04 December 2020 - Indian-American Gitanjali Rao is first-ever TIME magazine "Kid Of The Year"
'Time' Names Its Kid Of The Year: Water-Testing Scientist Gitanjali Rao
Bill Chappell (NPR, 03/12/2020)
Gitanjali Rao, a Colorado teenager who invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water, is Time's Kid of the Year for 2020. The magazine announced the award Thursday, citing Rao's ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems — and her desire to motivate other kids to take up their own causes.
It's just the latest recognition for Rao, 15, who was named last year to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She won praise in 2017 after she responded to the Flint, Mich., water crisis by creating a device named Tehys, using carbon nanotube sensors to detect lead in water. The Lone Tree, Colo., native was named America's Top Young Scientist when she was in the seventh grade. She went on to collaborate with scientists in the water industry to try to get the device on the market.
Meet TIME's First-Ever Kid of the Year
Time Staff (Time Magazine, 03/12/2020)
The world belongs to those who shape it. And however uncertain that world may feel at a given moment, the reassuring reality seems to be that each new generation produces more of what these kids—five Kid of the Year finalists selected from a field of more than 5,000 Americans, ages 8 to 16—have already achieved: positive impact, in all sizes.
How We Picked the 2020 Kid of the Year
Time Staff (Time Magazine, 03/12/2020)
For the past 92 years, TIME has named a Person of the Year. In 2019, then-16-year-old Greta Thunberg became the youngest ever Person of the Year, and the first individual under age 25 to receive the title. Her movement to stop climate change, among other world-shifting youth movements of recent years, make clear that young people carry tremendous influence today, and that they are using that influence to shape a world that matches their vision.
This year, in partnership with Nickelodeon, TIME is recognizing in the U.S. its first ever Kid of the Year, a barometer for the rising leaders of America’s youngest generation. To choose the most influential kids of 2020, we looked across social media and school districts, at actions big and small. “Small steps can lead to big change,” says TIME for Kids editor Andrea Delbanco. “These are everyday kids making change in their communities in a fun and accessible—but very impactful—way.”
Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams among nominees for Time magazine's 2020 Person of the Year
Aris Folley (The Hill, 25/11/2020)
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams are among the list of nominees for Time magazine’s Person of the Year distinction for 2020.
The distinction, which the magazine has been giving on an annual basis since the 1920s, is bestowed upon an individual or group the country thinks has had “the greatest influence on the events of the year—for better or worse.”
The year has been a significant one historically for Harris and the rest country, which, this month, saw the first Black woman, first woman, and first Asian, win election to office as vice president-elect.