Honorary degree 2026: Rochelle Prasad creates opportunities for youth around the world

Rochelle Prasad’s career in philanthropy, advocacy, and education began in her hometown of Surrey and has improved the lives of young people all over the world. From hanging out at the local recreation centre as a child to advising the United Nations on the importance of youth education, she’s come a long way in a short time. Now she’s being honoured by the University of the Fraser Valley at its convocation ceremonies. At age 27, she will become UFV’s youngest ever honorary degree recipient on Thursday, June 11.

As the eldest daughter of immigrant parents from Fiji, she quickly developed the ability to identify gaps in society and ways to address them. “I’ve seen my parents go through so many barriers, and I just automatically had that entrepreneurial hat on to help them solve gaps that they were facing — either by translating doctor notes or figuring out how to get to a place using public transit,” she explains.

That adaptive, problem-solving drive motivated Rochelle to start the SPARK Foundation at the age of 14. When her parents couldn’t find educational after-school programming for her and her younger sister, Rochelle started her own. Today, it’s grown into a nonprofit that supports more than 500,000 youth across five countries, delivering scholarships, life-skills education and leadership development. The foundation has raised $2 million to reduce educational barriers, following its vision of empowering youth to drive meaningful change aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

After high school, Rochelle earned her Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science and a double minor in curriculum and instruction and social justice in education at Simon Fraser University. She followed that up with a Master of Education from the University of Toronto with a focus on social justice. She was the first in her family to complete university. She quickly became a respected educator, designing 12 university courses, and teaching media arts and computer science to high school students and more than 1,500 post-secondary students. Rochelle trained 300 instructors in inclusive and digital pedagogy and earned two teaching awards for building student-centered learning environments.

Rochelle has already built an impressive résumé. She’s run for local government, made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, served as a United Nations ambassador, and received the Governor General’s Sovereignty Award. Despite all these accomplishments, she says that being in the classroom is still the most meaningful part of her career.

For Rochelle, education has never been just about achievement — it’s about helping young people recognize opportunities they may not have seen for themselves.

“Every day I get to be entrusted with 30 different brains; I feel like I live through a miracle every day. I get to witness those ‘a-ha!’ moments in the classroom, and it’s so fulfilling. I get to expose students to opportunities that they would not have been exposed to, and once they know those opportunities exist, they get to live a better life.”

Rochelle shares that she was shocked to receive an honorary doctorate so early in her career, but her mentors and colleagues are less surprised. Surrey mayor Brenda Locke frequently notes Rochelle’s leadership and commitment to community, calling her a “veritable powerhouse who profoundly impacts the worldview of those that she comes in contact with.” She describes Rochelle as someone who believes that every person matters and speaks truth to power on behalf of others.

Linda Cunliffe of Soroptimist International sees Rochelle as a changemaker who integrates her classroom experiences into her advocacy for a more equitable education system, while consistently demonstrating her commitment to facilitating global change.

For Rochelle, much of that drive comes from the example set by her parents and ancestors.

“They are such resilient people. They are very hard workers, and they don’t take no for an answer; they’ll find a way to make anything work.”

After helping build schools in Kenya, Ecuador, and Fiji and publishing a self-empowerment book for young people, Rochelle has her sights set on a second book and a career shift into the field of technology, where there’ll be new goals to achieve and new problems to solve.

As she reflects on her achievements so far and her plans for the future, she is, as always, thinking of her family – those with her in Surrey and those who came before, surviving British colonialism in India and Fiji in the 1800s.

“To me, getting this honorary degree at a very young age means that what my ancestors did has not gone unnoticed,” Rochelle says. “It’s also a huge tell that the next generation really matters. We hold a lot of courage, but also a lot of influence, and it’s what we do with that influence, what we do with these opportunities, that is going to help shape the future. So, long story short: this degree means the world.”