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

This year’s fifteen winners and ten finalists are a tremendously inspiring group who are using their passions to make the world a better place. Many are supporting their communities by teaching STEM to underserved students, developing new cancer treatments, and helping formerly imprisoned individuals find jobs. Others are helping the planet by protecting native plants, inventing alternative energy sources, and cleaning up rivers.

All of our 2024 young heroes are acting with great courage, compassion, and commitment. They inspire us by their example 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!

2024 WINNERS

Esther Bonney preparing native seedlings for distribution.

Adeline Smith, age 17, of Idaho, who co-founded Growing the STEM, a nonprofit that creates math and science programs for students in 14 underserved schools.

Artash Nath, age 18, of Canada, who created MonitorMyOcean.com to investigate, analyze, and display changes in human-caused ocean noise, which disrupts whales’ communication.

Arya Gurumukhi, age 15, of Texas, who invented a novel catalyst to improve upon the Bionic Leaf technology, a solar-powered device that mimics photosynthesis to create a highly efficient, alcohol-based fuel from just water, sunlight, and bacteria.

Cash Daniels, age 14, of Tennessee, who is passionate about protecting freshwater ecosystems and has removed more than 35,000 pounds of trash from the Tennessee River.

Charlotte Rosario, age 17, of California, whose Community Photobooth has organized young photographers to hold more than 550 donation-based photoshoots to raise over $40,000 for global causes that are often overlooked.

Clelia Poujade, age 17, of Illinois, who founded Hands Together to Feed Chicago and with her team of volunteers, has prepared and served over 8,000 meals and desserts from scratch for those in need.

Ekansh Mittal, age 17, of Oregon, who has developed a way to identify genes responsible for resistance to cancer-fighting drugs and has created a novel 3D model to validate the effectiveness of targeting these genes.

Elizabeth Djajalie, age 18, of Alaska, who helps protect Pacific salmon through her research on environmental DNA metabarcoding and leads the student arm of the Alaska Science and Engineering Fair, supporting STEM education for youth.

Esther Bonney, age 17, of Maryland, who founded Nurture Natives to protect biodiversity through education and native plant giveaways, where she has distributed more than 47,000 native seedlings.

Genshu Price, age 16, of Hawaii, who created Bottles4College, a nonprofit that helps protect the environment by recycling cans and bottles and uses the proceeds to provide college scholarships for Hawaii students – more than $43,000 in the past three years.

Heman Bekele, age 15, of Virginia, who has developed an inexpensive bar of soap that helps treat skin cancer, providing an affordable alternative to traditional skin cancer treatments.

Ekansh Mittal conducting cancer gene research in the lab.

Nirbhuy Arun and Alexis Nicholson, ages 9 and 10, of Washington, who co-founded Kids for Urban Trees, which has helped plant more than 300 trees at schools, parks, and low-income housing complexes in Eastern Washington.

Sebastian Tan, age 16, of Pennsylvania, who founded OutsideConnection, an online hiring platform that has matched more than 10,000 previously imprisoned individuals with jobs that fit their skills and aspirations.

Varin Sikka, age 16, of California, who invented AirCat, a Direct Air Capture system that removes carbon dioxide from the air on a large scale and holds the potential to significantly mitigate climate change.

William Cabaniss, age 18, of Tennessee, who makes and sells pure vanilla extract through his nonprofit, Vanilla Feeds Tomorrow, and has donated more than $210,000 in profits to his community’s regional food bank.

2024 FINALISTS

Andrew Liang assessing bee colony health during a hive inspection. 

Aaryan Doshi, age 17, of California, who created CirFin to educate young people about moving from our take-make-waste linear economy to a more sustainable circular one that promotes the reuse of products.

Adyant Bhavsar, age 13, of California, who has developed a reliable and cost-effective alternative energy source that converts mechanical energy into electricity, specifically designed to power low-voltage devices.

Andrew Liang, age 16, of California, who created Beewell, an AI-driven system that uses bees’ appearances and sounds to improve bee colony health monitoring for beekeepers.

Chase Hartman, age 18, of Florida, who co-founded Eco Brothers, a nonprofit that redirects gently used books from landfills to students in need. He has also raised over $165,000 to buy new books for underserved children.

Elana Koenig, age 16, of New York, who founded Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation and has raised more than $1.5 million to help over 3,500 children and their families battling cancer.

Henry Lien, age 18, of California, who created ChessPals to provide free chess lessons to underserved youth. His nonprofit trains teen players to teach chess at elementary schools, after-school programs, and summer camps.

Legacy Jackson, age 15, of Missouri, who founded Little Legacies Community Service and in the past seven years, has led more than 200 youth volunteers in completing over 100 projects to help people in St. Louis and beyond.

Mari Copeny, age 17, of Michigan, who has raised $1,000,000 to provide water filters to people living with elevated levels of lead in their tap water, many of them residents of low-income and minority neighborhoods.

Mia Lee, age 18, of California, who founded LingoX, a nonprofit that provides free language classes for refugees, indigenous communities, and low-income students in 136 countries across six continents.

Rohan Kapoor and Jack Reichert, age 18, of Pennsylvania, who developed the Go Green filter, a novel solution to reduce vehicles’ carbon emissions through a filter clamped inside the exhaust pipe.