SARAH
Youth Board Member
Sarah Syed
Sarah is an 18-year-old climate activist and innovator. She is a Youth Board Member at The Fyera Foundation, a fellow at The David Suzuki Foundation, and a climate education workshop facilitator/community and social media manager at Starfish Canada. Sarah is passionate about leveraging her passion for tech to research and design equitable climate-tech solutions. From bioplastic research made from food scraps to her most recent project that spanned over two years, a biodegradable sorbent made from polymers, biomass, and polysaccharide aerogels that have the efficiency of removing 98% of oils, organic compounds, and heavy metal compounds. Sarah is currently working on leveraging nanomaterials to design a rotating and semi-transparent solar cell and an IoT water sensor to reduce water wastage in agriculture. Her efforts have been recognized by distinguishable honors such as MP Dan Albas, NDP Critic for Environment and Climate Change Laurel Collins, and The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell during the Ontario Junior Citizen award ceremony. She has also been named a Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalist in Canada, Ontario Junior Citizen, and 1 of 3 young women making a mark on climate change by the Weather Network, National Nature Inspirational Youth, and Future Mind Under 25.
She is also the founder of You Are the Change, a youth-led organization dedicated to helping youth become changemakers in their community. She enjoys sharing her story and ideas in hopes of inspiring other youth and ensuring that action is taken now on the life-threatening climate crisis. Sarah has spoken at many conferences including the United Nations Water Conference Offical Side event, UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum, Eco Impact, HWY H2O, Electricity Transformation Canada, AWE USA, University of Toronto, and McGill University, among others.