Blog
Practical guides on scholarships, leadership programs, volunteering, and global opportunities, written to help you find and win the ones that fit you.
Comprehensive guides
The complete guide to youth leadership programs in Canada
The five formats these programs come in, what each costs, which ages they take, how selection works, and how to tell which one is worth your summer.
August 4, 2026
What counts as leadership experience on an application
You probably have more than you think. A translation table turning the plain thing you did into the line that goes on the form, plus the test that tells you whether it counts.
July 21, 2026
Leadership opportunities for teens who have not led anything yet
You do not need a title. Here are the Canadian routes that take people starting from zero, including the ones that hand you money for a project instead of charging you.
July 14, 2026
How to choose a youth leadership program in Canada
Every program page says roughly the same thing. Here are the four questions that actually separate them, including the total cost that almost nobody publishes.
July 7, 2026
Volunteering abroad without paying for it
Programs advertised as free usually cost thousands. Here is where the money goes, which placements are genuinely criticised, and the funded routes that pay you instead.
June 16, 2026
Internship, co-op, or work placement: which one you want
Four arrangements in one table, on the two things that actually separate them: who pays you and whether it counts academically. Plus the fifth shape nobody includes.
May 19, 2026
Remote internships for students: what is real and what is being sold to you
A two minute test you can run on any remote internship listing, why unpaid rules turn on whether your school approved the placement, and what to do if you already paid for one.
May 12, 2026
Paid internships for students in Canada, and what each one actually pays
Most of the money in Canadian student internships is a subsidy paid to the employer, not a stipend paid to you. Here is where the paid placements come from and who can apply.
May 5, 2026
Scholarship, bursary, grant, fellowship: what the words mean
Six funding words in one table, each with a real award as the worked example, including the two nobody defines: stipend and honorarium.
April 14, 2026
What Model UN is actually good for
Model UN teaches one skill that transfers further than people expect, and it is not the credential most students think it is. An honest read from someone with no club to fill.
March 31, 2026
How-to and advice
How to start a club or a project at your school
The approval part takes an afternoon. The two things that actually kill new clubs are an empty room at meeting two and no money, and almost nobody writes about either.
July 28, 2026
How to write about volunteer work when you have not done much of it
Three rewrites at real student scale, showing the weak version, the inflated version, and the accurate one. Plus the verbs to use and the ones that give you away.
June 23, 2026
Online volunteering for students: what counts and where to start
Virtual hours generally do count toward Ontario's 40, as long as you get them approved first. Here is the approval step, the real remote roles, and how to log them.
June 9, 2026
Where to get your community involvement hours in Ontario
Places that actually take students under 18, the email that gets you a yes, and the certificate you can earn past 40 hours that almost nobody mentions.
June 2, 2026
How to write a cover letter when you have no work experience
A full letter from a Grade 12 student with no job history, shown in plain text and annotated line by line, plus the weak version of the same opening for comparison.
May 26, 2026
How to ask someone for a scholarship reference letter
Three weeks minimum, four is better, and here is the email written out in full so you can send it tonight. Plus what to do when they say no or miss the deadline.
April 28, 2026
How to spot a scholarship scam before you apply
A five minute check you can run on any scholarship listing, plus the Canadian specifics on SIN requests and what to do if you already paid.
April 21, 2026
How to write a scholarship essay that sounds like you
The steps, a before and after rewrite of the same ordinary paragraph, word allocations for a 500 word limit, and a straight answer about paid essay services.
April 7, 2026
How youth delegate programs work, and how to apply
There are three ways people get youth delegate seats, and only one of them has a form you can find. Here is how selection works, including in Canada.
March 24, 2026
How to get involved with the United Nations as a student
The UN is not one organization. It is dozens of agencies with separate applications and separate age rules. Here is the map, and which doors open at your age.
March 17, 2026
Global citizenship opportunities for high school students
The programs split into two groups: the ones that charge you and the ones that fund you. Here is what is actually free, who can apply, and how to choose.
March 10, 2026
11 productivity rules from Marc Andreessen that changed how I work
Marc Andreessen's pmarca guide to personal productivity, from 2007, broken into 11 rules that still hold up for anyone juggling school and side projects.
September 1, 2025
How to win a full ride scholarship to UBC
The 250-word essay that won me a $250,000 full ride to UBC, quoted in full and broken into six moves you can use in your own applications.
August 11, 2025
How to get press for your work as a student
The five steps that took my student-run organisation from a school website post to a BBC interview, including a press release template and the MINT framework.
July 23, 2025
The inner game: quieting the voice that says you are not doing enough
Performance is potential minus interference, and most of the interference is the commentary running in your own head. Three ways to turn it down, from a tennis book that is not about tennis.
June 28, 2025
Maybe so, maybe not: the parable I use after every rejection
The day after losing an award I was sure I would win, I went back to an old story about a farmer, a horse and a broken leg. It is the most useful thing I know about setbacks.
June 24, 2025
Twenty things I wish someone had told me when I graduated
Written as a letter to myself at graduation. Some of it is about relationships and reputation, some of it is about sleep and brushing your teeth, and the small ones matter more than they look.
June 4, 2025
How to say no without burning the bridge
Five ways to decline, the exact wording for four awkward situations, and three tests for deciding before you answer. Saying yes to something is always saying no to something else.
May 27, 2025
How to actually take the first step when you are stuck
Everyone tells young people to just start. Nobody explains how. Three questions that get me moving when overthinking has me stuck, and the one exercise worth doing today.
May 6, 2025
How to get paid for your work as a young person
I spent five years doing recognised work with nothing in my bank account. Ten things I wish someone had told me about turning impact into income, starting with the question most people never ask.
April 8, 2025
How to set quarterly goals when yearly ones never stick
A six step process for reflecting on the last three months and planning the next three, including how to separate outcome goals from the process goals that actually get you there.
April 1, 2025
The T.O.D.A.Y. framework: five steps to leading something now
A five part model for young people who want to lead without waiting for a title: take initiative, own your story, develop systems, amplify through community, and say yes to evolving.
March 8, 2025
Are you an amateur or a pro? The habit that separates them
I spent years moving between projects and calling it exploring. It was not exploring. Here is how to tell the difference, and what changing it actually requires.
March 1, 2025
How to start a conversation without feeling awkward
A three-level framework and 45 conversation starters for events, networking, and any room where you don't know a single person.
February 22, 2025
The five stages of building anything, and why most people quit at stage three
Every project runs the same emotional curve: excitement, then a harder reality, then a low point where a better idea appears. Knowing the shape is what gets you through it.
February 15, 2025
If you want to help someone, listen first
At fifteen I designed a reusable menstrual pad, gave it to twenty two people, and thought I had solved something. A year later I understood I had made the problem worse.
February 4, 2025
Consistency beats intensity: the fifteen miles a day rule
Two teams raced to the South Pole in 1911. One sprinted, one held a fixed daily pace. What happened to them is the clearest argument against grinding that I have found.
January 29, 2025
How to get out of a slump without overhauling your life
I went two months without doing the one thing I had committed to doing weekly. Four categories of small daily habit got me moving again, and none of them required a new system.
October 22, 2024
Weak ties are your strongest ones
At eighteen I wanted funding from one of the wealthiest people in my country. The route there went through my mother's friend's acquaintance, which is exactly what the research predicts.
June 4, 2024
How to get started on an idea, in five steps
I had the idea for Leaders of Today in 2019 and did not launch it until 2023. Four years lost to not knowing how to begin. This is the process I use now.
May 8, 2024
How to avoid burnout with the three Ps
Burnout is less about how many hours you worked and more about how connected you feel to why you are doing it. A three part framework for staying anchored, from an executive leadership coach.
April 8, 2024
The four Cs of leverage, and how to use them when you have none
Collaboration, capital, content and code. Two of them need someone's permission and two do not, which is the whole point if you are young and starting with nothing.
March 25, 2024
How to follow up after a coffee chat
Five steps for turning a one-off coffee chat into a real long-term relationship, including the follow-up email I sent a former RBC executive.
March 18, 2024
How I found my purpose after three weeks I cannot remember
At fifteen I got seriously ill, and then lost three weeks entirely. Nobody could agree on what had happened. What I did with the question afterwards is the reason I do this work.
February 12, 2024
How to manage your time as a student when you are involved in too much
The three step system I built after burning out and failing a course in first year: drop the idea of balance, budget your week in hours, then block the calendar.
January 30, 2024