Today was the big and final day for the YEB participants where the 12 teams had to pitch their ideas to the 5 members of the jury.
So after waking up, they went for their last-minute preparations for the final pitch, where Mr. Akarsh Shroff and Prof Mridula Goel Ma’am assisted them. Akarsh is a 22-year-old alumnus of BITS Pilani. In 2018, he founded YuvaSpark, a non-profit organization focused on child welfare and education. YuvaSpark is digitizing learning at Anganwadi centers and improving infrastructure at orphanages. Over the last 5 years, they have engaged over 700 volunteers and impacted more than 346,000 beneficiaries in 10 states of India.
Then there was the time for which they were waiting for. All 12 teams consisting of 5-6 students each presented their entrepreneurial ideas to the jury.
The jury was quite surprised as these 9th-12th graders have really identified the problems of the masses and have some or the other, practical or non-practical approaches to conquer them and also have ideas on how to make the business profitable. After this grilling session, they had Valedictory Session including Certificate and Prize Distribution.
The chief guest of the event was Yashveer Singh,a Social Entrepreneur, changemaker and author. Yashveer Singh, BITS,Pilani Alumnus is Global Director & co- Founder, Ashoka Young Changemakers. A program to identify, select and build a global community of Teen Changemakers. He has been recognized in "Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia" list in the year 2016.
After Mr. Yashveer's speech and results, they also got a YEB wall clock as a gift of remembrance.
Then as all good things have to come to an end , these beautiful 6 days of the participants came to an end. By 6’O clock, students started to capture the final moments of their newly made friendships in their camera phones and depart after having lots of joys, memories and learnings. See you soon next year!
~Written by Shivansh Mishra