Written by Paul Fraumeni  

When she has the time, Kim Mantha likes to dabble in painting and photography.

But that hobby time doesn’t happen often.

Kim, 18, stays busy (to put it mildly) with a number of roles that she hopes make things better for a vast range of people.

“If I see someone who needs support, I want to help so we can be OK together,” says Kim, who lives in Embrun, Ontario, not far from Ottawa.

Take her work with Centre Novas, a feminist organization in nearby Casselman that specializes in services for women who identify as victims or survivors of sexual assault and their families.

Kim had been looking for a volunteer opportunity that matched her values. She found it in Centre Novas, where she has used her artistic skills on the organization’s magazine and its social media channels.
She has also participated in board of directors meetings as an observer. And in that role, says executive director Valérie Charbonneau, she “was able to bring a point of view to reflect the realities of teenagers in our region to help us with our youth services.”

But that’s just one of her volunteer commitments. She’s been deeply involved in student government with her high school, L'Académie de la Seigneurie, as well as the local school board’s student senate and a consultative committee on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Kim, who is Métis through her father, has also become closer to her heritage over the past few years.
“I was the only openly Métis and Indigenous person in my school. I didn’t like feeling disconnected from that heritage, so I started learning more.”

She participated in a Métis Infinite Reach camp over a March break and this past summer attended a Métis Youth Leadership camp in Midland, Ontario. She credits one of her high school teachers, Eric Rochon, with helping to ignite the fervour to learn more about her Métis roots.

This drive to help others is, in part, just in Kim’s nature. She doesn’t focus on where her commitment comes from, but says she’s been influenced by her mom, Chantal, who raised her and her sister Chloé alone, and instilled in Kim “the importance of community and why I should be involved in it.”

Her feeling for others has also been fuelled by her experiences with chronic pain. It arose after she had a sinus infection in 2020. Doctors have not been able to determine how to ease the pain, which occurs in her chest pretty much all the time. She’s also had to deal with a fractured foot and vertebrae, for which she used a wheelchair for a while.

Kim wants to leverage her personal experiences as she enters l’Université d’Ottawa to study history and politics. She wants to pursue a political career in which she can make a positive difference.

“I watch the news and see all the crazy things that are happening. Then I try to propose solutions to problems. I want to be in a position to influence change. For example, I’ve been in the healthcare system a lot. Healthcare workers are so underappreciated. So are teachers. I don’t know how they do it. They’re angels. And then there are rural communities up north without proper Internet access. What could I do as a politician to improve things? I really want to try.”

Meet our 2024 EKO Scholars

Read about Audrey Godbout
Read about August Hummelbrunner
Read about CJ Barry
Read about Jordan Diana
Read about Josephine Noue
Read about Keira Gayowsky
Read about Logan Pickells