Being a child stands for high curiosity about the world and unlimited possibilities in the future. Living in a fast-paced technology-driven world where people are more connected than ever, we can take the initiative to help our children to take part and make changes to areas they are passionate about.
Meet The Cool Kids Who Made A Difference
There is no such thing as being too young to change the world. Here are the inspiring stories of 8 kids who are making global impacts in different disciplines:
1. Alena Wicker
Age : 13
Living in : Cedar Hill, Texas
Noticing that Black people only make up 9% of STEM workers and women workers in STEM positions are being underrepresented, this gifted girl launches her own website, the Brown Stem Girl. Through this online platform, she lines up different parties to offer mentorship and opportunities to girls of color under the age of 18. This genius who just got accepted into university is gradually getting closer to her dream of working at NASA as an engineer. Meanwhile, she is also working on her children’s book and podcast to encourage girls to major in and work in STEM careers.
2. Maimouna Ndiaye
Age : 14
Living in : Mali
This number lover was inspired when she first joined a computer camp at age 9. Having been working on several projects, Ndiaye sees Artificial Intelligence (A.I) and Roboticsas the future. While busy joining tons of technology competitions across Africa, Ndiaye, and her team hopes to design more humanlike robots to improve our quality of life of us. For example, a remote-controlled robot on wheels that flashes a rainbow of colors.
3. Haaziq Kazi
Age : 13
Living in : India
Sometimes big ideas come from tiny observations in daily life. Kazi is devoted to minimizing ocean trash after watching a documentary on National Geographic. Starting from a bathtub prototype, Kazi spent 3 years developing ERVIS – a concept design for a marine waste collecting device. Apart from bringing ERVIS to life, he also takes educating the youth as his responsibility. In 2019, Kazi co-founded the ERVIS Foundation and has created the RoaRRR app for users to track their responsible plastic consumption and disposal.
4. Gitanjali Rao
Age : 16
Living in : US
When Rao was 10, she used App Inventor to develop Tethys– a device that allows water quality information to be sent to a processor easily via Bluetooth. She extends her innovation to develop a tool for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction in 2019 and an app to detect cyberbullying at an early stage using A.I in 2020. Her continuous effort in tackling life issues with science and technology is widely recognized, which makes her the ‘Kid of the Year 2020’ of Times and ‘Young Activists Summit’ at UN Geneva.
5. Aryaman Khandelwal
Age : 17
Living in : India
Inspired by the discussion of his aunt and uncle on workplace struggles, Khandelwal developed the app, Get2Greater, for local health care organizations to swiftly determine diagnoses and compile medical data. The idea sounds relatively simple, but it has significantly optimized the efficiency of medical personnel and allowed their services to be extended to a more significant population.
6. Sharleen Loh
Age : 17
Living in : US
Loh believes the opportunity to receive STEM education is equal for everyone. Since almost a decade ago, she has been working on promoting STEM activities to kids and high schoolers through her organization- STEMup4Youth. Right now, adolescents from more than 40 locations across Los Angeles and Orange County are benefit and able to enjoy non-profitable bi-weekly STEM programs offered by STEMup4Youth.
7. Avi Schiffmann
Age : 19
Living in : US
While everyone struggles during the pandemic, Avi sees this as an opportunity to help people with his skills. In 2020, he developed a coronavirus tracking website to provide updated and accurate numbers on the pandemic, along with an interactive map and other real-time info.
Apart from self-learning, he also attended workshops to acquire coding and 3D modeling skills, which later on leads to his interest in machine learning.
8. Malala Yousafzai
Age: 24 (Awarded when she was 17)
Living in: UK
Malala, the human rights activist and youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, experienced a horrifying terrorist attack in 2012 as she openly speaks for women’s rights and education in her home country Pakistan. The life-threatening suppression did not silence her but only made her more dedicated to fighting for girls in need.
She recently graduated from the University of Oxford and is ready to fully engage in her fight for equal education right through the Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network.
The future is now!
Creating a better world does not necessarily mean having a big dream. The above examples show you how small ideas can bring impressive changes to our lives. In a world where information and tutorial can be obtained so easily, people can begin to actualize their imaginations at a much earlier age. All it takes is just a little boost from us to encourage our kids to learn how to execute their ideas.
References: Atoday, Ted, Time, Washington Post, Tree Hugger
