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President's Engagement Prizes
Empowering refugee communities with access to clean water
With project Maji, seniors Martin Leet and Leah Voytovich will use their President’s Engagement Prize to install a solar-powered water tank and provide agricultural and first aid training for members of the Olua I community.
Class of 2021 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners announced
The Prizes enable students to take on post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world.
A pivot, from financial literacy to restorative justice
Collective Climb won a 2020 President’s Engagement Prize as a West Philadelphia-based financial literacy project, but shifted their focus to engage with young people around the issue of community violence.
Increasing access to life-saving, unused medicines in India
Aarogya, a social-enterprise organization, is led by three President’s Engagement Prize winners. Since receiving the award, they’ve started delivering otherwise-unused medicines that save lives and money.
The impact of providing hands-on, interactive projects
With inventXYZ, President’s Innovation Prize winner Nikil Ragav has created a high-tech curriculum for high school to motivate future problem-solvers.
The joy and power of improvisation
With The Unscripted Project, President’s Engagement Prize winners Philip Chen and Meera Menon create an improv curriculum and bring teaching artists to Philadelphia public school students.
PEP winners connect patients with the medicines they need
Aarogya, a social-enterprise nonprofit created by three President’s Engagement Prize winners and graduating seniors, will bring affordable medicines to low-income people living in India.
A ‘Collective Climb’ to combat poverty
With the President’s Engagement Prize, seniors Hyungtae Kim, Kwaku Owusu, and Mckayla Warwick will work to combat poverty in West Philadelphia through education, shared resources, and community collaboration.
Improv with an impact
With their President’s Engagement Prize, Wharton School seniors Philip Chen and Meera Menon plan to create The Unscripted Project, a nonprofit that will run 10-week improv courses in Philadelphia public schools, partnering with the Philly Improv Theater.
Penn alum Shadrack Frimpong awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Shadrack Frimpong, Penn graduate and 2015 Presidents Engagement Prize winner, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge in England.
In the News
A Philly exoneree works to free other wrongly convicted people. First up: His codefendant
Penn students and alumni, including the President’s Engagement Prize winning team behind Project Hope, have been working with the Terrance Lewis Liberation Foundation to support wrongly convicted people.
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Penn hoops star Princess Aghayere is using her passion for teamwork to save girls’ lives in Liberia
The senior leader of Penn’s 2019 regular season Ivy Champions left Philadelphia after graduation, and traveled 4,600-mile to Liberia. With Penn friends Summer Kollie and Oladunni Alomaja, Aghayere started Rebound Liberia, a youth program whose goal is to use basketball to empower girls in the small West African country.
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9 Penn students win big prizes to fund projects to promote social change
Penn has awarded nine graduating seniors with the annual President’s Engagement and Innovation prizes. President Amy Gutmann said, “Each of the prize recipients has demonstrated a purpose-driven desire to get out and make a difference in their community, across the country, and around the world.”
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