SES 2026 Ambassador
Shreya Rao
Founder Planted Youth Opportunities | Environment UWaterloo | Building in Social Impact x Tech
Shreya Rao is a Canadian social entrepreneur and youth advocate passionate about sustainability, education, and employment equity. She is the founder of Planted Youth Opportunities, a gamified platform helping youth access jobs, volunteer roles, and programs aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Shreya is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Environment at the University of Waterloo.
She has worked with national and global nonprofits including the United Nations Association of Canada, CARE Canada, and Plan International Canada, where she led youth engagement campaigns, built accessible programming, and supported public education on climate and gender equity.
Shreya has been recognized for her work in sustainability, leadership, and entrepreneurship and has been recognized as an Emerging Leader in Sustainable Finance.
She is currently building her brand as an intentional influencer, creating content at the intersection of lifestyle, career, and impact—focused on making social change feel accessible, actionable, and community-driven.
I’m the founder of Planted Youth Opportunities, a digital platform on a mission to help youth navigate their education and early career journeys in a way that feels personal, empowering, and community-driven. What started as a centralized hub for jobs, volunteer opportunities, and programs aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals is now growing into a broader ecosystem of tools that support youth from exploration to employment.
Planted is gamified, interactive, and built with accessibility in mind—especially for students, first-gen youth, and early-career changemakers who often feel overwhelmed or left out of traditional career systems. We’ve already reached over 100,000 youth, partnered with 50+ organizations, and built a youth-led team that continues to design and test new features based on what real users want.
But our vision goes beyond listings. We’re building a platform where youth can learn, grow, and connect—whether that means watching tutorials on how to build a resume, attending a digital workshop on sustainable development, or tracking their impact over time. Through features like a resource library, and personalized dashboards, we aim to guide youth as they make decisions about school, careers, and social impact.
Planted is currently active across Canada and expanding globally. As we grow, we’re focused on launching our plantED media hub (a podcast and video series), rolling out impact tracking tools, and eventually creating a supportive, online learning community that feels like a mix of a mentor, a career coach, and your most inspiring friend.
We believe the path to your first role—and your future—should be exciting, not intimidating. And we’re building the tools to make that possible.
