What is Youth Focus?
Youth Focus provides young people in the community with an opportunity to get involved in various programs and speaking events.
Youth Speakers:
In a tradition started in 1990 as part of our 90th anniversary celebration, we reserve 7 to 10 minutes on our agenda most months, to provide an opportunity for a young person to speak to our audience.
We encourage a variety of speakers, both male and female. Youth who have an exciting or inspirational personal story to tell, are invited to present to our members—over 400 currently. Like our members, these young people are from the greater London area (including, for example, St. Thomas, Dutton, Strathroy). They vary in age from 5th graders to university students, who inspire us to realize that Canada has a bright future with this upcoming generation. We welcome recommendations from our members as to possible speakers.
Recent speakers include youth who:
completed a cross-Canada tour on the Peacebus, sponsored by Children’s International Summer Villages,
sang with the Amabile Choir for 5 years, highlighted by a gold medal performance in a choral competition in Greece,
travelled to Thailand to be a television reporter at the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament,
swam courageously across Lake Ontario, raising funds to send a young boy with cancer, to Disney World, and
attended an international school, with classes held in several major cities throughout the world.
Contact us below if you have an inquiry or would like to provide feedback on a youth speaker:
Fatema Barkoumi
Westminster Secondary School
Anushka Bist
Oakridge Secondary School
Lucas Broadfoot
Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School
Miraya Agrawal
Catholic Central High School
Emerging Leaders Awards – 2025
Women’s Canadian Club, London has established the Emerging Leaders Awards to encourage leadership skills in grades 10-11 students. Applications are available through the student services department at the local secondary schools, beginning in February each year.
From the applicants at each school, the awards committee will choose one student as the most worthy at his and her school. Based on enrollment, there are three awards of $250 for students in the Thames Valley District School Board and one award of $250 for the students in the London District Catholic School Board or the French schools. Consult with the student services department for the deadline at each school.
Kiwanis Music Festival Scholarship
In memory of Kathryn Sells, a long-time pianist at our monthly meetings, we provide an annual award of $500, to the top pianist at the Kiwanis Music Festival. In February, the winners are invited to tell us about their own musical experience and about their favourite composer. We especially look forward to hearing them play a piece for us.
By entering several senior piano classes in the London Kiwanis Music Festival, candidates are eligible for consideration for all music festival piano awards and scholarships, as recommended by the festival adjudicators. Awards are presented to competitors who, in the opinion of the adjudicators, show the most potential for future musical development. Awards are not necessarily awarded to class winners.
The 2025 Kathryn Sells award winner is Daniel Thiessen!
Daniel Thiessen is twelve years old and began studying piano at the age of five. Over the past four years he has earned multiple top placements at the Kiwanis Music Festival in London. In 2025, he was awarded first place in both the OMFA Provincial Music Festival and the ORMTA Provincial Competition for piano solo. He has performed at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto in the 2022 Celebration of Excellence in recognition of achieving the highest RCM exam score in Canada that year. He has also performed at the 2024 and 2025 Stars of the Festival showcases in London. Currently, he studies piano with Dr. Kyung Kim at Western University. A student of St. Mary’s Choir and Orchestra School in London, Daniel also plays cello in the school’s orchestra program.
Past Youth Speakers
Meriel Reed is a 17 year-old student at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London. She suffers from a severe medical phobia and has had to learn how to cope with the debilitating fear that she undergoes with every medical experience. Meriel loves to sing and act and has performed on stage for productions at the Palace Theatre and for the Grand Theatre’s [...]
Our Youth Speaker for January, 2019 is Mustfah Madlol. He is a driven and passionate grade 12 student at Oakridge secondary School, who plans on attending Western University to pursue a career in health care. He is the humble recipient of the Pillar Community Leadership Award, Thames Valley District School Board Award of Distinction, and the Ontario Volunteer Service Award. [...]
At our November meeting Tehatsistahawi (Tsista) Kennedy will be featured as our Youth Speaker. He is a self taught artist who was awarded one of the top honours in an arts and stories contest run by Historica Canada for his painting depicting the Anishinaabe Seven Fires Prophecy. He is also the first Indigenous student to sit on the Thames Valley District [...]
At our October meeting we will be recognizing the recipients of our Emerging Leader Award, of which there were three this year. Eleanor Park and Rachel Gall will each give a short talk about what has made them leaders in their school and community. Women’s Canadian Club, London has established the Emerging Leaders Awards to encourage leadership skills in Grades [...]
Will Krieger, 2018 Kathryn Sells Memorial Award winner will be playing the piano for the WCC meeting on September 13, 2018. Will has been playing the piano since age 3 with the Music for Young Children program. He continues to take on new challenges as a striving musician This year Will also won first place in the Recital Solo Trophy [...]
