Meet three young leaders making their mark on N.B.

If you've ever wondered if the next generation of New Brunswickers is ready to shape this province in a positive way, we've got some good news.

Here are three young people who are making a difference in their communities.

Emily Bessey: Creating space for people of all abilities

Having lived with a disability from a young age, Emily Bessey knows how important it is to feel like she's surrounded by a community that understands her.

At the age of six, she was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It's an auto-immune disease that impacts joint mobility and can cause swelling and daily pain.

Bessey grew up in Nova Scotia and recently completed her major in fine arts and women's and gender studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. When she first stepped foot on campus, she knew she wanted to create a space where students could connect on similar lived experiences, and feel seen.

So, she created the university's first Disability Society this year.

The society puts on events for students living with a disability, but Bessey wants to broaden its impact as it grows.

"Not all of our events are talking about or focused on disability specifically but are instead focused on creating an accessible environment that anyone can meaningfully participate in."

Bessey's condition is considered an invisible disability, and she often needs to explain it to people. 

She said that can get tiring, and make her question whether what she experiences is valid.

"It's a lot of justifying yourself to other people," she said. "That's been the biggest barrier is just really getting people to believe me."

The idea behind the society was inspired by her time attending Brigadoon Village in Nova Scotia from the age of eight. It's a summer camp that tailors programming to medical conditions that impact kids.

Bessey has been a camp councillor there for the past three summers, and she's been applying leadership lessons into her advocacy at St. Thomas University.

She also helped create the school's first relaxed performance this year, which means adapting a theatre environment to accommodate people's sensory and physical needs with more relaxed rules.

Bessey was a lead actor in Groundhog Day: The Musical and helped transform the way the audience watched it.

Loud sounds and bright flashes were removed. The lights in the theatre were brighter than they usually would so audience members could leave at any point. Cast members even introduced themselves in American Sign Language.

"It's a lot of accommodations that are quite small and quite easy to facilitate that you don't necessarily always think of," she said.

As a community leader, Bessey wants people to know that while it's OK to ask questions about someone's condition and how you can support them, you shouldn't rely on them to explain it all. And most of all, lead with kindness.

"Leadership is rooted in compassion," she said. "It's not just fighting for yourself but it's also fighting for others as well."

John Neilson: Getting music down to a science

At only 15, John Neilson of Sackville is a jazz-loving radio host, a musician and an award-winning science wiz.

Neilson's radio show, Selective Memory, is one way he shares his love of old-school jazz with the community and his colleagues — many of whom have never heard of artists like Frank Sinatra.

"It's so out of the common sphere now for people of my generation," he said.

He's been co-hosting the show with his father Brian for three years at the Mount Allison University campus and community radio station, CHMA-FM.

His playlist is chalk full of artists like the Rat Pack, Sammy Davis Jr. and Billie Holiday. True to himself, he's more likely to sport a beret and suit jacket than a baseball cap and hoodie.

"My sister purchased a three CD set of the Frank Sinatra Platinum album," he said. "Fly Me to the Moon was probably the song that got me into the whole thing."

As a piano and trumpet player himself, he was even invited to perform at the New Brunswick Music Festival last year, when he was only 14. But he didn't make it to the stage because he was focused on another love of his — science.

Last year, he won local and regional science fairs and qualified for the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa. His project examined how using music could improve students' memory.

He ran memory tests on his classmates, and said doing the research was almost better than the prize.

"Students who listen to music — and specifically music they enjoy — while they were doing math and numbers, they did better than if they just had no sound at all."

The project got him a national gold medal at the science fair. "I'm very proud of my younger self," he said.

Neilson said, this year, he'll be skipping the science fair to concentrate on his music festival performances. Meanwhile, he's busy as student council treasurer at Tantramar Regional High School and is involved in sports like badminton and soccer.

When it comes to his role as an off-the-beaten-musical-path leader among his peers, he said it's all about making space for others to shine.

"It's important for students to know that they have the possibility to be vulnerable, to show themselves and to help better the community together and not just shy away from it because it seems scary."

Emily Paul: Recognizing truth and reconciliation on and off campus

Last September, Emily Paul couldn't believe that St. Thomas University would not be giving students the day off for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.

"That kind of upset me considering how much the administration and higher ups tend to talk about reconciliation on campus," the fourth-year sociology student said.

Paul, who is from Pabineau First Nation, wrote a letter to the school's administration, highlighting the fact that many other post-secondary institutions in the Atlantic region were shutting down classes for the day, and that St. Thomas should, too.

About a week before Sept. 30, the university announced it would be giving the students the following Monday off.

"I believe conversations are very important about reconciliation ... but I also believe that we have to see action," she said. "It was really important to me to push that to happen."

To her, acknowledging the day by giving students time off is a way to support those who are personally affected, and it gives them a chance to attend ceremonies and events outside of school.

"I'm sure a lot of Indigenous people would agree that it's not really just a day off," she said. "It's a day for me to at least be around people who understand the severity and the impact of the residential school system."

Now that her time at the university is wrapping up, she wants to see the school broaden its discussions around post-colonial ways of learning.

"We need to stray from this idea that learning only happens in a classroom ... that gives people the opportunity to engage in sort of experiential learning," she said.

Paul also gave a talk about Indigenous culture for students at her former elementary school in Oromocto.

She said when she was that age, she would mostly hear about the tragedies that Indigenous people endured.

She spoke about traditional dances, medicines and other important aspects of Indigenous culture.

"Children are the future generation, and if I was in elementary school, a conversation like that would have probably really helped shape my outlook and my understanding of myself."

Paul is studying common law at the University of Ottawa next, and she hopes to bring her values to the legal field and legal education there.

"The more people who listen to what you have to say — there's strength in numbers."