This 10-year-old girl just won a Ph.D.-level fellowship for a beautiful reason

When innovation agency Five by Five opened up admission to their Ph.D.-level Paris Summer Innovation Fellowship intended to bring together “bright young minds,” one 10-year-old girl named Eva applied for the most beautiful reason — to make the streets of Paris a happier place.

In an open letter to Eva published on Facebook, Five by Five founding partner Kat Borlongan wrote that Eva’s pitch had been accepted, and she was granted “among an impressive pool of candidates from all across the world.” Kat also included a summary of Eva’s pitch:

The president of Thymio, the robotics company Eva uses, will be personally helping her and will be providing their latest robot for her project. “I love your project and agree that more should be done—through robotics or otherwise—to improve Paris’ streets and make them smile again. . . I am writing to you personally because your application inspired me,” Kat wrote to Eva in the letter. “There was nothing on the website that said the program was open to 10 year olds but–as you must have noticed–nothing that said that it was not.”

The post has been shared over 30,000 times, with hundreds of people commenting voicing their support and appreciation for the partnership between Five by Five and little Eva. Kat also commented with an update after speaking with Eva’s father on the phone: “To everyone who asked, I just got off the phone with Eva’s dad. He is wildly proud of his little girl and comfortable with anyone sharing this story online.”

You can learn more about Eva’s project on her blog. Congratulations, Eva, and we have a strong feeling you’ll end up totally changing the world in absolutely beautiful ways. <3