Elham Ashrafizadeh

Each year, The Earth Prize recognizes exceptional mentors with the Mentor of the Year award, celebrating their dedication and impactful contributions. In 2024, this honor was awarded to Elham Ashrafizadeh, a master’s student at the University of Toronto, Canada, studying Science of Forestry. Elham also holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Isfahan University of Technology, Iran.

In a conversation with us, Elham shared her motivation to become a mentor and the passion that drives her:

“Most of my life I've been interested both in nature and teaching. The combination of these two elements could be easily found in mentoring for a competition like The Earth Prize. Since the first moment I heard about it, I was interested in hearing what young environmentalists think about sustainability issues.”

During The Earth Prize 2024, Elham mentored the Environmental Saviours, a team from Egypt. The team developed an innovative waste management solution—a topic that aligned perfectly with Elham’s bachelor’s project, which also focused on waste management.

“I was impressed that high school students can deeply understand environmental topics and their complexities. This was very inspiring; to see how far they can go. There is no limit to what teenagers can do. There weren’t any challenges for me, it was an enjoyable experience where we exchanged ideas about topics that we were both interested in. It was wonderful.”

Elham also highlighted a unique aspect of her experience with the Environmental Saviours: the team was composed entirely of girls.

“It's very inspiring for me to see a team composed of a young group of women environmentalists. I was recently reading an article that was talking about needing more space for women to contribute to high environmental science roles, and seeing a group of highly passionate young women was a delightful element for me.”

As we look ahead to The Earth Prize 2025, we are excited to continue supporting impactful mentoring experiences and collaborating with more outstanding university students like Elham.

Thank you, Elham, for the inspiring conversation. You can read the full interview with her here: https://www.theearthprize.org/2024-mentor/elham-ashrafizadeh