Arissa
Roy
Youth Education Advocate
Speaker · Consultant · Changemaker
Transforming global education systems, and turning small ideas into ripple effects of lasting change.
Hi, I'm Arissa. 👋🏽
I'm just a girl trying to change the world one small action at a time. Beyond that, though, I'm an advocate for education, a graduate of the United World College of the Adriatic, a children's book author, and a young person set on transforming how education serves people, especially in the moments when crisis and change hit hardest.
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I'm obsessed with matcha. I drink a matcha latte almost every day.
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I'm on a mission to travel to 50 countries by 25. Follow me on Instagram to see how many I've reached.
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I love dancing, singing, and being creative.
Education can either advance equity or perpetuate existing inequalities. My work focuses on ensuring it serves as a powerful vehicle for opportunity, inclusion, and social progress.
The work, in numbers.
What I'm working on this season.
Updated quarterly. The latest from advocacy, writing, and the day-to-day.
- Ongoing Consulting in areas such as youth engagement, policy, and education.
- 2026–27 Serving on the UNESCO SDG4 Executive Committee as Youth Rep for Europe & North America.
- 2026– Starting school in Lisbon, Portugal, studying an LSE Designed Degree in International Relations and Political Science at Forward College.
- Ongoing Building new projects using AI to help connect Gen Z and the world.
- Ongoing Using storytelling and social media to advocate for education.
- Ongoing Speaking at schools, organizations, conferences, and events to push the needle forward and inspire change.
I'm helping co-design what education should look like after 2030, starting with a Global Survey open to anyone aged 11–30, until 20 September 2026.
Moments in Action
Moments from speaking engagements, school visits, and the UN.
Organizations I've collaborated with, spoken at, or been affiliated with.
My Story.
I'm Arissa Roy, an Indo-Canadian education advocate, speaker, author, consultant, creator and a graduate of UWC Adriatic. My work is focused on reshaping how education systems serve young people, particularly in times of crisis and change.
At 14, I founded Project Power Global, a youth-led organization driving educational equity through grassroots action, policy advocacy, and community-driven initiatives. What began as a single idea has grown into a global movement reaching more than 55,000 people worldwide. Today, I consult and speak internationally, advising institutions and organizations on youth participation and education transformation.
My work has taken me into international policy spaces where youth voice matters most. I've spoken at the UN Transforming Education Summit, the ECOSOC Youth Forum, and CSW67, and collaborated with organizations including, Plan International Canada, Unsinkable, Fridays for Future (and more) to advance education, mental health, gender equity, and climate justice.
In 2026, I was elected to the Executive Committee of the UNESCO SDG4 Youth and Student Network as the Europe and North America Youth Representative for the 2026 to 2027 term, working alongside young leaders to shape global priorities on inclusive, equitable, and quality education. My advocacy has been recognized with the Princess Diana Award, the Women Empowerment Rising Youth Star Award, and the Joey Goodbaum Award for Leadership, and featured by CBC, Global News, Newswire, Malala Fund and more.
At the core of my work lies a fundamental conviction: education is not neutral. It either reinforces existing inequalities or actively works to dismantle them. I am committed to building education systems that are equitable, inclusive, and co designed with young people at the center.
The movement that started in a notebook at fourteen.
Visit the site ↗
It started at twelve, on a trip to India. Reconnecting with my roots, I saw first-hand how education had broken cycles of poverty in communities like the ones my own family came from and had long supported. I was captivated by the stories of the young people I met on this trip, and felt a spark to do something to advocate for better access to education. So, I came home determined, and filled a notebook with ideas for a charity I wanted to start. Then self-doubt set in, and for a while the notebook stayed closed.
In 2020, watching frontline healthcare workers give so much of themselves during the pandemic, something shifted. If they could step up, so could I. I launched Project Power Global with a single Instagram post and one mission: to use education to address poverty around the world. Over time that mission grew into something bigger: advocating for the transformation of education systems themselves.
What began as one post became a youth-led organization with a newsletter, an ambassadors program, and online events, running campaigns with and for young people across the world.
Some of my favourite projects include:
The Pen Pal Project
Where it began: connecting students across borders through letters and shared stories.
Backpacks for Ukraine
A campaign putting school supplies into the hands of children displaced by war.
Code Green · Afghanistan
A shoebox project, in collaboration with Code Green, supporting students in Afghanistan.
The Grief Initiative
A collaboration with Unsinkable raising awareness around grief and mental health.
Power Agents & newsletter
An ambassadors program and newsletter that turned readers into a global team.
Online events
Virtual fundraisers and awareness events that brought the community together.
We reached more than 55,000 people before closing Project Power Global in 2026, but the conviction that started it still drives everything I do.
See it in action.
My work with the UN.
I was one of the youngest people to attend the 2022 Transforming Education Summit. Since then, I have engaged with many bodies of the UN, including UN Women, the UN Girls' Education Initiative, UNDP, and UNESCO.
Currently, I serve as the Youth Representative for Europe and North America on the UNESCO SDG 4 Youth & Student Network. The Network is a global community of young leaders that represents youth and students on the SDG 4 High-Level Steering Committee, the highest international decision-making body on education. My role is to carry the priorities of young people across my region into those rooms.
What we're working on now
The Steering Committee has mandated UNESCO and the Network to build a Post-2030 Youth Education and Learning Agenda: a youth-written proposal for what education should look like once the Sustainable Development Goals reach their 2030 deadline. The process is funded by the Government of Japan and runs through 2028.
Co-designing that agenda is the biggest project on my desk right now, and it begins with a Global Survey. Five questions ask young people what kind of world they want to live in, what they would change about education, and what they are willing to do to get there. It is open to anyone aged 11 to 30, in many languages, individually or as a group, until 20 September 2026. Responses are analyzed by young people in the Network and presented to world leaders at the Global Education Meeting in early 2027.
Complete the global survey ↗SDG 4 Youth & Student Network · Europe & North America
Four things I tell every young organizer who emails me.
Start where you stand.
You don't need a nonprofit to do something useful by Tuesday. The first project is usually the most honest one.
Borrow the platform.
If you can't build it yet, find one that already exists and ask if you can speak from it. People say yes more than you think.
Stories before stats.
Statistics matter. But the name attached to the number is what makes a policymaker actually move.
Bring someone with you.
Every stage I get to, I try to bring another young person. Mentorship isn't optional. It's the whole point.
Awards, honours & fellowships.
- 2023 The Princess Diana Award The Diana Award · UK
- 2023 Women Empowerment Rising Youth Star Award Watch the feature ↗ WE Global Network
- 2021 Joey Goodbaum Award for Leadership Canada
- 2026– UNESCO SDG4 Youth & Student Network — Executive Committee Europe & N. America Rep
- 2026 Our World 2050 Ambassador Global
- Fellow Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow Salzburg, Austria
- Fellow Learning Planet Institute Youth Fellow LPI · Paris
- Champion Unsinkable Community Champion Unsinkable · Canada
- Ambassador Plan Canada Ambassador Plan International Canada
Keynotes, panels, and conversations.
I speak on youth-led advocacy, education transformation, personal growth, and what it actually takes to translate young people's voices into policy.
Three talks, tailored to your room.
These are the areas I go deepest on. Beyond them, I weave in my own story and shape each talk to the elements most relevant to your audience.
Education Is the Foundation for Every Global Goal
Why SDG 4 underpins SDGs 6 and 8, and all seventeen. What changes when we treat education not as one goal among many, but as the ground the rest depend on.
Phronesis in the Age of AI
As AI reshapes how a generation learns, human wisdom becomes the point. How we build education that cultivates judgment and discernment, not just credentials a machine can already out-perform.
Designing the Post-2030 Agenda With Youth, Not For Them
Inside a global consultation reimagining the future of SDG 4, and what a decade of organizing, from a 50,000-person movement at fourteen to UNESCO, teaches us about real youth participation.
Request my speaking profile.
Bio, signature talks, formats, and a full list of past engagements: everything you need to bring me to your stage. Send a note and I'll email it over.
Watch a few.
Keynotes, panels, and interviews. Click any to watch.
In their words.
Arissa dares to challenge the status quo and acknowledge that meaningful learning is so much more than grades. This should be seen by any educator willing to co-design the future of education with the current generation of learners.
As Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020, it has been my great pleasure to get to know Arissa Roy. She is full of ideas, passion for justice, and a strong desire to participate fully in the life of the world. I have rarely met a young woman with such drive and sense of purpose. She has been urging governments to give a higher priority to youth participation, and it is impossible to deny the logic of her perspective.
Arissa brings the voice of a new generation of UWC alumni now shaping global education debates, advocacy, and innovation.
Arissa consistently demonstrates an eagerness to engage in difficult but necessary conversations, natural leadership talent, and a willingness to be vulnerable, while demonstrating tremendous compassion and healthy boundaries. She is an absolute joy to work with — a true team player who brings the best out of our program participants, ambassadors, and the greater Unsinkable community.
I saw Arissa speak at the IB Global Conference in The Hague, where she spoke about transforming our education systems from a deeply personal, empathetic, and genuine perspective. Her message about creating ripples of meaningful change resonated with the audience, and she left everyone wanting more. A truly memorable talk from a speaker who combines authenticity with real insight.
What a powerful display of student voices! A special thanks to our phenomenal keynote speaker Arissa Roy. Every individual can make a difference for a more sustainable world!
Where I've spoken: a partial map
Bringing a speaker into a school, conference, or summit?
Typical lead time 6–8 weeks · Sliding-scale honorariums for student-organized events.
Coverage, interviews, and op-eds.
Engagements & coverage.
Talks & keynotes04
- UWC Impact Talks Architects of a New Humanity — Remaking Education for 2030 & Beyond FEB 2026 ↗
- UNESCO International Day of Education 2026 — youth-led webinar, moderated by Arissa Roy JAN 2026 ↗
- IB · YouTube Festival of Hope keynote — Bologna, Italy 2025 ↗
- TEDx · YouTube The need for a global shift in traditional education systems — TEDxUWCAdriatic 2024 ↗
Podcasts04
- 44 North · YouTube On grief, loss, and social media PODCAST ↗
- YouTube · Video pod Oh My Curry Goodness — in conversation with host Hamza Islam PODCAST ↗
- Spotify Be the change. — on Project Power Global & education access PODCAST ↗
- Apostrophe In conversation with Olympian Silken Laumann — youth activism & Unsinkable 2021 ↗
Video interviews02
Articles & features08
- UNGEI Powered and powering through FEATURE ↗
- Unsinkable Community Champions FEATURE ↗
- Newswire Women Empowerment Awards — honourees announced, with Minister Marci Ien AWARD ↗
- UNESCO SDG4 Executive Committee 2026–27 — Europe & North America Youth Representative 2026 ↗
- North Toronto CI Behind the Red Curtains — Arissa co-founds & organizes TEDxYouth @ NTCI 2023 ↗
- CanWaCH Seven Questions with Arissa Roy — Plan International's Girls Belong Here CEO seat-share 2021 ↗
- Project Power Global India & Nepal education documentary — field stories from PPG 2022 ↗
- Unsinkable Meet Arissa Roy, youth activist FEATURE ↗
A living list. If I've missed a talk, podcast, or feature, send it my way and it'll go up here.
Podcasts & interviews.
Long-form conversations and on-camera interviews. Click any to watch or listen on its original platform.
A picture book about small starts.
Rocks to Ripples.
A reminder that YOU can change the world.
Have you ever watched the ripples spread when a single rock is dropped into still water? Using the power of poetry and art, Rocks to Ripples reminds readers of all ages that what it takes to make a difference in the world already lies within us, and that we all have the power to create ripples of kindness and hope.
Written by award-winning youth activist Arissa Roy and illustrated by Khaliya Sajan, it's a perfect addition to any classroom and a gentle first introduction to global citizenship.
ISBN 979-8-4199-6726-7
About the book
“A perfect addition to any classroom looking to inspire students.”
For educators“A gentle, early introduction to global citizenship for young readers.”
For young readers“Poetry and art, for readers of all ages.”
Classroom-readyLet's talk.
For speaking inquiries, press requests, school visits, consulting opportunities, collaborations, or just a hello, the form below is the fastest way to reach my desk.
