Experiences: Mentor-Helen Chen from Toronto, ON

Sep 19, 2017 by Helen Chen

Hi everyone! My name is Helen Chen, I'm from Toronto, ON, Canada, and I'm someone who advocates for the Sustainable Development Goals, mainly for climate action, gender equality, and education. This June, I was a Canadian Youth Representative at the President of General Assembly High Level Event on Education. I do a lot of work for climate change, where I'm the director for the Toronto Coalition of Ecoschools and Sustainable Youth Canada, and I'm working with the York Region for a better sustainable strategy with the organization iMatter; I'm actually presenting to the council in November! I was personally trained by former Vice President Al Gore for his Climate Reality Leadership Corps last summer. Plus, I was a youth policy advocate for UNEP for their youth engagement strategy as part of the 3% Project which aims to empower 1 million youth to solve the climate crisis. I am a youth ambassador to Canada for the Global Ambassadors Program by OKYD, I was a city youth councilor, and I was a Canadian Youth Representative at the Commission on the Status of Women Youth Forum at the UN. I also spoke in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters for the MUN Youth Assembly, speaking at both opening and closing ceremony on how MUN, Youth, and Education can be used to solve the Sustainable Development Goals. Plus, I was a finalist for the Phrase of the Year Competition by the Dhillon Marty Foundation in collaboration with UNESCO. As you can tell, I'm very interested in sustainability, and this summer, I travelled to Ecuador (Andes Mountains and the Amazon Rainforest) to further my interests. 

I look forward to working and learning from all of you!