Penn President Larry Jameson announced the President's Engagement, Innovation, and Sustainability Prize winners on April 17 (Photo courtesy of Penn Today).
Penn President Larry Jameson announced the winners of the 2025 President’s Engagement and Innovation Prizes, awarding funding for projects designed to create positive social change.
Established by former Penn President Amy Gutmann in 2015, the prizes are awarded annually to Penn seniors who will undertake post-graduation projects that aim to make a “positive, lasting difference in the world.” All prize recipients collaborate with a Penn faculty mentor, and the projects receive up to $100,000 as well as a $50,000 living stipend for each team member.
“There is a lot of process behind this to select these amazing winners,” Jameson told The Daily Pennsylvanian in an April 17 interview. “I am in total awe as I meet … the incredibly talented people. All of these efforts are intended to spark creativity, teamwork, and collaboration.”
According to the President’s Engagement Prizes website, the prizes “are competitively awarded annually to academically excellent and civically engaged Penn seniors to design and undertake fully-funded local, national, or global engagement projects during the first year after they graduate from Penn.”
The 2025 President’s Engagement Prize was awarded to four Penn seniors. College seniors Ejun Hong and Jack Roney won the prize for founding PIXEL — the “Project for Inspiring eXpression, Education and Leadership” — which aims to connect different creative industries. College seniors Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio, Inaya Zaman, and Rashmi Acharya also won the President’s Engagement Prize for their project “Nourish to Flourish.”
Engineering seniors Melanie Herbert and Alexandra Popescu, along with Wharton and Engineering senior Nami Lindquist, were awarded the President’s Innovation Prize for their project “Sync Labs.” Wharton and Engineering senior Piotr Lazarek won the President’s Sustainability Prize, a subcategory of the President’s Innovation Prize, for “Nirby,” a project intended to counteract inefficiencies in how fertilizer is managed.
“PIXEL, Nourish to Flourish, Sync Labs, and Nirby are interdisciplinary and innovative in their approach,” Jameson told Penn Today. “[They are] engaging in West Philadelphia to inspire creativity and introduce nutritional programs improving health and addressing hunger … [and] innovating to enhance eldercare through AI.”
Provost John Jackson Jr. recognized the recipients for their embodiment of Penn’s strategic framework, “In Principle and Practice,” and work “to lead on the great challenges of our time, foster leadership and service, and deepen connections with our neighbors and the world.”
The teams, chosen from a pool of 68 applicants, will collaborate with a Penn faculty or staff mentor on their work. PIXEL will be mentored by Jarrett Stein, who serves as the director of health partnerships and social ventures for the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. “Nourish to Flourish,” “Sync Labs,” and “Nirby” will receive mentorship from Penn professors Heather Klusaritz and Jeffrey Babin.
“Congratulations to this inspiring group of students,” Jackson added. “[Their] innovative ideas will shape our future.”
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