Bridge Builders 2013 — Winner

Sujan Adhikari, then 24, was a schoolteacher in Pokhara-9 and had been involved in interfaith community projects since 2011. His essay, "The Rope Across the River," used the metaphor of a rope bridge to explore how small acts of daily kindness and curiosity — not grand gestures — are what truly connect people across difference. The judges called it "the most practically wise essay we have received in any competition."