Current Winners

According to UNESCO, an estimated 132 million school-age girls are out of school, and 15 million of those girls will never see the inside of a classroom. Education is a fundamental right that a multitude of girls across the globe are being denied, and can often be attributed to a girl's menstrual cycle. At Project 214, we firmly believe that a period should end a sentence and not a girl's education. By elevating and providing resources to girls in vulnerable circumstances, it increases their chances for a better future, provides them with opportunities, and boosts economic growth in the societies in which they live. Learn more at https://www.project214.net/

As malnutrition continues to decimate Asikuma, Ghana's community, Royal Promise has begun the fight to eradicate this disease; thus, attacking micronutrient deficiencies within all 40 orphans living at the center. The Royal Promise Mission Center has a Christian school that provides education to 400 students of Asikuma; feeding these children corroborates a more successful future for our world and prohibits positive communal growth. Learn more at https://www.royalpromise.org/

Three summers ago, the news was reporting that one-third of our honey bees had died in the past year. Some sources were saying that it was closer to 40%. As I considered these issues, I realized a solution might already live in my backyard. Mason bees are solitary, so they aren’t likely to sting, and raising them takes hardly any work. All you have to do is build a house for them. These amazing bees pollinate 95% of the flowers they visit, as opposed to the 5% honey bees pollinate. To share this knowledge with my community, I founded Build for Bees in 2018. My goal was to lead workshops to teach others how to build mason bee houses. Learn more at https://build4bees.com

My business solves a common problem; limited access to the information and resources needed to homeschool effectively in one place. My business uses databases, resources, and my own personal knowledge of homeschooling to help parents and students be their best. From one-on-one consulting to a personalized curriculum plan, my business has you covered. I want to improve the quality and effectiveness of homeschooling by giving families the information and curricula needed at an affordable price. Learn more at Canary Academy Online

The Future is Fungi exploits the efficiency of a certain pink oyster mushroom in converting cellulose into glucose that can then be used to produce biofuels—a broadly overlooked source of sustainable fuel. An added benefit of my concept is that it provides organic produce for the community while also reusing and harnessing waste material to be used as raw material for biofuel production. I will use the grant money to cultivate more mushrooms, continue experiments to prove the most efficient pathways, and build a relationship with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to begin supplying ethanol to gas stations in Tennessee.

Water contamination remains a key challenge of modern civilization. We have been able to design an efficient, sustainable, and affordable filtration material for the rapid removal of these contaminants from water. Integrating engineering with environmental chemistry, a filter capitalizing on biochar properties can be created for worldwide distribution at a cost of fewer than twenty cents per month for use in homes, rural, urban and industrial settings, agriculture, and aquatic ecosystems. Learn more at https://aquauniversa.webnode.com/

I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children and fill a need within the foster community. Founding Feeding the Fosters Inc Nonprofit discovered a need that I didn’t realize was so prevalent; Foster families need help from the community. In a little over a year, 1500+ volunteers signed up to serve 35+ foster families, cooking 250+ individual meals each night. Our mission helps the licensed foster homes to continue accepting children, knowing the community will be there to support them. Learn more at www.feedingthefostersinc.com

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has initiated a global race for the development of a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While several vaccine candidates have entered late stage clinical trials in record time, this process is likely to span several years before they can reach phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. This step can be greatly sped up through the recent development of machine learning algorithms that can predict potential epitopes in-silico and thus save countless hours of time traditionally required for the identification of neutralizing epitopes. My research will result in a drastic reduction in time spent in pre-clinical vaccine development.

GREEN HOPE PROJECT is a non-profit that began in 2019 born out of the desire to continue with, and improve upon, what It's Your World Project began in 2015. It’s Your World Project is a high school art / environmental group in El Paso, Texas. Our focuses include environmentalism, the Arts, and education. We believe that we can make a positive change by uniting in our efforts, identifying environmental problems, and changing our collective culture through the Arts and education. The more we offer people experiences, the more they become enlightened and empowered to be the change we need. What better way to do this than through the Arts? Learn more at https://www.greenhopeproject.org

Mental health issues are largely improperly addressed with conventional therapies through medication (antidepressants) and psychological intervention. The associated costs of these therapies is a massive barrier to pursuing treatment for people nationwide. WeLink is a digital platform which connects people suffering from mental health issues with 'link workers' - social workers or lived experience peer counsellors - who assess people's needs and refer them to relevant, non-medical initiatives in the user's community (e.g. cooking classes, yoga, family services). Learn more at https://www.getwelink.org/