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President's Engagement Prizes
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.
Class of 2020 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners announced
Awarded annually, the Prizes empower Penn students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world, and are the largest of their kind in higher education.
Homeward Initiative takes on the challenge of supporting homeless LGBTQ youth
With his President’s Engagement Prize, May graduate Brendan Taliaferro is creating a nonprofit to provide housing and assistance for homeless LGBTQ youth in Philadelphia.
Cultivando Juntos takes shape in Kennett Square
As part of their President’s Engagement Prize project, José Maciel and Antonio Renteria are reframing the concept of healthy living for mushroom farmworkers.
Rebound Liberia kicks into a new phase
Rebound Liberia, awarded the President’s Engagement Prize in April, is preparing a girls’ youth basketball tournament for November.
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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