Age: 15
Annika Gupta is no stranger to effective leadership. As a sailing instructor with the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, she makes quick safety decisions with confidence and offers clear guidance to her mentees through unpredictable weather conditions. Last June, she presented a TEDx Talk exploring how empathy and bias influence youth leadership.
Gupta also volunteers at the Quarry Park Library, where she teaches coding. Seeing her mentees’ pride and self-belief grow inspires her to create more learning opportunities for everyone in STEM, where she sees a gap in literacy. Through the Alpine Reasoning Challenge, a youth-led non-profit that hosts STEM contests, she’s helped secure thousands of dollars in funding for STEM outreach and equitable access.
“I’m motivated by curiosity, empathy, all of these things that drive me to leave every space a little more open to the next person,” she says.
