for adults and wouldn't it be cool to have something similar for youth." It just started from that one email and she ended up becoming my partner in crime. We started working together, we set up meetings at my high school and others. From those initial meetings, the foundation was set for what would eventually become PEYA in November 2004. I was really lucky she was so gung ho about the idea and was very helpful.
CV: How is the organization doing and what's your level of involvement today?
JS: Well, at our annual conference at the end of September/early October, we get over 300 participants. Our monthly meetings get around 30-40 students. And we're actually celebrating five years this November. We're really proud as a youth organization that we're able to last this long. And there's no end in sight; hopefully we'll be around for another five years, at least.
I'm in university now so my role has changed from being knee-deep in the day-to-day operations to now stepping back and looking more at the long-term strategic direction of the organization. I'm involved with funding, establishing new contacts and introducing them to the organization, being a brand ambassador. And I sit on the advisory board, also providing long-term strategic direction and program evaluation.
CV: Your activism ranges from the environment to violence against women, HIV/AIDs and youth empowerment. How do you decide where to focus your efforts?
JS: It's funny that people get surprised to hear I'm not studying environmental studies, but that I'm studying peace and conflict studies with a focus area on HIV/AIDS and global health. There's definitely an impression out there that each person much pick a cause and dedicate themselves to that cause. And some people do have that one cause to which they dedicate their whole lives and I think that's really amazing. But for someone like me, I always looked at the world and saw a whole plate of issues and problems and several different things in several different fields that all equally interested me. I feel equally concerned about climate change as I do about HIV/AIDS in Africa. So I can't really choose which problem is worse, that I have to dedicate myself to [it].
"I'm tasting and trying different things right now to get a feel of what's going on, and I think that's really important for young people." |
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I think that's how I got involved with these supposedly unconnected areas. I just find myself equally interested in violence against women, HIV/AIDS, youth empowerment, etc. I say "supposedly unconnected" because, what I found was, keeping my interests broad, I was able to find that these issues are actually very connected. If you ask any AIDS activist in Africa, they can tell you how violence against women and disempowered youth can lead to high rates of HIV/AIDS, or how empowering youth is so critical for solving climate change. So I think it's a sad thing that [society] feels the need to chop up these issues and tell people you've got to pick one and that's how you can get the most success. I'm interested in so many things; why should I choose just one? You can always make time for a number of different interests.
I feel like there's a lot of pressure on young people when choosing what they want to study to pick one thing and one career has to come out of that. Maybe one day I will choose one issue but at least I'm tasting and trying different things right now to get a feel of what's going on and I think that's really important for young people.
CV: What are you up to on a daily basis?
JS:
At the moment, I'm working at the Toronto Star on a reporting internship. I started in May and will go until September. I cover crime stories, city stories. And I'm starting to pitch stories, too, so I get opportunities to write stories I'm interested in. I think I've really fallen in love with the media, not just newspaper journalism. I feel media is so heavily connected to each of those issues and it's another way for me to stay connected to what I'm interested in. Things like what gets covered, how it gets covered, what role and effect that has on issues and events is fascinating. Like the Twitter phenomenon in Iran. I find it extremely fascinating how, because of a media embargo, people are turning to cell phones and watching videos on YouTube.
CV: Do you think media can be a force of change?
JS: Journalism is something I'm really interested in now; it really fascinates me. You're given a certain platform to voice your opinions and when you propose a story, you have control on how it gets covered even if it's not a directly opinionated piece. So I'm definitely intrigued by how I can take something I want to talk about and influence a bit of a discussion among people.
The Toronto Star does a lot of investigations and one was about soft ice cream in Toronto that was found to contain a lot of bacteria. The next day, the City of Toronto began investigations. That was a really immediate way to see how much of a role the media can have. I feel media has two roles. One is to report on news and the other is the public watchdog.
The other day the Mississauga News did a profile of me and the next day I had an email from someone asking if there was a way they could donate to my organization. So that's another way media can be a force of change. There's a lot of good that can come from that sort of exposure. It was really nice that they read the article and then felt inspired to open the wallets. I've definitely seen a lot of people who were not inspired to do anything until they read about an issue in the paper or about a certain person in the paper doing something about an issue and they said, "Why can't I do that?" I also think citizens themselves feel responsibility to keep newspapers on top of these kinds of things. They should be reporting about crime, but they should also be reporting about the good things happening in the community.
CV: Do you feel organizations are doing enough to foster young leaders? What do you feel they could be doing better?
JS: I go to a lot of organizations' meetings and get to see how they operate. I sometimes feel they come up with fascinating projects. And then go to high schools, set up community forum meetings, and look for youth to recruit. Oftentimes, they're not successful. The kind of thing that I find works best is a more direct, bottom-up approach. Like what I did with PEYA. I had an idea and was able to approach Stephanie and she provided the support to really let me run with the idea, rather than having the idea pushed and funnelled through what would be best for another organization, under their program. They should be encouraging more autonomy, direct leadership, to be able to organize things themselves.
On the flip side, I have seen some young people eager just to get involved. They come to an organization and ask what they can do. Sometimes [the organization] will offer this menial task. But that's not the kind of thing I wanted to be doing. I wanted to lead something or create something. That should be more of the focus: giving young people the opportunity to create something from their own hands, rather than feeling they're a cog in the machine to help feed the organization's ultimate purpose.
CV: There are those who say young people are not stepping up enough as volunteers and leaders. Do you agree?
JS: I honestly don't know. I run into a lot of students who are reflections of me when I was younger. You know, so gung ho and interested in everything. And sometimes I run into people and give them my business card, tell them to email me so I can tell them how to get involved and I never hear from them again. Sometimes I feel like young people are not stepping up, but at the same time, I see young people doing crazier things than what I'm doing - very impressive.
But when people use the phrase "are young people not stepping up enough," I don't think we should be characterizing a whole age demographic; we would never dream of asking, "Are working adults stepping up enough as volunteers and leaders?" I think a better question, for example, would be: do middle-school students in Halton feel they will go to university, why or why not? The question is context-specific. A young person in Halton will not be the same as a young person in Toronto or Brampton.
CV: How would you advise a young person on the best way they can effect change or get involved with issues that concern them?
JS: I definitely think one of the best things I did was reach out to Stephanie; I was really lucky she was so supportive. I know a lot of organizations that would die of happiness if young people approached them saying they want to help. So, best to begin by reaching out to people. One thing I learned is not to be intimidated by the status or positions of people in organizations or in government, if that's the area you're interested in. Don't be afraid to send them an email or written letter or phone call, asking them for ideas of what kind of things are out there, what's going on with an issue, what are the ways they can be involved. Also, be aware that if you don't want to be saddled down with menial tasks, don't settle for that. Ask yourself who are some of the big movers and shakers in the field that you are looking to get more involved with. And see if you can catch them at a speaking engagement, or a community forum. Put yourself out there, look around to see what's available.
CV: Do you think there are specific traits that make leaders great?
JS: I think when you start listing specific traits, you're automatically alienating a lot of people who look at that list and say, "Hey, I'm not necessarily outgoing or doing this and that." A lot of traits that people say make leaders great are things like being task-oriented, ambitious or outgoing. And if I were being honest, I don't think I was any of those things when I was 14. So if someone told me you can't be a leader unless you're these things, who knows what I would have felt back then. You can have people who are introverted, shy, not very social - like what I was - and you shouldn't say they won't be leaders. There are different kinds of leaders; just look at top-level leadership out there. You have people like Obama who are the most people-oriented, and then you have others who are much less so. But they're all leaders.
But, I would definitely say that one of the key factors for me is people's level of engagement with the world around them. It doesn't mean they're at a protest rally going "rah rah rah," but they're engaged and asking questions about why things are the way they are, in the community and the world. If they tend to ask the question "why?" I would definitely pin them as someone who can become a leader, rather than the overly social person or other type of person that traditionally people say would become a leader.
If you would have talked to me when I was 15, I was antisocial, more introverted. I'm still an introverted person - I'd rather do things with words, than phone calls and in person. The difference was that I chose to get engaged. The first form of activism I did was when they were building a subdivision instead of a recreation centre near me. I wrote a letter to the Brampton Guardian and it got published. A city councillor wrote back to me, which was really nice, and I realized I can do something in my own way, which was writing letters. I'm probably more social and outgoing now, but all that resulted from becoming engaged.
More about Jasmeet Sidhu... |
First nonprofit job: At 16 she worked for Earth Day Canada
Education: Graduated from Heart Lake Secondary School and is now attending the University of Toronto.
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CV: Do you have any mentors who've inspired you over the years?
JS: Everyone I've been involved with has contributed a little bit to who I am now. But if I would pick one person who was probably the most critical at the earliest stages, when I was 15 and 16, it was Stephanie Crocker. She gave me a chance to develop the youth organization and really supported me. There have been many other people I met along the way, people I can have discussions with. Those are the kinds of people I look up to, the immediate people in my life. Sure, it's nice to have grand people like Obama as mentors, but I think it's always great to have people who you can immediately call or email and discuss ideas with as your mentors. Those are the people who will probably have the most direct impact on your life.
Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is also president of Elle Communications and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.
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