Faces of Sustainability: Michele Young and Samantha Whitehead

Posted on Monday, September 18th, 2017

The powerful words by Mahatma Ghandi: “There’s enough on this planet for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed”, inspire Michele Young and Samantha Whitehead in their commitment to act as change makers for a better world.

Students Michele Young and Samantha Whitehead are the inaugural recipients of the “22-4” Algonquin College Sustainability Leader Award. The “22-4” Award (named to align with Earth Day, which is celebrated annually on April 22nd) provides recognition, as well as a financial reward to students who volunteer a significant amount of their time to create change reflecting positive social and environmental impacts while respecting economic constraints.

Michele and Samantha were both recognized with this award at the close of the 2016-2017 academic year. These two students, enrolled in the General Arts and Science Year II program following their first year focus in Environmental Studies, demonstrated their leadership by heading up a Student Club at the Ottawa campus called Earth Allies. Under their leadership, this club has a long list of accomplishments.

In its first year, the club maintained a healthy membership base and was able to successfully complete the Blue Dot Campaign. Through their education and outreach efforts, they gained the most signatures from any post secondary educational institution in Canada calling on the government to make changes for Canadians to have the right to a healthy environment. The group’s reward for this achievement was participation in an hour-long conversation with David Suzuki via Skype.

The club continued its efforts on increasing the dialog on campus around sustainability topics by hosting a keynote presentation and Q & A session with Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, and organizing a one-day student sustainability conference on April 8th, 2017 at Algonquin’s Ottawa Campus. The Sustainability in Action conference was attended by more than 30 students from Algonquin College and other institutions and helped educate attendees on topics such as proper recycling techniques, purchasing green and local products, and much more.

Additionally, both Samantha and Michele were Senior Student Leaders through the AC Hub Student Leadership Program. In this role, they organized and promoted two Cleaning the Capital campus clean-ups through our Community Projects program within the AC Hub.

What’s Next?

The Algonquin College community benefited from Michele and Samantha’s beliefs that when knowledge can be translated into action, every act is working towards making the world a better place.

Michele Young and Samantha Whitehead graduated from the General Arts and Science Year II program in 2017. The Sustainable Algonquin Steering Committee, The AC Hub and the Algonquin Students’ Association will keep an eye out for how these two sustainability leaders will positively impact the communities where they choose to work and live.

Related information:

Algonquin College Students’ Association Clubs and Communities
Video of The AC Hub Earth Day 2016 Community Project
Student Sustainability Award
Blue Dot campaign winners story


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