By Merritt Frey, Executive Director
If you want to feel better about the state of the world, talk with a young person. Seriously, it is amazing to hear what those coming up are doing and how the see the world. That’s why we love our Speech Up! Video Contest, which asked high school students to share how they would tackle the challenge of bringing education to all. Today, we’re happy to announce our top three winners and share links to their great video speeches:
Our first place winner, Akshaya.
Akshaya Annampedu, our first place winner, is a high school student passionate about service, writing, music, and bridging together people and solutions for a better and more wholesome society. She is especially excited to receive recognition for her Speech Up presentation about how to solve the United Nations’ education equity goal, because she was always a firm believer in the equality of resources for all people. She regularly works towards this mission through her roles in the Underrepresented Students’ Society, her school’s Pencils of Promise, her magazine for underserved students around the world, and her service-oriented internship with Mission Possible Kids. She looks forward to continuing giving back to others throughout college and beyond.
Nandira, our second place winner, with her beautiful, giant cat.
When we asked Akshaya about her thinking process as she started to put together her speech, she said “I wanted to really get to the root of it, and be really honest about the problem. These issues are really a problem everywhere.” We think she did a great job of getting to the root of the issue!
Our second place winner, Nandira, lives in Seattle. When asked what she does when she is not designing a plan to bring education to the world, Nandira said, “I enjoy hanging out with my cat, reading, listening to music, and cooking. I love learning about food and agriculture science and I hope to one day have my own farm.”
In third place for the 2021 Speech Up! Video Contest, we have Kashvi.
And our third place video was submitted by Kashvi. Kashvi is a freshman at Rock Ridge High School and the Academies of Loudoun, Virginia. She loves to write - songs, stories, scripts, memoirs, and poems - as well as act, play golf, travel, read, and execute public speaking. She is currently a member of DECA, taking entrepreneurship at her magnet high school, and placed first in the state in the role play category. In addition, she is passionate about diversity, education, and inclusion.
Thank you to all the great students who shared their thoughts and ideas!
