From Quiet Service to National Impact

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Shourya Pabba. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Shourya Pabba’s journey with People For Urban and Rural Education (PURE) began as the contribution of a shy, 7-year-old volunteer. But since his quiet beginnings, Shourya’s service has blossomed into a prolific record of over 70 projects, each supporting PURE’s mission to connect individuals, groups and organizations with the urgent needs of the world’s children. Whether organizing local food drives and bake sales or coordinating expansive library setups and blanket drives for wildfire victims, the now-16-year-old Shourya helps provide essential support to veterans, foster youth and students in rural areas.

As Shourya moved from the sidelines to the center of his chapter’s operations, he proved that leadership is not a matter of age, but of initiative. His personal growth catalyzed growth throughout his entire chapter, and he led them through their most active year to date. This evolution from a participant to a leader brought a big transition – moving into the role of chapter director, where he learned to rally an entire community behind collective goals.

Now, Shourya serves as an assistant national student director. His influence spans the country as he mentors the next generation of student leaders. In a single year, he personally guided more than ten new ambassadors, empowering them to lead with the same compassion that defined his early days. With time and dedication, Shourya is ensuring that chapters nationwide have the communication tools and strategic planning necessary to thrive and keep passing on PURE’s mission to those who need it most. Read on to hear more of his inspiring story.

Tell us a little bit about the organization you volunteer with PURE.

PURE is a student-led nonprofit dedicated to promoting education equality, with another main focus of community development. PURE goes about this specifically through service projects, fundraisers and global initiatives where we, as volunteers, support disadvantaged communities in developing countries. This applies both locally and worldwide; it’s not restricted to a specific area. PURE also focuses on youth leadership. PURE Youth, specifically, is led by youth leaders, and the focus is on taking initiative and making sure that every action we take uplifts another community. That can be through bringing sustainable growth, raising funds, or raising goods that help people get what they need – especially in a world where so many people don’t have what they need to survive. Our focus is to provide people with these necessities.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I joined PURE in 2018 when I was around 7 years old. I joined at a very young age because I saw my brother doing it, and I was interested because it seemed like my brother was doing something he cared about. From that point onwards, I’ve participated in over 70 projects. Rather than focusing on the quantity of the projects, I think the most important thing as an ambassador and volunteer was just my growth along the way.

When I first joined PURE, my big interest was actually connected to my birthday. My parents donated money on my behalf, and as a result, we were able to fund a dinner and a movie night for children at PURE Pabba schools, which is another program within PURE. I remember that moment specifically. When I saw photos of how those children had fun on my mom’s phone on Facebook, it made me realize that every small thing I can do is shaping the lives of other people.

Over time, I continued to grow more involved because I started to see how everything I do can help a community, especially communities that don’t have the opportunities I have. As I saw the impact of my initiatives firsthand – whether through talking to people who were donating or through photos – I was able to push my commitment further and tie myself to PURE’s mission to create change and support my communities.

Tell us about your volunteer role.

This year, I’m an ANSD (assistant national student director), and I work with a team of around seven other ANSDs and a few national student directors. We support multiple chapters nationwide. We have around 35 to 50 chapters in the U.S. I assist the admin team and the NSDs to help develop projects, reach our global initiatives and make sure that our communication is smooth. As a whole, we are essentially completing projects in the right way and making sure that we’re aligning ourselves with PURE’s goals and with the UN Sustainability Development Goals.
We meet with the directors of several chapters to see how they’re doing and make sure we’re all in unison. Our tasks vary from creating ideas for fundraisers or food drives to focusing on the other side of it, which is to bring awareness and outreach through our initiatives with providing global education.

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.

One of the things I’ve been focusing on recently is a new initiative I started with one of my fellow ambassadors. This initiative is focused on civic engagement. We are strong believers that civic engagement is a skill every student should have because people need to be confident and effective communicators. When we talk about providing people with education and opportunities, that’s more than just giving them tangible resources; it’s also about teaching people the skills and ideas they need to develop.

With this initiative, we want to create a global civic engagement campaign. We want to spread it to a large scale, where students have the access to work with other students, improve their public speaking skills and build off their own ideas so they are more confident in themselves and are more effective communicators. With this platform, we want people to have these opportunities. They shouldn’t feel left behind or that they don’t have access to things that kids in more resourced areas have. We want to make sure everybody has the same access and can learn and use these skills in their everyday life.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

This is a very important part of my life. I’ve been a volunteer for over half of my life, so I will definitely continue to volunteer as I get older. I don’t think it’s something that comes and goes; it’s more like a skill, to have the mindset that you can help other people. With PURE, there are no limits. If you strongly believe in something, PURE encourages you to go for it.

As I get older, I continue to believe that volunteering is the way to help people get what they need. My long-term goal is to maintain that same mindset – to make sure that with whatever action I take, I can help other people. To me, the most important thing is helping others. I know that sounds simple, but I’ve been given the chance and the framework to grow, and I now have a way to pay it forward to those who don’t have those same chances. I hope that they will come to realize that being helpful is not just something you do when you are in your “dream state,” or when you are happiest, or when you feel like you’ve completed your life. Getting involved in your community and helping people should be something that’s with you each step of your journey. My plan is to maintain this mindset, support other people and stress the importance of civic engagement and accessibility as a whole.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part is being able to see the impact that I get to make firsthand. I mentioned the chance I had in third grade to raise funds so that kids in a rural India school were able to watch a movie and have a nice dinner. That moment still shapes me to this day because I remember how mesmerized I was to see that the action I did allowed other people to have a moment to themselves and a chance to celebrate.

The most rewarding thing is hearing firsthand about the experiences of others and witnessing how grateful I am to be in this position where I can give back. I remember a conversation with members of the Red Cross who were raising funds for people during the Los Angeles wildfires. One of the directors was telling us about his experiences, and he said that the thing he remembered most wasn’t about the money or the logistics, but the individual conversations with people. Every handshake, every hug and every thank you reminded him why he serves to help others. That ties into my rewards – the ability to see the impact firsthand makes it important to stay connected to the people you help and truly get the chance to bond with them. When I have an opportunity to help, I feel the most important thing is to make the most of it.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

If you’re passionate about something, no matter what it is, you should express that passion because then you’re putting so much more of yourself into that scenario. Make the most out of every opportunity. If everyone is able to get involved with the causes they care about, society as a whole will be so much better because people are going to be happy and motivated, and have genuine passion.
As a youth leader, we’re shaping the future. You are tomorrow’s leader.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

The best advice I would give is, honestly, just don’t think twice about it. Just do it and don’t look back. When I started volunteering, I wasn’t really the one making the decision. I saw my brother doing it and saw my mom involved, and I just decided to join. That’s one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made because it taught me that there’s so much more to life than just looking at your own experience. As a volunteer, you get the chance to view things from other people’s perspectives and put yourself in their shoes.

Volunteering doesn’t feel like a commitment or something you’re doing out of force. Instead, it’s something you can grow from. You feel rewarded, you develop with each step you take and you never regret it. It’s just something you see as a way to get involved in the community, which is the most important thing.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Shourya? Find local volunteer opportunities.