The Freedoms Foundation has conferred the George Washington Honour Medal on Mirza Rizwan and Mirza Faizan, two brothers hailing from Samanpura in Patna, for turning students into innovators in the United States (US). With this, they have become the first Indians to receive the honour.
The younger sibling, Faizan, got the national award at a ceremony in Dallas on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Since the future of a country is dependent on its kids, we began nurturing and mentoring schoolchildren so that they could identify real-world problems and come up with patentable solutions.”
Hailing the work of the Mirza brothers, the Freedoms Foundation stated in its 2020-2021 awards booklet, “They are being recognized for their significant contribution to education.
“Since children are out-of-the-box thinkers, they come up with very bright and promising ideas. However, they lack a structured thought process and do not know how to convert an idea into an innovation. That’s why I want to make a difference and give children the right platform to work on their ideas and come up with unique solutions,” Rizwan, who is in Bengaluru at present, said and added that 25 of their students had been awarded for their innovations by the NASA.
Sharing a good news with the students here, Rizwan said the DiscoverSTEM Innovation Lab would become functional in India soon. “A large number of our students in the US belong to the Indian diaspora. Hence, we are in the process of launching the programme here as well,” he claimed.
