Three Students Receive the IB MYP Student Innovators’ Grant

Every year, the International Baccalaureate Organisation offers an MYP Student Innovator’s Grant to Grade 9 and 10 students and creates a unique opportunity for students to build the skills they need to become socially conscious leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs the world needs today. We are very proud to announce that our students Devika Shenoy (Grade 11), Edwin Boon Xuan Cheah (Grade 10) and Neil Ghosh (Grade 11) have been awarded the MYP Student Innovators Grant for 2021.

Devika submitted a powerful proposal for tackling food waste in Singapore. She expanded the research, planning and interventions she designed for her MYP Personal Project campaign to reduce the food waste at our school cafeteria. Devika really enjoyed working on this project and wanted to find ways to expand her work to have an impact on the wider community.

Neil and Edwin together on their project ‘Innovation Circuit’. Their aim is to design bespoke STEAM events for schools. They would consult and plan the event in collaboration with the school, provide the necessary materials, educational workshops and promotional materials. Part of their setup includes a ‘hardware lab’ with such resources as Arduino kits and Lego Mindstorm kits that they could loan to schools for their events. They are planning to start collaborating with schools in Singapore and have ambitious goals to expand their reach across the region.

To take their projects forward and drive change, Devika, Edwin and Neil will have the opportunity to:

• Collaborate with a peer-to-peer IB Innovation Fellows network (spanning across 30 IB World Schools globally)
• Receive access to various industry experts and mentors
• Receive grant-based funding to enable their ideas to become reality.

As one of only 27 grants given and thousands of applicants around from the world, we congratulate Devika, Neil and Edwin. We are inspired by your achievements and can’t wait to see your projects take shape.

Congratulations also go to our students who applied and were shortlisted for the award:

• Margot Pethe and Juri Yano – for their first aid board game and app,
• Anjali Grillo – for her ‘Minds for Hearts’ storytelling project.

I would like to acknowledge the contribution, guidance and support from Ms Kylie Begg, MYP/IGCSE Coordinator. Without her passion, dedication and support, this would not have been possible.

Mark Petterson
Secondary Years Principal