Naperville entrepreneur Trisha Prabhu awarded $100K grant to expand reach of anti-cyberbullying technology
Naperville native Trisha Prabhu reckons there’s still lots of room to grow with her now global anti-cyberbullying enterprise, ReThink.
The CTIA Wireless Foundation agrees.
Last week, the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit announced it was granting Rethink $100,000 to further the work that Prabhu, 23, started a decade ago. With the funding, Prabhu hopes to expand both the capacity and reach of her initiative.
“(I’m) just so excited for the impact that (we’ll) be able to realize because of this funding,” Prabhu said, adding there was a lot of “screaming and crying and just absolute gratitude” when she first received word of the CTIA Wireless Foundation’s six-figure grant.
An award-winning venture, ReThink uses artificial intelligence to stop cyberbullying by encouraging users to be more careful about the messages they send or post online. Downloaded through an app, the technology is essentially an alternative keyboard installed onto users’ phones or laptops.
As someone types, the keyboard is programmed to catch potentially hurtful language. When it does, the software sends users an alert — before they hit send or post — asking them if they’re sure about their words: “Rethink! Would you like to re-word this? Remember, you are what you type!” or something similar. The alert then gives users an option to clear or continue.
Apart from the technology — which is offered in nine different languages — the broader ReThink “movement” to stop hate online has reached millions across 136 different countries, the organization’s website says. ReThink’s influence has grown with the help of schools integrating the concept into curriculum and communities establishing their own ReThink “chapters” to disseminate lessons locally.
But Prabhu has additional plans to render ReThink even more accessible worldwide as well as applicable to the burgeoning means of cyberbullying.
Namely, she wants to see the ReThink technology offered in more languages and she wants to see the software advance so it can keep up with the ways that cyberbullying has progressed. Things have become more sophisticated in recent years, through mediums such as ChatGPT or other generative AI systems, she said.
The CTIA Wireless Foundation funding will be a boon to both goals, Prabhu said.
“Things like generative AI represent a really fundamental shift in this space and post new questions for us to tackle … but I see it as an opportunity to get better at doing this work,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for us to stay ahead of the curve. None of this work is easy, but I’m excited, especially with this funding, to be able to hopefully make a dent in these issues.”
The foundation is the philanthropic arm of the CTIA, the trade association for the U.S. wireless industry. Established in 1991, it aims to advance wireless for good, Executive Director Dori Kreiger said.
“For more than 30 years, the foundation has been at the forefront of social innovation powered by wireless,” she said.
While the wireless industry has “transformed wildly” over the past three decades — pulling the foundation’s focus from issue to issue, solution to solution — today they’re paying particular attention to social entrepreneurs using “mobile first” strategies to inspire change, Kreiger said.
Like Prabhu.
As part of its push to champion these tech-savvy, socially-conscious tycoons, the foundation invites early stage entrepreneurs from around the country to apply for financial backing through a competitive grant program. Dubbed Catalyst, the program awards those using 5G and cutting-edge wireless tech to address pressing challenges in U.S. communities.
More than 100 entrepreneurial hopefuls applied for Catalyst funding this year, Kreiger said. Of those, the foundation selected a handful of finalists and winners.
ReThink received the top $100,000 prize. Other awardees, whose work ranged from digital inclusion to improving the mental health of veterans, received grants of $10,000 to $50,000.
Selected through a nearly year-long application process, Kreiger said standout entrants are innovative and ambitious in the issues they tackle. The foundation strongly encourages people of color and entrepreneurs that identify as female to apply, and is “especially committed” to supporting those who typically face barriers to accessing capital, she said.
They also look for applicants who are personally attuned to the impact their work could have.
“We look at the lived experiences of the founder,” Kreiger said. “We have found that entrepreneurs that have firsthand experience with the issues they are trying to solve really understand the issue from all different vantage points and just have the ability to create more sustained impact.”
Prabhu impressed the CTIA Wireless Foundation on all fronts, but especially with her personal story, Kreiger said.
Prabhu launched ReThink when she was 13 years old. The idea was a product of her own experience with bullying and online harassment and the fallout of cyberbullying that Prabhu witnessed around her.
“I understood the issue really well,” she said. “I knew how it could (shake) young people’s confidence. … But what was really frustrating for me was reading news stories and talking to friends and realizing that it wasn’t just a problem that was affecting me. It was a problem affecting people globally. I always like to call it a silent pandemic.”
Across the U.S., a 2021 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found an estimated 15.9% of high school students were electronically bullied in the 12 months prior to assessment. For 10 years, Prabhu has tried to dampen statistics.
“I wanted to do something about it,” she said. “I wanted to make sure that no young person ever felt the way that I did. That’s what really pushed me to start ReThink.”
The initiative gained traction as Prabhu rose through the ranks of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville and Harvard University. Meanwhile, accolades for her work mounted.
In 2016, she was invited by President Barack Obama to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and share her technology at the White House Science Fair. Four years later, she was named one of the 2020 inaugural winners of the Elevate Prize, an organization that rewards “social entrepreneurs for their impact and leadership,” according to its website. In 2021, she was the youngest honoree named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Social Impact list.
Currently, Prabhu is living in England as she studies at the University of Oxford as a U.S. Rhodes Scholar.
“Trisha is just incredible,” Kreiger said. “With her personal experience and passion and how she has now chosen wireless as her way to tackle cyberbullying, it just stood out among all the other incredible applications.”
