Bio:

Winner of the 2024 Loran Scholarship valued at $100K. Aamna was one of 36 grade 12 students chosen from over 5,000 applicants across Canada. Attended Princess Margaret Secondary. Pursuing Computer Science at UBC right now in her first year.  She co-founded a social justice club at her school. Aamna said the club was created to create a space to raise awareness about issues happening locally and around the world. The club raised awareness for Palestine, humanitarian aid in Syria and Turkey and have an annual clothing drive where we donate clothes to the Surrey Women’s Centre. Aamna also co-founded and coordinated the campaign The Dignity Project. The campaign aimed to break the stigma surrounding homelessness, “specifically the way people view unhoused people” in Surrey. Throughout the campaign, the group, which was made up of teenagers from across Surrey, set up kiosks throughout the city. “The idea behind the kiosk is to challenge the biases that people passing by may have, for example, thinking homelessness looks a certain way or that there is something people do to become unhoused.” Passersby were encouraged to take a photo with the kiosk and post it on social media with the caption, #lookinthemirror. The campaign also encouraged people to donate toiletry kits, non-perishable food items, clothing or cash to a local non-profit. Over $450 was donated to local non-profits, along with 65 toiletry kits, 150 non-perishable food items, 200 packages of socks and undergarments and over 250 articles of clothing.