Prudential Financial runs Emerging Visionaries. It honors young leaders for innovative financial and societal solutions. Grand Prize winners were named at a four-day summit in Newark, New Jersey. Projects promoted financial inclusion and economic equality.

For initiatives that range from promoting financial inclusion to advocating for economic equality, five young people were 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 between 14 and 18 years old across the United States for leading initiatives that produce fresh, innovative solutions to current 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 an 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, 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 on an Employees’ Choice Award winner, who received an additional $5,000.

Read on to learn about the five Grand Prize winners and the Prudential Employees’ Choice Winner.

Source: News.prudential