A Sierra Leonean student of Durham University has won the inaugural Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2021.
The student, Jeremiah Thoronka, who is passionate about renewable energy and climate change advocacy, bagged the global award for inventing a device which uses kinetic energy from traffic and pedestrians to generate clean power.
The award comes with a $100,000 prize money and Thoronka, who is studying a Master’s degree in Sustainability, said he would invest the money in his start-up Optim Energy, which he built at 17.
The now 21-year-old won the award in a selection pool of over 3,500 nominations and applications from 94 countries across the world.
Thoronka was presented the award in a virtual broadcast at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris by Australian actor Hugh Jackman.
Jackman, popular for his Marvel superhero performance, Wolverine, said as he presented the award, “You’ve made an enormous difference to your community and far beyond. I’m sure that you will now use this incredible platform to make an even bigger impact.”
An elated Thoronka said winning the award was “amazing” and “words can’t express how I feel about this.”
Dan Rosensweig, CEO & President of Chegg, added in his speech, “[m]y warmest congratulations to Jeremiah. His inspirational work in pioneering clean, affordable energy makes him a thoroughly deserving winner of the inaugural Global Student Prize. This prize honors students everywhere. While many stakeholders are busy debating, students like Jeremiah are busy doing. They truly are the change makers our world needs.”
