{"id":22298,"date":"2019-02-25T19:53:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T19:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianeagle.com\/travelbeats\/?p=22298"},"modified":"2019-02-25T20:50:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T20:50:04","slug":"2019-prudential-spirit-community-awards-honorees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indianeagle.com\/travelbeats\/2019-prudential-spirit-community-awards-honorees\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian American Teens Selected for Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"
A few Indian American teen volunteers in grades 5 to 12 are among the 102 state honorees selected for the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.<\/strong> The national honor is given in recognition of top youth volunteers\u2019 outstanding volunteer service to people with disabilities, homeless kids, teens with mental health disorders, communities affected by winter storms, needy children affected by deadly diseases, and likes.<\/p>\n Each of the 102 state honorees including Indian American teens will receive a cash prize, a silver medallion and a fully-paid trip to Washington DC<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, where 10 of the state honorees will be selected as the United States\u2019 top youth volunteers of 2019. Each of the top 10 youth volunteers will be felicitated with a cash prize of $5000, a gold medallion, a crystal trophy for the school of their choice, and a $5000 grant for their chosen nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n We at Travel Beats, a community portal for Indians in USA by Indian Eagle Travel<\/span><\/a>, picked five of the Indian American honorees of the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and decoded why they deserve to be among America\u2019s top youth volunteers of 2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Among the Indian American honorees of the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, Anish Bikmal from Georgia is the president of \u2018Motivate and Inspire\u2019 academy which raises funds through tutoring of local students by volunteering tutors for charities in India.<\/strong> A 17-year-old senior at South Forsyth High School, Anish Bikmal had had an epiphany about the misery of farmers near Mumbai during one of his trips to India a few years back. The farmers\u2019 helplessness due to inadequate harvests to provide for their families, which could be attributed to their lack of knowledge on modern agricultural techniques, made Anish come up with the nonprofit initiative to benefit poor farmers, hungry children and needy people with cataracts in India.<\/p>\n Anish Bikmal whose parents moved from Hyderabad<\/span><\/a> to the US in 1999 won the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National competition two year ago and donated the prize money to the Temple of Vedic Planetarium while visiting Mayapur in West Bengal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A resident of Cumming in the Atlanta<\/span><\/a> metropolitan area, Indian American Anish Bikmal has roped in other high school students as volunteers for \u2018Motivate and Inspire\u2019 academy<\/strong>, who provide academic assistance to children in grades 3-12 through coaching classes, counseling and motivational talks on various subjects. Till date, Anish has donated over $50,000 from the proceeds of tutoring in the local community for technical education of 104 farmers, 30,000 meals to poor children, and 44 cataract surgeries in India.<\/p>\n 17-year-old Jothi Ramaswamy from Mohegan Lake in New York<\/span><\/a> is a staunch advocate of STEM skills for girls. In order to encourage girls for STEM careers, she founded \u2018ThinkSTEAM\u2019, a nonprofit having an \u2018a\u2019 that stands for arts.<\/strong> Jothi believes that art is as important as technology and that one\u2019s artistic traits or creative skills can be combined with technology for better results. When she learned that there were only boys, no girls in her brother\u2019s computer coding class, she gritted her teeth to even the playing field for girls in STEM.<\/p>\n A senior at Lakeland High School, this New Yorker of Indian origin got further inspiration from her mother, an engineer, who restarted her career to provide for the family after Jothi\u2019s father died.<\/strong> The success of her first workshop on wearable technology with focus on the intersection of technology and fashion, in collaboration with IBM, strengthened her confidence and fetched her opportunities to collaborate with school districts for workshops on STEM. Jothi Ramaswamy has conducted over 45 workshops for girls in 3-12 grades so far in partnership with Facebook, Google, Amazon, Columbia University, Stanford University and likes.<\/p>\n The founder of ThinkSTEAM, Jothi Ramaswamy is rightly selected as one of the youth volunteers for the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A resident of Bellevue in the US state of Washington, 11-year-old Mehr Grewal actively promotes healthy eating habits and correct hand-washing techniques.<\/strong> One of the youth volunteers selected for the 2019 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, Indian American Mehr had an epiphany, \u201cA simple measure like correct hand washing can actually save lives,\u201d in the wake of a recent flu epidemic in the United States. With some research on hand hygiene, she made presentations about the importance of hand washing and demonstrate the proper hand-washing technique at schools as well as community centers.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/h3>\n
Anish Bikmal from Georgia <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jothi Ramaswamy from New York \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Mehr Grewal from Washington <\/strong><\/h3>\n