IIT Gold-Medalist’s Innovation Wins the “Oscars” of Education in London

“International Changemaker Olympiad”, a global program founded by Rahul Adhikari, an IIT Gold-Medalist, has won the Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Award, popularly known as the “Oscars” of Education, here in London on Dec 10 for their transformative work in the education space. These “Oscars” celebrate and reward global innovations in education that are effective, scalable, unique, and transformative.

Rahul’s work was the winner in the “Sustainability” category and was also the top innovation from the entire Asia-Pacific region. The awards were given after a rigorous evaluation by an extended panel of 180 international judges from over 1500 nominations received from 39 countries. International Changemaker Olympiad was, in fact, the only nomination from India that made it to the final shortlist. Rahul and the other founders of the shortlisted innovations were flown to London to attend the 2019 Reimagine Education Conference & Awards from Dec 8-10 where they showcased their innovations to a global audience of 600 educational leaders, post which the winners were decided and felicitated with the award.

International Changemaker Olympiad (ICO) (www.ico-official.org) won the award for their innovative work to provide an international platform for children in schools to launch social initiatives and solve a real-world problem in their home, school, or community, thereby making a positive difference in the world, while also developing the critical 21st-century skills of empathy, teamwork, creative problem-solving, and a Changemaker mindset while doing the same. More than 20,000 students have participated in ICO till date and launched initiatives to solve problems as varied as saving 5,000 Kg of food monthly from hostel canteens, conducting over 100 menstrual hygiene awareness sessions in low-income communities, rescuing 200 injured animals from the streets, and saving 3 million+ litres of water in public washrooms.

"It’s an honour for us to win this award out of so many tremendous educational innovations and great to see our work being recognised globally. We are scaling rapidly to achieve our vision of every child growing up as a Changemaker, and for us to do that, we need others to join the movement. This award has supported us in spreading our vision worldwide and we are very grateful,” said Rahul Adhikari, after receiving the award.

Jack Moran, Program Manager for the Reimagine Education Awards, said, ‘International Changemaker Olympiad was selected among numerous highly-competitive entrants because it meets a number of criteria we believe to be essential to good pedagogy: it encourages peer-to-peer learning, actively involves learners in the learning process, promotes real-world problem-solving, and inculcates students with the ability to come up with creative, testable solutions to those problems. The projects empower students to think about how they might serve to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, in a pedagogically-sound way: it is a deserving winner of our Sustainability Award, and we look forward to its further progress.”

At the awards conference, the final nominees showcased their innovations to a global network of educational leaders, attended active learning workshops, and networked with leading academic faculty, ed-tech founders, investors, and other practitioners within the sector to scale their idea and impact.

The 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development emphasizes young people as "critical agents of change" and the International Changemaker Olympiad is making that a reality.

~ Newsvoir

IIT Gold Medalist Awarded Karmaveer Chakra by iCONGO United Nations

Rahul Adhikari, Founder of International Changemaker Olympiad & an IIT Gold-Medalist, was conferred with the prestigious Karmaveer Chakra Award and REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship at the REX CONCLiVE here in Noida on November 27 for his contributions in the education sector, and now joins the family of past awardees like Dr. Verghese Kurien (Father of White Revolution), Actor Anupam Kher (for his social work) and Mark Parkinson (renowned education change champion).

The Karmaveer Chakra Award is a National People's Award for Citizen Social Action and a global civilian honours instituted by the International Confederation of NGO (iCONGO) in partnership with the United Nations. It is given to those people across the globe who show relentless courage by walking the path less trodden and initiating a wave of change in society. The award is a tribute to the Honorable Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, 11th President of India, who had offered to be the ambassador for the awards. All the awardees are dubbed Noble Laureates.

Rahul received this award for his innovative work in the education sector to help children in schools grow up as Changemakers. Rahul founded the "International Changemaker Olympiad' (ICO) (www.ico-official.org) in 2017, which provides a platform for children in schools to launch social initiatives and solve a real-world problem in their home, school, or community, thereby making a positive difference in the world, while also developing the critical 21st-century skills of empathy, teamwork, creative problem-solving, and a Changemaker mindset while doing the same. More than 20,000 school students have participated in ICO from 20+ cities till date and launched initiatives to solve problems as varied as rehabilitating over 200 injured animals on the streets, reducing usage of 12,000 plastic straws in juice shops monthly, establishing mental health clubs in 15 schools, and saving 1 million+ litres of water by installing flow reducing devices in taps in 120 houses.

After receiving the award, Mr. Rahul shared, "It's a privilege to receive this award and great to know that others are recognising our work and the impact we have created for children in schools. There is still a long way and we will keep going to achieve our vision of every child a Changemaker."

Eitu Vij Chopra, Co-founder & Chief Curator of these awards said, "Our simple mantra is - 'I Change to Change the World' and all awardees exemplify this quality. We are very excited to have Rahul in the family and recognise his tremendous work.”

The awardees for this year represent 10+ countries from across the globe and were finalised after a rigorous selection process. These awards seek to celebrate and inspire individual citizen social responsibility, justice and action, and are held every year on the day the Indian Constitutional Pledge was signed.