Janel van Dongen impresses audiences with a speech that won a national competition at the Royal Winter Fair last year
OTTAWA — Janel van Dongen captivated her audience from the moment she took the stage at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting.
The 16-year-old from Nanoose Bay, B.C., delivered the speech that in November won her the top prize at the Canadian Young Speakers for Agriculture competition at the Royal Winter Fair. She focused on how agriculture can be part of the solution for climate change, particularly strategic grazing.
Delegates responded with a standing ovation.
Van Dongen is a member of the Snapshots 4-H Photography Club and has been public speaking since she was seven. She describes it as a passion of hers. Her connection to agriculture goes back seven generations and includes her father, Peter, an agrologist, and her grandfather, John, a former B.C. dairy farmer and agriculture minister.
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“I’m honestly not sure where it will fit in, but it’s such a part of who I am,” she said of agriculture in an interview after her presentation.
“It just means the world to me to be able to represent that industry and to share it.”
At the Royal, the Grade 11 student competed against 11 other speakers aged 16 to 24, including one from Scotland. She said she was surprised to win.
“Everybody just put so much into their speeches. I’m honoured to have the title as the Canadian champion, but it’s really the industry that deserves that title because every single person was representing the industry to the absolute finest.”
There are no formal speaking opportunities beyond the Canadian competition, but van Dongen has since spoken at the Islands Agriculture Show, which she has been attending since she was a toddler, and then CFA.
Her post-secondary plans are still uncertain. Right now she is focused on a youth philanthropy organization called 100 Kids for Change – Oceanside.
She is the founder and chair, and at the kickoff meeting in mid-February, 20 young people collected $244 for their local wildlife recovery centre.
The group is modelled after similar groups for adults. Attendees bring quarterly donations for an agreed-upon charity.
“It’s a second job for me because I’m managing the communications, the membership. I’m trying to create a board as well. I’m excited to see where that takes me,” van Dongen said.
The group can be found on Facebook.
