Alumni Awards 2020: Calgary-based civic activist, campaign strategist and community volunteer wins Alumni Horizon award

Zain Velji makes connections with people, using a deep sense of empathy to find ways to make things better

Sheila Graham (with files from Donna McKinnon and Therese Kehler) - 03 March 2021

Connections are important to Zain Velji (‘10 BA), a Calgary-based civic activist, campaign strategist and community volunteer. Sometimes that means connecting the dots, such as in his work as partner at Northweather, a digital marketing agency, during his stint as campaign manager for Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

“An arts degree is the pathway towards the skills that we need in our modern society,” says Velji. “As technical skills become more commodified, we're going to be in a place where we need to continue innovation and dialogue, and constructive, civil society building through the core tenets of what an Arts degree offers.”

Velji makes frequent media appearances as a political commentator. “Politics is the last thing to fall into place after the will of the people has been expressed in other ways: civil society, community, interpersonal interactions, value statements. So politics usually responds to that — it never leads on that. So if you're feeling downtrodden about your province right now, understand that your politics will reflect that downtrodeness, rather than the upbeat vibrancy that you want. So for me that’s what it feels like to be an Albertan today.”

Velji builds connections with people, using a deep sense of empathy to find ways to make things better. He is vice-chair of the YMCA Calgary board of directors, president of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and city lead for the Banff Forum, a public policy organization for young leaders.

“Good citizenship is what moves society forward,” says Velji. “If we are just in it insularly for ourselves, we don't have the ability to have ripple effects for others who may not be in a position to have their voice amplified, or have the time or the resources to help themselves.”

In July 2019, Velji co-founded Everyone’s Canada, a national organization that celebrates diversity, pluralism and multiculturalism while fighting emerging xenophobic narratives.

“It's about trying to create the paths for people that allow them to have a trajectory in life so they can maximize their potential, but also a path that, if we do our jobs well as a collective society, those who benefit from a strong civil society can also help those around them.”