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President's Engagement Prizes

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President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners honored at awards luncheon
2018 Winners of the President's Engagement and Innovation Prizes

Penn President Amy Gutmann and Provost Wendell Pritchett with winners of the President's Engagement Prize and President's Innovation Prize

President’s Engagement and Innovation Prize winners honored at awards luncheon

Nine Penn seniors have given their families even more reason to be proud. As soon as they graduate this month, they will start working full-time on innovative projects they designed to make a positive, lasting change for the “betterment of humankind.”  

Jacquie Posey

Simple solutions help children in Mexican orphanage fight infectious disease
Alaina Hall, one of the 2018 President’s Engagement Prize winners and a School of Nursing senior.

Alaina Hall, one of the 2018 President’s Engagement Prize winners and a School of Nursing senior. She is beginning her initiative, “Healthy Pequeños,” or “Healthy Little Ones,” at one of the homes of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos orphanage, but has hopes it will expand to all 15 others within the organization. If that happens, she’ll reach nearly 3,200 children. 

Simple solutions help children in Mexican orphanage fight infectious disease

With the President’s Engagement Prize, senior Alaina Hall, is building a project she calls “Healthy Pequeños,” or “Healthy Little Ones,” which aims to help children in a Mexican orphanage fight infectious disease.

Michele W. Berger

Empowering workers while reducing waste in Mumbai
Balasubramanian-Hjemdahl-PEP-2018

Winners of a 2018 Penn President's Engagement Prize, Wharton seniors Svanika Balasubramanian and Peter Wang Hjemdahl will launch rePurpose, a digital marketplace that connects individual waste recyclers in India to larger recycling operations, boosting wages and diverting trash from landfills.

Empowering workers while reducing waste in Mumbai

In Mumbai, waste sorters represent a crucial yet marginalized labor pool, diverting would-be trash from landfills by sorting and selling recyclables. President’s Engagement Prize recipients Svanika Balasubramanian and Peter Wang Hjemdahl will connect these workers to larger recycling operations through a digital marketplace.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A ‘furniture bundle’ for those who need it most
ChicagoFurnitureBank

A ‘furniture bundle’ for those who need it most

Three seniors—Andrew Witherspoon, James McPhail, and Griffin Amdur—received the President’s Engagement Prize to get the Chicago Furniture Bank off the ground.

Lauren Hertzler

Launching Leaders in the Latino Community

    • Launching Leaders in the Latino Community

    One year ago, three Penn seniors wrote a 1,000-word description of their plan to create an after-school program for Latino teenagers in South Philadelphia, the centerpiece of their application for the President’s Engagement Prize.
    Connecting Homeless Populations With Health Care

    • Connecting Homeless Populations With Health Care

    Homeless people are uniquely vulnerable, at risk of a variety of health problems, including chronic illness, hunger, pain, and infections. While resources exist to provide homeless populations with health insurance and care, those resources don’t always make their way to the people who need them.

    Katherine Unger Baillie