{"id":2429,"date":"2013-06-05T12:53:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T16:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=2429"},"modified":"2013-06-19T18:06:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T22:06:55","slug":"top-20-under-20-student-reflects-on-whirlwind-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/top-20-under-20-student-reflects-on-whirlwind-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 20 Under 20 student reflects on whirlwind year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Aurora\u2019s Brooke Harrison.<\/p>\n

As her reign as one of Canada\u2019s Top 20 Under 20 comes to a close this week, she is looking back at a journey which started off as a simple application, yet opened up new doors and took her on a path which was otherwise just a dream.<\/p>\n

Brooke was named one of Canada\u2019s Top 20 Under 20 by Youth In Motion in June 2012. Through the program celebrating Canada\u2019s Future Leaders, Ms. Harrison was recognized for her work founding the Youth Advisory Council for Toronto\u2019s Philip Aziz Centre for Hospice Care, as well as her philanthropic work fundraising and collecting items greatly needed by kids in impoverished Northern Ontario Communities, as well as her early years as a budding philanthropist with the publication of the cookbook \u201cCookin\u2019 in Brooke\u2019s Kitchen\u201d, which has raised over $60,000 for leukemia research. <\/p>\n

Through the program, she was put in contact with 19 other likeminded individuals, who have continued to maintain their relationships and brain banks for the greater good.<\/p>\n

For her, this first meeting connecting with the rest of the Top 20 remains the highlight in a momentous year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I wasn\u2019t anticipating when I sent in the application form and crossed by fingers was the sense of community and family, and the whole Top 20 family,\u201d she says \u201cIt was really exciting and humbling to be a part of something that huge. During that first week, I knew it was a great experience and the people I met were fantastic individuals doing great things. Afterwards, it just cemented in my mind how incredible it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

This cemented fairly quickly, however, as when it was time to leave the celebrations and head back to Aurora \u2013 due to attend her own prom that evening, no less! \u2013 she was a self-described \u201cmess\u201d on the way home, emotional after the experience. <\/p>\n

Since then, she transitioned from Youth Ambassador for Neighbourhood Network to their summer student, with duties including helping to oversee this year\u2019s Give Back Awards, which awards scholarships to students who are involved in their communities \u2013 and helping reach out to people her age.
\n\u201cReading through some of the [Give Back] applicants has been pretty inspiring,\u201d she says. \u201cI absolutely love working with Neighbourhood Network. The people I am working with are amazing and it is a pleasure to go to work every single day. The fact I am doing something meaningful and helping the community, is looking like a great summer so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another sure-fire highlight of her summer will be using the talents she honed organizing the Philip Aziz Centre\u2019s annual golf tournament, this time organizing a golf tournament September 16 at Angus Glen to raise money for Youth in Motion.<\/p>\n

Closer on her calendar, however, will be a special event June 20 at the Aurora Cultural Centre, where her portrait is unveiled in the annual exhibition Portraits of Giving, which features the work of Richmond Hill photographer Karen Merk. The exhibition strives to shine a light on the \u201cunsung heroes\u201d of our community and will be travelling throughout York Region in the summer and fall. <\/p>\n

One of three Aurora residents featured in the show \u2013 along with Jennifer Ettinger and Stewart McLaren \u2013 Brooke says she is humbled by the honour, but also somewhat surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who nominated me, but thank you to whoever did!\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cIt was a really great experience getting to know Karen. It\u2019s very humbling and pretty crazy that I\u2019m one of the three people in Aurora to be selected and the youngest to be in the book!\u201d
\n\u201cEnjoy it while it lasts, Brooke,\u201d interrupts her mother Gina, with a laugh. \u201cYou\u2019re getting older, it\u2019s not going to last for long.\u201d
\n\u201cThanks, Mom,\u201d Brooke replies with a grin, carrying that theme through the rest of the interview. <\/p>\n

As someone heading into advanced years (20!), as this year\u2019s crop of Canada\u2019s Top 20 Under 20 is revealed this week, Brooke hopes as an alumni she will have the opportunity to meet and work with the new group. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing to me is regardless of doing incredible things in the community or business-wise, and scientific research, or you\u2019re just mowing the lawn, I think if you\u2019re a kind person that just speaks volumes about a person,\u201d she says of what she is going to be looking for. \u201cI hope the incoming group of people portray those things, which they must if they are getting this far!\u201d <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Aurora\u2019s Brooke Harrison. As her reign as one of Canada\u2019s Top 20 Under 20 comes to a close this week, she is looking back at a journey which started off as a simple application, yet opened up new doors and took her on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/2013-06-05-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Db","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 03:53:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}