These in-their-own-words pieces are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the purpose of brevity.

Hiba Shaikh Ansari wants us to love the environment as much as we love our nations. This 21-year-old student at Huron University College was named a 2026 Starfish Canada Climate Fellow for her work founding and promoting EcoPatriot and inspiring projects and approaches that will unify people across geographic boundaries. 

Tell us about your project. 

EcoPatriot is a student-led project seeking to redefine patriotism by blurring national boundaries and uniting us as a global community to stand for what we stand on. We inspire our campus community to make sustainable choices, reduce our collective impact and inspire others. In our first two years, we recruited more than 100 volunteers and persuaded the university to plant 135 trees. We hosted two sustainability summits featuring guest speakers from across Canada with disciplines as diverse as quantum........

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