Dev Vardhan Sharma

Community Award

Age:

19

Biography

Dev Sharma is 14 Year old from Thurmaston who attends Rushey Mead Academy.

From 2015, Dev has spent hundreds of hours of his own, in a positive contribution, volunteering for activities/events for the Youth community of Leicester and representing the views of young people in the city exceptionally well on various platforms.

Dev has gone above and beyond to help others, by demonstrating evidence of activity above and beyond the standard expectation for his age and made several outstanding personal achievements.

Dev has been politically active since the age of 12, advising in various committees, panels, and meetings on the National Arena representing the Young people. He engages independently and is competent and capable of engaging with Adult decision makers. He has supreme interpersonal skills, he has quickly formed fantastic working relationships with Leicester City Council members, staff and multi-agencies. He isn't afraid to go out of his way to aid others in their projects.

Dev has signed up for a 2-year programme through a company called World Challenge, to take part in a 4-week educational expedition to Africa, which will involve trekking through Botswana and Zambia in July 2020 and he will be working on a community project. The community project will involve working alongside the local people and renovating a local school by helping build classrooms to replace the open-air schooling they currently have.

This opportunity is a challenging expedition that will significantly benefit the local community of Zambia and Botswana and will teach the team and him, valuable life skills such as leadership, communication, and teamwork.

He has the task of raising £3,499 each through fundraising to cover all our costs for the expedition.

Dev said "I feel genuinely honoured that the work I have been doing for the young people in Leicester has been recognised as good enough for enabling me to be successful for a grant for my good cause of community project in Zambia and Botswana. It is so surreal because now I would be able to pursue my passion for positive change not only on a national level but also internationally. The grant from JHMT has been vital in fundraising for my expedition and has been a great help in covering the cost of the expedition, training and equipment.

Simon Taylor, Inspire Award lead, said: 'Dev sets a great example to all young people in demonstrating a commitment to the care for the lives of other people .The combination of care and inspiration is exactly what the scheme is looking to achieve '