Jessica Kim and Spencer Izen are the 2022 inaugural winners of Ingenious+ for their project, the Student Press Freedom Act (SPFA). Ingenious+ is an innovation challenge that offers Canadian youth aged 14 to 18 an opportunity to innovate for good and share strategies for improving the world. It provides financial support, learning opportunities, and mentorship from leading Canadian innovators to help young innovators bring their ideas to life.
The Student Press Freedom Act is Canada’s first student journalism protection legislation that is on its way to being passed by the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. It aims to protect freedom of expression and of the press for student journalists, who have often faced censorship and suppression of their voices. The bill was designed by high school student journalists in response to their experience with censorship, aided by volunteering lawyers. When it comes to innovation, Jessica has some valuable insights to share. She encourages others to look at their own sources of frustration or difficult challenges and to seek solutions to them, saying “Innovation can be disruptive and doesn’t have to be in one particular discipline like science.”
Innovation can be disruptive and doesn’t have to be in one particular discipline like science.
Jessica Kim
Spencer Izen and Jessica Kim’s work has the potential to make a significant impact on the lives of students across Canada by providing them with the freedom to express themselves and their ideas. Their project shows that with passion, hard work, and dedication, young people can create change and shape the world around them.
