Raghunath Reddy Koilakonda is an Indian rural youth who pursued B.Tech from prestigious Institution the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies. He is inspiring youth working with International Organization as President for Leadership Development Association – INDIA. He worked with world’s largest youth-run organization AIESEC. He served as Climate Counsellor for Bangalore and worked with International Center for Culture & Education, promoting the principles of ‘Educate, Inspire & Act’. He was selected for the world’s largest Social Entrepreneurship train journey Jagriti Yatra in 2016. His achievements earned him the opportunity to interact with Nobel Laureates and Eminent Scientists during Science Conclave-2013 at IIIT-Allahabad. His research papers are well appreciated at National conferences hosted by NIT, BITS, and IIIT. He has worked with TATA-Housing, TCS, and SBTET-AP. Raghunath has been guiding the students to make right choices in order to realize their full potential. He is working with industry experts in cutting edge technologies and promoting the purposeful use of technology. He is passionately involved in world issues and especially on the Climate Change.

Coming from a village, since childhood, I was not having good exposure to the skill sets which urban children possess. My village is in a rain-fed region, the output of the crop was very bad. Due to climate change, rains are very low in this region particularly. Some Farmers are committing suicides and some are facing it as a challenge and I am proud to say that my parents are from the second category. My parents thought that Education is the only platform which has the potential to uplift my family and children’s growth. I along with my sisters studied in a Government school, which was five Kilometers far and we used to study under the lamps as electricity was limited to a particular region. But finally, all of us emerged as graduates making our parents proud. My village, which is located in one of the driest parts of the country, I was always put in situations where I had to believe in myself to emerge out of the hardships. I believe it’s this faith and belief I have in myself that made me reach where I am today.  I would like to use this campaign opportunity to raise funds and attend the Global Hive Conference; get engage in community problem solving; increase my network; get trained in leadership skills to lead the team in India.

I plan to conduct a series of sessions and write blogs after the program to share my learnings and insights developed by anyone who wants to learn and grow like I would.

I plan to keep working on the causes I care for, which will be accelerated being more driven and a part of a like-minded global network.