One day in 2024, Aryanksh Parida walked into a bathroom at Norwood High School and noticed “a weird scent,” it was coming from four boys vaping.

At first, he was confused about what to do next. 

“What was I supposed to do right now,” Parida recalled. “Who do I tell?”

Parida turned around, left the bathroom, and began thinking about what he saw. He knew that smoking e-cigarettes was against school policy and unhealthy for a variety of reasons.

Yet, “why was vaping so normalized,” he wondered.

In 2024, Parida founded Escape the Vape, a student-led nonprofit dedicated to vaping prevention in middle and high schools. A high school guidance counselor helped Parida connect with Impact Norwood, an organization promoting a drug-free and healthy community.

While Escape the Vape has no affiliation with Impact Norwood, the organization provided a great impact on launching their mission.

“They were instrumental in helping us get off the ground in our early days,” Parada said. “We are grateful for their initial support, though Escape the Vape has since grown independently of them.”

“Aryanksh came to our attention from a guidance counselor at Norwood High via an email,” Impact Norwood Program Coordinator Robert Blood said. “Aryanksh had a ‘passion project’ regarding anti vaping. He was welcomed into Impact Norwood as a youth ambassador during his freshman year. We provided him with information about the health concerns regarding vaping. Aryanksh’s Escape the Vape campaign is a project he started independently. He remains an active member of Impact Norwood.”

Parida added that since community prevention efforts began, including Escape the Vape, teen vaping rates in Norwood have dropped from 45.7 percent to 19.1 percent.

These efforts include online education materials, as well as opportunities to meet with youth leaders and join support groups. Escape the Vape also has videos on TikTok and Instagram to help those who vape ‘have a second thought’ about the habit.

“We want to tell them they’re not alone, and they can get the support they need,” Parida said.

Escape the Vape gets its message across despite having no budget. According to Parida, the program’s educational materials, fliers and presentation resources are digital and provided to chapter ambassadors at no cost. Since everything is online, there are no printing or shipping costs. The videos appearing on TikTok are created in-house, again, at no expense.

The organization’s mission has gone beyond Norwood. According to Parida, Escape the Vape now has a presence in more than 300 schools across Massachusetts, along with chapters at high schools nationwide; there are also chapters at Florida State and Stanford universities and overseas. He added that more than 100,000 people have been reached through presentations and social media.

Escape the Vape’s TikTok videos have drawn 630 followers and 48,500 likes; its Instagram account has more than 2,000 followers.

Now a junior, Parida said the organization is in the process of obtaining a 501c3 status, meaning financial donations would be tax deductible. He plans to help continue to grow chapters while exploring a career in health care and/or biostats.

“It’s good being able to give back to the community,” Parida said.

For information about Escape the Vape, visit https://linseys0.wixsite.com/escape-the-vape.