“We believe education has the power to break barriers.”

This motto may at first sound a bit broad, but for the student-led non-profit Uplift Academy, it’s a mantra to live by.

Two South Forsyth seniors, Aneesh Amirineni and Aarin Karamchandani, founded the international non-profit to provide free access to early STEM education. Described as a “local passion project,” Uplift Academy was founded in March of 2024, with the goal of giving back to two communities the founders consider home: Forsyth County and India. 

“The idea came to us in our Freshman year,” said Aarin. “My dad took a business trip to India and he noticed the education system there, especially for STEM, was not very good… so we decided we needed to create something useful to help repair this.” 

The Uplift Academy team teaches a variety of STEM-related topics with an original, student-crafted curriculum featuring numerous hands-on activities catering to kinesthetic learning styles. 

The non-profit now boasts  over 40 volunteers consisting of adults and students dedicated to diffusing the importance of STEM education and providing free access to education for all. Another chapter has even opened in Denmark High School. The group’s success has also crossed state lines, as there are now other chapters of the non-profit in Ohio and Texas. 

Currently, the Uplift team has been able to serve and partner with many elementary and middle schools in Forsyth and surrounding counties, including South Forsyth Middle School, Riverwatch, Piney Grove, Montessori Academy at Sharon Springs, McGinnis Woods School, Learnwell Collective and the Chesstronics School of Chess, Robotics, Coding. 

“We don’t teach in Forsyth County Schools because they [aren’t] underprivileged. Each school has good curriculums and resources,” said Aarin. “But the thing we noticed was that students are taught later on about STEM education, so we are trying to help them find an interest at a young age.” 

Initially, Uplift Academy struggled  to support STEM education in India given the challenges of reaching international schools. After many trials, Aneesh and Aarin were able to partner with a local non-profit organization, The Indeed Foundation, based in Rajasthan, India, that specializes in STEM topics such as robotics, coding, sciences, mathematics and more.

The Indeed Foundation has partnered with over 100 government schools in India, and receives help from Uplift Academy in order to host events for students such as science fairs and after-school extracurriculars. Together the two organizations built an accessible water harvesting system that aided students and the local community in India in response to a shortage.  

“Aarin and I have been fortunate enough to receive an education in privileged schools our entire lives and have been exposed to STEM from a young age and found a passion for it in second and third grade, ” said Aneesh. 

Extending the privilege of their education to as many other students as possible was what invigorated the club to reach its current heights of success.

“We noticed that there are probably kids out there that share this same passion for STEM and maybe even more so, but they don’t have the same kind of opportunities and exposure that we did,” he added. “So essentially, Uplift is there to help these kids [find] their passion early on.” 

South Forsyth’s chapter of Uplift Academy  is looking to further expand their work in India, and as always, reach new audiences. Recently they became partnered with a college in Pune, India, where they host Zoom workshops to teach older students how to navigate AI in a useful way. 

Aneesh and Aarin see the future of Uplift Academy as an accessible volunteer-based club at South. They want to continue growing the non-profit in college and also plan to create an online platform where schools in the U.S and India can ask for direct help or partnership. 

Overall, Aneesh and Aarin hope when they graduate new generations of helpful students can carry out their mission and keep uplifting. 

Check out their website and socials to learn more about Uplift’s mission and how you can get involved.