AUSTIN, Texas (Diya TV) — Eighteen-year-old Nandana Menon, a high school senior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has clinched first place in the prestigious Student Impact Challenge at the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU Conference & Festival. The competition, presented by The Allstate Foundation, recognizes high school students making significant contributions to their communities by providing a platform to showcase innovative ideas.
Menon’s initiative, Spark, is an ed-tech app with the mission of empowering caregivers who work with autistic children by providing them with therapy supplements tailored to their needs, an abundance of resources, and interactive tools for self-advocacy. Her project competed against five finalists from around the world who demonstrated their projects before a panel of industry leaders during the SXSW EDU Expo in early March.
Gratefully expressing her feelings, Menon said, “Winning the Student Impact Challenge will take me to so many more opportunities to assist children along the way. This is going to set up Spark for even more success.”
The panel of judges consisted of prominent personalities like Tiana Day, executive director and founder of Youth Advocates for Change; Kate Nack, vice president at The Allstate Foundation & Social Impact; Juanita Soranno, impact head at Cengage Group; and Rohit Srinivasan, founder of Trashbots.
Menon’s passion for social impact is not limited to Spark. She is the founder of the Autism Unity Initiative, a non-profit organization that focuses on helping autistic children, parents, and therapists. She was also a winner of the 2024 CGI IT Girl Challenge for creating TABU, an app that helps individuals with substance abuse addiction.
At South Fayette Township High School, Menon is president of the National Honor Society, student representative to the School Board, and a facilitator for the Superintendent’s Leadership Advisory Committee. The SXSW EDU Student Impact Challenge looks to honor student achievement and initiative in responding to the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental problems.
