The Dragon Kim Foundation, an Orange County-based nonprofit with the mission of inspiring youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions, has announced the two fellowship finalist projects from the Arizona and Nevada fellowship group for the 2024 Dragon Challenge competition, a Shark Tank-style event where teams present their projects to esteemed judges.

Let’s Get the Ball Rolling – created by Paradise Valley resident Aashni Sahai, 14, of Saguaro High School, and Phoenix resident Yana Mamtani, 15, of BASIS Phoenix public charter school - is a free camp where middle-schoolers engage in projects centered around art, engineering and design, while relying on recycled materials. They created a putt-putt course, Rube Goldberg-style machine and art exhibition.

Arts Healing Hearts – created by Scottsdale resident Zara Pearce, 16, of Desert Mountain High School – is a non-profit developed to help spread emotional positivity and to create coping and healing mechanisms through the pathways of art. Zara gave people safe outlets to take out any strong emotion they may be feeling using crochet, origami, water painting, sculpting and sketching.

The two finalists were chosen from 11 fellowship projects run by high school students this summer. Together, all projects directly impacted 16,274 individuals and indirectly impacted 1,143,433. More than 715 volunteers were empowered to contribute to the fellows’ vision and cause.

The public event is Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Margaret A. Webb Theatre on the campus of the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana, CA.

Visit dragonkimfoundation.org for more information.