Thivya Jeyapalan
Canada, 18
She/Her
Project: CapitalHER
After Thivya's family immigrated to Canada, she grew up with leadership and entrepreneurial opportunities she would never have had back in Sri Lanka. Inspired to close that gap, she founded CapitalHER to equip middle and high school girls around the world to design and launch ventures tackling social and environmental challenges in their communities. Through a multi-week entrepreneurship accelerator, financial literacy program, and a venture incubator, CapitalHER has helped 1,000+ girls turn ideas into businesses and community initiatives, with support from 150+ industry leaders as mentors. Real-world sustainability issues run through the programming, encouraging participants toward solutions for waste reduction, sustainable consumption, climate displacement, and more. Thivya is now launching a free global online accelerator that removes geographic and economic barriers to entrepreneurship – widening the pipeline of women empowered to create a more resilient future.