Tessica Truong

Do you ever feel like your voice isn’t being heard in the decisions that affect your future? Tesicca Truong feels you. It’s what led her, while in high school, to taking leadership roles on environmental issues and, eventually, to co-founding CityHive, a non-profit on a mission to transform the way young people are involved in decision-making. Tessica is also currently an Environment Advisor to the BC Minister of Environment and Climate Change. She has received numerous honours, including being named to the Top 30 Under 30 by Corporate Knights Magazine for her environmental work. Tesicca joined us in conversation from Vancouver’s Victory Square.

Read her article: Opinion: 150 years forward — Canada’s role in the world

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Why does nature matter to you?

I’ve always had such a powerful connection to nature. When I was young, my dad stayed home and my mom was a teacher and she had the summers off. So, we would pack into a car and drive across the country and spend two months on the road camping and just seeing amazing places like Jasper and Banff and the Bay of Fundy in the Maritimes. I think that’s when I really fell in love with how vast and how wild Canada can feel. I think most people experience Canada as cities and actually most of the country is nature. I think it’s that deep sense of love and connection with nature that has really driven me to do a lot of work for the environment.

It seems that more and more people are losing that connection to the land. How important is it for every citizen to get into nature? How can we get every citizen into nature?

I think it’s so important because, fundamentally, being in nature is a basic human right. It has such a positive impact on our mental health; having that connection or not affects levels of stress. In Alberta, they’ve done some really interesting work looking at what demographics are missing in nature. It’s young folks – around my age and younger; new Canadians – immigrants and refugees, migrating here for work; and folks with physical disabilities. So how do we actually bring them into nature? There are different ideas – WiFi in the parks, creating backcountry wheelchairs that make trails accessible to their needs, and providing information in different languages. We need to keep trying to make nature more accessible to all.

Nature is being decoupled from sustainability. The environment is becoming only about climate change; we’re not looking at our impacts on our waterways, on endangered species as much as we’re debating climate change. Are simplistic definitions and over-used words a barrier to engaging more people in nature and in environmental solution-making?

It’s such a good point, because I think different words come and go into vogue. I think sustainability had its moment, and now I think that it’s so watered down that a lot of corporations have kind of made it their own. I think a word that’s becoming more popular now is resilience, because that’s something that’s found in nature. I love the term biomimicry, which essentially means how do we mimic what nature is doing because nature has had millions of years to evolve and so we have something to learn from the designs that we see in nature that have kept trees and animals alive for this long. Whether that’s behavioural mimicry, or physical mimicry, functional or protectional mimicry – I think there’s a lot of potential in that. There’s a lot of resilience within an ecosystem. Many different things do the same thing because if one or two things are wiped out, there’s still ten more that are still fulfilling that same function. And when an ecosystem isn’t resilient in that way, then you start to see our impact and what that might mean to every aspect of life.

You started helping nature be more resilient at a young age. What sparked you to take that next step, from ‘wow, this is beautiful’ to ‘wow, I need to do something’?

It was grade 10. I was part of a program that allowed me to understand nature and sustainability issues. I really connected to nature in a way that was relevant to me. So, when we were learning about the plastic problem, we weren’t learning about it on an island far away, we were learning about how our waste matters – what actually happens to it – in our backyard, so we could see the real impact we had on the environment. But also, it really made me feel like there was an opportunity to act. We actually do have power in our communities and it’s just a matter of seeing where our own power lies. Being able to connect through school with other folks who were so passionate, we believed that we could actually have an impact on our community.

You’re a big believer in the policy process. You believe you can create change from within. Why?

For me, it’s always about connection – whether it’s a connection to the land, or a connection to each other. That’s how we can grow. I feel like there are a lot of valid reasons to distrust government – to distrust your elected officials – but, at the same time, it is the system that we have, and a system that we have to work with, so if we don’t become literate about the system and how it works – and how decisions are made – then they get made anyway, without us. That’s a lot of the work we do at CityHive, to involve young people in decision making so that, even if they don’t agree with a process and how we get to a decision, they at least understand the process and who are the influencers and how they can actually get involved to make their voice heard.

Based on what you’ve seen, what surprises people the most about the system?

I think the biggest ‘ah-ha’ moment for people is when they realize that all these systems that feel so complicated and confusing are really just all made of people. So, at the end of the day, when they meet the mayor, or councillors, or senior government staff, they are more relatable. I really think that’s part of the magic – realizing it’s not a huge system, it’s actually just people behind all of it. They’re all just trying to do their best and trying to make a difference in the world, and they need help as well. They don’t have all the answers. And they recognize that youth hold some of the answers. If we can engage in a way that’s positive and try to build relationships, who knows what’s possible?

Are youth becoming more engaged in decision-making from what you’ve seen?

Absolutely. CityHive likes to think about its work as bridge building. A bridge between young people who are passionate and care about issues affecting their future, but are looking for the connections, the entry points, the doorways into making a difference. They don’t know where to direct their frustration, their anger, their excitement. And there are many civic institutions that are facing some incredible challenges: around climate change, or homelessness, or the opioid crisis, or housing affordability. I think youth have some of the solutions and the organizations need help – we can act as that bridge builder. Because we do need that intergenerational connection. I think folks who are older, in leadership positions, crave these fresh ideas and the voices of folks who will ask the difficult questions because that’s how you find bold and exciting solutions. And I think that’s the magic in the work that we do at CityHive.

Do you think that the model you are building with CityHive here in Vancouver is duplicatable in Fort Nelson? In Sudbury? On Cape Breton?

Absolutely. It’s really a matter of believing that it’s possible. Even though Vancouver is a progressive city and there were a lot of supporters that did ask how they could help, at the end of the day, the space didn’t exist before we pushed to create it and said youth need a seat at the table. We know that in the past, different voices – whether young people, whether folks of colour, indigenous voices – have been excluded from the table. We can do better, we can acknowledge the past mistakes that we’ve made, and we can move forward. If there is an idea or a solution to something missing in your community, I would actually invite you to think – what is my place, and what do I want to bring into existence in this world? Because the chances are, if you’re thinking it, there’s a whole group of people that might also be thinking it too – but they all might be thinking it individually. They need someone as a leader to step up and say “I think I have a solution and who wants to join me?” It’s really about crafting that invitation for others to come and be part of your solution – and to make it better potentially – and to grow it, because no one can do this alone. CityHive is a whole team, we call it a family because we love the work so much; we love what we do.

For young people who do want to be part of the solution, is it important they do more than oppose an idea or problem, but actually generate solutions of their own?

Absolutely. I think we already know the problems – we live with every day, we hear about them in the news all the time. What we actually have a shortage of is imagination, creativity and that grit to really wrestle with a problem and figure out possible solutions. And I think it’s really that intergenerational, cross-discipline, cross-sectorial collaboration that’s needed to find solutions. And that starts by bringing people together that don’t normally sit together, or work together, and who think in very different ways.

Which is design thinking. What is it and why should every high school student understand it?

I love design thinking because it’s all about the connections and the systems – understanding that one piece always connects to the next. So, if you want to influence something, knowing and trying to think two or even three steps ahead about how by tugging on one string might affect these three other ecosystems. A lot of the work we do at CityHive, it’s all based on human-centred design, putting people in the centre and really examining their experience as a user. It doesn’t matter intent, because it’s difficult to discern intent. I think most people lead with good intent, I would hope. But as a user, if you’re coming into a city, or a school, what is your experience navigating that system? That’s what really impacts us at the end of the day. We can redesign things to be easier; that allow us to foster connections with each other or with nature or with amazing learning opportunities. And that can have such a catalytic effect on our lives.

What advice would you give to someone trying to get out of their comfort zone and have that hard conversation that might be critical to advancing a good idea?

I’m trying to think of what I would say to my high school self. I was very shy and reserved and then at some point I just realized that if I want to make the change that I want to see in the world, you just have to try. I think it’s important to believe change is possible. The only difference between the people who make things happen and those who don’t is people who do believe that it’s possible. So believe in yourself and your community and your friends and family and those who want to support you. I think that’s where it starts. And the second thing is humility. You only know so much and you will need others to help you do the work that you aren’t good at or don’t know. At the same time, even though you don’t know everything, you’re still part of the solution. You hold something that is so valuable and so unique, and whether you know what that is yet or not, it doesn’t matter. You’ll figure that out in the process. When I first started my bottled water campaign, we wanted to get rid of all the bottled water in my school and we wanted to make sure that everyone had access to free, clean drinking water through more water fountains. So, we sat together as a group and wondered what to do, but we didn’t know what the right move was. We tried everything. We made presentations; we tried to fundraise; we applied for grants; we talked to our principal. We just threw all the darts at the wall and tried to figure out what landed. And now, 10 years later, I can look at it and say – well, we did behavioural change, we did policy change, we did structural change. But, at that time, I didn’t even know what those terms meant. And honestly, it didn’t even matter at the end of the day because we got the result. We were able to get one new water refill station at every single public high school in Vancouver. It was a huge thing for high school students to think that we actually do have power in our community and we do have agency, as long as we realize that, the sky is the limit and you just have to try.

Was it easier to advocate when you were younger or now, when you’re older – even if you’re still young?

I think when you get older, you have many more responsibilities. You might have kids, or a mortgage to pay, and I think you have less time to dedicate time to free and creative thought. That’s why young are more willing to just try something and they are not yet jaded by having tried things and failed. Youth have this audacity to dream and to be bold, and to not even know it’s a bold dream. Use that time when you’re young to be creative and reach out to an existing community – your school or through sports or a religious group – and get their support to learn and try.

Do you think you are a better advocate now because you started young?

I feel that, even though I’m still young, I’ve gained so much experience and confidence from the work I did when I was even younger. For every person that told me no, I found someone else that said yes. I understand now that change is possible, even though it might take three years, or ten, or you might not even see it in your lifetime. It’s not even about me, it’s about what impact we will have for seven generations in our future and how we can be good ancestors.

What is the one thing you know now that you wish you knew at 15?

When I was 15, there was a lot of pressure to know what your passion is and to know what you wanted to do next. I felt so much pressure then to just pick something, but I know now you shouldn’t feel pressured. Instead of thinking about what you’re passionate about – you might not know that, you’re only 15, you’re just discovering different things – just follow your curiosities. For me, bottled water was just a pet peeve. I never thought that I would spend the next two years of my life working on the issue, but all of a sudden, I was the bottled water person. But to follow your passion? That’s too much pressure. Follow your curiosities. If you want to learn more about something, the world is at your fingertips. Find people that know more than you – that inspire you – and ask them how they did it. Try a couple things and see what sticks.

Different Perspectives