Students find meaning, beat stress and build resumes in WWF’s Living Planet Leader program

Ellen Jakubowski

If you live in a university or college town, it’s hard to miss the moving vans, tearful goodbyes and bustle in transit stations and entertainment districts as students arrive on campus. As the year progresses, you may also notice some of these young folks making a positive difference for your community (and the world) as they work toward becoming a WWF-Canada-certified Living Planet Leader.

Four students with garbage bags and gloves standing among shrubs on a gravel beach. One student on the left, Srinidhi, smiles to the camera.
Srinidhi Kotikalapudi (left) and fellow students cleaning up a shoreline habitat © Srinidhi Kotikalapudi

This program gives post-secondary students across Canada something to show for what they accomplish for conservation and sustainability, helping build their resume while living out their values. To earn this credential, they must complete requirements across four categories to demonstrate their leadership and teamwork skills, as well as how they apply conservation or sustainability principles in their personal life, academics and volunteerism.

This can look like starting student sustainability clubs, organizing upcycling and repair events, volunteering with community organizations, establishing pollinator gardens, or circulating petitions.

WWF-Canada launched Living Planet Leader in 2018 and has certified 171 students to date. These “Leaders” represent 34 campuses across Canada and a wide variety of academic programs, from engineering to social service work to anthropology. Hundreds more have registered and are currently on their journey to becoming Living Planet Leaders.

Juliet smiles at the camera wearing a red dress while standing beside flowering vines and potted plants in front of a house.
© Juliet Dhanraj

For some, participating in the program has changed the way they look at the world, extending beyond their campus experience into all parts of life.

“Being a Living Planet Leader means consciously reflecting on my choices every day to assess whether they are sustainable,” says Srinidhi Kotikalapudi, who graduated from University of Calgary’s Biomedical Sciences program in 2024.

“It is a privilege that entails certain responsibilities and commitments to the planet. These commitments extend beyond my environmental work. They fuel my health sciences research, community work, and even my consumer habits.”

For others, it has helped them connect with nature and find relief from academic pressures.

“When school became very hectic with attending classes and completing assignments, the WWF-Canada Living Planet Leader program kept me grounded in nature, my happy place,” says Juliet Dhanraj, a student in York University’s Master’s in Environmental Studies program.

“My commitment to this cause helped me stop and smell the roses, both literally and figuratively. My first-year experience at York University became a memorable and meaningful one as I embraced opportunities to practice reciprocity toward nature, which has given so much to me. Earning my WWF-Canada Living Planet Leader certification empowered and motivated me.”

Importantly, the certification has helped students refine their career paths and develop their job-related experience.

Isabel smiles while wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses as she stands in a field behind a bouquet of wildflowers.
© Isabel Savransky

“Working on my Living Planet Leader certification motivated me to get out of my comfort zone and pursue sustainability endeavors, which ultimately helped me find a career in environmental work,” says Isabel Savransky, who graduated from the University of Guelph’s Animal Biology program in 2021.

Hearing from post-secondary students about the impacts the program has had for them is what drives WWF-Canada’s youth action team to keep nurturing and expanding it. In early 2027, the program will open up — for the first time — to secondary school students so they can get an earlier start on earning their certification.

“Designing a program in response to student demand and growing it to where we are today with 171 Leaders certified has been the most rewarding journey,” says Kathy Nguyen, who leads youth action at WWF-Canada.

“It’s a privilege to support and mobilize opportunities for students to make their campuses more welcoming to wildlife while developing new skills and taking their place as industry and community leaders. We’re looking forward to extending this opportunity to even more young people in Canada who are driven to lead positive change for nature in high school.”

WWF-Canada’s Living Planet Leader program is in partnership with The Barrett Family Foundation.