Last month, two young Indian Americans — 18-year-old Manasvi Koul and 16-year-old Rujul Zaparde — each received a cash prize of $2500 when they were named recipients of the 2011 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for demonstrating the qualities of courage, commitment, compassion and creativity that bestselling children's book author T.A. Barron instills in his heroic fictional characters.

Each year, the Barron Prize for Young Heroes honors 25 young leaders, ages 8 to 18, who have planned and executed significant projects to make a difference in the lives of others and/or the environment.

Koul, of Waxhaw, North Carolina, founded the LIVEbeyond Foundation to educate and recruit bone marrow and cord blood donors. So far, she has registered more than 500 people—all potential life savers. Koul works tirelessly for her cause because she knows first-hand the fear and anxiety of waiting for a bone marrow match.

Diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system at age 12, Koul underwent intense treatment and yet the cancer returned—widespread and aggressive—a few weeks later. Only a bone marrow transplant could save her life, and yet no match could be found.

After months of searching and when she could no longer survive without treatment, Koul resorted to a far riskier transplant of her own stem cells. Complications arose and she battled for nearly two years, undergoing additional chemotherapy and radiation. Against all odds, Koul regained her health and soon after, started her foundation.

She also "called in," belatedly, her wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and asked for something way out of the ordinary—the production of a documentary film to help spread awareness of the need for bone marrow donors.

Koul wrote and produced the video, reliving and relaying her two-year battle with cancer and her dire need for a bone marrow match. The inspiring documentary has helped her to increase her recruitment rate for donors from 10 percent to 80 percent. Koul is now working to grow her group nationally, and has recruited over 140 volunteers in a number of cities to help her conduct donor registration drives.

"I decided I was going to be the voice of the patients waiting for a bone marrow match,” Koul stated in a press release. "I decided to make a difference."

Zaparde, of Plainsboro, New Jersey, founded Drinking Water for India, a non-profit group that has built 34 wells in rural India, bringing clean water to over 55,000 villagers. Since 2007, he has inspired and mobilized over 450 students in 24 American schools to raise the $1000 needed to fund each tube well.

Zaparde began his work as a 12-year-old, following a trip to India with his family. He was shocked to see villagers in his father's birthplace of Paras walking several kilometers each way to fetch water, which was far from clean.

Returning home, he told a classmate what he'd seen, and the two resolved to raise the $1000 needed for a well. They worked for a year to raise the money, holding bake sales, going door-to-door, and organizing events such as a walk-a-thon and car wash.

With the needed $1000 in hand, Zaparde returned to Paras and worked with local villagers to build a well. Since then, he has partnered with Ashoka's Youth Venture and its community of young activists as a way to gain support for his work.

Zaparde continues his travels to India to oversee the construction of each well, and ensures that each one bears the name of the school that funded it. He then shares photos of the wells with the sponsoring schools back in the United States. He is also teaching villagers to harvest excess rainwater, and is building rainwater catchments near many of his wells.

"I've come to appreciate the significance of perseverance and tenacity," Zaparde said. "Set a goal, and charge at it full-speed."