
At Crimson World School in Varanasi, Anjana Deva asks students to think beyond the next examination. Her public work connects academic effort with a more personal task: learning how to choose.

Before the degree and the policy roundtables, there was a Spokane teenager doing homework first and everything else second. A decade later, Kendra Canton's work still follows the same practical rule: earn your place, then use it to bring more people into the room.
Michael Mauro is a Harvard undergraduate economics student from Long Island who has turned campus life into a business education. He helps run marketing at Harvard Student Agencies, the world's largest student-run company, works as a consulting manager for its summer Academies, and co-presides over the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association. He plays club ice hockey, is aiming for law school, and has collected passport stamps from two dozen countries along the way.