18-year-old Bihari changemaker wins $100,000 Global Student Prize

Adarsh Kumar, an 18-year-old innovator from Bihar, India, who grew up in poverty and left home at 14 to pursue a better education, has been named the winner of the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2025, a $100,000 award given to one exceptional student that has made a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond.

He was selected from almost 11,000 nominations and applications from 148 countries around the world.

Adarsh, a student at Jayshree Periwal International School, accepted the award in London.

Chegg.org partnered with the Varkey Foundation to launch the annual Chegg.org Global Student Prize in 2021. It is a sister award to the Varkey Foundation’s $1 million Global Teacher Prize and newly launched $1 million Global Schools Prize.

The intention was to create a powerful new platform to shine a spotlight on extraordinary students who are reshaping communities and the world through innovation, leadership, and service.

The prize is open to all students who are at least 16 years old and enrolled in an academic institution or training and skills programme.

Part-time students as well as students enrolled in online courses are also eligible for the prize.

Nonprofit Mission Badlao Born in Champaran, Bihar, with no stable electricity and limited internet access, Adarsh Kumar was raised by a single mother who cleaned homes to fund his education.

When she spent her life savings on a laptop, it became his gateway to possibility.

Through YouTube and Google, he taught himself coding, start-up skills, and entrepreneurship.

At just 13, he launched the non-profit Mission Badlao with his sister-in-law, mobilising his community and achieving real change, including securing land for a new government school, facilitating 2,000+ COVID vaccinations, distributing menstrual health products, and planting 3,000 trees.

Determined to break barriers, he left home on his own at 14 with only 1,000 rupees ($10) and headed to Kota, hundreds of miles away, in pursuit of coaching for the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination.

Founding Skillzo Unable to afford the coaching, he camped out in libraries, using free Wi-Fi to cold-email mentors, land internships, and shadow start-up founders.

These experiences became the foundation of Skillzo, a transformative platform launched in 2023, equipping underserved high school students with mentorship, entrepreneurship training, and real-world opportunities. By designing tailored courses and sourcing industry experts aligned with students’ ambitions, he built more than just a programme – he built a launchpad for futures.

In just over two years, Skillzo has already empowered over 20,000 students, many of whom have gone on to earn scholarships, launch ventures, and win national awards. At its core, Skillzo is about giving young people the tools, confidence, and connections they need to shape their own destinies.