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Akutaq is a University of Calgary student, pursuing a concurrent sociology and education degree program. She is an active speed skater, training through the Elite Olympic Oval program and holding all of Nunavut’s women’s records. In addition, she holds an Arctic Winter Games record in the 500m, where she also won gold in all four distances. Akutaq hosts a program for Indigenous children in Calgary, teaching the essentials of speed skating and allowing children to experience the Olympic Oval.

Cadena is a law and society student at the University of Calgary, originally from Keeseekoowenin First Nation in Treaty Two Territory. She currently serves as president of the Indigenous Students’ Circle (ISC), where she led the first-ever ISC x UCalgary Dinos collaboration to uplift Indigenous youth through sport and academic connection. Staying closely connected to home, Cadena regularly returns to run youth sports programs. She has partnered with the Rotary Club of Winnipeg and the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council to host a sports camp and provide new equipment for Keeseekoowenin youth. She also supports the UCalgary Powwow Committee as communications lead and sits on the boards of Grass Grows, Rivers Flow and Miskanawah, continuing her advocacy for Indigenous youth and community leadership.

Kaia is studying health and society with a concentration in economics at the University of Calgary, where she serves as vice-president of events for a club focused on connecting and enriching the experience of students in her program, and as a student medical responder with the UCalgary Student Medical Response Team. Off campus, she is a volunteer coordinator and assistant instructor at Prairie Sky Equine Assisted Therapy, which provides horseback riding lessons to individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities. Kaia is also the chairperson of the KidSport chapter she founded in her hometown, which helps families facing financial barriers to access organized sport. She spent one summer working with a provincial KidSport chapter in British Columbia, and another working with Doctors of the World in England.

Pursuing a B.Sc. in astrophysics, Zaneb volunteers at the university’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory to promote interests in STEM. They volunteer at the public library as part of numeracy and literacy programs, working with children to support them outside of the classroom. They spent their Loran community development summer interning with Women’s Shelters Canada, researching the role of telecommunications companies in enabling human rights abuses against victims and survivors of gender-based violence