Nicole Watson is the Founder & CEO of Econic Earth, a California-based NGO, and a proud Rotary Exchange alumna, traveling from her hometown of Castlegar, BC to Belgium in 1997–98 through District 5080, an experience that sparked her lifelong commitment to global service. Now based in White Rock, BC, she leads 'WATTS ON: Lighting Students' Lives, delivering solar study lamps to students living without electricity across rural Africa and monitoring educational impact. With 20+ years filmmaking, an MBA in Sustainable Business, and an Explorers Club member, Nicole works at the intersection of renewable energy, and impact storytelling — creating scalable solutions for last-mile communities.
Presentation Title: Turning Sunlight into Opportunity — Lighting Students' Lives Across Africa
About the Presentation: As a Rotary Youth Exchange student in 1997–98, Nicole Watson traveled from her hometown of Castlegar, BC to a French-speaking community in Belgium through District 5080 — an experience that ignited a lifelong commitment to cross-cultural understanding and global service. Today she leads WATTS ON: Lighting Students' Lives, delivering solar study lamps to nearly 30,000 students living without electricity across Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. Nicole will screen her award-winning 12-minute documentary LIGHT — screened at COP16 and the United Nations — pass around actual program lamps from the field, and share how active Rotary partnerships are helping scale the program to 1 million students by 2030.
If you have any suggestions for a speaker, please send them to Laura Midan (Laura.midan@archway.ca)
Venue for the meeting is in person or on Zoom.
Ricky's Country Restaurant
32080 Marshall Rd Abbotsford, BC V2A 1A1 Canada
Or by Zoom
Below is the link to the Zoom meeting that can be used to login. The meeting will open up at 11:45.
Abbotsford Rotary is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
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