Two Indian American Students Named Winners of IPA's 7th Annual Youth Essay Competition

The India Philanthropy Alliance has named the winners of its 7th Annual Youth Essay Competition, recognising two Indian American students for essays examining pressing social challenges facing India. The competition, themed #YouthWithPurpose this year, received a record number of entries from students across the United States, as well as from US citizens living abroad, according to an announcement made September 10.

Aditi Soham, an 11th grader from Cumming, Georgia, won the high school category for her essay on the shortage of resources available to neurodivergent and differently abled young people within India's education system. Her essay argued for greater support and stronger inclusive-education infrastructure, framing the issue as one of India's significant unresolved developmental challenges. As part of the competition, Soham will direct her $1,000 prize to Dharithree USA, a nonprofit organisation of her choosing.

Naga Prerani Kasula, a 7th grader from Apex, North Carolina, won the middle school category for an essay addressing female infanticide, an issue she described as close to her heart. Her essay sought to raise awareness of the practice both in India and globally, while proposing a combination of technology-driven monitoring and long-term education and social change as part of a potential solution. Kasula will direct her $1,000 award to the Invisible Girl Project, a nonprofit focused on combating gender-based violence and neglect.

The India Philanthropy Alliance's Youth Essay Competition has, over seven annual editions, become a platform through which second-generation Indian American students engage directly with social issues affecting India, often drawing on family connections, community organisations and independent research to develop their arguments. The requirement that winners direct their prize money to a nonprofit organisation of their choosing adds a philanthropic dimension to the competition beyond the recognition itself, translating student writing directly into charitable support for the causes they have researched.

Both winners are scheduled to travel to Dallas to present their essays at the Indiaspora and IPA Philanthropy Summit on September 29, held at the Communities Foundation of Texas. The summit brings together diaspora philanthropic organisations and community leaders focused on India-related giving, and the inclusion of youth essay winners on the programme reflects a broader effort within Indian American philanthropic circles to cultivate engagement among younger generations of the diaspora rather than treating philanthropy purely as an activity for established donors.

The competition's record entry numbers this year, spanning students across the United States and US citizens living abroad, point to sustained and possibly growing interest among Indian American youth in engaging critically with social issues in India, ranging from disability inclusion to gender-based violence, poverty and public health. Such essay competitions have become an increasingly common feature of diaspora philanthropic organisations' programming, serving both as an educational exercise for participating students and as a pipeline for identifying young voices who may go on to take more active roles in diaspora philanthropy and advocacy as they move into adulthood.

For the India Philanthropy Alliance, a coalition of India-focused diaspora nonprofits, the essay competition forms one part of a broader mission focused on encouraging effective, informed giving toward Indian causes. Recognising younger writers alongside the organisation's other philanthropic and advocacy work reflects an implicit bet that the next generation of major diaspora donors and civic leaders will be shaped, in part, by exercises such as this one — where teenagers are asked to research a real social problem in India and propose, however preliminarily, a path toward addressing it.