Our Young Person of the Month is Aniket Gupta from India! Aniket is the Founder of the Indian Science & Technology Campaign. The campaign aims at engaging students with science, celebrating the joy of science, and showing the ways how science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) provide us with the solutions to improve our lives.
Read his amazing story below and be inspired!
ANIKET GUPTA
Besides being a student studying Engineering sciences at IIIT Delhi, Aniket Gupta is a young changemaker & environmentalist. He was recognized with Diana Award 2020 by Royal Family for his contribution to bring practicality in education with his initiative “Indian Science & Technology Campaign”. He was also named among 19 young people selected as Ashoka Young Changemakers in 2021. Ashoka is world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs working towards building a world where everyone is a changemaker. For his another initiative “The Tale of Humankind”, he was felicitated by JOSH Education Award by Dainik Jagran in presence of Honorable Education Minister of India.
On How He Began
Aniket Gupta began his journey as a changemaker at the age of 15. In the year 2016, impacted by no practicality in school education of India, he founded the Indian Science & Technology Campaign, with the aim of engaging students with science, celebrating the joy of science, and showing the ways how science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) provide us with the solutions to improve our lives.
With 12 team members, as of February 2022, their initiative has reached 24 different schools benefiting over 23,000 students and 320 teachers. Their team now works closely with the State Government in Delhi to ensure all children have the wherewithal to develop core competencies in STEM fields. As a result of their programs, many students are working with the policy think tank of India – NITI Aayog, to achieve global goals at the grassroots level in rural areas.
During his journey, he realized that every young person could lead change in their communities & create impact, but they lack support & guidance to kickstart their journey. To bridge this gap, he co-founded The Tale of Humankind to enable, connect, and engage young people to be a part of the change, start the conversation and move from ideas to action. With the support of their partner organizations such as Oxfam India, Josh Talks, Sayfty, etc, they have facilitated youth participation to achieve positive local & global change and foster a positive socioeconomic change by ensuring individual development.
On His Successes
One of the key accomplishments of Aniket has been driving the Government of Delhi to include climate education in schools. He identified climate education as a powerful tool in the global response to climate change because it has the power to transform lives and society, influence attitudes, motivate action & hence, give birth to more civically-engaged communities. His petition on Change.org gained the support of over 15,000 people including various celebrities & environmental experts.
Beyond this, Aniket represents the voice of youth and works deeply towards involving more youth in changemaking through his work with Global Orgs. including Save the Children, Ashoka, TheirWorld, Youth Ki Awaaz & UN ESCAP. He was elected as a Young Changemaker Fellow at Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs. At Josh Education Awards by the largest Indian media platform, Dainik Jagran, he was awarded Popular Choice Award for his initiatives, in the presence of the Education Minister of India. Aniket is also a TEDx Speaker & has represented youth at various forums, radio channels & national media including NDTV, YourStory, India Ahead News, Youth Choupal, etc. He was recognized with the most prestigious accolade a young person can receive for their social action, The Diana Award 2020 in memory of Princess of Wales. Most recently Aniket was among the youngest lister on the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Roll of Honor 2021. He also serves as a Global Ambassador of TheirWorld, a global children’s charity committed to ending the global education crisis. His efforts have been appreciated by several social impact leaders & ministers of India.
On His Challenges
Aniket says, when beginning his journey of changemaking, the first and foremost challenge was to convince the people around me, i.e. his parents, teachers and friends. And it took a lot of passion, persistence and dedication to convince and win their support. Another challenge was to develop a great team because most of the experienced students/ young professionals weren’t interested in working with a child like him.
His Words of Advice for Youth
We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the powers we need inside ourselves already. We just need to change our thoughts & we will end up changing our world.
Connect with Aniket: www.aniketgupta.com |Facebook | Twitter | Instagram |LinkedIN. Click here to watch his recent TEDx Talk.
Who will be the next Young Person of the Month?
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