Isaac was among five Grand Prize winners honored this week by
football legend Eli Manning and
Prudential Chairman and CEO Charles
Lowrey for his work addressing the challenges of a changing
world.
NEWARK,
N.J., April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
Isaac Hertenstein, 16, of
Greencastle, Indiana, was among
five young people named Grand Prize winners by Prudential
Financial's Emerging Visionaries program at a four-day summit held
this week at Prudential's Newark
headquarters.
The Emerging Visionaries program is conducted by Prudential
Financial in partnership with the social entrepreneurship network
Ashoka, with advisory support from the Financial Health Network. It
honors young people ages 14-18 from across the United States for leading initiatives that
result in fresh, innovative solutions to current-day financial and
societal challenges.
"Supporting the efforts of these Emerging Visionaries is another
way we are working to fulfill Prudential's purpose: to make lives
better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world,"
said Prudential Chairman and CEO Charles
Lowrey. "We're honored to celebrate the initiative,
creativity and empathy of these young leaders, and look forward to
seeing all the great things they accomplish in the
future."
The 25 winners, named in February, each earned a $5,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to
this week's Emerging Visionaries Summit, plus a chance to win an
additional $10,000. The summit
included an awards ceremony where finalists were celebrated by
special guests, including philanthropist and two-time Super
Bowl-winning quarterback Eli
Manning. The students also consulted with Prudential senior
leaders on topics of strategy and impact and worked with Prudential
employee coaches who helped them refine and advance their
projects.
As part of the four-day event, five young people were selected
to pitch their ideas for advancing financial equity to a panel of
judges for a chance to win the additional $10,000 in funding for their initiative.
Pitch-off judges included Lowrey, leaders from Ashoka and the
Financial Health Network, and two program alumni.
The panel was intended to select one Grand Prize finalist from
the five who pitched their projects. However, after hearing the
pitches, the judges decided to award $10,000 to each of the five presenters, in
recognition of the societal impact of their initiatives. In
addition to the Grand Prize winners, Prudential employees voted
this spring to name an Employees' Choice Award winner, who received
an additional $5,000.
Indiana's 2022 Grand Prize
winner:
Isaac Hertenstein, 16, of
Greencastle
Isaac founded
Students Teaching Finance, an initiative that empowers high
school-aged changemakers to teach financial literacy to K-8
students and promote financial inclusion in his rural community.
The program is modeled for students globally through its website
and the initiative has an open-source curriculum, making it a
collaborative creation. Isaac works to maintain and augment the
inclusivity of the program's resources by tailoring lessons to a
range of developmental levels and backgrounds.
In 2020, Isaac started this initiative after witnessing the
stark wealth gap impacting his community firsthand. "The financial
discrepancies in my community sickened me, and I pondered a
potential solution," he explained. To date, "Students Teaching
Finance" has brought its lessons to more than 325 students with all
participants reporting that they are now more motivated to invest
and save.
To learn more about Prudential Emerging Visionaries and all 25
winners, 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 every individual has the freedom,
confidence and societal support to address any social problem. For
more information, visit ashoka.org.
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SOURCE Prudential Financial, Inc.