Adarsh Kumar, 18, from Champaran, Bihar — who was raised by a single mother and left home at just 14 with only 1,000 rupees to pursue his education in Kota — has returned to India after receiving the $100,000 Global Student Prize 2025. Today, he called for a national movement to embed entrepreneurship education in every Indian school, empowering underprivileged youth with the skills to build their own futures.
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Sunny Varkey and Adarsh Kumar
“Talent is universal — but opportunity is not,” said Adarsh Kumar, winner of the Global Student Prize 2025. “India doesn’t just need more jobs — it needs more job creators. Every child from a village, town, or city, should have the chance to turn an idea into impact. Entrepreneurship education must become a right, not a privilege. We need an entrepreneurship revolution — one that empowers every young person, not just the urban few, to dream, build, and lead.”
The Chegg.org Global Student Prize, organised by the Varkey Foundation, is given annually to one exceptional student who has made a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond. Adarsh, a student at Jayshree Periwal International School, was selected from almost 11,000 nominations and applications from 148 countries around the world.
Since being named winner of the Global Student Prize 2025, Adarsh has also been celebrated throughout India, including by Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar, Satish Chandra Dubey, Union Minister of state for Coal and Mines, Dr. Santosh Kumar Suman, Minister for Minor Water Resources of Bihar, and the Deputy Chief Ministers of Bihar, Vijay Kumar Sinha and Samrat Choudhary.
“Congratulations, Adarsh. Your journey is a powerful reminder that education is the greatest gift we can give — it opens doors, creates opportunity, and transforms lives,” said Sunny Varkey, Founder of the Varkey Foundation and Global Student Prize. “Your belief in the power of entrepreneurship captures the spirit of what education should do — empower every young person to dream boldly and shape their own future.”
Born in Champaran, Bihar, Adarsh Kumar was raised by a single mother who cleaned homes to fund his education. When she spent her life savings on a laptop, it became his gateway to possibility. Through YouTube and Google, he taught himself coding, start-up skills, and entrepreneurship.
Determined to break barriers, at just 14 and with only 1,000 Rupees, he headed alone to Kota, hundreds of miles away, in pursuit of coaching for the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination.
Unable to afford the coaching, he camped out in libraries, using free Wi-Fi to cold-email mentors, land internships, and shadow start-up founders. These experiences became the foundation of Skillzo, a transformative platform launched in 2023, equipping underserved high school students with mentorship, entrepreneurship training, and real-world opportunities. By designing tailored courses and sourcing industry experts aligned with students’ ambitions, he built more than just a programme – he built a launchpad for futures. In just over two years, Skillzo has already empowered over 20,000 students, many of whom have gone on to earn scholarships, launch ventures, and win national awards.
At its core, Skillzo is about giving young people the tools, confidence, and connections they need to shape their own destinies.
Today, Adarsh announced that he will invest his $100,000 prize money to expand Skillzo, beginning with SkillzoX, an AI-powered mentorship platform, with a mission to empower one million rural learners across India.
Notes to editors
The Varkey Foundation believes every child deserves a vibrant, stimulating learning environment that awakens and supports their full potential. The foundation believes nothing is more important to achieving this than the passion and quality of teachers. They support global teaching capacity and seed excellence and innovation in the next generation of educators. They also founded the Global Teacher Prize to shine a spotlight on the incredible work teachers do all over the world.
For further details: www.varkeyfoundation.org.
