Student receives Young Hero Award
SOUDERTON » Less than a year after helping start the Last Chance Repair Club at Souderton Charter School Collaborative, student Arnav Kaushik is looking to spread the idea nationwide.
He plans to start a nonprofit organization to help other schools start similar after-school clubs to help reduce the amount of items going into the trash and teach repair skills to fellow students.
“It’s a great thing for the environment,” Kaushik said.
“I think it’s a great concept, and I hope it spreads quickly,” he said, “because I think it could really help.”
Kaushik’s work has led to his being named one of 21 persons 18 or younger chosen this year as a National Liberty Museum TD Bank
Young Heroes Award winner. A ceremony to honor the winners will be held Aug. 10 at the museum in Philadelphia.
“Each year we look for young people who have championed liberty through civic engagement, conflict resolution, diversity promotion, and school or community leadership. These winners truly represent what we at the National Liberty Museum strive for every day — encouraging people of all ages to find their own place in the story of liberty,” NLM Executive Director Gwen Borowsky said in a release. “It is an honor to be able to recognize all of these young individuals for the tremendous work they have done, and we invite everyone to come to the Museum where their inspiring stories will be displayed in an exhibit for the next year.”
“This year’s TD Bank Young Heroes were chosen from among a recordbreaking 74 national nominations, submitted by friends, teachers and community members who recognized the incredible contributions of these outstanding young citizens,” the release said.
The awards ceremony will follow a lunch and time to tour the museum. Each of the award winners will receive a medal and certificate. Plaques featuring each of the winners’ stories will be displayed in one of the museum exhibits for the next year. One of the award winners will also be chosen as this year’s President’s Honor Winner, which includes a $2,000 scholarship. The scholarship winner will be announced during the ceremony.
“Everyone worked hard to get there, so I think they really deserved it,” Kaushik said of his fellow award winners.
The ceremony will be emceed by iheartradio’s Loraine Ballard Morrill. The keynote speaker will be Raquel Ruiz, a 2010 TD Bank Young Heroes Award Winner, who has worked in the prison system and is working to become a teacher.
After attending Souderton Charter School Collaborative for kindergarten through eighth grade, Kaushik will be attending Conestoga High School in the Tredyfferin/Easttown School District this fall after his family moves from Souderton to Paoli.
The idea for the Last Chance Repair Club originally came from a video about repair cafes in Sweden, he said.
“We sort of brought that concept to our school,” Kaushik said.
“The Last Chance Repair Club was started to reduce the amount of trash in landfills and to give his fellow middle school students the opportunity to problem solve by learning to fix broken items brought in by community members,” Debbie Fleischman, of Fleichman Public Relations, representing the National Liberty Museum, wrote in an email. “Arnav himself taught other students how certain electronics work and how to fix them, and together they were able to fix broken lamps, calculators, pencil sharpeners, dancing snowmen, torn blankets and clocks, among other items.”
Technology, sewing and painting were some of the areas of expertise the club members had and taught their fellow club members, Kaushik said.
Computer coding and electronics are two of his areas of expertise, he said. He taught other club members to solder, which those students later used in some of the repairs, he said.
“The National Liberty Museum is the only museum in the country dedicated to advancing liberty by fostering strong character and civic engagement. Each year, approximately 30,000 visitors walk through the museum’s front steps and are inspired by its 78 diverse exhibits and given the chance to have a uniquely reflective experience through its collection of glass art. The National Liberty Museum believes that civic engagement, grounded in strong character, enables liberty to flourish because, where liberty lives, people live better,” NLM information says.
This is the 17th year for the annual Young Heroes awards. The museum is at 321 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia.