La Plata and Gambrills students honored with $5,000 award and invitations to the 2023 summit
for their work addressing the challenges of a changing
world.
NEWARK,
N.J., Feb. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Sydnie Collins, 18, of La Plata, Maryland, and Joshua Oh, 14, of Gambrills, Maryland, today were named 2023
Prudential Emerging Visionaries for their inspiring commitment to
improving the lives of others.
As two of 25 Prudential Emerging Visionary winners, Sydnie and
Joshua will each receive a $5,000
award to help take their innovations to the next level. They are
also invited to attend an all-expenses-paid trip with their parent
or guardian to Prudential's Newark, New
Jersey, headquarters for a three-day summit in April where
they will receive coaching, skills development and networking
opportunities with Prudential employees and 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 goals of our Emerging Visionaries program reflect
Prudential's overarching purpose: to make lives better by solving
the financial challenges of our changing world," said Chairman and
CEO Charles Lowrey. "We applaud all
of our honorees for their commitment to improving the lives of
others and creating inclusive and thriving communities."
Maryland's 2023 Prudential
Emerging Visionaries:
SOCIETAL PROJECTS CATEGORY
Sydnie Collins is the
founder of "Perfect Timing," an international podcast that promotes
youth positivity by giving young people the space to celebrate
their achievements and combat mental health stigmas.
The goal of "Perfect Timing" is to build confidence among young
people and give them a safe space to share their stories. Sydnie
invites young role models onto the show who are using their
platforms to motivate, raise awareness or educate others. "Exposing
these changemakers to my audience will not only show them who they
can be, but also empower them to use their voices in a way that
uplifts their own communities," she says. Since its launch, 109
episodes have been released.
Joshua Oh co-founded
an initiative to increase access to diapers across the United States through innovative
distribution methods and lobbying to remove diaper taxes.
Joshua's initiative currently runs biweekly pop-up pantries at
local elementary schools, which have distributed more than 200,000
diapers. His team also successfully lobbied the state senator of
Maryland to remove the diaper tax,
saving families $12 million a year.
They are now using the same toolkit to campaign against the diaper
tax in 29 other states.
Emerging Visionaries is a collaboration between Prudential
Financial and Ashoka, a leading social impact organization, with
support from the Financial Health Network, an authority on
financial health and longtime partner of The Prudential
Foundation.
During the summit, to be held April
22-25, 2023, 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.
The program is an evolution of Prudential's Spirit of Community
Awards, which, over 26 years, honored more than 150,000 outstanding
youth volunteers.
To read about all 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 Prudential Financial, Inc.