TLN Media Group has run the 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians Awards since 2007, honouring more than 170 people in that time. For 2025, the list included Marilyn Solano, founder and CEO of Connect Education.
What the award recognizes
The program is open to Hispanic Canadians living in Canada who show strong influence in areas such as Canadian mainstream life, education, achievements and awards, volunteerism, entrepreneurship and support to the Hispanic community. Media and community associations help choose 20 finalists, and past winners and public online voting select the 10 winners.
Connect Education started from a specific problem. Families looking for help with school were being asked to trust their child to whoever happened to be available, with no reliable way to verify who that person was or what they were qualified to teach. Marilyn built the company around licensed teachers, and around the position that a family's budget or postal code should not determine the quality of help their child can reach.
As a Latina-founded, woman-led organization, Connect Education now operates nationally, connecting families with teachers online, in person and at public libraries.
Connect Education's history with the awards
The company's connection to the program predates the recognition. Connect Education was a sponsor of the 16th Annual Awards Gala, held on 7 November 2024 at the Columbus Centre in Toronto, a year before Marilyn appeared among the honourees herself.
What it signals to the students we work with
A large share of the children Connect Education supports are growing up in families who arrived in Canada recently, who are doing school in a second language, or who have been told somewhere along the way that extra help was not available to them.
National recognition of a founder from their own community is a different kind of lesson from anything that happens in a tutoring session, and a useful one. It is worth more than the trophy.