Buffalo
and Pittsford students will receive $5,000 awards and invitations to the 2024 summit
for their work addressing the challenges of a changing
world.
NEWARK,
N.J., Feb. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --
Sunya Afrasiabi, 17, of
Buffalo, and OlaRose Ndubuisi, 16,
of Pittsford, today were each
named a 2024 Prudential Emerging Visionary for their inspiring
commitment to improving the lives of others.
As two of 25 Prudential Emerging Visionary winners, Sunya
and OlaRose will each receive a $5,000 award to help take their innovation to the
next level. They are also invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to
Prudential's headquarters in Newark, New
Jersey, where they will be coached by Prudential employees
and have the chance to meet other young leaders.
Prudential Emerging Visionaries recognizes young people
ages 14-18 whose fresh perspectives and innovative solutions
address pressing financial and societal challenges in their
communities. The program's goals align with Prudential's purpose:
to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of our
changing world.
"I am inspired by the students' sense of
purpose and commitment to driving positive change in their
communities," said Chairman and CEO Charles
Lowrey. "We're honored to support these young leaders as
they bring their extraordinary projects to life."
During the summit, to be held April
20-23, five winners will also have the opportunity to
present their solutions in a pitch-off, where a grand prize winner
will be awarded an additional $10,000
in funding. What's more, Prudential employees will again vote to
name an Employees' Choice Award winner, who will receive an
additional $5,000.
New York's 2024
Prudential Emerging Visionaries:
Sunya Afrasiabi
founded the "#MyStory Program," a storytelling project that
amplifies the experiences of immigrants and refugees through the
sharing of oral history, narrative therapy and photography. Sunya's
project harnesses the power of stories to unite immigrant
storytellers and national audiences around a shared understanding
of the strength and diversity of the immigrant
experience.
"My parents were immigrants from China and Iran," she says, "they came from vastly
different cultures but were able to coexist." Sunya recognized that
stories built a shared understanding between people, an important
approach to combating ignorance. The "#MyStory Program" pairs
volunteers with immigrants and refugees to produce pieces of media
and present them at in-person events and online.
OlaRose Ndubuisi
founded "The Finding Scoliosis Kindly Project," an initiative
that works to increase global awareness of scoliosis, support young
people in coping with the challenging mental and physical effects
of the condition, and advocate for the early management and
treatment of scoliosis in children.
OlaRose's passion for her project came from her own
personal journey with scoliosis. Diagnosed as a ninth grader, she
utilized poetry and writing as an outlet for the pain and negative
emotions she experienced. "I want to give other kids the
opportunity to repurpose their pain into positive power, in order
to manage the emotional effects of scoliosis healthily," says
OlaRose. "The Finding Scoliosis Kindly Project" provides young
people with resources to support their journey with scoliosis and
fundraises to support free scoliosis screenings in underserved
communities in the U.S. and Nigeria. Through her work, OlaRose has
educated more than 300 children about scoliosis.
Prudential Emerging Visionaries is sponsored by Prudential
in collaboration with Ashoka, a leading organization in the social
impact sector, with advisory support provided by the Financial
Health Network, an authority on financial health and a
longtime partner of The Prudential Foundation.
The program is an evolution of Prudential's Spirit of
Community Awards, which honored more than 150,000 outstanding youth
volunteers over 26 years.
To read about all of this year's Prudential Emerging
Visionaries, visit
prudential.com/emergingvisionaries.
About Prudential Financial
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial wellness leader
and premier active global investment manager, has operations in
the United States, Asia, Europe
and Latin America. Prudential's
diverse and talented employees help to make lives better by
creating financial opportunity for more people. Prudential's iconic
Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and
innovation for more than a century. For more information, please
visit news.prudential.com.
About Ashoka
Ashoka is the largest global network of leading social
entrepreneurs — individuals with new ideas to systemically address
the world's biggest challenges and the entrepreneurial skill to
transform those ideas into national, regional and global social
impact. Over 40 years, Ashoka has supported more than 3,600 social
entrepreneurs in 90 countries with solutions addressing society's
most pressing issues. Ashoka's vision is a world in which Everyone
is a Changemaker — a society that responds quickly and effectively
to challenges, and where each individual has the freedom,
confidence and societal support to address any social problem. For
more information, visit
ashoka.org.
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SOURCE The Prudential Insurance Company of America