Swetha Prabakaran, a 15-year-old Indian-American girl has been honoured by the White House with the prestigious “Champions of Change” award. She was chosen for empowering the community by imparting Internet coding through her non-profit organisation. A junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Swetha Prabakaran was among the eleven young women selected by the White House as “Champions of Change” who are empowering their communities.

Swetha is the Founder and CEO of Everybody Code Now!, a non-profit working to empower the next generation of youth to become engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Swetha’s parents were immigrated to the US from Tamil Nadu in 1998.

In addition to her passion for science and computers, Swetha, who was born in Indianapolis, is an avid Bharatanatyam dancer. She did her Bharathanatya arangetram – the debut on-stage performance of a classical art student, after undertaking years of training – in Tirunelveli on August 2. Her father, Prabakaran Murugaiah, is the founder and CEO of techfetch.com. The family lives in Ashburn, Virginia.