I enjoy drawing, reading, baking, building things, and spending time with my family and friends.
I remember that when I was in elementary school, art classes were some of the most widely anticipated and exciting events of every year. My classmates and I would count down the days until every session, excited to take a break from normal class work and express our creativity. However, art class only came around about once every three months since the only times we would receive lessons were when particularly brave parent volunteers decided to sacrifice their time (and sanity) to lead a group of over-enthusiastic nine-year-olds through a premade art project. Because of Nevada’s lack of funding for the arts, professionally taught art classes are practically nonexistent in almost all of the state’s public elementary and middle schools. However, given the massive body of data explaining how drawing can have profound effects on children’s mental health, creativity, cognitive development, and motor skills, art classes should be a staple of every child’s education.
In order to ensure that someday they are, my project aims to create a system where high school student volunteers teach elementary and middle school students a cohesive art curriculum instead. By establishing this system of high school volunteers, younger students can learn about the importance of art and can reap all the benefits of practicing art regularly, while the older student volunteers can develop their public speaking skills and gain teaching experience. I am developing my own curriculum as a series of hour long presentations and accompanying art projects which aim to explain art’s importance to world history, culture, and the individual. Over the past couple years, I have been giving my presentations in public elementary school classes and to students at my local Boys and Girls Club. I am currently working to recruit more high school student volunteers and to adapt each of my presentations to a digital platform. You can learn more about my project and lesson plan on my website https://thepandoproject.org/.
Go birding, read, play my trumpet.
Project Summary: Ever since I was a young child, I have always been interested in wildlife and biology, especially in birds. I love being outdoors and in the field. Every weekend, I would go on birding walks with my parents, keeping track of every new species I observed and eagerly anticipating what new species I would see. Over the years, observing birds has given me a keen appreciation of how important habitat is for the health of avian populations. Living on the Pacific Flyway, one of the major bird migration routes of North America has also impressed on me the importance of habitat for not just resident bird populations, but for those that are migrating through. Sadly, nationwide and worldwide, wildlife habitats are in peril. Landmark treaties like the Endangered Species Act help to mitigate habitat loss on a large scale, but on a local level, especially in cities, urban sprawl and the proliferation of the concrete jungle means that urban wildlife populations are under threat. Also, there is a lack of knowledge among the public, thwarting their ability to help even if they are willing to do so. Plants and trees in cities are often non-native decorative plants that offer little by way of food or shelter to native fauna.
My goal is to “think big” and develop a grassroots program to educate, enable and empower the public to reverse the trend of habitat loss in cities. Backyard by backyard, we can fight back by “going native.” My community service venture of working with individuals, nurseries and garden centers, schools, and local government to encourage and enable the use of native plants in streets, backyards and gardens will allow me to not only give back to the community but to all the living things that have given me so much joy over the years.
Some of the things I enjoy doing in my free time are reading, riding my bike, table tennis, playing chess, programming and learning the guitar.
Project Summary:
I love observing the natural world, whether I am on adventurous hikes, or simply birdwatching in my backyard. I enjoy cross country, track, painting, taekwondo, pool and spending time with my friends.
Most people spend about 75% of their time indoors. Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. Pollutant concentration in the indoor air s 3-5 times and sometimes even 100 times higher than outdoor air. Every year 4.3 million people die due to poor indoor air quality (IAQ), this is around 11,780 people every day or 490 people every hour. Yet, IAQ is one of the most ignored problems in the world. The goal of my project is to not only create awareness but also to provide simple do it yourself solutions based on research. Implementation of these solutions will make a material difference to the health and productivity of people.
Everyone will benefit from this project but especially those who are the most vulnerable to the impact of indoor air quality: pregnant women, infants and young babies, lower income segment and senior citizens. This target segment is impacted the most by poor IAQ and if they are aware of the problems and simple solutions we can prevent a lot of health and productivity related issues and help those dealing with these issues lead a better quality of life.
What do you like to do in your free time? In my spare time, I love playing the violin, competing in Speech competitions, and participating in Model United Nations conferences. When I’m not dressed up in a suit either speaking or performing, you can most likely find me cooking my favorite recipes or playing with Coco, our family’s bichon frise.
After watching the documentary, “Motel Kids of Orange County”, my eyes were opened to the hardships that homeless children and their families experienced. Many children were forced to live in small motel rooms, where they played in motel parking lots and were forced to search for food from dumpsters. This film inspired me to make an impact in my community, and due to my extensive interest in government and civics, I wrote a book for young children titled “Your Rights” to explain the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights. I then worked with Orange County Peace Camp and the Thomas House Family Shelter to teach civics education to shelter children aged from 5 to 18 and assessed the outcome. The results were promising and offered some insight into the status of the children’s civics knowledge. These results made me realize how little civics education exposure shelter children received, and drove me to pursue an initiative to teach a civics education curriculum to underprivileged communities.
Since moving to North California and joining the Ambassador program, I have translated my Bill of Rights book to four different languages and added child-friendly images to make the material engaging and age-appropriate. Following my translation process, I created a curriculum geared toward youth, focused on building a foundational understanding of the various facets of civics and government for these children. Shortly after, I connected with directors from LifeMoves, a local organization hosting family shelters throughout the Bay Area, to set up a series of workshops for me to teach my civics curriculum to these children. With the recent developments surrounding the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, I have unfortunately been forced to put my efforts on pause, given that the shelters are not allowing volunteers for safety reasons. I plan to stay in touch with LifeMoves to further my initative and reach as many children as I can, and in the meantime, work on refining my curriculum so that I will be best prepared to lead my workshops when I can do so once again. I am extremely grateful for all of the support and guidance that the Davidson Young Scholar Ambassador program has offered me throughout this process, and although my training now draws to an end, I look forward to continuing to further my project to make a change in my community!
What do you like to do in your free time?:During my free time, you can find me watching various horror films, enjoying sci-fi shows, showing off my skills in Mariokart, and laughing it up with my friends and family.
My project is Aphelion, a student-founded non-profit organization. Aphelion was created back in 2016 when a group of students wanted to find a way to use their artistic talents to make a difference.
Every individual deserves access to education and the opportunity to achieve great things. Unfortunately, education may only be a dream for many. Aphelion works to grant the opportunity to pursue education to kids all over the world. Currently, Aphelion is supporting the education of two girls in Kenya named Regina and Beatrice with help from an organization entitled the Maasai Girls Education Fund (MGEF). Without our help, these girls may be married off at a young age, expected to care for the home rather than pursue their passion for education. By giving these girls the chance to learn and grow, they can bring back knowledge in nursing, agriculture, or even engineering to help their tribe. There is a quote from Brigham Young that states, “… You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” These girls will be able to pass their teachings on to their children, fueling them with the same passion for learning.
My goal is to take Aphelion to the next level, working more within our community to create change and expanding our reach. Creating awareness and educating others on the importance of education is as important as raising funds. You can learn more about the organization and our previous events on https://weareaphelion.org/.
I like to read, play piano, and watch anime as well as Youtube. I also really enjoy indoor rock climbing.
Project Summary
Everybody has something they feel passionate about. Often, people want to help spread awareness about or do something to help that topic. But one question people, myself included, keep stumbling upon is: How? How can I truly make a difference? How do I start?
That is why I started my project, Activism & Leadership for Youths. My project aims to help elementary and middle-school students create and accomplish activism projects. By breaking down the process of activism into smaller steps and guiding students through those steps, I will help many students accomplish their goals and truly make a difference. http://projectalfy.org/
What do you like to do in your free time? Hike, ski, play squash (racquet sport), read, debate, and play Catan.
I spend most of my time with my school work and debating (public forum, parliamentary, and model congress). I also coach and run multiple middle school debate teams at different schools and organizations. In my free time I like to hang out with my friends and family, read, exercise (soccer and running), and listen to/play music (piano and guitar).
My project, Initiate Debate, is intended to help teach and mentor middle school students through debate. I believe this title encompasses the essence of what my program would accomplish. On a basic level the program aims to start new debate programs. On a deeper level it is so much more than that, aiming to initiate civil discussion between people by broadening the debate community to include people from all different backgrounds. It is important for young people to be taught to solve conflicts respectfully and to effectively advocate for themselves and their beliefs, while engaging in the world around them. Debate has allowed me to do all of these things, and I want to help pass those skills on to other young people who are not as fortunate as I am.
Debate has so many valuable lessons that I have learned personally. It helps build confidence and verbal agility while working on communication skills one on one, in group settings and with public speaking. My work coaching debate was very formative for me and had a great impact on my students. Initiate Debate would be about taking the incredible opportunity I had coaching and offer it to more high school students so that even more middle schools will have the benefit of debate programs. Then, Initiate Debate helps to connect these school debate programs with the tournament circuit. We want to help raise a generation that values productive discussion over silence and steps up to take leadership roles when they can help initiate change.
In my free time, I like to play basketball and read science and historical fiction books. I also enjoy watching sports, especially football and basketball and rooting for my Bay Area teams!
I am extremely fascinated with the study of neurosciences, especially the brain anatomy and neurological disorders and have been involved in research in some of these areas.
When my biology teacher introduced me to a neuroscience club, I discovered the seemingly simple looking organ - the brain - which controls our ability to see, hear, feel, learn, move, and so much more. I held a small sheep brain in my hands and it was hard to fathom that this tiny piece of grey and white matter is responsible for it all. I continued to learn more about the brain and neurosciences in general by listening to specialists and reading up on the research.
In this journey, I have learnt many fascinating yet surprising facts about the teenage brain. Brain development in these formative years makes teens self-conscious and subject to peer influences. Under peer-influence teens may take risks and may like to try out alcohol or drugs. But what is the impact of these drugs on our brains?
My project is very specifically, on the teenage brain. Adolescence is a time of significant growth and development inside the teenage brain. Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers rely on amygdala (center for emotions) to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. While the prefrontal cortex (area for planning, decision making and moderating social behavior) is still not fully developed, teenagers undergo major changes in their limbic system (the area of the brain that controls emotions). Doctors now believe that this difference in timing of development of the prefrontal cortex causes the risk-taking and impulsive behaviors which are rather common among teenagers. Teenagers tend to make decisions based on their emotions rather than logic.
It is extremely important to understand how brain development and growth impacts the way teens behave and act. It will help us teenagers to be self-aware and understanding which can help us navigate society with positive interactions. Understanding our brains is important for all adolescents and I want to use this opportunity and share the research about Our developing Teen Brains.
Currently through my organization, I have been able to reach out to thousands of teenagers and caretakers all over the nation giving presentations at schools and various youth organizations. Additionally, we are engaging with professionals in this field to design a curriculum that can be used as a basis for educating high schoolers all throughout the country to help empower themselves with the understanding of our developing brains.
Please visit our website ourteenbrains.org, (and social media on Instagram and Facebook, our YouTube channel). We offer presentations on various topics like neuroanatomy, effects of bullying on our brain, depression and stress, impact of loneliness or mindfulness on our brains. We are excited that we have received tremendous response to these sessions and we have professionals from all over the world supporting our organization. There are school counselors along the nation who are interested in this information. Our resources have also been added to American Counseling website.
Additionally, we are also coming up with an app and a book which provides this information easily to teens and their caretakers. I also run a weekly podcast called ‘ Our Teen Brains with Shivek’ where we interview professionals neurosurgeons, neuroscientists, school counselors, pediatricians who interact with teens in daily practice.
What do you like to do in your free time?: I like to play competitive tennis and train in my Black Belt class. I also enjoy singing, play chess with my dad, read books and news articles.
I have always loved helping people. When I went to visit some rural villages of India over the years, I have seen the thirst for good education in the eyes of the underprivileged kids, and observed the scarcity for learning resources in these areas.
My project (“CAUSE”) intends to create awareness among kids in the local schools and communities here to address these educational challenges and the scarcity of learning resources. “CAUSE” aims to collect donations in the form of learning resources such as new or used books, new or used gadgets like iPads and calculators and other learning material like magazines; and participate in a uniquely designed “Pen Pal” program connecting each underprivileged kid with a pen pal from a middle or high school in our local community to correspond with, ask questions, seek guidance from, and more importantly see a friend in them. Please visit us at www.cause.community.
The following disclosure is provided pursuant to Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 598.1305:The Davidson Institute for Talent Development is a Nevada non-profit corporation which is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt private operating foundation. We are dedicated to supporting the intellectual and social development of profoundly gifted students age 18 and under through a variety of programs. Contributions are tax deductible. Profoundly gifted students are those who score in the 99.9th percentile on IQ and achievement tests. Read more about this population in this article.