A 17-year-old senior at University City High School received the inaugural Princeton Prize in Race Relations for the San Diego region.
Pranaya Anshu received the award for her four years of leading a global education program at the San Diego Public Library, spending almost 200 Saturdays teaching children.
“I researched it and learned that education is the best way to fight racism, to learn that we are all human, and we all have a heart,” Anshu said.
This year San Diego became the 25th region to grant the award, which is given to high school students across the country who have advanced the cause of positive race relations in their schools or communities.
The winner in each region receives a cash award of $1,000 and is invited to Princeton University for an all-expense paid trip to attend the Princeton Prize Symposium on Race later this month.
Anshu said her teaching effort at the library began when she volunteered to shelve books and experienced racism for the first time.
“It had been my first day of volunteering and my mentor, who had been assigned to teach me how to shelve books, had worn gloves when shaking my hands as if my Indian skin possessed some germs her Caucasian skin did not,” Anshu recalled.
Then in seventh grade, the encounter shocked her into action, and she created a program for children to learn about different countries and cultures.
While Anshu no longer leads the educational program she founded, it has been continued by other students. “I thought racism was a thing of the past, but it’s not, so I am proud that I can see [the program] continue,” she said.
