Siddharth Asthana

Siddharth Asthana is an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur from Bareilly, a medium-sized city in UP, India. An electronics engineer, he started his career with Infosys Technologies, a multinational Indian IT behemoth.

In 2014, he co-founded his technology startup “Fullsleeves technologies pvt. ltd.” Coming from a humble background, he wanted to use his education to bring a change in the society. In 2015, he launched his non-profit organization “Laadli foundation” to cater the problems of his hometown, Bareilly. His foundation runs a not-for-profit school and educates more than 200 underprivileged kids annually.

Till now, his team of doctors has provided free medication to more than 2000 poor women and kids. His team is working on issues such as gender equality, women education, social evils against women, health and well-being and climate change.

Siddharth attended the 2017 Winter Youth Assembly and is now working on a for-profit social venture “Oneiri global” with the fellow Youth delegate from France, Jeremy Chane-Tu.

Shermin Luo

Shermin Luo is currently serving as an NGO Youth Representative at United Nation-DPI, where in addition to advocate for issues around youth, she co-chairs the program committee for the 2017 annual NGO event to raise awareness and action on SDGs.

Shermin have extensive experience in social entrepreneurship having founded a for-profit social venture Ipromoter Image, which is an AI-powered personal fashion assistant that helps professional women in developing countries dress for success, and an education nonprofit Global Youth Mentorship Initiative(GYMI), which is dedicated to bridging educational disparities by providing underprivileged students with mentorship focused on independent learning, interdisciplinary studies and critical thinking.

She was recognized as a rising social entrepreneur by nonprofit organization the Resolution Project, Young Real Leader Prize, and Impact Squared. Shermin graduated with a B.S. in Operations Research- Engineering Management System, and a minor in Entrepreneurship& Innovation from Columbia University.

Rosario del Pilar Diaz Garavito

Rosario is a young Peruvian social entrepreneur, founder of The Millennials Movement. She contributes to the development of her community by empowering citizens to drive positive change through community action. With her theory, The molecular approach to achieve sustainable development Rosario shows how small actions can change realities.

Rosario is member of the PSG at The World We Want, UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development/working group of Youth and Gender Equality, Global Coalition for Young Women Entrepreneurs promoted by UN Women, Young Leaders for the Americas Initiative - YLAI alumni, UNLEASH Lab 2017 fellow, Premio Protagonistas del Cambio 2016 finalist and an active contributor to the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Peru.

She was also a former Women Champion 2015/2016 for UN Women - Empower Women Global Movement for Women Empowerment, a former UN Volunteer for the Poverty and Environment Initiative UNDP, and a specialist in SDGs and Sustainable Development Plans and Youth Policies for Sustainable Development.

Jean Paul Laurent

In founding Unspoken Smiles Foundation, Jean Paul Laurent never intended to engage in simple philanthropy. Instead, he wanted to use the shocking gap in dental care as a model of sustainable growth. Starting with the most remote communities in rural Haiti, Jean Paul has adopted a three-prong strategy to address this: education, treatment, and empowerment.

Jean Paul 's excellent communication skills, positive outlook, and pleasing personality enhance his natural leadership qualities. His willingness to accept challenges and listen to input enable him to contribute thoughtfully with well-reasoned approaches to helping solve some of the world’s most difficult problems by promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals through his foundation.

His professional career spans oral health and social issues in community development, social entrepreneurship, policy advising, higher education, finance, and non-profit management. Jean Paul holds an Executive Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University | School of International and Public Affairs. For fun, you can often find him on a ballroom dance competition.

Hezha Mohammed Khan

From an early age, Hezha Mohammed Khan was passionate about the influence of youth empowerment. This interest fortuitously led to her current position as Founder/CEO of APC for Youth Empowerment, a Kurdish youth development center that serves Economically disadvantaged youth and has been on streets since 2011.

Committed to sustainable solutions, Hezha brings her years of experience as an Award Winning Social Entrepreneur and International NGO Consultant in strategic planning, finance, operations, and business transformation and her extensive knowledge of the UN Global Goals to help young people in Kurdistan thrive. Her multi-cultural background and focus on community collaboration has led her to a number of volunteer opportunities and community leadership roles as Country Representative.

Hezha truly believes that education can change the world, and she uses it to inspire and empower young people through her Workshops. A regular speaker at conferences in the Middle-East and Africa, she also travels the world planting seeds of peace.

Aniqah Zowmi

Aniqah Zowmi has a passion for youth engagement at all levels of government and civic organization. Aniqah is a 3M National Student Fellow of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, an honour awarded to youth who have “demonstrated outstanding leadership in their lives and at their college or university.”

In November 2015, she represented Canada at the Commonwealth Youth Forum, creating a communiqué presented to Prince Charles and Commonwealth Heads of Governments on economic policies pertaining to youth entrepreneurship. In November 2016, Aniqah spoke at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as a keynote panelist for Rotary UN Day, where she was highlighted as an inspirational young leader working towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Aniqah is currently a Member of the Youth Advisory Group to the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and is a Lead Author for the UNESCO Mahatma Ghandi Institute of Education and Peace for Sustainable Development’s upcoming publication, a Youth-Led Guide on Preventing Violent Extremism through Education. She hopes to create a future that will allow her to leverage the voices of young people to build communities and co-create solutions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Bansari Mehta

Mumbai native Ms. Bansari Mehta developed a passion for global grassroots community service early in life. This passion stuck with her throughout her schooling including her Master’s Degree in the United States.

Since its founding, Ms. Mehta has been involved with the World Experiences Foundation which works to promote issues such as cross-cultural understanding and fights racism and bigotry through anti-bias education.

Ms. Mehta fully understands the skills necessary to maintain full time employment while working with local colleges to mentor low income, first generation college bound minorities. Ms. Mehta advocates at the legislative level for the “Shot@Life Childhood Immunization” UNF campaign.

Working with the American Red Cross, she was assigned to be the Lead Project Manager for the “Preparedness Outreach Program” which promotes public education involving natural disasters. Ms. Mehta also serves on the board of the local United Nations chapter leading this chapter in areas of community involvement and cultural understanding.

Ms. Mehta has been honored with several highly competitive awards. She received the Outstanding Multicultural Student Leader award from the University of Oklahoma and was selected as Oklahoma’s 30 under 30 award winner statewide. Additionally, she received a citation from the state of Oklahoma for her professional achievements and leadership in areas of community service.

Ms. Mehta is employed as the Medical Practice Administrator for several Ophthalmologists in Oklahoma managing five locations and twenty-five staff members.

Ms. Mehta is fluent in seven languages and is well known in the community for her avocations of adventure sports, archeology, astronomy, and air flight.