The next generation of movers and shakers

Southwest side Chicago native. An activist, A spoken word artist, a community organizer, an entrepreneur, and so many more hats I wear. I am Devonta “TGi Tae” Boston, the founder and CEO of TGi. I have been doing community organizing for over a decade, and one thing I have seen time and time again is that change must start with us. I am passionate about increasing pathways and opportunities for youth in black and brown communities to follow their passion. 

Throughout the years, I’ve made strides in the school-to-prison pipeline changing the student code of conduct, passing statewide legislation SB100 and HB2793, and so much more. As a result of my work, I received accolades for AmeriCorps Alumni of the year in 2018 and The Chicago Community Champion in 2017. I started my entrepreneurship journey as a junior in high school when I founded TGi Movement because I saw a need in the community. A need for someone from the community that is creative, ambitious, visionary, and someone who isn’t afraid to take a chance on their community." 

Alexis M. Murillo hails from Chicago, Illinois, and is a dynamic and visionary entrepreneur dedicated to empowering first-generation and low-income (FLI) college students. She is the founder and CEO of CultivateYou, LLC, a company that offers coaching and consulting services to support FLI students in attaining their academic and professional aspirations. 

With her transformative guidance, Alexis equips FLI students with the critical resources and support they need to successfully navigate the complexities of college and beyond. Her unwavering commitment to serving this population has removed countless barriers to success, positioning students for life-changing opportunities. 

Alexis is a highly sought-after speaker, strategist, and thought leader. Her profound insights on higher education, diversity, and social impact have captivated audiences of over 30,000 people at various conferences and events, making her a trusted voice in the field. 

Alexis holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Communications and Marketing from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, and she is on track to earn a Master's degree from Harvard University. Her innovative and entrepreneurial spirit and her unwavering dedication to FLI students have propelled her to become an eminent leader in the education and social impact sectors. 

Brian Jason B. Delos Santos is from Placer, Masbate, Philippines.   He obtained his bachelor's degree in political science at Universidad De Manila in 2022 and the Paralegal Training Program from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 2021.   

He is the incoming Executive Director of the Young Environmental Forum (YEF), a non-profit and volunteer-based organization whose mission is to educate young people about our shared future under climate change and engage them in living and promoting sustainable lifestyles.   YEF conducted over 300 seminars and workshops on environmental issues, climate change adaptation and mitigation, resilience and sustainability, and leadership. It has reached over 50,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom represent the youth of today.   His field of interest is the nexus between Climate Change and Youth, Peace, and Security Agenda.    

Brian was one of the Filipino youth writers who drafted the Philippine National Action Plan on Youth, Peace and Security.   He led the Climate and Sustainability group during the ASEAN Young Leaders Programme 2022 in Cambodia.   He also works as an Information Officer at the Climate Change Commission Philippines.   As an emerging leader, Brian thinks beyond the present, beyond oneself, and values the life of others. 

John is a young reformer, medical doctor and global health advocate passionate about health promotion in low and middle income countries. He was program coordinator for the “Dignified and non-discriminatory healthcare” program of the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA) in 2018 where he coordinated advocacy to ensure Universal Health Coverage and equity in healthcare especially among vulnerable groups. He also represented IFMSA at the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva where he advocated for meaningful youth involvement in health decision making.  

He founded Health Compass Initiative (HCI) in 2017, an NGO that tackles non communicable diseases (NCDs) at grassroots within under resourced settings, ensuring prevention, early detection and control. Since inception, HCI has reached several communities with education regarding prevention of NCDs and offered free NCD related screening services to thousands resulting in early diagnosis and improved quality of life within mostly indigent communities. Under his leadership as President, HCI was inducted as a member of the NCD Alliance (a partner of the UN) and has become a leading voice for NCDs in Nigeria. The organization received commendation from the director of the department of NCDs of the WHO who made a live address at the maiden HCI annual summit, acknowledging and endorsing the immense work done within the organization. More recently, Health Compass Initiative was welcomed as members of the Global Diabetes Compact of the World Health Organization, a league of reputable global organizations leading the fight against Diabetes.  

For his exceptional leadership, he was recipient of the 2022 Young Leader Award of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). John is passionate about the use of policies to combat NCDs within resource poor settings and aspires to be a public health physician and health policy maker. 

I am Habeeb Abdulrauf, a highly accomplished graduate of Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria, with a Bachelor's Degree in Media and Communication. I was awarded the distinction of the best-graduating student in a class of over 250 students and also emerged as the overall best student in the Public Relations and Advertising sequence. 

During my time as a student, I co-founded DMi Digital Marketing Agency, a UK-registered digital marketing agency that delivers top-notch digital marketing solutions to clients across the globe, including social media marketing, search engine optimization, social media ads, SEM/SEO, web design &development, email marketing, web development, and UI/UX.  

Prior to my foray into the tech industry, I spent six years voluntarily teaching English language and leadership to children in the grassroots communities for over 20 hours daily. As a student leader, I led different student-run international organizations such as AIESEC, the International organization for business and engineering (IOBE), Ingressive4Good, and the student union government. And during this time I also mentored several undergraduate students in effective leadership, governance, academic excellence, and tech skills. 

In 2020, amidst the global pandemic, I founded Digital Gen Foundation, a Nigerian-registered nonprofit organization that adopts a grassroots approach to train and mentor young people in different aspects of technology skills, with the main purpose of reducing the rate of unemployment and increasing the earning power of marginalized Africans youth through digital skills, community, job, and opportunities.

Hasibul Hasan is working as a Youth Social Worker, Environmental activist and Peace Advocate in Bangladesh. Currently, he's pursuing his bachelor in Public Administration at University Of Chittagong. As only one selected Youth Speaker and Peacebuilder from Bangladesh, he advocates Prevention Violent Extremism (PVE) in South Asia at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). 

After the completion of 'Earth Champions Program' (ECP) Fellowship of BYEI and Plan International, he implemented the "Greener Initiative to Turn Waste into Compost" project to reduce carbon footprint in our environment and to make it greener and resilient by producing natural fertiliser from waste. To make an inclusive world for underprivileged children and ensure access to education, Hasan is working as a PeaceX BookPecker Fellow at PeaceX. For his work on inclusiveness and resiliency, he has been selected as a Millennium Fellow of the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI). Further, as Organising Secretary at 'Unity for Humanity' which works for needy and destitute people with nature-based solutions (Nbs) to meet the SDGs by 2030, he is coordinating on several eco-friendly projects. 

In Hasan's leisure, he loves to watch movies, series on Netflix and play soccer. His favourite colour is black. He's an avid youth volunteer who aims to expand the frontiers of literacy across socio-economic divisions and reduce the rate of carbon emissions for a better future. And he is honoured to be a Panelist at GYM (Global Youth Mobilisation) that assesses applications relating to the areas of health, wellbeing, gender equality, education and inclusion to address the challenges of COVID-19.

Lauryn is a young professional, writer, researcher and Board Trustee living in London. She studied Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh on a full scholarship. Her lived experience as a double minority in a predominately white environment led to the publication of her first book The Shuri Effect: Bridging the gap for young Black Women in STEM. It explores the reasons for the representation gap and ways we can fix it and is embedded in extensive research and interviews of Black women at various stages of their own STEM journeys. Changing the face of science requires radical interventions at all levels and we can all contribute to making that change real. In line with this, she is the one of the co-hosts of Stemette’s Say What? Podcast, an intervention to inspire and support young women and young non-binary people into STEM. She also interviews Black Women about their STEM journeys under the banner of Project Ignite Her, a digital social enterprise she started while at university. Next, she plans to write a romance novel.  

Useful links  

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/laurynmwale  

Website: https://www.theshurieffect.com/  

Email: theshurieffect@gmail.com 

Loren is a student at NCUC studying FdA Health and Social Care progressing onto an honors degree in Public Health, all whilst managing caring responsibilities for her grandparents. Loren was one of the students behind The Wellbeing Society, the first wellbeing society of it's kind in the college. The society holds bimonthly meetings which provide a safe space for people to discuss their wellbeing, time management, and coping strategies with workloads. 

In 2022, Loren won the Equality and Diversity Award for Working Creatively in Communities for her wellbeing project "Diversity Through Art". The project allowed students the ability to express themselves through art, and the platform through which they can share their experiences with inequality. In doing so, students reported feeling seen, and showed the importance of communicating our individuality to highlight the unity and commonalities we share.

Hi I’m Josh Duncan, a young leader here in Barrow, Cumbria, England. I co-direct a community interest company, Horizon Studios, with my business partner - Josh Spedding. 

Together we work to support and empower young people using music as a vehicle for development. We offer a wide variety of services to the community; from Music Production to DJ’ing and Lyric writing to Artist Development. 

Our aims are to inspire and educated the next generation of musicians. After spending, collectively, 15 years in the industry we decided to share our knowledge with the next generation in hope of seeing a prosperous community and music scene. Hopefully they too will carry the baton of hope long after our time. 

Cumbria is my life, I’ve lived & worked here for many years and want to see the improvements it so deserves. 

Thank you to common purpose for the opportunities they have provided me, and many others, over the years. 

Nayab Zahra is an AI Engineer and a young environmental scientist. Nayab Zahra is a student of STEM with a bachelors’ degree in electrical engineering from university of Belgium. Nayab Zahra has availed 487 academic certifications in different fields particularly in STEM.  Nayab Zahra is recipient of 2017 Jabir ibn e hayan award for her practical and theoretical demonstration of eradication of plastic components by driving natural polyolefin.  In 2020, she won Al Farabi Medal for her prototype on conventional medicine using an AI named bio conductor modular 

Nayab Zahra won award of Harkat 2021 from ministry of science and technology of Iran. Nayab Zahra was awarded with National Youth Award 2021 for her research and work since the age of 12 till now (2012-2021) in the category of literature, education, technology and innovation. Nayab Zahra was awarded the prestigious fellowship by The International Foundation for Sustainable Peace and Development as their official research member and scholar.  Recently, she is been selected as a 2023 max thabiso edkins climate ambassador for the global youth climate network. 

I am Maria Fernanda Marquez Sanchez, a 23-year-old native Mexican who moved to Germany at the age of 18 on her own. Currently, I still live in Hamburg and work for a French company that provides technical services throughout Europe. 

 When I moved to Germany, I realized just how important migration is here, that is why I joined associations such as the Sister Network and Hamburg-based organizations that focus on topics like integration, mental health and creating a network and tools for your new life in Germany. 

In addition to the political situations and barriers between my homeland and the United States, I lived as an expatriate in Germany for a number of years. This made me realize how critical migration is to our society today, as well as the social work that volunteers contribute to it. As Winston Churchill once said: “All the great things are simple and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom justice honor duty mercy 

My personal projects continue to focus on issues related to migration, women's empowerment, human rights and social issues. I continue to participate in different associations, and I am starting to do my own projects with individuals or collectives that are working on a similar line of issues. 

 That's why I came to Common Purpose because I share the same vision as them. If we build bridges and networks for worthy causes instead of self-promotion, we can provide solutions to humanitarian problems that harm not only a particular country, but also the entire world. 

I work with Mawejje Creations a social enterprise revolutionizing the fashion industry using plant-based substances and textile waste to mitigate the challenges in fast fashion and climate change. Through this enterprise, have managed to train over 200+ young people on how to turn banana fiber waste into products of value. 

I co-founded  Eco Crafts Ug in 2020 during the lockdown, an online platform that uses social media such as Instagram and Facebook to enhance service delivery, and create more employment opportunities for laid-off workers in different communities and countries across the world. 

 To bridge the gap between customers who are in love with beautiful handmade products and the artisans who bring these amazing products to life, to date More than 5+ boda-boda cyclists have been employed. Over 1000+ products have been delivered. Over 20+ young people have been impacted both direct and indirect. 

Read more at https://mawejjecreations.com/ 

Syed Muhammad Aqeel Abidi is a 22-year-old medical student at Aga Khan University Karachi who has made a significant impact in his community. As the president of an NGO that conducts medical camps in impoverished areas, Syed has organized and managed various medical camps in different parts of Pakistan. He has worked tirelessly to recruit volunteers, coordinate logistics, and ensure that medical supplies and equipment are available at each camp. 

In addition to his work with the medical camps, Syed has also been involved in flood relief efforts in Pakistan. He has worked to provide relief to those affected by the floods by organizing free medical camps and distributing food, water, and other essential supplies. 

Due to his dedication, Syed was nominated for the 25Under25 award by his friends. His activities are the testament of his leadership qualities. Despite his busy schedule as a medical student, Syed continues to devote his time and energy to this NGO and other community service initiatives. He hopes to inspire others to join him in making a positive impact in the lives of those in need. 

WeShare is a Fintech Social startup providing innovative solutions for donation to maximize social funding in climate change and poverty eradication. At the same time, it transforms online shopping behaviors towards more sustainable and responsible consumption. As its Finance Director and Co-founder, Tri manages its day-to-day activities with 25 employees, business development, financial control, and product software development to attract and ensure our donors (application users) can donate easily, while shopping online with our merchant partners.  

Currently, he has partnered with 17 reputable social organizations (Green Vietnam, Enactus, AIESEC, YMCA, SOS Children's Villages…) to help them raise sustainable funds for their climate projects. To enhance transparency in green donation, he has embedded the technological solutions in the application so that users can track the donation journey to end beneficiaries in real-time. Currently, he has helped green organizations raise social funding for climate recovery of 144,000 USD. As his business plan, the vision is to be the leading Fintech solution to tackle climate change in Southeast Asia via technology. With its social impact, WeShare received the award as “The Most Innovative Solution to tackle Covid-19 pandemic in Ho Chi Minh city” by the Government.  

(https://weshare.asia/) 

Titilope Adedokun is a lawyer, content creator, and social impact nerd who is passionate about the intersection of social impact, business and technology. She is also passionate about the empowerment of young people, particularly young women.  

In 2021, she founded SisterlyHQ, a platform empowering Nigerian women with the community to tell their stories their way and connecting them with opportunities and resources. Through digital storytelling, SisterlyHQ is increasing the representation of Nigerian women through and in the media. And, by curating opportunities and resources for women, SisterlyHQ is shattering the glass ceiling of discrimination and exclusion faced by women in the pursuit of their goals.   Since 2021, SisterlyHQ has published the personal stories of 35 Nigerian women and has shared over 800 opportunities and resources, attracting over 1300 unique visitors monthly and 27,000 views. Titilope is a 2018 Commonwealth100 Open-Source Leader, a 2022 Union Bank of Nigeria International Women’s Day Prize Winner, and a 2020 Winner of Accountability Lab’s SDG 16 Innovation Challenge. In 2022, Titilope represented Nigeria at the Fora Network for Change Global Summit in Toronto, Canada. She is also a two-time LinkedIn Top Voice in gender equity.