Bihar’s Sharad Sagar elected as Chair of Student Council at Harvard University

Sharad Sagar, an Indian graduate student at Harvard University, has been elected as the next Executive Chair of the Student Council at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The information was shared by Sharad Sagar Office on Wednesday.  Sagar who hails from Bihar, a graduate student at the HGSE has been elected the Executive Chair, the highest position on the HGSE Student Council, by the school’s student body comprising of over 1,200 students coming from more than 50 countries. Sagar won the election by defeating eight other candidates at Harvard who contested for the prestigious position of Executive Chair at Harvard.

Harvard University made the official announcement of the election results on Tuesday, September 21. The voting period for Harvard students started on Sep 14 and ended on Sep 19. As the Executive Chair, Sagar will lead the Student Council comprising of a Vice-Chair, an Administrator and other elected senators, and represent over 1,200 graduate students from 50+ countries at Harvard. He will occupy this position till his graduation in May 2022. At Harvard, Sagar is also the recipient of the highest HGSE grant and the prestigious KC Mahindra Scholarship.

“1200+ students. 50+ countries. 9 exceptional candidates. 1 election. Tonight, I am humbled beyond measure on being elected the next Executive Chair of the Student Council at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I know I was born far from Harvard and I was an unlikely candidate. And, I am truly grateful to be given this responsibility by the graduate student body of Harvard. Raised in small towns and villages of India, I first went to school at the age of 12. Back then, Harvard seemed like a far-fetched dream. But, this journey from being “Home-schooled to Harvard” is incredibly humbling. As the Executive Chair, my vision is to build a student council at Harvard that is forward-looking, all-embracing and of real, practical value in everyday life of Harvard graduates and through them in the lives of millions of others,” said Sharad Sagar in an official statement. 

Who is Sharad Sagar

Sagar is an internationally awarded social entrepreneur and widely followed Youth Icon from Bihar whose work in the field of education and leadership has received global recognition. Growing up in small towns and villages of Bihar, Sagar first went to school at the age of 12. At the age of 16, Sagar founded the national organization Dexterity Global. At the age of 24, Sagar was listed on the global Forbes 30 Under 30 list. In 2016, Sagar was in national and global news when he became the only Indian to be invited by US President Barack Obama to the White House for a special gathering of young leaders. Later that year, the Nobel Peace Center invited Sagar to the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. Sagar is also the expert for the famous television show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.

After an illustrious high school career in which he won over 200 local, national and international quiz and debate competitions and represented India at intergovernmental and UN platforms in over six different countries, Sagar received a full scholarship worth Rs. 4 crores to pursue his Bachelor’s Degree at Tufts University in the United States, where he broke major university records. In May 2016, Sagar was the first Indian to be selected as the Graduation Speaker in university history. Within months of his graduation, Sagar became the youngest in 160 years of university history to receive the Alumni Achievement Award. In 2017-18, Sagar was included as one of “Queen’s Young Leaders”. As the last recipient of this honour in 2017-18, Sagar received the opportunity to undergo the year-long Leading Change programme at the University of Cambridge.

Sagar’s organization Dexterity Global reaches over 6 million young citizens across remote towns and villages of India, connecting young people with opportunities and building local role models for communities. Dexterity alumni have won major national and international awards started their own initiatives and received over 72 crores INR in scholarships from topmost colleges of the world.