Out of numerous submissions and a competitive pool of semifinalists and finalists, Juniors Anushka Ivatury and Joshitha Bedhaputi at Trivium Preparatory Academy - Great Hearts, have advanced to the final stage and earned top honors in the 2025 High School Health Research Challenge. Their project, Raising Awareness on Bone Health, was awarded the Pioneer in Health Research Award™, along with a $500 scholarship. Here’s what they had to say about their project:

What was the health challenge you addressed in your submission?

“The health challenge we addressed is bone diseases. We address a variety of bone diseases: osteoporosis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and more. There is a rise in bone diseases and with the help of teenagers and educating we believe that we can highlight the importance of bone health.”

What is the solution you propose in your project?

“Our first solution is to implement the Bone Health Education Act. With this act, NFHS is required to instruct athletes in all education spheres on bone diseases, protecting your bones, and keeping those bones healthy. This education will be conducted through safety training videos. Our second solution relates to the mental health of people with bone diseases. To combat the rise of depression among patients with bone diseases, we would create the Bare Bone Blog. This blog will present high school students and adults with flexible volunteering opportunities at rehabilitation facilities and hospitals. In this blog, we make it available to talk to all sorts of people with bone diseases and present opportunities for students to learn more about them. It's also a safe space for patients with bone diseases to share their story. The focus of the blog is to change the way people perceive bone health, and we want teenagers to lead this cause.”

What was your call-to-action to focus on this issue?

“Joshitha and I are volunteers at our local hospital, and we mainly give wheelchair rides to patient rooms or wherever they need to be. I can distinctly remember a visitor of mine say, "Make sure to take care of yourself now, you don't want to worry about never walking again,". I kept this in mind when my father was diagnosed with arthritis. My father exercised and ate healthy yet even the man with the best diet could be just as susceptible to a bone disease. This motivated Joshitha and I to research more about it and what we had wondered the whole time was why isn't bone health as prioritized to teenagers like us. For this reason, we were determined to come up with a solution.”