New York youth honored as Prudential Emerging Visionaries

Buffalo and Pittsford students will receive $5,000 awards and invitations to the 2024 summit for their work addressing the challenges of a changing world.

NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunya Afrasiabi, 17, of Buffalo, and OlaRose Ndubuisi, 16, of Pittsford, today were each named a 2024 Prudential Emerging Visionary for their inspiring commitment to improving the lives of others.

As two of 25 Prudential Emerging Visionary winners, Sunya and OlaRose will each receive a $5,000 award to help take their innovation to the next level. They are also invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Prudential's headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, where they will be coached by Prudential employees and have the chance to meet 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 program's goals align with Prudential's purpose: to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world.

"I am inspired by the students' sense of purpose and commitment to driving positive change in their communities," said Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey. "We're honored to support these young leaders as they bring their extraordinary projects to life."

During the summit, to be held April 20-23, 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.

New York's 2024 Prudential Emerging Visionaries:

Sunya Afrasiabi founded the "#MyStory Program," a storytelling project that amplifies the experiences of immigrants and refugees through the sharing of oral history, narrative therapy and photography. Sunya's project harnesses the power of stories to unite immigrant storytellers and national audiences around a shared understanding of the strength and diversity of the immigrant experience.

"My parents were immigrants from China and Iran," she says, "they came from vastly different cultures but were able to coexist." Sunya recognized that stories built a shared understanding between people, an important approach to combating ignorance. The "#MyStory Program" pairs volunteers with immigrants and refugees to produce pieces of media and present them at in-person events and online.

OlaRose Ndubuisi founded "The Finding Scoliosis Kindly Project," an initiative that works to increase global awareness of scoliosis, support young people in coping with the challenging mental and physical effects of the condition, and advocate for the early management and treatment of scoliosis in children.

OlaRose's passion for her project came from her own personal journey with scoliosis. Diagnosed as a ninth grader, she utilized poetry and writing as an outlet for the pain and negative emotions she experienced. "I want to give other kids the opportunity to repurpose their pain into positive power, in order to manage the emotional effects of scoliosis healthily," says OlaRose. "The Finding Scoliosis Kindly Project" provides young people with resources to support their journey with scoliosis and fundraises to support free scoliosis screenings in underserved communities in the U.S. and Nigeria. Through her work, OlaRose has educated more than 300 children about scoliosis.

Prudential Emerging Visionaries is sponsored by Prudential in collaboration with Ashoka, a leading organization in the social impact sector, with advisory support provided by the Financial Health Network, an authority on financial health and a longtime partner of The Prudential Foundation.

The program is an evolution of Prudential's Spirit of Community Awards, which honored more than 150,000 outstanding youth volunteers over 26 years.

To read about all of 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.

SOURCE The Prudential Insurance Company of America