Chinese students honored for innovation in financial, societal challenges

Prudential Financial has awarded 30 young change-makers, including two Chinese students, at the Emerging Visionaries Summit held at their headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.

The two Chinese young students, Shiyun Yang and Siyuan Zhou, were winners of Prudential Financial's Emerging Visionaries program along with others from Brazil, India, Japan and the U.S.

The awards honors remarkable young people between 14 and 18 years old for leading initiatives that produce fresh, innovative solutions to current financial and societal challenges.

During a four-day summit held last month, five young people were named Grand Prize winners. Yang and Zhou were among 25 other honorees nominated in February to each receive a $5,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to the Emerging Visionaries Summit in April.

Yang is a ninth grader from the Second Affiliated School of Fudan University. She is a co-founder of the "Heart Star Lighting" project, which has mobilized more than 5,300 students and their families from more than 50 schools across China to raise over 730,000 yuan and purchase over 70,000 pieces of personal protective equipment and daily necessities for COVID-19 and flood relief in Henan province in 2021.

Zhou, a sophomore from the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy, used her interests and skills in piano and vocal music. She created a music therapy program for autistic children through continuous research and exploration of music therapy theory.

During the four-day international summit, the winners from different cultures and perspectives had face-to-face discussions.

"I really want to know what kind of public welfare projects young people are doing in the U.S.," Zhou said. She said her belief in the power of public welfare to change the world has become even stronger.

"With passion and perseverance, we will cross language and regional barriers to continue to contribute and support each other's public welfare projects. We are changemakers," said Yang.

"We have summarized and reflected on our own projects, such as how to further improve skills training, how to budget, how to develop plans, analyze difficult cases, and find solutions to different problems, as well as one-on-one coaching analysis. These rich activities have given me more confidence in the 'Heart Star Lighting' public welfare project that I am responsible for, and my sense of direction is clearer," Yang said.

Prudential Emerging Visionaries is the evolution of Prudential's long-running Spirit of Community awards, which for 26 years honored more than 150,000 outstanding youth volunteers. In 2022, Prudential Emerging Visionaries was launched in the U.S..

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.

"The goals of our Emerging Visionaries program reflect Prudential's overarching purpose: to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world," said Prudential Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey. "We applaud all of our honorees for their commitment to improving the lives of others and creating inclusive and thriving communities."