A reflection on life: becoming a TKS alumni, visiting best friends, running a marathon
April and May Newsletter
Hey, I’m Rachel! I wear a lot of different hats; gr 11 high school student, marathoner + ultra runner, podcast host, writer, urban farmer; but the thread tying this hat together is my passion for solving problems. I am driven by my north star of making an impact in the poorest communities in the world. I deeply care about the problem of food insecurity, lack of access to enough nutritious food & poverty, and would like to dedicate my life to making strides to help solve this problem.
A collections of photos that don’t even come close to expressing the immense joy and fulfilment the past two months has filled me with.
Becoming a TKS alumni
Yesterday marked my last day of TKS, the program I have loved and learned so much from. It is no exaggeration when I say that TKS has changed my life - it has altered what I thought was possible, and disrupted my preconceived life trajectory. When I think back to the person I was 2 years ago when I was accepted into the program, I barely recognize myself. I was insecure, petty and unhappy. TKS has given me the guidance, direction and space to mature as an individual, and develop into the human I am now proud to be.
Through TKS I have learned about sciences and technologies I didn’t even know existed, built projects and talked on stage at the largest tech conferences in the world about my research and consulted for billion dollar companies. These are the flashy and shiny experiences I am grateful to have had. But reflecting on the past two years, it is the friendships I’ve made that far outweigh the things I’ve done. I have met my best friends through TKS and feel so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by the most phenomenal group of people (you all know who you are ❤️).
I have so many thoughts on ending this chapter of my life, but first have so much to process and reflect on. I will be writing an article about all this in the coming weeks:))
Running a marathon + spending time with my best friends in Ottawa
I think euphoria may be my current favorite word (defined as “a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness.”) I just came back from spending five days in Ottawa with some of my best friends and it was [no exaggeration] euphoric. One of my best friends, Apoorva, came up to Ottawa, and we explored the city together with our other close friends, Noémie and Graeme. From ziplining to kayaking, to ice cream runs, exploring the National Gallery, delicious food and long convos lounging in the sun, we didn’t leave a corner of Ottawa untouched.
Phone calls and video calls just never compare to being with friends in person, and I would like to say a massive thank you to Apoorva, Noémie and Graeme for making the trip so special. Can’t wait to see you in person again soon!
I’m proud to say that I have ran my second marathon (came back to attack the Ottawa Tartan Marathon for a second time) and it was HOT 🥵 (17°C at 7am when the race started and way north of 25°C by the end of the race).
I have been training very hard the past few months to PR in the marathon, but the race did not play out as planned. I can blame this on the heat, on how busy I was in the months leading up to the marathon (commitments like speaking on stage at SXSW took priority over training), or the cold and sore throat I ran the marathon with. But instead of making excuses, I’ll say that I’ve learned a lot from setting an ambitious goal and falling short of it. I still have the itch to cross that finish line in under 3 hours and 30 minutes, but for now my personal best for the marathon is 3 hours and 38 minutes (I ironically ran the marathon this year only 7 seconds slower than my time last year).
A big lesson I learned the hard way this year is that the marathon is a beast. It’s a brutal distance, and I aspire to get to the point one day where I am truly racing the marathon, instead of just hanging on to finish.
P.S the bottom left pic of me smiling + running was taken at kilometer 10 when I was still [relatively] fresh. I can assure you that I did not look like this by kilometer 42.2
A MASSIVE MASSIVE congratulations to the amazing Apoorva for running her first marathon! I am so proud of you, sunshine, for pushing through the hottest hours of the day and crossing the finish line with the biggest smile on your face. I admire your mental fortitude and inner & outer strength. It was a joy and honor to watch you settle into your groove and overcome all the hurdles the day and distance threw at you.
Clean water crisis in Haiti
Last month I worked with Ciara and Khushi on a month long project to understand and propose a solution to the problem of clean water in Haiti. (To give you some background, in Activate [2nd year TKS program], we do a month long challenge called Earthshot where the goal is to use technology that already exists to solve a problem that should have been solved 10 years ago).
My team and I chose to focus on the problem of clean water access in Haiti (70% of the Haitian population do not have access to clean water).
This project was a huge learning experience for me on what it’s like to work in social impact. The reality is that corrupt governments, laws & legislature and money always get in the way of making any real change. And this is why problems like extreme poverty, food insecurity and lack of access to clean water still exist, and very little change has been made in decades.
There are a few things I have learned from diving into this problem for a month:
Everything is connected - you can’t expect to implement a solution and then *poof* the problem is solved. All of these social problems are intertwined so tightly with other broken systems, which makes it [basically] impossible to solve every single aspect of a problem. I learned that when working with complex problems like water access, the goal is to get as close to solving the route cause as possible.
Long lasting solutions to social problems must be economically viable - if not it’s a short term solution (which is equally as important! But in my eyes, it is more beneficial to provide short term solutions until a long term solution can be put in place.)
Cultural and societal norms of the geographic location you are working in are the deciding factor if your solution will be sustainable long term. This deep knowledge of cultural/societal norms can only be gained from living in that area along side the people your solution is targeted for. Not as a researcher trying to collect data points, but as a genuine fellow human being.
If you want to learn more about our project and proposal to increase access to clean water in Haiti, you can check out our memo and presentation!
Luminexus Podcast
Ciara and I are extremely excited to announce the rebrand of our podcast and the launch of our new website! The website is live at: www.luminexus.ca
It’s been fun the past few months to expand my website building and design skills making this website, and venture into an area which I don’t have much knowledge.
We have published a few of great episodes (and one which will be released mid this week!) which you can view on the website or check out below:
What’s next?
I am beyond excited to announce that I will be attending the Villars Symposium with eight other TKS students and Navid and Nadeem, in Switzerland at the end of June! It is a conference located in the Swiss Alps that brings together experts and policy makers from organizations like the World Economic Forum and United Nations, with the next generation of changemakers, to accelerate the transition to a net zero economy and restore the health of the planet. I am very excited to speak with policy makers and people I really look up to in the climate, social impact, and policy space at Villars, and build connections with passionate young people working on climate related projects. Thank you to The Knowledge Society for this incredible opportunity!
My hydroponics farm is going strong, and I am excited to be working on a video and article outlining how I made the system, how it works, and everything I’ve learned along this journey.
I made a project memo for my transgenic maize proposal, outlining my research, work and next steps. This summer I will be creating plasmids for one of the five genes I’ve identified and will be researching very deep into that specific genetic change.
I am very excited to be interning with Thought For Food this summer! I have so much to learn from Christine and the TFF team about making real world change in agricultural systems. TFF is an organization that I massively look up to and am inspired by, and I am honored to be joining the TFF team this summer to make some magic happen ✨
And that, my friends, is what I’ve been up to the past few months! The next few weeks will be jam packed with preparing for the Villars Symposium and studying for final exams (with some nice trail runs sprinkled in between). I hope that you have had a wonderful spring, and are enjoying the first signs of summer. See you all in June! 🌻🌱☀️
Rachel, you always inspire me and bring a smile to my face. I absolutely adore the Rachel x Apoorva photos, and I'm waiting for the day I meet you in person! Thank you for making my experience in TKS that much better :)
I love you sunshine! Thank you for inspiring me to do the marathon with you, it was truly the best couple of days I could've ever asked for. There's no one else I would've rather done it with <3 I'm so excited for you to go to Villars and intern for TFF and I can't wait to hear all about it! Beyond proud of you.