This former Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf student has a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a specialization in finance and international management from the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal and for the last two years has lived his life to the beat of voluntary cooperation. Enrolled in a master’s programme in international studies at the Université de Montréal since 2002, Christian Girard has still managed to spend almost a year, divided into three trips, in the shanty towns of Lima, Peru, where he worked to help improve the life of young Peruvians. He owes his dedication to international cooperation to seventeen years as a boy scout, including nine as a scout leader. Deeply rooted in this movement, he even founded a group of boy scouts in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district who accompanied him on his last two trips to Peru. This 26-year-old, who speaks four languages fluently and has visited some twenty countries, is also the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards including a scholarship of excellence on entering the master’s programme at the Université de Montréal and the Aurèle-Daoust scholarship awarded by the La Cordée Scout Foundation.