vadodara juhi shah of class xi recently convinced a group of doctors to conduct a medical camp for labourers working at a construction site in the city another high school student of juhis age rushil sharma is busy garnering support to get all the negative graffitis removed from near genda circle shah and sharma are amongst 17 high school students selected as finalists for the first ever leadership awards leaad awards organized to acknowledge and recognize young leaders the high school students inspired by the i lead india initiative of the times of india citybased foundation for capability building fcb a not for profit organization had launched the leadership enrichment of adolescents through assessment and development leaad programme in september with over 200 students from 20 schools participating in it the times of india did a remarkable job through the i lead india initiative by charging up youngsters in 27 cities to make a positive change at the grassroot level for a better city and a better country to live it was this youth activism programme which inspired us to start leaad programme for high school students fcbs chairman samir parikh said leaad is designed on the core belief that every adolescent has the potential to become an effective leader and make a difference after a fourstage scientific process of acknowledging and recognizing demonstration of ethical leadership traits by students in two groups 8th and 9th standards and 10th and 11th standards the 17 finalists are currently working on their action projects fcbs chairman samir parikh told media persons here on monday so if a standard eight student aman patel is working on civic sense and traffic management project another class xi student gargi sinha has taken up cleanliness drive in which she has also arranged for replaceable card board boxes in which people are requested to spit here and there are others who have engaged themselves to champion the cause of environment literacy healthy lifestyle and other social causes the finalists will be presenting their experiences to a jury comprising of eminent economist professor y k alagh citys eminent architect karan grover maharani radhikaraje gaekwad and former president of federation of gujarat industries geeta goradia on december 7 parikh said the jury will announce the various award winners on december 8 which will be presented to the students by padmabhushan awardee and cmd of biocon limited kiran mazumdarshaw at c c mehta auditorium vadodara will become city for pilot project for this and we are planning it to roll out across gujarat and later throughout the country parikh added the youth brigade a youth brigade was formed in the city under the i lead india initiative of the times of india after a rigorous screening process five young leaders sumeet tembe sumeet ahuja bhavani shankar mishra bhumika upadhyay and ketki desai were picked up to work on the task of freeing the walled city from garbage menace the brigade established networks and promoted