Daring Awards

The Winners

The 2022 Daring Award winners are a spectacular cast of winners that have done amazing things at a very young age. We celebrate community achievement, but also individual achievement - young people working to become the best they can be.

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Nathanael Koh

Age 12
The Music Composer

About him

Nathanael is a Singaporean music composer whose work has been recognized by the Prime Minister of New Zealand and has won numerous awards for his musical compositions. Nathanael was diagnosed with Gross Developmental Delay at the age of one as he couldn’t move or crawl. After three to four therapy sessions a week for about five years, doctors said there was no cure or medication. However, as they say, miracles do happen! After a natural forest therapy in New Zealand, he began recovering within six months. Nathanael is now the youngest person in the world to obtain the Licentiate Diploma in Music Composition (Honours).

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Nikhil Bohra

Age 17
The F4 Racer

About him

Competing in the elite Italian F4 championship, Nikhil was the first Singapore licensed driver on the podium, achieving a 3rd place rookie finish at the famous Red Bull Ring in Austria 2022. Nikhil exclaims, “The thrill and my will to improve inspires me to put in the work on and off the track. At this point, racing is fully embedded into my character.” Further giving a message to more daring kids, he said, “Without taking risks or venturing outside your comfort zone, you will never know your full potential. By making daring commitments and taking risks, you will find subsequent risks become easier to stomach and your confidence to push limits and boundaries will increase exponentially.”

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Zara Khanna

Age 12
The Coder

About her

Founder and coder of Octa, the first chatbot for young travelers to create family itineraries, Zara Khanna, is also the author of "Zara's Travels: From Scotland to Singapore" and Host of "Zara's Travels" on YouTube. She founded "Great", a youth club partnered with Singapore’s iconic ArtScience Museum that explores the ethics of technologies (such as AI, robotics, AR/VR, web3, biotech) through the lens of sci-fi literature, gaming and films.

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“Just go for what you believe in! You don't know what's going to happen along the journey, and things might change - you'll hear ‘no’ a lot, and encounter a lot of challenges, but it's important to keep going.”

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Alexandros Julian Lim

Age 16
The Artist

About him

A 17-year-old A 17-year-old painter with autism, also known as the ‘UnSkilledBoy’, Alex creates still life, abstract & animal art with water-colour, pencils + acrylic on canvas & paper. Alex has gone on to have his own exhibition and is donating half of the exhibition sales to the Cat Welfare Society

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“I'm an autistic artist who loves animals & everyday things. Painting gives me joy, and I hope my paintings will do the same for you.”

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Joshua Goh

Age 12
Climate Change Awareness

About him

With a passion to spread awareness about climate change, Joshua was featured in a WWF video and whose content has been used to create awareness for other children by Singapore's the Ministry of Education. “Building things with lego and taking care of my ANTS, is a way for me to destress. As I watch my ant colonies grow, I feel a sense of satisfaction, especially when I see one queen ant grow into a large colony. I choose to raise awareness about global warming so that humanity can have a better future, co-existing along with the nature,” shared Joshua.

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Akshay Bohra

Age 15
The Karting Champ

About him

Having raced under the Singapore flag, Akshay finished in the top 10 of the World Series of Karting, the FIA European and World Championships, and was crowned German national karting champion. A motivation to many other aspiring kids, Akshay said, “I have had numerous setbacks including trips to several hospitals, missing an entire year of racing due to Covid, and the constant struggle to balance racing, school, and being away from home. But every time I decided to come back, I realized that If you want something badly enough, work hard, give it your all, and take every opportunity. Give everything you have for what you love.” “The challenge of continuously improving in pursuit of winning against the best in the world is a powerful motivator. People have encouraged me on my daring adventures, and I hope to be able to encourage others as they start their own,” he adds.

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Aaron Tay

Age 8
Bringing Laughter

About him

Diagnosed with Lymphoma at the age of 6, Aaron Tay is a cancer survivor who has published a joke book to bring joy to others and is donating to the Children's Cancer Foundation. As the side effects of his treatment made him feel dizzy and even affected his taste buds, his mother would tell him jokes to cheer him up. “It was a very tough period for my family and I. My mother started telling me jokes during mealtimes to cheer me up and to encourage me to eat more. Gradually, I started coming up with my own jokes to cheer up myself and those around me. To me, laughter has always been the best medicine. I hope that I can bring some joy and laughter to others, especially those who are having a hard time. I feel extremely happy and encouraged when I get emails or messages from our readers that the jokes brought them so much joy and that they cannot wait for the next book to be out.”

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“I hope that I can bring some joy and laughter to others, especially those who are having a hard time.”

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Sophia Vatchcova

Age 13
The Gymnast

About her

Sophia is a Rhythmic Gymnast who has been competing since she was 8 and even went on to win the Singapore Nationals for Under 12. Sophia is a daring kid in various aspects of life as she also recently climbed Mount Kinabalu base camp at 3,270m. Talking about her passion for Rhythmic Gymnastics, she said, “I do what I do because I love competing and I love how rhythmic gymnastic combines sports and arts. According to me to be daring always meant to push yourself even when it’s really hard.”

Join Our Community

Regardless of whether you nominate yourself, your child, join the community at the DaringAwards.org and let’s embark on this journey to create a better world together!

Get a FREE inspiring Graphic Novel on the life of the founder of Wikipedia!

Join the community & for a limited time, get a FREE graphic novel about the life of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, who talked about his life story and how he became who he is to the original Rookie Reporters, Chamonix & Leon Fernandes. See the video here. We ask you only one thing - please do not distribute the link! Just direct people to this website.

Daring Awards: What we are looking for

Our goal is to inspire youth to believe in themselves and achieve great things. It doesn't matter what their interests might be. We are looking for daring youth that are happy to be different, try new things & build a better world.

Daring Awards Criteria

Self Nomination
Self Nomination

Self-Nominations

Self Nominations are welcomed! But if you are under 13, you must get your parent or guardian to nominate you or approve your self-nomination. This is important.

Self Nomination
Self Nomination

Eligibility

Applicants should be in the age range 7-18. For the Singapore awards, applicants should be Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents or Student Pass holders regardless of the country they live in. Applicants from outside Singapore will be considered in a separate category.

Self Nomination
Self Nomination

Age-adjusted evaluation

Our approach is to adjust the selection based on the age of the nominees - if you / your child is on the younger side (say 7 years old) the nomination is considered differently from a teen. We may choose to have age-based categories for applications.

Self Nomination
Self Nomination

Nomination Fee

There is no fee to be paid either by the child, parent or the nominator of a Daring Awards Winner

Self Nomination
Self Nomination

Nomination Language

Regrettably, the nomination must be in English and the conference will be in English. In the future, we hope we can make this more inclusive.

line_redDaring Awards Timeline

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June 1

Applications Open

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Sept 15

Applications Closed

3

Oct 31

Winners Announced

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FAQstar

My child is only 7 years old. He cannot nominate himself?

A parent can nominate a child. You may include a portfolio, certificates, press or any relevant materials. Videos hosted on Youtube marked “unlisted” that is relevant to the child - whether a performance and / or the child talking about what he does and why is also acceptable.

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How many awardees will there be?

We do not have a fixed number of awardees. So your child is not “competing” against another. Depending on the number of nominations, may choose to announce a shortlist and a finalist list as well and provide certificates for both winners and finalists.

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Should I nominate myself or my child if I don’t believe I have done something absolutely fantastic?

Yes! First people often underestimate how good themselves. Next, we are building a community of youth that are passionate about a better world. We anticipate possibly having conferences where you will be able to participate and finally, you never know we announce you on a finalist list and it would still be a nice feather in your cap for your portfolio.

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What awards will winners get?

Daring Award winners will get a certificate and a chance to be featured in the media. This is something that you can use for any purpose -whether it be school or college admissions or just to frame up on your wall. It is recognition for what you’ve done and you deserve it! We plan on having a few special awards as well for youth doing interesting things for the environment, food waste or in media / content.

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Our Judges

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A global panel of leaders that know what it takes to make a difference will make selections on the recipients of the Daring Awards.

Sarita Singh

Managing Director, Southeast Asia & India, Stripe

Eunice Olsen

Media Personality & Fmr. Nominated MP

Rachel Lim

Founder of
Love Bonito

Pranoti Nagarkar

Chief Executive Officer
at Rotimatic

Nik Kafka

Founder and CEO of
Teach a Man to Fish

Vikas Pota

Founder & CEO,
T4 Education

diamondOur Supporters

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Official media partner for the Singapore Awards
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Supporter
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Licensed Organizer
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