This time last year, we launched with a bang: the announcement of Rise, a global youth talent program that Hello World powered alongside Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust.
Rise helped us see the hunger that Gen Z has to collectivize around public service. By October 2021, Rise announced its 100 winners, and the Hello World community grew to 100,000 members. We are grateful to our partners, community, and board for their collaboration during our first year!
We enter 2022 galvanized by our mission to help underrepresented teens gain the confidence and skills to pursue solutions to the issues of our time. We are particularly interested in creating ways to make it easy for more people to support the next generation of changemakers. In every country we've discovered thousands of youth actively engaged in inventing solutions to the world's most critical problems. They bring passion and a first-hand understanding of the issues of our time – from racial inequity to climate change to mental health.
We enter 2022 with this belief: that every emerging social entrepreneur in Gen Z should have access to the relevant capital, networks, and skills that enable them to pursue their passion for the public good in their communities and the world at large.
Please consider supporting our mission to democratize access to these resources for young people around the world.
Chalon Bridges & Nick Barr, Co-Founders of Hello World
December 2021
In order to achieve our mission of supporting every emerging social entrepreneur, we’ve created an app that works in the most constrained areas of the planet.
Some of our first applicants participated from Kakuma Refugee Camp, in partnership with African Leadership Academy.
Oboroghene is eradicating gender inequality in Nigeria. She is tackling the problem of gender inequality at its roots by educating the youth in her community. She teaches young women how to identify and understand where and when gender inequity is happening and how to advocate for themselves.
Gustavo is decontaminating water in Bolivia. He founded the Uru-Uru project to use phytoremediation to rid local lakes of wastewater pollution from the city households. The process he is utilizing blends science with indigenous knowledge of plants.
Pedro is tracking COVID cases in Mexico. He coded a digital tool to track and visualize cases and shared his work to the municipal president. He is driven to use his passion for computer science to better his community.
Mitha is decreasing racial bias in Australia. She is getting schools to teach Aboriginal language and to increase cross-cultural respect and understanding.
Amit is inventing ways to help the visually impaired in India. He recognized the cognitive value of learning Rubik's Cube and how it relates to math and logic. He prototyped and tested ways to make Rubik's Cube accessible until he landed on a solution that worked.
After 4 months of submissions from thousands of young people from all around the world, we wrapped the Rise Challenge. The Rise team sought to find the most talented and driven young people from any walk of life and back them and their work as they enter adulthood.
100 teens were selected to receive a lifetime of benefits including scholarships, mentorship, access to career development opportunities, funding and more. This represents ~$50 million in funding across the cohort. The winners were announced on Good Morning America in October. It was epic!
This year we grew the talent that builds and maintains our app with the addition of Jing and David (two of our developers) and Eddie (our new CTO). We also welcomed Adam (our first designer) and Vy (our program manager).
We believe underrepresented social entrepreneurs in Gen Z should have access to the relevant capital, networks, and skills that enable them to pursue their passion for the public good.
Join us in our mission to democratize access to these resources for young people around the world.