Senior Speakers Brooklyn Ranta (she/her) Ontario Brooklyn Ranta (she/her) is a first year medical student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. Brooklyn is immensely passionate about mental health advocacy and support, and hopes to enter the field of Psychiatry following her completion of the MD program, as she has always been immensely interested in mental health & well-being. Brooklyn is additionally receiving a specialization in Indigenous Health & Wellness, and is passionate about uplifting underserved communities to receive meaningful mental health supports and tools. In her spare time, Brooklyn can be found curled up with a good book, walking her dogs, or doing yoga! Interest and Motivation to Become a Senior Speaker For Brooklyn, the opportunity to be a key representative for such an expansive and meaningful project, and to develop her skills in speaking, organizing and providing an opportunity for mentorship and to foster community, are all very enticing aspects of this program! She is really keen to continue her work with mental health advocacy, but with a development in her role as a leader and organizer, to collaborate more meaningfully in a wide-reaching movement! Training and Professional Development Interests Brooklyn would love to develop her skills in implementing online outreach engagement tools, such as how to use polls and questionnaires within existing virtual platforms. Additionally, she’d love to develop further understanding of cultural competency, as this is a long-standing goal of hers. Speaking Experience As a seasoned speaker, Brooklyn has delivered a range of advanced Talks such as with corporate and adult audiences, and has supported recording Talk media content. What are the story themes you speak to? Academic pressure/stress; Anxiety Disorder; Depression; Mental Illness; Self-esteem and Self-image