Our Bureau
Newark, NY
Indian-American teenagers Nikita Agrawal and Aaryan Doshi were named Grand Prize winners of Prudential Financial’s Emerging Visionaries program. They were awarded at a 4-day summit held recently at Prudential’s Newark headquarters, receiving a cash prize of US$15,000 each.
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. It honors young people between 14 and 18 years old across the United States for leading initiatives that result in fresh, innovative solutions to today’s financial and societal challenges.
Nikita is the co-founder and president of ‘FinPro World’, an initiative that promotes financial literacy among middle and high school-aged students by teaching them computer programming skills. Through a 10-week series, participants learn financial concepts that they then apply and demonstrate through coding.
Nikita’s inspiration came when she realized she could use her programming skills to build financial wellness and resiliency for those around her. “That feeling of being able to add value using my skills, along with my desire to make an impact in my community, triggered the idea of combining financial concepts with computer programming into a powerful educational platform for students,” she explains. So far, her project has helped more than 100 students across 15 countries.
A resident of Cupertino, California, Doshi, 16, leads ‘CirFin’, a global initiative that aims to inspire young people to use fintech to develop more sustainable economies. Speaking of the thought behind his initiative he said, “I realized how little this generation knew about the circular economy and its financial components.
Who will be the change agents if youth do not understand how crucial the circular economy is to combat biodiversity loss and pollution threatening our planet?” Doshi’s initiative has more than 100 participants across four international chapters.
The two teenagers join a group of emerging visionaries that includes 2022 Emerging Visionary Sriya Tallapragada of New Providence, New Jersey. Tallapragada, another Indian American was honored for her efforts to encourage girls to participate in STEAM programs — science, technology, engineering, art and math. She describes her Emerging Visionaries experience as ‘life changing’.
