Nathan White, graduate of the BBA Class of 2005, was named one of New Brunswick’s 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by 21 Inc. The program, born out of the Next NB initiative created by UNB President John McLaughlin, identifies 21 emerging leaders between the ages of 20 and 35 from around New Brunswick.

The leaders are placed into a ten month program that includes a week long tour of the province to meet with community leaders and learn about the challenges and opportunities facing the province. Following that portion of the program the leaders are broken down into three groups that are tasked with creating community-based solutions on an issue that interests them.

As a reporter for the Telegraph-Journal, Nathan has seen firsthand many of the challenges that are facing our province, and when he heard about the 21 Leaders program he was eager to get involved.

"I knew some people that were involved in the first edition in 2003 or 2004, I thought it was a really great idea, a good chance to learn a lot about New Brunswick and meet a lot of like-minded people who really care about this place and want to make it better,” said Nathan.

Although the people involved in the program are all of a similar age, they are a diverse group from all walks of life including lawyers, doctors, students, yoga instructors, and journalists. The 21 Leaders also span the political spectrum as the program is not affiliated with any particular political party or idea.

“It’s a really neat idea, and a good approach,” said Nathan. “It's not really political, it's more about people that have cool ideas.”

Those ideas include building up pride in New Brunswick through the program’s community projects and hopefully breaking down some of the barriers that exist between the province’s different cultures and the barriers between rural communities and the cities.

“Most of us believe that that kind of division is old news. We need to work together, we're all one province.”