activism Young Agents Program past winners | Youthink
Image credit:  www.globalafc.org | Last year's Young Agents Program winners have seen their community initiatives become very successful thanks to their efforts and the assistance they received from Global Agents.

Young Agents Program

by Emily Chan - Riverside Secondary, Coquitlam BC Jan 24, 2011
I have never been a business-motivated person. I get caught up in emotional details too easily. When I plan a fundraiser, I’m thinking more about the face of a single child in Sierra Leone than our profit margin. So when somebody like my good friend Phil comes along, armed with charts and graphs and summaries, I am always a little amazed. My way of thinking is great for helping the individual, but Phil’s logical approach is what ends up helping the masses. Phil’s part of a growing number of youth who are both business-savvy and socially conscious – the social entrepreneurs. And, lucky for Phil, Global Agents, a local company, is offering BC youth a chance to get their fair-trade, eco-friendly, youth-focused businesses off the ground.

The second annual Young Agents Awards recognizes youth between the ages of 12 and 20, who, “have taken initiative and are positively impacting the world with projects that have a local or global perspective.” In partnership with Coast Capital Savings, Global Agents is offering five winners funding and mentoring for their projects. For young social-entrepreneurs, this is a chance to lift their grass-roots organizations off the ground.

Last year, the award helped youth such as Kristi Buchltz, who founded The People’s Foundation of Sierra Leone, a mentorship program for students in the West African country of Sierra Leone. With the help of money and mentorship from Global Agents, Kristi’s organization is able to provide university scholarships to disadvantaged youth, and education of HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse.
 
In addition to their Young Agents Awards, Global Agents offers a variety of other programs, including their well-established Riding to Break the Cycle bike tours, which cross Europe, the Pacific Coast, and Cambodia, fundraising for projects in Uganda, Kenya, and Cambodia. Global Agents also offers a program titled Education Generation, dedicated to providing universal education.
Global Agents describes their programs on their website, saying, “Through our social ventures, we raise capital and engage the leaders of tomorrow. With our partners, we utilize this capital and energy to catalyze the best and brightest ideas of our generation.”

If you know a youth with a big idea and want to nominate them to win a Young Agents Award, or if you would like to apply to be a young agent just go to www.globalafc.org/youngagents for more details. Deadline for applications is 11:59pm, Monday, February 28th!

I know who I plan to nominate.
 
Comments (1)
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Young Agents

Submitted by enigmacyofme on Mon, 01/31/2011 - 18:16.

I love the idea of the program mentioned above. It is great to award the young people who are making an effort to change our world, because it shows them that what they're doing is worthwhile and recognized. I think that's really important if we want to have a future in which greed doesn't take over. The youth are crucial elements in our society, their efforts towards building a new tomorrow needs to be seen.

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