Penn Arts & Sciences Students Win 2024 President’s Engagement Prize

Five College seniors were named recipients of the 2024 President’s Engagement Prize, announced on April 18 by University of Pennsylvania Interim President J. Larry Jameson. Awarded annually, the prizes empower Penn undergraduate students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Each prize-winning project will receive $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend per team member. The prizes are the largest of their kind in higher education. All prize recipients collaborate with a Penn faculty mentor.

The students are Simran Rajpal and Gauthami Moorkanat for Educate to Empower, and Anooshey Ikhlas, Brianna Aguilar, and Catherine Hood for Presby Addiction Care Program.

“The 2024 recipients of the President’s Engagement and Innovation Prizes all combine the highest levels of academic excellence with strong service-minded missions,” said Jameson. “[These projects] exemplify Penn’s founding ethos: to pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake and to use it to do good in the world. I congratulate each of our Prize winners and look forward to seeing their ventures thrive.”

The recipients will spend the next year implementing their projects:

Educate to Empower
Rajpal, a biology and health and societies double major from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, and Moorkanat, a biochemistry major from Stirling, New Jersey, will work to identify and dismantle barriers to breast cancer screenings in marginalized communities through education and resources at community centers in Philadelphia. They are mentored by Leisha Elmore, an assistant professor of surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine and chief of breast surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

Presby Addiction Care Program
Ikhlas, a neuroscience major from Raynham, Massachusetts; Aguilar, a medical sociology major from West Haven, Connecticut; and Hood, a health and societies major from West Greenwich, Rhode Island, will work to implement a volunteer program at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center aimed at addressing challenges encountered by individuals with substance use disorders during hospitalization. The Presby Addiction Care Program team is mentored by Jeanmarie Perrone, professor of emergency medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and founding director of the Penn Medicine Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy.

The prizes are supported by Trustee Emerita Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, in honor of Ed Resovsky; Trustee Emerita Lee Spelman Doty and George E. Doty Jr.; Trustee Emeritus James S. Riepe and Gail Petty Riepe; Trustee David Ertel and Beth Seidenberg Ertel; Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation; and an anonymous donor.