Oct 2010: Taylor Quinn

Jamie called him Batman without the Bat mobile on Y57′s November 18th show, and while Taylor Quinn isn’t exactly a comic book superhero, he is doing more than his fair share to save the world.

To start with, there’s his involvement with Invisible Children, an organization dedicated to ending the brutal use of child soldiers by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the area surrounding Northern Uganda. Since hearing about the organization Taylor’s raised thousands of dollars with his school, had representatives come to speak to his peers and stay at his house, and is in the running for winning a trip to San Francisco this summer to participate in an Invisible Children conference with other dedicated youth.

Taylor is very open about the fact that, as cliche as it sounds, that night [when he first heard about Invisible Children] changed his life. That’s why he firmly believes that it’s important for other youth to find their own passions and organizations that they can connect with.

One way to do this, Taylor suggests, is to get involved in enrichment and leadership programs. He first discovered Invisible Children during a week-long program in Ottawa, called Encounters with Canada, so he knows firsthand how valuable they are.

In fact, Taylor has participated in many of these programs, including Waterloo Unlimited at the University of Waterloo, Shad Valley at the University of New Brunswick, and a Free the Children trip to Kenya this past summer, on which he built a school.

Closer to home, Taylor participates in student conferences like the Engineers Without Borders Bridging the Gap Conference on global development, and volunteers at major youth events like We Day.

Through each of these opportunities, he has been able to travel and to network with other youth who share his interests. He joked, on air, that if you ever feel like the lone over-achiever at your school, an enrichment program is where you’ll find life-long friends.

In addition to all this, Taylor is a runner and tennis player. He has ventured into journalism as a Historica Dominion student reporter at the 2010 Olympic Games, works three jobs, is the co-student president at his school, and the co-leader of Argyle Secondary’s Schools for Africa Club.

In the end, this lanky seventeen year old with a passion for social change and youth activism isn’t quite a leather-clothed dark knight, but bat mobile or not, he’s changing his world for the better.

About the Author: Emily Chan

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