A King Constantine Medal Story – Trijal Sharma, Maria’s Public School
King Constantine Medal 2025: Trijal Sharma, Maria’s Public School, India.
Maria’s Public School, India is proud to announce that Trijal Sharma of Class 9 has been honoured with the prestigious King Constantine Medal 2025 for his exemplary contributions towards community service and social impact. The award was presented during a special school assembly, recognizing Trijal’s remarkable efforts in bridging the digital divide through his innovative educational initiative. Trijal shares what receiving the medal means to him:
When I first heard I had been selected to receive the King Constantine Medal, I was stunned. It is an honour that carries real meaning — not just for me, but for every student I’ve worked with through TechBridge. It tells me that young people can be changemakers, and that small ideas can lead to big impact.
The moment that started it all is still vivid in my memory. I was visiting a rural school when I met a boy who told me he wanted to be a software developer. But he had never used a computer. Not once. That really shook me. How could we ask children to dream of a future they’ve never even seen?
That encounter stayed with me. I couldn’t forget it — and I didn’t want to. Instead, I channelled it into action. I founded TechBridge, a programme that uses affordable Raspberry Pi computers to teach coding and computer science to students from under-resourced communities. It wasn’t just about giving them technical skills — it was about giving them hope.
Getting TechBridge off the ground was not easy. The technology didn’t always cooperate, funding and support were hard to come by, and as a student, I wasn’t always taken seriously. There were moments I doubted myself. But what kept me going were the students — their curiosity, their determination, and the way their faces lit up when they realised they could do this. That was all the motivation I needed.
Since we launched, TechBridge has helped transform how students see themselves. Kids who once hesitated to even touch a computer are now talking about building apps or becoming engineers. That shift — from fear to confidence — is the greatest impact I could hope for. I believe access to education and technology is a right, not a privilege, and I want every student to feel they belong in the digital world.
Receiving the King Constantine Medal has only strengthened that belief. It fuels my motivation to continue this journey. Whether through TechBridge or new projects that combine tech with social good, I am committed to making a difference. My next goal is to integrate a solar-powered energy storage system into the TechBridge units so that even schools without reliable electricity can benefit. I want to make the programme not only accessible, but sustainable too.
Being a student at a Round Square school has shaped my thinking in powerful ways. It has taught me to take responsibility for the world around me, to lead with empathy, and to keep striving for equity and opportunity — all values deeply rooted in the IDEALS of Service, Leadership, and Internationalism.
If there’s one message I’d pass on to others, it’s this: if you feel strongly about something, don’t wait. Begin small. Be brave. Even if you are “just a student”, your actions matter. And sometimes, they can spark something much bigger than you ever imagined.
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