USC Senior, Pedro De Abreu, Receives Prestigious HARVARD Award
March 28, 2014
COLUMBIA, SC – March 28, 2014 – USC graduating senior, author and entrepreneur Pedro De Abreu receives coveted Leadership in Education Award from Harvard University. The Leadership in Education Awards are given to thirteen top master’s degree candidates with strong leadership potential. The award recognizes De Abreu’s leadership, non-profit and education initiatives.
De Abreu has also been accepted to a research-intensive Master’s degree at Harvard University. At Harvard, he will study the brand new field of Mind, Brain and Education under renowned Charles Bigelow Professor of Education and education neuroscientist Dr. Kurt Fischer.
Besides the recognition, Leadership in Education recipients are given an award equivalent to one half of the total tuition.
Photo at top right: Pedro De Abreu at a speaking presentation.
De Abreu, born to hardships in Brazil, came to America when he was 15, not knowing any English. Upon graduating high school, De Abreu helped co-found, with two of his friends, a multi-media company in North Hollywood, CA. This company branched off to MoofacesTV, where stars like Will Smith and the Black Eyed Peas were interviewed. The company developed partnerships with MTV Networks and many others.
Upon returning to South Carolina, he started the Check Mate Foundation, a foundation that teaches chess and leadership to children. In 2012, British publishing house Marshall Cavendish featured him, along with 24 entrepreneurs from around the world, in the book Young Entrepreneur World: How 25 Teen-Trepreneurs Succeeded and Left World Leaders Scratching Their Heads.
De Abreu graduates this May from USC with majors in Business Economics, Management and Organizational Leadership. He has been named South Carolina’s New Century Scholar by the Coca-Cola Foundation and by the USA Today. He is a Darla Moore Emerging Leader, TEDMED delegate, City of Columbia Fellow, TEDx speaker, USC Leadership Scholar, All-USA C.C. Academic Team nominee, Pearson Prize National Fellow semi-finalist, member of the SC Academic Team, a Magellan and a Walker Institute Scholar, besides having been recommended for a Fulbright Fellowship to Portugal by the U.S. National Screening Committee. De Abreu writes a monthly column on entrepreneurship, innovation and public speaking for Virgin magazine. He has his own segment on television, where he hosts the Motivational Minute every other Monday on WLTX News 19, CBS affiliate.
De Abreu is also a motivational speaker. He tells schools, colleges and businesses that one’s dreams are within reach, and they only have to seize them.
