St. Mike’s alumna Ashwini Selvakumaran has been selected to represent Canada as one of the country’s six delegates at the 2025 G20 Youth Summit (Y20) taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 18-22.
“What drew my interest in participating in the Y20 was not only the opportunity to represent Canada at the global stage, but also to be surrounded by and to learn from the diverse array of perspectives offered by the other countries’ delegates and the host nation,” she says.
The Y20 is the official youth counterpart to the annual G20 Leaders’ Summit. It brings together youth delegates from all G20 member countries—including Canada—to develop and negotiate policy positions ahead of the G20 proceedings.
After a lengthy application process, Ashwini found out in February that she had been selected. Immediately, she and her fellow delegates began to prepare for the Youth Summit by surveying youth across Canada on five themes that will be covered at the Summit: Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability; Inclusive Economic Growth and Employment; AI, Digital Innovation, Education, and the Future of Work; Meaningful Youth Engagement and Reforming Multilateralism for a Just Future; and Inclusive Social Development and Fighting Inequality. The responses will be presented in a communiqué that will be put forward to the leaders of the G20 countries in advance of the G20 Summit, ensuring that young people’s perspectives are included in the decision-making process.
“I would like to be viewed a bridge or a pathway towards youth mobilization. I have endeavoured to be intentional and careful in curating, collecting, and presenting the opinions and perspectives from other Canadian youth,” she says.
Each of the Canadian delegates is also assigned a sub-theme negotiating track, which focuses discussions on an area of the theme. Ashwini has been assigned to the AI and Digital Innovation negotiations, and she has been meeting virtually with her AI and Digital Innovation counterparts from the other G20 countries. At the Summit she will be engaged in negotiations on this topic.
“The AI and Digital Innovation track was the topic I initially knew the least about, but I chose it deliberately. I wanted to push the boundaries of normative thinking, given how I see AI’s intersection with almost every major issue in today’s world. I felt it was crucial to deepen my understanding. I was especially curious to explore Canada’s approach to AI and how it compares to the perspectives and strategies of other countries,” she says.
The Youth Summit will be the first time Ashwini meets with the other Canadian delegates and delegates from the other G20 nations face-to-face. “After months of communicating virtually, we’re going to come together and try to align on common principles to present to the G20 Presidency,” she says.
Ashwini graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in peace, conflict and justice with minors in diaspora and transnational studies and English, from the University of Toronto in 2023. While at U of T she founded Brown Citizen Circle (BCC), which aims to empower and mobilize South Asian youth in civic engagement across Canada by strengthening their presence in decision-making spaces. In March 2023 she represented Canada at the United Nations 67th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) in New York. Later that year, she took part in the CanStudyUS Home and Away Fellowship with The Dais, a public policy and leadership think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she spent a week in Washington, D.C. working with the World Bank Group.
She went on to complete her Master of Environment and Sustainability degree from Western University and currently works as a Policy Advisor for Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.
After a week of negotiating and debating, she is looking forward to capping off the trip by traveling around South Africa with the other Canadian delegates.