What was your biggest accomplishment in seventh grade? Never forgetting your locker combination? Scoring a seat at the cool kids’ lunch table? How about creating a way to help immigrants become U.S. citizens?
That’s what Brambleton Middle School seventh grader Ari Dixit did and it earned him one of the top prizes in the Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition.
Ari was one of a record 200-plus teens who entered this year’s contest, in which Loudoun County, Virginia students identify problems in their communities, then develop and implement solutions.
The YouthQuest Foundation has been the prize money sponsor for Step Up every year since 2012. We have been so impressed by the program’s results that we doubled our contribution to $5,000 this year.
YouthQuest Co-Founder and President Lynda Mann made the announcement at the preliminary round of competition for more than 60 teams on April 5 at Loudoun County Public Schools headquarters in Ashburn. She served as one of the judges, helping pick the top ten teams to make presentations in the April 12 finals held at K2M headquarters in Leesburg.
In addition to praising the teams of young problem solvers for devoting the time to create their projects, Lynda thanked the leaders of Loudoun Youth, Inc. and Loudoun County Parks, Recreation and Community Services for running the competition, which began in 2004.
This year’s $1,000 first prize went to Lina Alkarmi from Dominion High School and Shahlaley Nagra from Heritage High School for their Princess Packages project. Both girls attend the Academy of Engineering and Technology every other school day and hope to become doctors. After learning that young girls who are hospitalized have an especially hard time with feelings of sadness and isolation, they started a volunteer organization to lift those children’s spirits.
Every little girl wants to be a princess, Lina and Shahlaley explained to the judges. So they mobilized volunteers to assemble packages of goodies such as crowns, wands, bracelet kits, stickers and other craft supplies. More than 130 Princess Packages have been delivered to 4- to 10-year-old girls in Loudoun County hospitals.
The Nothing’s ImPASTAble team of Manali Gantaram and Umika Tunuguntla from Rock Ridge High School took the $700 second-place prize. They launched a program to help students in grades three through six improve their confidence and academic performance. Nothing’s ImPASTAble has provided nearly 700 tutoring and mentoring sessions so far.
Ari Dixit was awarded the $400 third-place prize for developing his Citizenship Coach app. It’s built on the Google Assistant platform, which allows immigrants to improve their English language skills and study for the U.S. citizenship exam by talking with the chatbot.
The other seven finalist teams received $200 each to support their projects, which address issues such as feeding the homeless, preventing cancer and obesity, connecting teens with employment and volunteer opportunities, recycling art supplies and encouraging English language learners to get involved in school and community activities.
Loudoun County business and community organization leaders served as judges for the Step Up preliminary and final competitions. Besides YouthQuest, sponsors include Backflow Technology and Maid Brigade.
Click here to learn more about the Step Up Loudoun Youth Competition.
