More than 150,000 Canadians have cast votes to determine the Top 25 winners over the last seven years. Past winners have included entrepreneurs and business leaders, artists, academics, community volunteers, sports heroes, philanthropists, inventors and visionaries, as young as 17 years and as old as 92. Their reasons, circumstances and timing for coming to Canada are as varied as their backgrounds – some fled strife in their home countries, while others chose to gain higher education; some arrived as young children, while others arrived with only a few hundred dollars.

No matter their roots, each of the 25 winners’ stories every year shares a common thread: an individual rose to a challenge and used that opportunity to make Canada a better place for all. This year is no different.

“Every nomination we received was poignant and deserving. The 75 shortlisted Canadians moving into the next stage are nothing short of inspiring. We invite all our readers to vote for their favourites to determine who we should honour as the Top 25 Canadian immigrants of 2015,” said Margaret Jetelina, editor, Canadian Immigrant magazine.

Hundreds of nominations were received over the past two months. A judging panel composed of several past winners and contributors to the magazine reviewed the entries and narrowed them to a shortlist of 75 finalists who represent diverse ethnic communities, cities and industries across Canada.

Canadians can now vote for up to three of their favourite finalists online at www.canadianimmigrant.ca/rbctop25 until May 11, 2015.

“Each nominee has a unique story that helps define Canada. Their successes help build a country that is rich in diversity and a home where newcomers thrive,” said Christine Shisler, director, Multicultural Markets, RBC. “We thank everyone who took the time to nominate a dynamic individual from their community and now encourage all Canadians to vote for their favourite finalists.”

This year, title sponsor RBC will further recognize one of the 25 winners who demonstrates excellence in business, with the RBC Entrepreneur Award. Associate Sponsor Chevrolet will recognize one winner with the Chevrolet Ingenuity Award, for showing exceptional ingenuity on their road to success.

“Chevrolet supports the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards to recognize the people who have shared their passions for Canada as they earned significant achievements and realized their dreams,” said John Roth, vice president for Chevrolet in Canada. “The Chevrolet Ingenuity Award will further recognize the efforts of a truly inspirational individual.”

The Top 25 winners will be announced on June 23, 2015. They will be recognized on canadianimmigrant.ca and in Canadian Immigrant magazine. Each winner will also receive a commemorative plaque and $500 toward a charity of their choice provided by RBC. This year’s media partners are the Toronto Star, Metro, Sing Tao and South Asian Focus.

About Canadian Immigrant and canadianimmigrant.ca

Attracting more than 400,000 readers each month and over 100,000 visitors every month online, Canadian Immigrant is distributed in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary and helps new Canadians build a successful life and home in Canada. Our mandate to arrive, succeed and inspire- provides content for newcomers looking for information on careers, education and settling-in to culture and business. Our website, canadianimmigrant.ca, offers daily editorial, forums, tools and resources to help newcomers across Canada. Canadian Immigrant is a division of Metroland Media Group Limited, a dynamic media company with more than 100 community and daily newspapers in print and online, as well as innovative websites including wheels.ca, goldbook.ca, flyerland.ca, Travelalerts.ca and localwork.ca.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada is Canada’s largest bank, and one of the largest banks in the world, based on market capitalization. We are one of North America’s leading diversified financial services companies, and provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor services and capital markets products and services on a global basis. We employ approximately 78,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 16 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 39 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com.

RBC supports a broad range of community initiatives through donations, sponsorships and employee volunteer activities. In 2014, we contributed more than $111 million to causes worldwide, including donations and community investments of more than $76 million and $35 million in sponsorships.

About Chevrolet in Canada

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 140 countries and selling more than 4 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature spirited performance, expressive design and high quality. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.ca, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/chevroletcanada or by following @ChevroletCanada on Twitter.