Class of 2025 President’s Engagement, Innovation, and Sustainability Prize winners announced
Four prize-winning teams will design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world.
4 min. read
(Top left) Team PIXEL: Ejun Mary Hong and Jack Roney; (top right) The Nourish to Flourish team: Inaya Zaman, Rashmi Acharya, and Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio. (Bottom left) For Sync Labs, Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu; (bottom right) Piotr Lazarek for Nirby.
University of Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson today announced the recipients of the 2025 President’s Engagement, Innovation, and Sustainability Prizes. Awarded annually, the Prizes empower Penn undergraduate students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. Since the establishment of the President’s Prizes, generous philanthropic support has ensured that each Prize-winning project receives $100,000, as well as a $50,000 living stipend per team member and each team collaborates with a Penn faculty or staff mentor.
Five fourth-year students have been named recipients of the 2025 President’s Engagement Prize. They are Ejun Mary Hong and Jack Nicholas Roney for PIXEL, and Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio, Inaya Zaman, and Rashmi Acharya for Nourish to Flourish. Three fourth-year students have received the President’s Innovation Prize: Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu for Sync Labs. Fourth-year Piotr Lazarek has received the President’s Sustainability Prize, a sub-category of the President’s Innovation Prize, for Nirby.
“This year’s recipients of the President’s Prizes and their Prize-winning projects exemplify Penn’s values and strategic priorities and the highest ideals of higher education,” said Jameson. “PIXEL, Nourish to Flourish, Sync Labs, and Nirby are interdisciplinary and innovative in their approach—engaging in West Philadelphia to inspire creativity and to introduce nutritional programs improving health and addressing hunger; innovating to enhance eldercare through AI; and embracing a sustainable approach to farmland soil management. On behalf of the University, I congratulate this year’s winners.”
The 2025 prize recipients—selected from an applicant pool of 68—will spend the next year implementing the projects:
Ejun Hong and Jack Roney for PIXEL: Hong, a fine arts and cinema and media studies double major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Edmonton, Canada, and Seoul, South Korea, and Roney, an architecture and fine arts major in the College from Jonesborough, Tennessee, will focus on building bridges between the creative industries and under-resourced public high school students in the greater Philadelphia area through photography and film with the Project for Inspiring eXpression, Education, and Leadership (PIXEL), building on the existing Participatory Action Art Mentorship Program at Sayre High School. The PIXEL team is mentored by Jarrett Stein, UACS Director of Health Partnerships and Social Ventures at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.
The Nourish to Flourish team: Rashmi Acharya, Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio, and Inaya Zaman.
Imani Nkrumah Ardayfio, Inaya Zaman, and Rashmi Acharya for Nourish to Flourish: Ardayfio, a history and Africana Studies double major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Washington, D.C.; Zaman, a dual-degree major in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business from Washington, D.C.; and Acharya, a health and societies major in the College from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, will draw on principles of behavioral economics to implement school-based nutrition programs in West Philadelphia. At schools, the team will create access points for parents and families to obtain fresh produce from local farmers to address hunger and nutrition inequities, work to redesign school cafeteria spaces and change food marketing to promote healthy food choices, and offer interactive hands-on nutrition education during and after school hours. The Nourish to Flourish team is mentored by Heather Klusaritz, associate professor of family medicine and community health at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Sync Labs: Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu.
Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu for Sync Labs: Herbert, an electrical engineering major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science from Short Hills, New Jersey; Lindquist, a dual-degree major in computer science and economics in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology from Bellevue, Washington; and Popescu, a systems engineering major in Penn Engineering from Easton, Connecticut, will address eldercare with an effective, privacy-centric AI system that reduces staff exhaustion, addresses caregiving gaps, and offers a solution for issues in senior care. Sync Labs is mentored by Jeffrey Babin, professor and associate director of engineering entrepreneurship in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the engineering faculty director for Venture Lab.
Piotr Lazarek for Nirby: Lazarek, a dual-degree major in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology from Pawłowice, Poland, will further grow Nirby, a real-time soil analytics and farmland-management system designed to address inefficiencies in fertilizer usage, by integrating satellite data and drone-enabled soil measurements to provide real-time insights into field productivity and nutrient distribution. Piotr is mentored by Jeffrey Babin.
This year’s finalists also included fourth-years Nikita Bharati and Louis Hu for GirlSTEMpowerment; Hiba Jamil, Anthony Montes de Oca, and Alan Han for The Humana Program; Brianna Leung for Enginuity; Shivek Narang for Empower Through Recovery; and Mathieu Perez for Lucy.
“Congratulations to this inspiring group of students, whose innovative ideas will shape our future,” said Provost John L. Jackson Jr. “Their projects—across diverse areas from AI and art to behavioral economics and farmland management—embody the values of our strategic framework, In Principle and Practice, to lead on the great challenges of our time, foster leadership and service, and deepen connections with our neighbors and the world. We are grateful to their faculty advisors and the staff of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, who worked closely with them to develop these exciting initiatives.”
The Prizes are supported by Trustee Emerita Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, in honor of Ed Resovsky, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Ramanan Raghavendran.
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