Schmidt Futures and Rhodes Trust announce second cohort of Rise Global Winners

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 23 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Today, Schmidt Futures, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, announced the second cohort of 100 Rise Global Winners. Rise finds brilliant people who need opportunity and supports them for life as they work to serve others. It is the flagship program of Schmidt Futures and the anchor of a broader USD 1 billion philanthropic commitment from Eric and Wendy Schmidt to talent development across their initiatives.

Our 2022 Rise Global Winners include youth aiming to promote literacy among underprivileged children; predict the effect of Alzheimer’s drugs using bioinformatics; create a sustainable gummy vitamin that combats anemia; educate communities on mental health stigmas and many more. With over 22 new countries represented this year, the global program continues to further expand its network with a broader range of talented young leaders from diverse backgrounds, including applicants from over 170 countries.

Schmidt Futures’ mission is to bet early on exceptional people making the world better. Betting on young people between the ages of 15-17 and potentially staying with them for life, Rise is both the earliest and the longest bet on talent in Schmidt Futures’ portfolio.

This year, Rise is proud to have nine Global Winners hailing from India, and is honored to partner with organizations such as Teach for India. Their efforts to spread the word about Rise, support youth in applying and provide exciting programming opportunities, contributed to the second year of success across the country.

“We are looking for extraordinarily bright people everywhere because genius can have an outsized impact on improving the world when applied to its hardest problems,” said Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Futures. “Building a network of brilliant young people who want to make the world better is a key goal of Rise. Development in today’s world depends on people working together.”

“Today’s announcement of the Rise Winners is not the conclusion of a process, but rather the starting point for the young people in the program. They will have continuing opportunities to change the world for the better as they continue their education and find ways to collaborate,” said Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Futures and president of The Schmidt Family Foundation. “We are counting on them to become future leaders, using their collective gifts to help solve the world’s most challenging problems.”

Rise remains intentionally broad both in the selection of talent and in their projects to help unveil hidden brilliance, in whatever form it takes, wherever it is in the world. The program further prides itself in recognizing brilliance with unique perspectives and across various focus areas, skills, and issues. Since its inception, Rise has welcomed over 150,000 people from over 170 countries to its community, and has selected 200 winners from 69 countries of origin. From over 120,000 registrants, the 2022 Winners were selected after a rigorous application process which included peer and expert review of service projects, formal assessments of talent, and group interviews. The 2022 Global Winners stood out not only for their impactful projects spanning from medical innovation to mental health and education but also for their strength in overcoming adversity.

As a result of global program growth in year 2, Schmidt Futures and The Rhodes Trust are proud to welcome the program’s first Winners from Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Vietnam. In 2021, India had eight impressive Winners, and this year, Rise is proud to announce nine additional Rise Global Winners including:
– Aayush Amar Rathi from Vadodara, India: Aayush teaches the underprivileged about sexual education and menstruation, which is necessary for the development of a nation.
– Arya Datla from Hyderabad, India: Arya developed an online platform for enviro-conscious students to connect and collaborate with access to resources and experts for pursuing climate action projects.
– Atharv Kashyap from Dakar, India: Atharv created an e-commerce app to help mothers become entrepreneurs, which results in improved children’s education.
– Divit Chopra from Gurugram, India: Divit developed Project Ummeed, which aims to provide affordable, clean and infrastructure-independent electricity to isolated rural communities through the Enhanced Anodic Substrate Fuel Cell, a novel Microbial Electricity Generator.
– Maneeza Khan (Lives in Kolkata, India): Maneeza spearheaded the “Gyaan Er Alo” Initiative and STEM Visuallistic Program to increase STEM education accessibility and affordability irrespective of socioeconomic status.
– Rudraksh Mohapatra from New Delhi, India: Rudraksh designed a machine learning model with geospatial techniques that measures the soil loss and water management in semi-arid regions to accurately predict which areas were most susceptible to landslides to support the people affected.
– Sahibpreet Singh from Delhi, India: Sahibpreet created software using AI and machine learning that predicted volcanic eruptions weeks before they occurred.
– Shubhaankar Gupta from New Delhi, India: Shubhaankar developed EcoVolt, which is an AI tool to ensure equitable distribution of electricity and water across regions in India.
– Siddhant Attavar from Bengaluru, India: Siddhant developed SimAID, a decision support tool to help policymakers and researchers identify the best intervention measures for different diseases. He aims to provide low-cost, accessible healthcare services to those who cannot afford it.

The complete list of winners can be found here.

“We believe that the answers to the world’s toughest problems lie in the imagination of the world’s brightest minds,” said Eric Braverman, CEO of Schmidt Futures. “Rise is an integral part of our mission to create the best, largest, and most enduring pipeline of exceptional talent globally and match it to opportunities to serve others for life.”

“Our partnership with Rise is furthering our mission to tackle inequality in education,” said Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO of Teach for India. “We celebrate the Indian Rise Global Winners for their accomplishments and look forward to supporting them as they utilize their talents in service of others and their community.”

“Selecting 100 Global Winners from such a deep pool of brilliant young people was quite a challenge, and we are very grateful to all of our partners who helped in the selection process,” said Dr Elizabeth Kiss, Warden of Rhodes House in Oxford and Chief Executive of the Rhodes Trust. “Our newest Rise winners come from every corner of the globe, and we can’t wait to bring them together – and then invest in their lifelong journeys to serve their communities and build a better world.

Everyone who applies to Rise joins a global community and gains access to opportunities from partners in at least 40 countries across the world. The latest Rise Global Winners receive additional personalized support including need-based scholarships, mentorship, career development opportunities, potential funding for future ventures, technology packages, and more, to empower them to achieve their goals as they work to serve others.

Applications for the next class will open in October 2022. For more information about how to apply, click here.
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