Sre AshokRaja, a junior at Xaverian, has made a name for himself in his local community. He's an avid car enthusiast-turned sustainability advocate who has spent the past two years using his mechanical skillset to repair and redistribute bikes to those in his community. "I don't think I've ever owned a new bike, which might sound bad, but actually isn't," Sre says matter-of-factly. "Every bike I've gotten was used, and so I learned how to fix them." This is the main premise of his service initiative, Pedals for Change, the mission of which is to "foster sustainable commuting, reducing greenhouse gases and environmental impacts; enhancing lives and building a more connected, resilient future one pedal at a time."

Statistics that the everyday person may not be aware of, but that Sre has at the tip of his tongue, include "choosing a bike over a car just once a day can reduce the average person's transportation-related emissions by 67 percent" (University of Oxford, 2021) and "roughly 15,000,000 bikes are discarded each year" and end up in landfills (Waste Advantage Magazine, 2020). These statistics help Sre describe why he's so dedicated and willing to advocate for this cause.

When asked what he sees as his biggest strength in this endeavor, he responds thoughtfully: "That's something I'm still pondering, but in my personal opinion, I feel like it's my ability to inspire change and to be able to talk to people in the community." And he's getting plenty of chances to do just that. He was invited to present at the Natick Rotary Club and the Natick Desi Group, and was appointed as a youth representative with voting rights for the Net Zero Committee, which actively works with the Natick Sustainability Office to advance the Town of Natick's goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He sees this as an opportunity to further his sustainability efforts, both locally and beyond.

Sre is a member of Xaverian Hawk Robotics and he's also working to get a school sustainability club up and running. Beyond Xaverian and his local community, his efforts have begun to go global. He received a special request from the Tekeshe Foundation, a Chelmsford-based nonprofit, for 20 bikes to support a remote village in Zimbabwe, for their community's new elementary school by August of 2025. "I hope I can create an impact that will last," Sre says. "I'm trying to inspire as many as I can."