3 Penn students win President's Engagement Prize
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania this spring, Kriya Patel will spend up to three years helping women newly released from prison get their health and medical needs in order.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania this spring, Kriya Patel will spend up to three years helping women newly released from prison get their health and medical needs in order.
Meanwhile, Vaishak Kumar will travel to India, where he aims to teach farmers how to increase their yields.
And Melanie Mariano will work with the Free Library of Philadelphia on giving patrons access to health information.
The three will be able to achieve their goals with the help of a President's Engagement Prize, which gives each $100,000 to help pay for the project, and $50,000 for living expenses.
It's the second year that university president Amy Gutmann is making the awards, designed to allow seniors to spend the year after they graduate working on a project that will make the world better - whether it be down the street or across the globe.
"Vaishak, Melanie, and Kriya embody the very best qualities of Penn undergraduates: their eagerness and ability to translate knowledge into real-world impact and to apply their Penn education toward the betterment of humankind," Gutmann said in a statement.
"These projects represent a most remarkable range of Penn-educated talent, determination and public-spirited enterprise among our students . . . and I look forward to seeing the results of their projects."
Patel is a biological basis of behavior major from Cincinnati. She will work with women about to be released from the Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia. The health insurance will allow the women to stay on their medications and improve their chances of success in the outside world, the university said. She will track the women for three years following release.
Kumar will use efficient technology and research to aid farmers in India. An economics and political science major from Karnataka, he plans to set up a low-cost mobile laboratory to help educate them.
Mariano, a nursing student from Bergenfield, N.J., will provide library patrons with a "one-stop-shopping approach" to health information, medical counseling, and preventative health services, the university said.
The prizes are endowed by trustee Judith Bollinger and William G. Bollinger, trustee Lee Spelman Doty and George E. Doty Jr., and emeritus trustee James S. Riepe and Gail Petty Riepe, the university said.
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