MEET SIMONE SHARMA, THE 16-YEAR-OLD WHO HAS PLANTED AROUND 60,000 SEEDS OF OPPORTUNITY ACROSS THE WORLD.

Introducing SIMONE SHARMA, a young changemaker from Karnataka whose mission is to help high school students move toward their futures with clarity and confidence. She does this by sharing opportunities with them through social media platforms, closing the accessibility gap that leaves many young people without access to opportunities.

Today, many students remain unaware of the opportunities around them because they lack resources and exposure. Volunteering is not only about fundraising or internships; it also lets you meet people who share your passion. It is a chance to learn a great deal too, thanks to the diversity of the people you work alongside — each bringing different perspectives, experiences and skills.

These extracurriculars give you a chance to apply classroom learning to real-life situations, which in turn helps you discover your passions and interests.

This is exactly where YouthGrowYouth steps in —

YouthGrowYouth is among India's first U-18 student-led youth non-profits listed with the United Nations Youth Council. Its aim is to advance gender equality through equal access to opportunity: students encourage girls from low-income areas in their own community and around the world to take an active part in every opportunity the YGY platform offers. At YGY, high school students work to give today's youth the best opportunities the current market has to offer, so they can explore and discover them and build an outstanding college application. That includes exceptional extracurricular programs — jobs and volunteering positions, mentorships, access to exclusive educational webinars, and internship opportunities worldwide — and, most importantly, an active community of like-minded youth where everyone can discuss the solutions and problems tied to their journey from school to choosing a university!

Simone says “For me, I founded YGY just personally through my own challenges and wanting to create      more opportunities for young people because I realized there was a huge accessibility gap between the youth and an ample amount of opportunities that were getting met, there was opportunity out there for youth to volunteer, to get jobs, to get scholarships to fund their education after high school and yet it was so difficult for youth to find these opportunities and I felt that way because I was one of those youth. So what really inspired me to bring this idea into real-life de1nitely was ‘how can we make sure that young people get access equally to the same opportunities that anyone else would’, ‘how do make sure that they're picking their careers based on of all the knowledge surrounding them’, so having these opportunities in various forms helped me get a lot clearer about what i wanted to do in future and my goal is that young people grabbing these opportunities can also figure out what they wish to pursue after high school.”

SIMONE SHARMA, 16, is the Executive Director and Founder of YouthGrowYouth. A non-profit platform for discovering opportunities to further personal and professional development. The youth leader also co-founded a high school business called HANDS4PAWS, the mission is to help animal welfares by generating a marginal profit by selling eco-friendly products and thus the business utilizes 50% of its profit towards dog feeding programs and to support old age centers for animals. Simone found materials like notebooks and ceramic mugs to be a leading cause for plastic pollution back then (now even) and thus, chose to create products that are 100 per cent biodegradable, recyclable, and reusable in tandem with her classmates. Alongside, she also actively advocates for social causes be it gender equality, climate change or Asian youth intersectional activism as she holds immense interest in the politics of analyzing social issues especially ones existing in the present era; she upholds the content creation department of some of today’s Global leading youth-led organizations on Instagram that revolve around fighting intersectional issues too.

Simone’s business acumen has also led to some significant accolades, including being selected for the Harvard 2022 Cohort of Entrepreneurship where her project was selected from a pool of thousands of applicants. The Crimson Youth Entrepreneurship Society is a startup and nonprofit accelerator run by Harvard University students dedicated to helping young founders create meaningful impacts in their communities and beyond.

Besides business, leadership, the environment, and addressing youth social causes, Simone has a great passion for poetry. She started writing at an early age and eventually grew up to address issues like body positivity and self-love through her poems. She is also a published writer with some of her work previously published. Simone is also the 1nalist of “Miss teen India 2022” and is elated to represent her cause for gender equality on a national platform.

As she grew over years, Simone found that volunteering is a huge part of any college application and would be really helpful in terms of building pro1les for scholarships and getting into reputed universities. But she did not really know how to get involved in 1nding for resources to these opportunities. Eventually, when she began discovering opportunities by herself, is when she realized that she isn't the only one facing this problem and that there are tons of other students who despite having the best of academic grades, essays, test scores etc. fail to cope up with the extracurriculars section and so she started to build a community where opportunities in forms of volunteering, internships, scholarships etc. are put out on social media platforms globally on a monthly basis for students to access them.

Simone is working on this venture for students to build a profile to study abroad and is a proud youth who is working on exploring and navigating student’s own personality and career journeys.

THE YOUTHGROWYOUTH MISSION:

• The organization’s mission is to bridge the accessibility gap between the youth of today and the lack of opportunities available in today’s market.

• To help the youth find resources for various pathways so that they can pick their careers based  on all the reliable knowledge surrounding them.

• To connect young capable volunteers with youth led organizations around the world.

• That young people regardless of their gender, age or race from across the globe are getting access to the same ample number of opportunities that anybody has access to.

To form an active community for students to discuss solutions & problems related their journey/experience from present school to choose of university.

The global platform’s mission also includes promoting gender equality and encouraging girls from low-income areas to pursue opportunities in various fields around the world.

“SMALL OPPORTUNITIES ARE OFTEN THE BEGINNING OF GREAT ENTERPRISES”

DEMOSTHENES

Youth like SIMONE SHARMA and organizations like YOUTH GROW YOUTH who are trying to create a community for students to build on college applications without having the fear of extracurriculars are working on transforming students’ career which is a great way of encouraging them