Andrew Wong, born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, will graduate this June from the University of Waterloo’s Geography and Environmental Management program. Throughout university, Andrew strived to be more than a student – to give of himself to his communities in substantial, meaningful ways. He has been a student, an environmental advocate, a student leader, a community volunteer, an academic researcher, a visual artist, an expedition photographer, a musician, a varsity athlete, a public speaker, and a journalist.
With a passion for the environment and a desire to improve people’s lives, Andrew has taken strong leadership in social and environmental endeavours locally and internationally. He founded and led three Canadian and international youth delegations to attend recent United Nations Summits and Climate Negotiations, including the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (2012) and the COP19 UN Climate Negotiations in Poland (2013). At these UN Summits, the delegations successfully held meetings with heads of state and high-level officials. Andrew’s remarkable success has greatly impacted the University of Waterloo community and changed the perspective on how students and faculty can engage together in major environmental issues facing our society.
Andrew is a young man of vision and is inspiring and effective as a citizen, a leader and a young scholar. He is humble, thoughtful and inclusive. He shows initiative, maturity and great leadership and organizational skills.
In 2014, Andrew was named a National Geographic Young Explorer by National Geographic Society, who has since been supporting Andrew’s work to document and understand sustainable livelihoods of peoples of the world, particularly indigenous cultures. In 2014, Andrew lived in the Nepal Himalaya to learn about Sherpa lifeways and then lived in Nunavut to learn about traditional Inuit hunting ways.
National Geographic Society awarded Andrew with a research and exploration grant. He is also a recipient of the 2010 Toyota Earth Day National Award, the 2011 Canada’s Next Green Journalist by Environmental Defence, and the 2014 OCIC Global Changemaker Award.
相关文章
