Small acts make huge difference
West Kildonan Collegiate student first to receive Gen WE award
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This article was published 13/11/2017 (2894 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A 17-year-old West Kildonan Collegiate student says he lives and breathes human rights and sustainable education.
On Oct. 25, all of his selfless work was recognized in front of 16,000 people during WE Day Manitoba. Victor Selby won Manitoba’s first ever Gen WE award for his work on climate action.
Since Grade 9, Selby has been involved with the school’s social justice club and is currently a student in West Kildonan Collegiate’s new course Sustainable Living Academy Manitoba. As a student in the civic leadership course, he took on many initiatives in the school and community. Selby was an active member of the Kildonan-St. Paul Constituency Youth Council meeting regularly with MP MaryAnn Mihychuk to discuss youth concerns. He has travelled to First Nations communities to speak about mental health issues. Selby was also one of 10 youth selected from across Canada to spend a writer’s weekend in Ottawa with the Climate Action 150 Project sponsored by Green Learning.
Selby told The Times that he’s always had a passion for social justice and human rights. He said he finds it unfair that some people are born in more challenging situations than others and always wanted to do what he could to minimize the effects inequality may have on communities.
“Nobody has to do so much. If everyone did just a little bit, that would make such a difference in the world, so I wanted to do my share as best as I could,” he said.
Among the extensive list of things Selby does to give back are two internships this past year. The first was with the Reading Power Program at Margaret Park School where he taught Syrian refugee children to read. The second was being a presenter for the Anne Frank: A History for Today Exhibit, a travelling museum from Amsterdam that spent one month at West Kildonan Collegiate.
His teachers, Tammy Harder, originally nominated Selby for the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Volunteer Medal award, but his accomplishments were such that he became the first Manitoban to win the Gen WE award.
The Grade 12 student said he hopes this award encourages other people to get out of their comfort zone and believe that they too can make a difference in the world.
“Find our passion, and that’s a way that you can make it in that field. Follow what you’re passionate about.”
In the future, Selby hopes to become part of a non-profit organization in Winnipeg and later start his own. Climate change is a topic that he wants to focus on.
“Looking at the crowd was inspiring to me. It was inspiring that my hard work pays off. Not in the form of awards because I’m not the type of person who’s going to be chasing awards, but just the fact that I was doing something and it inspired myself to keep going. It made me feel like I was making a difference and that’s what I want to do.”