Zionsville Senior is Helping Spread Positivity & Community Impact
The world always benefits from a little extra positivity. One Zionsville teen is seizing her opportunity to create a positive impact and spread goodwill in her community. What started as a single fundraiser to create relief kits for victims of the LA fires evolved into a group of teens doing good for others in need.
Zionsville Community High School senior Divya Prem is helping change the world one project at a time as the leader of Teens for Good.
The first project Prem undertook started off as a solo effort in early 2025. The original plan was to sell baked goods at the school’s basketball games to raise funds for relief kits. The project soon gained momentum, and Prem’s friends found themselves pitching in to help out.
Seeing the ripple effect the positivity generated had Prem thinking she should go big or go home — and so, Teens for Good organized to help those in need.
“My main goal with Teens for Good is to bring teens together and accomplish things that could create an impact one project at a time,” Prem says. “Seeing the good that people could create after collaborating inspired me, causing me to want to do more. This first project was the spark that started Teens for Good.”
The pilot project proved to be a success, with the teens raising more than $1,000. With the funds, Teens for Good was able to assemble about 400 relief kits for those in need.
Teens for Good has since undertaken other causes. One recent project was launched to raise funds for Wheeler Mission, an initiative that involved creating cards for women in shelters, run in conjunction with another student-based group, Patchwork Promise. The most recent undertaking was a collaboration with Emma’s Bundles of Books and Joy, during which the group created book bundles to be distributed to the Children’s TherAplay Foundation. The group created 15 book bundles, each containing three or four books.
Upcoming projects include fundraising efforts to help benefit other local-area organizations. To help expand their reach, Teens for Good is hoping to partner with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in an effort to support kids undergoing treatment and their families, although no partnership has been officially established. Teens for Good is always searching for new ways to create a positive impact in the community.
The group has grown to include others at Zionsville Community High School, such as Charlotte Deranick, Olivia Chadwick, Katie Tirkes and Jonas Viskanta. Prem encourages anyone looking to make a difference to join the group and help with project execution.
“With Teens for Good, we want to give all teens an equal opportunity to contribute to the community,” Prem says. “In the future, we hope that Teens for Good can grow and create even more of a positive impact.”
Teens for Good is a subsidiary of The Peace Warrior, a nonprofit based in California. Prem encourages anyone wanting to help to reach out to the group via email at teensforgood1@gmail.com or through direct message on Instagram @teens_forgood.
