I am a 18 year old first-year student at Esade, studying as part of the Bachelor in Transformational Leadership and Social Impact programme.
I am the first Canadian a part of this programme, and the only Canadian from my secondary school graduating class to study overseas. Through my post-secondary journey, I hope to inspire more Canadians to venture outside the true north strong and learn from universities globally with confidence.
Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, I came from a pretty ordinary family.
Both parents, who came from immigrant families from Europe, worked regular white-collar jobs, being educated only in Canada. The Thurstons lived in a regular brick house next to a beautiful forest. Following a mostly straightforward education path, only changing schools in grade 9 for a more advanced academic journey, I spent most of my time volunteering, running clubs, and giving back to my community just like any other Canuck. I founded a local winter holiday card program for seniors during the pandemic and worked my way up to running the secondary school’s newspaper club during my senior year, creating awareness of school issues and inequality. Donating to local charities and food pantries was how I spent my weekends. In the humid summers, I worked at my local farmer’s market, some of the things I remember most about my time in Canada, yet nothing too out of the ordinary. However, late nights, endless work, and missing the patriotic Hockey Night in Canada was not a part of my schedule. I was just like everyone else, enjoyed my days, worked as hard as possible in class, and achieved my academic and personal goals.
My passions include cooking, baking, music and films, and Formula 1.
I have always been characterized as a caring, compassionate, and determined individual with questionable humour. My main focuses in school were around sustainability, inclusivity, and overall a better future. I found my true calling to help people and create a better world for generations through a simple standard business class that many took, simply by taking the concepts learned and figuring out what my mark was going to be on earth.
After achieving my Ontario Secondary School Diploma in 2022, I decided that I wanted to break the norm and travel abroad for education. Fighting against the odds and expectations, I was accepted to Esade for the BITLASI program, proving once more that it is possible for anyone to travel abroad for education, just as long as they put the effort into it. Understanding the perception of the impossible mission for Canadians to study aboard, I want to help others, especially Canadians, try for the “impossible” and study in new countries to learn more about unique cultures and grow as individuals.
The main idea of my Digital Entrepreneurship secondary school course was to prepare its students to conduct business in the 21st century. What better way than creating a business plan and designing a professional website for the created business?
Taking the simple requirements to the next level, I created Qmis (meaning shirt in Maltese), a potentially fully functional website that helps connect consumers with sustainable and affordable apparel. This business proposal was the child of my passion for both businesses, sustainability, and cheap clothing. With an extensive positive public opinion of the website, this business could one day be the new shopping platform for sustainable fashion.
Qmis is a new digital media corporation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The business offers a unique revolutionary platform that features sustainable and affordable apparel from both local and multinational brands through a user-friendly search engine. Connecting sustainable product lines and businesses with their target audience is what Qmis does best. Qmis’s mission is to fulfill the demands of eco-conscious and financially aware customers by exhibiting equally sustainable and affordable apparel. Through a revolutionized customer-focused platform, Qmis promotes businesses that use carbon-neutral practices, have planet-conscious products, and have an overall minimal impact on business operations.
Year of Project
Collaborated Community Groups
Initiative Images:
The pandemic affected everyone, with each lockdown and new restriction chipping away at our happiness. However, there were a group of individuals that were feeling the effects even worse, seniors living in long-term care homes. In many instances, those living in these long-term care homes were only allowed to leave their rooms at specific times for a very limited amount of reasons. Imprisoned inside small rooms with minimal social interactions and no way to see their family during the holiday season, something had to be done. After reading that many families don't even visit their relatives in long-term care homes at all, even more so during a global pandemic, I created the Cards for Seniors Initiative, providing heartfelt cards to lift the spirits of those in our community that need it most.
Working together with my previous elementary school, we created over 500 holiday-themed cards for seniors. Messages of hope, happiness, and love were shared. Getting the entire elementary school to take part and generating awareness of the importance of involve and volunteering with seniors were happy by-products of the initiative. It was a challenge to find facilities that would accept the card, but after following pandemic procedures, the cards finally found a home in two local long-term care residences. With such an overwhelmingly positive reception of the cards, this initiative has occurred each year since, lifting the spirits of the community's seniors.
