Executive Committee
2010–2011 Excomm
Excomm's mandate
Excomm's responsibilities
Past Excomm
Welcome and congratulations to Farhana, Melissa, Louise, Megan and Joanna our incoming Excommers!
Thanks to all the SYC members who voted.
The 2010–2011 SYC Executive Committee:
Maryam Adrangi – Nova Scotia
Maryam is an Iranian Canadian who loves being involved in the environmental and climate movement and working with other empowered and active youth to work towards a more sustainable and just future. She grew up in BC where she fell in love with the mountains and ocean, and recently worked in Nova Scotia with the Sierra Club’s Atlantic Chapter. She worked with SYC in many capacities throughout her university years,as a member of the Project Committee, with the Ontario Residence Energy Challenge and finally as a Sustainability Coordinator. After hopping around from coast to coast, she has begun hanging out in Ontario. Currently she is a grassroots organizer with the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and Rainforest Action Network Toronto, while she also finds time to connect with southern Ontario's green and blue spaces any way she can.
Brendon Goodmurphy –Ontario
Brendon is currently in the MSc program in Urban Planning and Community Development at the University of Toronto. He received a B.A. from the University of British Columbia, where he studied English Rhetoric and Political Philosophy. While at UBC, he chaired the Student Environment Centre, and served as the VP Academic for the student union for one year. At the student union he was involved in creating a sustainability strategy for the organization. Brendon is an avid cyclist and biked with four friends across BC one summer. In his spare time he plays his guitar and volleyball and writes fiction. He is a lover of all food, but he especially loves fair-trade, organic chocolate!
Maggie Knight – Quebec
Hailing from Victoria, BC, Maggie Knight grew up in the natural splendour of the West Coast, and has been passionate about the environment ever since. A fourth year McGill Environment & Economics student, Maggie is active in Canada’s youth climate movement, serving as National Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for Power Shift Canada in 2009 and of course sitting on SYC's ExComm. She previously worked for SYC and GoBeyond, organizing training camps for youth sustainability leaders. Also active in the campus sustainability movement in Montreal, she worked for two and a half years as Environment Commissioner for the Students’ Society of McGill University and is passionate about youth empowerment, sustainable and inclusive leadership, anti-oppression, and a myriad of sustainability issues. Maggie has also worked as a science communication intern concerning McGill Professor James Ford’s research on climate change adaptation in Canada’s arctic, and will spend Summer 2010 researching the policy relevance of Canadian climate change research conducted under the International Polar Year. As the incoming President of Journalists for Human Rights McGill, Maggie is also passionate about human rights and volunteers with local and national social justice organizations. A published journalist, Maggie believes in the power of the media to create social change. In her spare time she enjoys cooking local food, playing soccer, and fostering kittens.
Joanna MacDonald – Victoria, BC (until end of August) and Guelph, ON (starting in September)
Originally from the small, Southwestern Ontario town of Stratford, Joanna is a third-year Environmental Science student majoring in Environmental Geography at the University of Guelph. Never one to miss out on an adventure she has always been involved in a wide array of activities. Currently she is a member of several environmental groups on campus including the Energy Conservation Working Group, Guelph Students for Environmental Change, and the Environmental Science Student Executive. One of her biggest projects at the moment is with Tap In!, a group on campus that is working to phase out bottled water. In her recent experience with the Canadian Youth Delegation to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen Joanna found a passion for activism and has become an active member of the Canadian climate youth movement. Her other passions include yoga, swimming, and reading a good book!
Adam MacIsaac – Prince Edward Island
Adam MacIsaac has worked in various areas since graduating from high school in 2000 from Prince Edward Island, Canada. With his passion for youth engagement he was the Prince Edward Island Youth Engagement Coordinator for the Creating Local Connections Canada Project (CLC Canada). Throughout his experience working on an organic farm in rural PEI, traveling to the Dominican Republic and working with Fair Trade Coffee and Cacao collectives he has developed a strong connection with food security. While working as an International Development Intern on a Canadian International Development Agency project Adam worked with youth on the international scene and built upon that experience as media officer on a United Nations Development Programme Youth Climate Change Project with the United Nations Development Programme. In April 2008 Adam received training from Al Gore to present the Academy Award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and was a panelist during a round table discussion at The Royal Commonwealth Society along with Canadian environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki. Adam has joined with other young Canadians with the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition as a member of the Canadian Youth Delegations to Bali, Indonesia (COP13), Poznan, Poland (COP14) and Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15) to attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2009 included sailing from Japan, Vanuatu, Tonga, and New Zealand while developing a research paper on how to engage youth on the issue of climate change and then later attending United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Bangkok, Thailand, and Barcelona, Spain with the Adopt A Negotiator project. Adam is currently enjoying the slower pace of organic farming on PEI for the 2010 and his fourth year of involvement with SYC.
Farhana Sidiquee – Montreal, QC
Farhana has a great interest for volunteer initiatives, to inspire youth with empowerment and community engagement, leadership and environmental issues and all that surrounds it. Throughout the last years, she has been an active environmentalist. Her concept is not always about 'Saving the Planet' but '(Re)Educating the Humans'. As past President of the Green Earth Environmental club at Dawson College, she created, promoted, encouraged and fostered any interest in environmental awareness and sustainability initiatives within, as well of outside the community. She also worked in conjunction with Sustainable Dawson, the college's environmental organization, to improve student awareness of environmental issues. She prepared workshops and small speeches in classes to promote a more sustainable living. Farhana is currently working on an awareness campaign for her residential area into efficient recycling.
Megan Poss – Montreal, QC
Megan has recently graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Commerce, and as a student was actively involved in leading and coordinating numerous environmental initiatives. She was Co-Chair for the nationally attended Desautels Business Conference on Sustainability, and was President of the undergraduate group ‘Shaping Tomorrow’s Organizational Practices’. Additionally, she worked with McGill’s SSMU Environment Committee on various events, internal policy documents, and communication strategies. Her particular passion lies in addressing issues of sustainable development and the role that today’s youth leaders will have on tomorrow’s economic landscape. She sees great potential for SYC student members to go on to be the next business, NGO, and political leaders our planet desperately needs. Originally from Waterloo, Ontario, she is currently based out of Montréal working for an organization which provides a platform for youth to pursue social entrepreneurial actions. In her spare time she loves hiking, trail-running, cooking up vegan dishes, and seeking out urban green spaces.
Ellen Quigley – Saskatchewan
Ellen is a 23-year-old environmental activist from Saskatoon, who founded the youth environmental collective We Are Many (WAM).
Louise Veillard – Edmonton, Alberta
Louise was born in the small town of Hay River, NT, moving on to the bigger small town of Rocky Mountain House, AB as a young teen. Hailing form the epitome of oil & gas country, Louise never really thought much about the environment, or anything for that matter, until an eye-opening trip to India. Since her return, Louise has devoted herself to learning more about and acting upon environmental and social justice issues through her involvement with the Students' Union's sustainability service, ECOS. Louise learned of SYC through her involvement with ECOS and enjoyed partnering to host regional conferences at U of A in 2009 & 2010. This summer she is working on compiling a sustainability assessment of the Students' Union based on CSAF. She is very excited for many new opportunities in her 5th and final year of her undergrad degree in General Science and is looking forward to working with SYC and other environmental groups on campus including the Oil Sands Student Delegation, Campus Sustainability Deliberations and the Office of Sustainability's Academic Advisory Committee.
18 and Under Committee Members
Jessica Magonet - Quebec
Jessica is a 17-year-old Montrealer with a passion for environmental advocacy. During high school, she started an environmental club and co-chaired a national conference that examined environmentalism as a humanitarian pursuit. Now a CEGEP student at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf studying Arts, Literature and Sciences, Jessica continues to show her planet some love by sitting on SYC’s excomm, and by giving Al Gore’s Climate Project presentation in her community. In August, she will travel to the Arctic with Students on Ice to learn more about climate change. Jessica dreams of a world without oil spills and of publishing a novel.
Melissa Love – Ontario
Melissa graduated from Colonel By Secondary School in June 2010. There she led the environmental group [F.R.O.G.G.] and was the Spirit Coordinator of her student council. She recently gave a presentation on Youth and Sustainability at the TedX Ottawa 2009 conference, and has also facilitated multiple workshops and presentations relating to environmental issues. In September, Melissa will begin her studies in environmental engineering at the University of Guelph.
The Executive Committee (affectionately known as the Excomm) is SYC’s official decision-making committee. Composed of ten enthusiastic youth from across the country (two are under 18, and the rest are under 30), the Excomm is responsible for shaping SYC’s direction, organizational governance and supporting the staff team.
What are the Excomm’s responsibilities?
Excommers have all sorts of exciting roles and responsibilities. As SYC leaders, they work on:
- strategic planning
- finances
- budgeting
- fundraising
- self-governance and evaluation.
Excomm members can also be responsible for:
- funder relations (if needed)
- representing SYC to Member of Parliaments in their region
- supporting the Sustainable Campuses Regional Action Committee of their region
Thanks to all of our past executive members!
2009 - 2010
Maryam Adragni, Britney Allen, Brendon Goodmurphy, Maggie Knight, Marc Labelle, Adam MacIsaac, Jessica Magonet, Ellen Quigley, Meagan Wilson
2008 – 2009
Britney Allen, Lara Berliner, Greg Boyle, Joanna Dafoe, Brendon Goodmurphy, Sam Green, Laura Keating, Adam MacIsaac, Josée Madéïa, Megan Wilson
2007 – 2008
Neegann Aaswaakshin, Joanna Dafoe, Elizabeth Fraser, Sam Green, Justin Grenier, Laura Keating, Adam MacIsaac, Josée Madéïa, Nik Parent, Jake Torrie, Angharad Wylie
2006 – 2007
Paul Alderton, Barbara Hayes, Liz McDowell, Tim Murphy, Elissa Smith, Jonas Weselake-George
2005-2006
Dev Aujla, Catherine Boyd, Ed Keeble, Rosanna Nicol, Zani Showler, Amelia Warren
Syndicate
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