She wasn’t prepared for what she was about to read.
Howe Sound Secondary student Kiana Alai was in Grade 9 when she first picked up a copy of The Book Thief, a novel about the Holocaust. Since she had never learned about it before, she was shocked by the visceral darkness and vivid details of this historic injustice—and it made her want to take action to ensure nothing like this could ever happen again.
Now three years later, this hyper-busy 18 year old has created multiple trajectories for social change, becoming co-minister of the Lower Mainland for 小蓝视频 Youth Parliament, serving as co-chair of her high school’s student council and even writing her own short fiction centered around issues of immigration and injustice.
Next up, she will be heading to the University of British Columbia (U小蓝视频) Vancouver, where she plans to work towards becoming a lawyer.
All of this will be made easier by the $44,000 scholarship she just received from Beedie Luminaries, which she will receive over the course of four years. The fund was created to support students facing socio-economic challenges and other life adversities. Alai’s family immigrated to Canada from Iran shortly before she was born.
“I know there are a lot more opportunities in Canada, and my parents wanted to come here so me and my little brother could have every opportunity and a really good education,” Alai told The 小蓝视频, noting that her mother has been a driving force in her success.
“The fact that I’m trying all of these things and involved in so many clubs is really because of the influence of my mom. She always pushes me out of my comfort zone,” she said.
The list of groups, clubs and organizations that Alai has involved herself in is long.
She’s part of the Interact Club, the Leadership class and the Squamish Youth Council. Besides the 小蓝视频 Youth Parliament, she’s also a member of the Vancouver Youth Parliament, where she was deputy leader of the opposition. She’s also the founder of the school’s first Model UN club, and works at the Squamish Public Library as a shelver, while finding time to put in one shift a week at a local thrift store called Pearl’s Value & Vintage.
Somehow, she also finds time to use her imagination.
“I really love writing. That’s a big passion of mine, so I plan to take lots of English and Social Studies classes at U小蓝视频. I love essay-writing and story-writing and I’m really into reading just about everything. I like writing stories about issues that matter,” she said.
One story she wrote was about a foreign nanny tasked with taking care of other people’s children while being separated from her own. She wanted to explore the systemic challenges facing people who move to Canada from other countries.
Alai is passionate about history as well, and how it’s portrayed through both fiction and non-fiction, because it motivates her to pursue the social change she wants to see in the world.
As a member of the social justice club, she’s been helping raise awareness about everything from Red Dress Day to issues facing the LGBTQ+ community—along with other students she created a wall of fame at the school to introduce students to prominent queer people who have advanced human rights.
The end goal is to raise awareness and broaden people’s minds, the same way The Book Thief did for her.
“I’m really tuned into social justice. I’m not sure what type of lawyer I want to be yet, but I want to do something that makes a difference. I want to do something good and useful that helps others, so I’m hoping to discover at university how I can do that.”
Besides the $44,000 she will be receiving from Beedie Luminaries, Alai will also be the recipient of wrap-around services designed to help her thrive, including access to mentors, workshops, student success advising, and peer support.
On June 24 she attended a Beedie Luminaries event called A Night for Bright Minds in Vancouver, along with the other 279 recipients of the scholarships. She was thrilled to be surrounded by other students as passionate as she is about impacting the world.
“They told us they look beyond the application at who you are, and tried to figure out who could really use this money. They told us ‘We can see you could go really far,’” she said.
