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Congratulations to Our 2022 Winners and Honorees!

by | Oct 18, 2022

We’re so proud to introduce our 2022 Barron Prize young heroes!

They’re a hugely inspiring group of 25 young leaders who are changing the world in meaningful ways. Some are helping other people — supporting the hungry, inventing life-saving technologies, and bringing clean water to developing countries. Others are caring for the environment by combatting climate change, protecting endangered species, and reducing plastic pollution. All are great forces for good who are acting with great courage, compassion, and commitment.

These young heroes inspire us, give us hope, and remind us of the power we each hold to make a difference. We’re delighted to honor them and thrilled to welcome them to our Barron Prize family!

2022 Winners
Anna DeVolld, age 17, of Alaska, who founded Promote Our Pollinators to raise awareness of pollinators’ importance and devastating decline, and to provide ways to promote their population growth.

Aseel Rawashdeh, age 17, of Texas, who developed an inexpensive and environmentally friendly solution to mosquito-borne diseases. Her novel method uses household essential oils and baker’s yeast to create a larvicide that could be produced in industrial quantities.

Austin Picinich, age 17, of Washington, who founded Save Our Salmon Through Art to create vibrant public art projects and murals in the Greater Seattle area that engage, educate, and empower communities to restore salmon spawning streams.

Ethan Hill, age 11, of Alabama, who created Ethan’s Heart Bags4Blessings to support individuals experiencing homelessness in his city.

Ethan Hill with care packages to deliver to homeless camps.

Hannah Guan, age 15, of Texas, who founded San Antonio Math Include to increase access to STEM education for underserved students.

Jack Dalton, age 12, of New Hampshire, known as the Kid Conservationist, who works to protect critically endangered orangutans and their rainforest habitat, as well as to educate and inspire people to protect the environment.

Karina Samuel, age 17, of Florida, who founded the Florida chapter of Bye Bye Plastic Bags, an international student-led nonprofit committed to reducing the amount of plastic on the planet.

Karun Kaushik, age 17, of California, who created X-Check-MD, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software that can diagnose Covid-19 and pneumonia with 99% accuracy in under one minute.

Khloe Joiner, age 9, of Texas, who founded A Book and a Smile to help build kids’ home libraries and to improve relationships between children and the police.

Luna Abadía (green shirt) participating in a Portland Climate Strike

Laalitya Acharya, age 18, of Ohio, who invented Nereid, a low-cost, globally applicable device that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect water contamination within seconds.

Lucy Westlake, age 18, of Illinois, who founded LucyClimbs to raise awareness of the need for clean water in developing countries by climbing the world’s highest mountains. She is the youngest American woman ever to summit Everest.

Luna Abadía, age 17, of Oregon, who founded the Effective Climate Action Project to increase awareness of solutions to climate change – especially the possibilities of systemic thinking and collective action.

Sahana Mantha, age 15, of North Carolina, who co-founded Foundation for Girls to economically empower homeless single mothers and support their children.

Sri Nihal Tammana, age 13, of New Jersey, who created Recycle My Battery, a nonprofit that installs free battery recycling bins and educates young people and adults about battery recycling.

William Charouhis, age 16, of Florida, who founded We are Forces of Nature and its A Million Mangroves initiative to combat climate change and to protect coastlines from the effects of sea level rise.

2022 HONOREES

Arsh Pal, age 12, of Iowa, who created Art by Arsh to share his love of painting and raise money for charities — more than $15,000 so far — through sales of his artwork.

Ethan Bledsoe, age 18, of Indiana, who founded Confront the Climate Crisis to engage youth in climate change policy making, community action, and education.

Isabel Sutton, age 13, of Michigan, who has raised nearly $8,000 for environmental causes by selling handmade eco-friendly jewelry and ornaments through her JustIZZY initiative.

Kelly Tung, age 16, of California, who founded Youth Environmental Power Initiative to empower young people to combat climate change and advocate for environmental justice and racial equity.

Laura Kopec, age 16, of Florida, who co-founded Feeding the Fosters to provide healthy, homemade meals — nearly 40,000 to date — for foster families.

Leo Barnes, age 18, of New Hampshire, who founded Charity Baking which provides Do-It-Yourself baking kits that have helped schools raise $6,000 for community causes.

Orion Jean, age 11, of Texas, who founded the Race to Kindness and has collected and distributed hundreds of thousands of toys, meals, and books for people in need.

Reed Spaulding, age 17, of Maryland, who created the Tributary Festival, an annual benefit concert that has raised more than $7,000 to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

Reshma Kosaraju, age 16, of California, who invented a way to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict forest fires with nearly 90% accuracy.

Steven Hoffen helps install the hydroponics garden he donated to a charity in the Bronx.

Steven Hoffen, age 14, of New York, who founded Growing Peace to foster peace between communities in conflict and to construct hydroponic systems to help feed vulnerable groups.