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Today’s students feel ill-prepared to navigate the complex decisions, challenges, and opportunities that they face throughout this pivotal period of their lives. That’s why our mission is to empower students to become their best selves and achieve their goals in education, career, and life, while also giving parents the support they need to foster this for their children as well.
We offer 1-on-1, on-demand virtual coaching, tailored to each student’s individual background, needs, and circumstances. Our vision is for every young person to have the tools and support they need to make the most of their unique strengths and overcome any obstacles that may be standing in their way of creating a brighter future for themselves and the world.
Youthfully was founded by Joel Nicholson and Nader Karass.
They have vastly different upbringings, but a common belief that families deserve more from their educational experience.
Joel, raised by a family of educators, began coaching students in 2010 after gaining first-hand exposure to the competitive university admissions process.
He then blended his experiences in management consulting, academia, entrepreneurship, and executive coaching to create a comprehensive, holistic educational approach for students and parents.
This approach not only resonated with students, it also resulted in extraordinary success at university admissions and beyond.
The word quickly spread and he recruited a select group of high-achieving professionals to become Youth Coaches as well…
…Nader grew up in Egypt and felt lost and unsupported during his own youth, navigating the complex maze of university admissions as an international student.
Now as a father of three, he’s committed to ensure his kids will have the guidance needed to reach their full potential.
He brings deep technical experience leading one of North America’s largest tutoring platforms, along with advanced AI expertise to shape Youthfully’s world-class educational platform.
Today, Youthfully is committed to transforming people’s lives through our network of carefully selected and trained coaches, robust tech platform, and unwavering focus on delivering the world’s highest quality educational experience for families.
As someone who was raised in a family of educators, Joel realized that a crucial aspect of his learning journey was missing. After graduating from Queen's Commerce in 2010, he combined insights as a top admissions coach in Canada with the training he received as a management consultant to coach high school students virtually on their transition to university. He co-founded CampusRankings to try and solve this problem with big data, but sold the business in 2016 to focus on Youthfully as it was clear that students craved guidance from a mentor—not a computer. Today, Joel calls Calgary home and spends free time in the mountains or the water.
After moving to Canada from Egypt to attend Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Nader applied his passion for tech and coding and worked at the Student Life Network and various leading startups in the education and tech sector. Nader works hard to find innovative ways to improve learning and development methods and help make education more accessible to everyone. In his spare time, he enjoys woodworking and putting together puzzles with his kids.
Youthfully’s Social Impact Fund offers free or subsidized youth coaching for students from underrepresented or low-income backgrounds. The program aims to provide students with the same access to our world-class, dedicated coaches as if they were a paying customer. We partner with public district school boards to promote the opportunity and students can apply to participate.
The program is officially funded through a separate charitable organization, of which, Youthfully is the main partner. We contribute 5% of capital raised and 5% of annual profits into the fund, and we raise money from other organizations to support our mission. This helps level the playing field, bridge the gap, and create a more equitable society. We are excited to see the positive results of this program and to continue expanding our efforts in the future.
Interested in joining a fast-growing edtech company? We’re currently hiring for the below roles:
Big thanks to Coach Jon for his insightful session on university application preparation, shared with 100 high school students at the Ennovate event by Enactus, held at UBC. Great work!
We're thrilled to be featured in The Globe and Mail again—this time discussing how Youthfully is helping students build the skills they need to conquer challenging university admissions requirements.
How cool is it that one of our coaches, Adrian, won the Gold Medal for achieving the highest average in his Master's of Business Analytics program at Western Ivey? Now he has an HBA undergrad and Master's — talk about well-educated!
One of our youth coaches, Alex, became the youngest recipient of the Forty Under 40 Ottawa Award. Alex is the COO of a video marketing agency and philanthropist through his 12Because.ca initiative, for which Youthfully is a proud sponsor. Go Alex!
Youthfully spoke at three Junior Economic Club (JEC) of Toronto Summits on building self-awareness and conquering university applications. Former JEC President, Robert Di Marco, said our workshops “allowed students with different goals and interests to connect and relate it to their everyday lives.”
From 2016-2018, we designed and delivered over a dozen workshops on skills development and self-awareness for 100+ U of T Rotman Commerce students.
The Queen's Leadership, Excellence, and Development Conference (QLEAD) is an incredible conference for high school students, hosted at Smith School of Business. In 2015, we were asked to run a workshop for 100+ delegates and we've been invited back to present for five years. QLEAD is always a blast.