The RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards has recognized outstanding individuals for the past 11 years! Hear from Ishita Aggarwal - our 2017 winner and inaugural Youth Award Winner with her advice for new Canadians… Who will join the winners’ circle in 2019? Vote now at canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 by May 16, 2019.

Immigrant youth are the newest generation of Canadian immigrants, which is why, starting in 2017, the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards began recognizing outstanding youth with a special Youth Award.

RBC and Canadian Immigrant want to recognize the achievements of young immigrants who are making a difference in their adopted country through an achievement and/or service, and who show great potential as long-term nation builders.

Ishita Aggarwal is a promising up-and-coming scientist — and our inaugural RBC Top 25 Youth Award winner.

A YWCA Toronto’s Young Woman of Distinction winner, a Leading Women Building Communities honouree and a Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders honouree (among many other awards), Aggarwal has achieved more at 24 years old than most can claim to in a lifetime. Yet she’s just at the beginning of her journey.

Aggarwal completed an honours bachelor of science degree in cell and molecular biology, neuroscience and psychology at University of Toronto. She is currently working as a research analyst in the neurogenetics and neuroscience research department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

“My family immigrated to Canada in search of new opportunities. Canada promised growth and hope for the future in a way that India did not,” Aggarwal says.

Her immigration is definitely Canada’s gain.

Although she admits she has struggled with issues of identity, she doesn’t let it hold her back. “Even as a child, I was concerned that accepting my new life would mean giving up everything from my old life,” she says. “[What has helped is] my ability to keep an open mind and see opportunity everywhere.”

Those prospects are not just in research, but in advocacy. She is a community volunteer, on-air reporter at York University’s VIBE 105.5 FM, and passionate promoter of women’s rights and gender equity, particularly in STEM fields.

Aggarwal was instrumental in organizing the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) National Conference to encourage the participation of girls and women in STEM. She is also a research associate at International Women’s Rights Project, focusing on women’s participation in climate change and maternal health governance.

To top it all off, she started her own online magazine Behind-the-Scenes, which anonymously shares stories of gender prejudice and discrimination. And she launched Mom’s the Word, a community organization that offers free prenatal care workshops for low-income women.

“I am working now to grow both of these,” says Aggarwal.

We can’t wait to see what she does next!

свернуть