Youth Achievement Award

The Hum Sub Youth Achievement Award (YAA) is inspired by Buddha’s parting message to his disciples – “Aapo Deepo Bhava”, or “Be a light unto yourself”. Instituted back in 2014, YAA is Hum Sub’s highly successful initiative toward recognizing well-rounded youth (academics, extracurricular, volunteering, etc.) in our community and enabling them to become great future leaders. This program has recognized a lot of children through the years. The felicitation ceremony takes place annually on the much-acclaimed Hum Sub Diwali stage where the winners accept the awards in front of a 15,000-strong audience.

Youth from all ethnicities and backgrounds are eligible and this award is not restricted to youth of Asian-Indian descent. We have a diverse and elite panel of judges who evaluate applications. Since 2022, Hum Sub has put in extra efforts to push for diversity in the applicant pool. We have partnered with local non-profits to get this message out. These efforts have paid off since we have seen a consistent jump in applications year over year. Keeping conflict of interest and bias concerns in mind, Hum Sub has consistently maintained the policy of not allowing its board members’ kids to apply to this award.

In 2024, Hum Sub is giving out four $1500 cash awards to two deserving middle and high-schoolers each for their outstanding achievements and will be recognized at our flagship Hum Sub Diwali event on Oct 12. Hum Sub is extremely grateful to the team at Coastal Credit Union (Diamond sponsor) for their 3-yr commitment to pick up the sponsorship for YAA. Hum Sub’s goal is for the YAA program to be featured on schools’ newsletters as one of many coveted scholarships.

For more information, please check YAA Guidelines at https://humsub.org/yaag/.