Shreyaa Venkat

Shreyaa Venkat is an 18 year old sophomore at Georgetown University majoring in Global Health. Shreyaa is the co-founder and CEO of NEST4US, a non-profit dedicated to making the world better by providing volunteer solutions that tackle food insecurity, diversity, inclusion, and a range of other societal issues. By collaborating with businesses, schools, food banks and community organizations across the globe, Shreyaa and her NEST4US volunteers have impacted thousands of people worldwide. 

When she founded NEST4US, Shreyaa encountered a common obstacle: based on her age, many organizations doubted her ability to make a difference on the scale that she was aiming at. Now, just a few years later, Shreyaa’s NEST4US family has grown to over 1,500 volunteers of all ages and backgrounds. Through its five core programs – focusing on food-redistribution, tutoring, mentoring & leadership, kindness, and birthdays-in-a-box – NEST4US has served 100,000+ meals to disadvantaged communities through 60+ shelters & food banks, rescued and redistributed 300,000+ pounds of food, donated 10,000+ books to underprivileged children around the world, and assembled 50,000+ blessing bags for the less fortunate. During the pandemic, NEST4US also connected 1,000 tutors and tutees from 14 countries to provide academic resources, mentorship and emotional support to vulnerable students. 

Shreyaa has received a great deal of public recognition for her work with NEST4US. After noticing her efforts to alleviate hunger and stop climate change, the World Wildlife Fund selected Shreyaa as one of 18 WWF First Citizen Scientists for their nationwide Food Waste Warrior program, allowing Shreyaa to conduct audits in local schools to analyze the impacts of food waste in the community. Shreyaa is also the recipient of a long list of awards and honours including a UN Ambassador Award, the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, and membership of the Clinton Global Initiative University in 2021. She has been interviewed by Forbes Women, Good Morning America, Reader's Digest, Variety, ABC 7/WJLA, Lifetime TV, and People Magazine. At the same time, she has maintained an outstanding high school GPA of 4.63, being recognised as an AP Scholar with Distinction and in the top 3% of her graduating class. After university, Shreyaa plans to pursue a career in healthcare management so that she can help marginalized populations with negligible access to vital healthcare resources and treatments. 

If Shreyaa wins the Global Student Prize, she will donate the funds to NEST4US, which relies on in-kind donations, community support and grants. This would enable NEST4US to increase its program scale, provide more critical resources worldwide, and deliver essential aid to more communities impacted by the global pandemic. It would also drive the global expansion of all five core programs of NEST4US, as well as increasing the reach and visibility of its food rescue app, Nestables.