Sasha Emery has always loved cooking.

A frequent in the kitchen with her mom and two younger sisters, she’d usually help whip up delicious yet healthy recipes for her family.

It’s also what helped get her chosen, in part, to the Canadian Youth Ambassador Program (CYAP) program this year, in a federal initiative aimed at encouraging youth across the country to put their ideas into action.

At just 15, Emery joined 30 other ambassadors as the lone representative from the territory who shared their ideas to address issues affecting their local, national and global community.

For her pitch, Emery said in an interview, she drew on her experience with her friends.

“Some of my friends don’t eat breakfast, or don’t eat a healthy breakfast,” she said.

“They just eat Nutella every morning and I find that’s a bit boring, and not a good way to start your day,” she continued.

So she decided to pitch a bilingual website dedicated to healthy recipes, by and for teens. She hopes that will draw in a number of other youth who look for lunch, breakfast and after-school snack ideas.

Emery said she hopes they may even one day carry the lessons and ideas forward into their post-secondary life – especially with many Yukon students going outside of the territory for school. That could mean she’d one day feature dinner recipes on the site too.

For her part, Emery said she hopes to go to Ottawa for post-secondary schooling, but is debating between education and nutrition programs. She is currently at F.H. Collins Secondary School.

Among the recipes she hopes to include on her site are variations of parfaits, smoothie bowls, breakfast brownies and salads, as well as recipes that her family and friends suggest.

“I’m someone that really likes to cook and make food, that’s my passion,” she said.

Emery recalled that she’d often bring in snacks and lunch from home that would impress her peers, who’d ask her for recipes.

“Instead of telling them like that, I could make a website to share it with even more people.”

She credits her parents, both teachers, for encouraging her.

“They told me when I was younger, that if I had good ideas, it’s good to share them instead of just staying quiet,” she said, adding that led her down the path of developing the idea.

In her application, she cited the impact a poor diet can have from Health Canada studies: obesity, poor health and inattention at school, as well as developing good eating habits “during this critical period” of teens’ lives.

The program is in its second year, meaning Emery is the second Yukoner, after another peer at F.H. Collins, to be chosen as an ambassador.

She is one of three Yukon youth who applied to this year’s program, with the other ideas focused on addressing the mental well-being of teen girls.

Emery is one of 27 students selected from the more than 600 applications submitted.

The CYAP also offers trips to the nation’s capital and different countries in the world, organized and paid for by EF Tours – a company that also co-ordinates mentorship between the ambassadors and MPs, senators and other leaders in the community.

Last April’s trip took ambassadors to France to see the centennial anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. It was then that Emery first heard about the program from a peer.

“One of the girls at my school did the CYA program,” she said.

This year, she added, she and the others chosen were able to travel to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, for a week in March.

Emery is set to meet with Yukon MP Larry Bagnell late this month in Ottawa, on a trip to the capital with the other ambassadors.

“I’m not that nervous,” said Emery, before laughing: “Actually, well, a little bit.”

The Copper Ridge resident added that she may also consider developing an application that can be downloaded onto your phone.