St. Michaels University School’s Jared Qin has been named to the UNICEF Youth Advocate Program, one of only two young people in British Columbia to receive the distinction. Selected from more than 1,000 applicants nationwide, the approximately 30 students chosen for the program represent the next generation of advocates for children's rights. Participants meet monthly with guest speakers from around the world, develop their own advocacy plans and work toward drafting real policy documents aimed at decision-makers. For Jared, the appointment is the culmination of years of work that started well before high school.
Jared has been engaged with climate advocacy since he was seven, shaped by a childhood that moved him from Calgary to Beijing to Vancouver and left him with a clear-eyed view of how environmental issues play out differently across the world. By age 12, he was running a small environmental sustainability and technology exhibit in Beijing. In Vancouver, he won a hackathon with an AI-powered app that identified the correct recycling stream for any photographed object. He has sat on youth councils, engaged with local politics and published research, all while looking for a platform with enough reach to match what he wanted to do.
"I kept feeling like traditional politics didn't provide adequate methods for youth to advocate for the issues they cared about," he said. "Getting the chance to work within an organization like UNICEF, to think about solutions that are actually implementable nationwide, I'd never had access to anything like that before."
Within the program, Jared's working group is focused on children's rights. Members meet monthly, learn from guest speakers and are currently drafting policy documents to submit to decision-makers across Canada. He does not take the opportunity lightly.
"I'm carrying a voice for all my friends," he said.
Jared arrived at SMUS this year as a Best School Year Ever applicant, recognized for his published research, AI certification and the artificial intelligence club he founded at his previous school. He has made full use of what the school offers since. His course load includes Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus BC, AP Physics 1 and AP Seminar, university-level courses he is taking one to two years ahead of schedule. He competes in Astrophysics Olympiads nationally and internationally, sits on the Academic Council, plays volleyball and is a member of Debate Club, Chapel Team and the R&B Band.
This spring he also took on the role of Marius in the school's production of Les Misérables, a demanding lead in his first-ever theatrical performance, with two years of Vancouver Youth Choir experience as his only preparation prior to rehearsals.
At the end of May, Jared will be in Edmonton at the Canada-Wide Science Fair, having earned his spot by finishing second overall at the Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair in April. He will present independent research on galaxy mergers — specifically the significant percentage that current detection methods miss, and what correcting that gap could mean for our understanding of the universe and the possibility of life within it.
Through all of it, a single thread runs. Climate change is, at its core, a question of what kind of world today's children will inherit. Children's rights are inseparable from that future. For Jared, the UNICEF Youth Advocate Program is where those convictions can be put to work. Youth advocacy, in his view, has never been a stepping stone to something more serious. It is where the most important work is already happening.
"The issues that matter most to young people are the ones young people need to be solving," he said. "That's what I want to be part of."
