Two Mississauga students finalists for $100K global prize

Two Mississauga students are Canadian finalists for a $100,000 global prize.

The Chegg.org Global Student Prize, presented by the Varkey Foundation, is a $100,000 award to be given to one exceptional student who has made a significant impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond.

The Mississauga students—Krishiv Thakuria and Samantha Fung—were selected as top 50 finalists from nearly 11,000 nominations and applications from 148 countries. They join two Canadian students —Aman Shrivastava, a physics and computer science student at Langara College in Vancouver, and Darren Harry Baine, a biology student at the University of Waterloo— in the top 50.

The award, now in its fifth year, recognizes extraordinary achievements of young change-makers from around the world. Mississauga students have made it into the top 10 in 2022 and in 2024.

Krishiv Thakuria, a student at The Woodlands Secondary School in Mississauga, and Samantha Fung, a Mississauga student currently attending United World College Maastricht in the Netherlands, have been named to the top 50 shortlist for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2025.

“I want to extend a huge congratulations to Krishiv and Samantha. At Chegg, we’re proud to support and celebrate the change-makers who aren’t just imagining a better world – they’re building it,” said Nathan Schultz, president and CEO of Chegg, Inc. “From environmental and social justice to education, health, and youth empowerment, this year’s Global Student Prize finalists are tackling the world’s most pressing challenges with courage and innovation.”

At 17, Krishiv Thakuria is pioneering how AI can make education more accessible for all, Chegg said in a press release.

A first-generation Indian-Canadian student and tech founder, Krishiv’s AI innovations have earned him global recognition: he’s spoken at GITEX Global, Microsoft Canada, World Summit AI, and Stanford’s ASES Summit.

At 16, he interned in machine learning at BenchSci, one of Canada’s biggest AI companies, and after that, he worked as an AI engineering consultant at Simple Ventures, which is a leading Canadian venture studio backed by the co founder Shopify.

“So, I’m really grateful to those Canadian companies for giving me a start,” Krishiv told INsauga.com.

Krishiv said he became interested in AI at 13 years old when his middle school teachers realized he was good at computer programming. They asked him to teach a class of around 30 students with learning disabilities and he created a mini-computer science course. The course was tailored to the class and the students were soon able to program video games, which may have come as a surprise to some educators.

“That’s what really made me realize that personalized learning is so important,” he said.

He started to think about how to use AI to create personalized learning. His first big project was Aceflow, an AI tutoring platform used in 20-plus countries. Essentially, students can upload a PDF of their textbooks or a website that has their curriculum expectations, and then the system generates practice questions based on their course material.

More recently, Krishiv created Charm Bears, AI-powered talking teddy bears that help students with dyslexia learn without screens. They look like a regular teddy bear, but when turned on, it is like talking with ChatGPT. The bear uses language kids can understand, and they can have a conversation to work out problems, he said.

Krishiv Thakuria created Charm Bears, AI-powered talking teddy bears that help students with dyslexia learn without screens.

Krishiv is also a Masason Foundation Scholar and Harvard Ventures Fellow, and plans to attend university to study electrical engineering or robotics. He is thrilled to be nominated for the Chegg prize.

“I am really, really excited to have landed in the top 50,” Krishiv said. “I’ve already met incredible people from around the world.”

If Krishiv wins, he wants to make a large donation in honour of his late principal Omar Zia.

Zia, a principal at The Woodlands Secondary School, died in December after a brief battle with cancer. Krishiv said Zia encouraged him to give talks on AI education with teaching staff members.

“He was really good guy, so I definitely want to make a large donation in his memory,” Krishiv said.

Coincidentally, Krishiv and his fellow Mississauga finalist, Samantha Fung, 17, went to the same middle school, Dolphin Senior Public School. They were in different classes but the same grade, Samantha said.

Samantha is the founder of Music For Every Child, a youth-led charity that delivers year-round music therapy programmes for students with developmental disabilities. The charity hires certified music therapists to provide free music therapy sessions for students with developmental disabilities in public schools and underserved communities.

The charity started with about 12 schools and is now in 36 schools across seven cities in Ontario, Samantha told INsauga.com. A lack of funding for students with developmental disabilities has made the work more important than ever, she said.

Samantha started volunteering with the special education program at her school when she was about 10 years old. She would read to the kids, play and she eventually went on field trips with the students, she said.

But when the pandemic hit and classes went online, Samantha and her friends experienced setbacks and social isolation, and she realized children with developmental disabilities were disproportionately affected.

As a pianist since she was four years old, Samantha thought music therapy could help children with developmental disabilities.

Many people see “music as a universal language that transcends different cultures and language barriers and cognitive abilities,” she said.

She and her charity volunteers see music as a kind of a universal connector. They soon started their first program at Dolphin Senior Public School.

A core team of about 20 youth, including Samantha, now run the charity, organize music therapy programs and fundraisers. But more than 250 student volunteers have helped raise over $150,000 to support the cause.

This month, the charity held a car wash in Heartland Town Centre.

 

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Samantha’s work has been recognized with the Global Youth Award, Diana Award, and multiple national leadership roles.

Now at United World College Maastricht in the Netherlands, Samantha is looking to expand globally to underserved communities in Chad, Uganda, Kenya and Liberia through international child rights advocacy organizations.

“So I have been focusing more on international partnerships, and we’ve been networking partnerships with some countries in Africa, because just up until now, we’ve been focusing on helping children with developmental disabilities, but we really just want music to be able to help all youth in need,” she said.

She hopes to make music accessible to children in underprivileged communities and help them discover education through music.

Her innovative school-based music therapy model is now the subject of research collaborations with the University of Toronto and McMaster University.

In addition to her charity work, Samantha has been a research assistant at Canada’s leading hospital, the University Health Network in Toronto, contributing to large-scale medical research.

“Samantha’s vision is simple but powerful: to use the universal language of music to give every child—no matter their background—the chance to be seen, heard, and empowered to learn,” Chegg said.

Now entering her final year of high school, Samantha hopes to study law in the future.

The Chegg prize is open to all students who are at least 16 years old and enrolled in an academic institution or skills programme. Part-time students as well as students enrolled in online courses are also eligible for the prize.

For more information, see the website here.