Anagha Rajesh, a 20-year-old Indian student at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Goa and a mental health campaigner, has been named a top 10 finalist for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2022, a $100,000 award for an exceptional student who makes a real impact on learning and society. The top 10 finalists for the annual prize also include Global Indians Gitanjali Rao from the US and Kenisha Arora from Canada.
The Indian student, who was selected from over 7,000 nominations and applications from across 150 countries, is a researcher, storyteller and community builder who has worked on multiple projects, ranging from nutrition to mental health advocacy to entrepreneurship. As Founder and CEO of youth-led mental health non-profit Yours Mindfully, she aims to bridge the awareness, inclusion and accessibility gap in the mental health space.
Anagha Rajesh said: “Together with my team at Yours Mindfully, I hope to shine a light on the importance of ensuring young people everywhere have access to personalised mental health resources.
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“I also want to congratulate all the other top 10 finalists from around the world, who are helping shape our world for the better. Young people’s voices must be heard.”
Through Yours Mindfully, Rajesh works with a team of 40 young people from across India, the UAE, Africa, and the UK who advocate for mental health inclusion. Earlier this year, Yours Mindfully collaborated with the Malala Fund on a mental health resource pack for female activists.
The group is currently curating personalised resource packs for students at different schools, building wellbeing boot camps for young people, and launching a chapter of Yours Mindfully in Egypt. It recently launched an emotional wellbeing toolkit in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the burnout that the news of this crisis was causing.
“Now, more than ever, students like Anagha deserve to have their stories told and have their voices heard. After all, we need to harness their dreams, their insights, and their creativity to tackle the daunting and urgent challenges facing our world,” said Dan Rosensweig, CEO and president of edtech Chegg.
Others to make the cut include Alesyah Asa from Malaysia, Igor Klymenko from Ukraine, Lucas Tejedor from Brazil, Mathias Charles Yabe from Ghana; Maya Bridgman from the UAE, Nathan Nguyen from Australia, and Nicolás Alberto Monzón from Argentina.
The UK-based Varkey Foundation partnered with Chegg.org to launch the Global Student Prize last year, a sister award to its $1 million Global Teacher Prize. It was established as an annual award to create a new platform that shines a light on the efforts of extraordinary students around the world.
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The prize is open to all students who are at least 16 years old and enrolled in an academic institution or training and skills program. Part-time students as well as students enrolled in online courses are also eligible for the prize.
The winner is expected to be announced later this month during UN General Assembly week in New York.
*Info: Global Student Prize 2022