At 17, Arnav probably has more volunteering experience than people twice his age.

The student of Father Michael Goetz Secondary School in Mississauga can count 18 organizations around the community that he has helped in various capacities. They range from Mississauga YMCA to Credit Valley Hospital to Community Environment Alliance to the Red Cross Youth Action Council. He also serves as Director of Finances on the Mississauga Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee (MYAC).

He caught the volunteering bug after visiting a village near New Delhi through Prerana, a grass-roots organization that provides resources for sustainable development in India. “It made me realize how good we have it here in Canada”, Arnav says. “For one thing, clean water.”

He applied his experience in India back in Mississauga by becoming involved in programs geared to young people, starting with the YMCA where he has served a volunteer assistant co-ordinator and youth leader.

“I realized to make a difference on a larger scale I have to start on a smaller scale,” Arnav says. “One of my long term goals is to start an organization that will help children in developing nations and provide them with the resources that will make them successful and sustain themselves.”

While many of his classmates might be holding down summer jobs or saving up for post-secondary school, Arnav spends most of his time volunteering. He hopes that scholarships will help finance his education down the road, but for now he knows that he’s gaining invaluable experience through volunteering.

“It opens you up to new opportunities and to a new world of skills you didn’t realize you might have had,” he says. “It lets you grow as a person. It has really shaped me and made me who I am.”