Serving the Eastern Townships English-speaking Community since 1979.
DANIKA BOUCHARD: A PASSIONATE AND COMPASSIONATE YOUNG LEADER
April 21, 2010
By Michelle Lepitre, Make Way for YOUth/Desjardins Migration Agent
At only 19 years of age, Danika Bouchard already has an impressively long list of accomplishments to her credit, as well as much energy and enthusiasm! Born in the Eastern Townships, she has been actively involved in community endeavours since high school. Danika is currently studying finance at the Université de Sherbrooke, where she is the Vice-President of the Comité Ca de l’Université de Sherbrooke and a representative for the Finance program in the Association Étudiante de la Faculté d’Administration de l’Université de Sherbrooke. While completing her education, she is also working a part-time job and remaining actively involved in her community. How does she manage to do all this? Involvement, Danika says, “is a need, a vital need for me. Without it, I would feel useless, selfish… or kind of empty.”
Danika’s interest in entrepreneurial ventures began as early as secondary-level four, when she started a business selling fair-trade products, ethical clothes and reusable bags made of used paint. She was rewarded for her efforts with the national prize for entrepreneurship; an impressive accomplishment indeed for a young woman not even out of high school! Since then, Danika has represented the student voice of the ‘Concours national en entrepreneuriat’, and has given conferences about her experiences, in the hopes of encouraging other young people to participate in entrepreneurship activities. Danika has also been a member of a committee in Sherbrooke that is working to find solutions to the lack of jobs for young people in the region.
Danika’s involvement, though, did not stop there. In secondary-level five, Danika organized an activity for sick children at the CHUS, bringing in clowns to visit the children. According to Danika, she wanted the children to be able to have fun, even if they were going through hard times.
When asked what the Young Townships Leaders Awards mean to her, Danika responded that they mean “the community underlines the leaders of tomorrow, people who will have their words to say at any level of the society. It also means that even if some of the recipients are especially young (as I was when I received the award), people still believe in them, in their potential.”
When the winners were announced at the 2009 Young Townships Leaders awards ceremony in June, Danika was unfortunately not present to accept her prize. Why, you ask? A matter of days before the ceremony, Danika and a friend had left the country, heading to Uganda to work in an orphanage there for the summer months.
After she returned to Canada, Danika said, “I was extremely happy! I was in Uganda, Africa, when my mother called to tell me I was one of the recipients of the award. I was literally at the other end of the planet but at that moment I was wishing to be in Canada just to celebrate and be at the ceremony.” Danika doesn’t regret her decision to spend her summer in Africa, though, since she says that her time in Uganda absolutely changed her life.
She said the $1,000 award “helped me to pay my school fees since my summer in Africa cost me more than $4,000.” More than just supporting her financially, though, Danika said that her award encouraged her to continue to invest herself in her community, her school, and even in other countries.
When asked if she had any advice to give other young people, Danika said she would encourage them “to believe in their ideas and not to be afraid to bring basic projects to other levels, even if it means investing time and effort.”
Danika herself is living proof of just how much a single person can do to change the lives of many others. Her passion and dedication to helping the world around her is not only inspiring, but very nearly infectious. She is a young woman who cares deeply about others and about her community and one who will, no doubt, make even more good things happen in the years to come.
Does Danika remind you of a young person you know? If so, be sure to nominate him or her for one of this year’s three Young Townships Leader awards. The deadline for nominations is Monday, May 3, at 5 p.m. For more information about the awards, or to obtain a nomination form, contact Michelle Lepitre, Make Way for YOUth/Desjardins Migration Agent at 819-566-5717 (toll-free 1-866-566-5717) or ml@townshippers.qc.ca.
The 2010 Young Townships Leaders Awards are made possible, in part, by the generous financial contributions of NAV Canada and other supporting partners.
Photo Courtesy of Danika Bouchard
Cutline: Danika spent the summer of 2009 at an orphanage in Uganda, teaching youth a variety of subjects. Her time there, she says, changed her life.