Prize Recipients

Meet our 2023 Prize recipients.

Click on their names to see detailed descriptions of their projects.

Ziba Ahamad
2023 - DENVER

Ziba founded the Racial Student Allies (RSA) Club for her middle school with the intention of targeting a young audience to foster racial awareness that would remain throughout adulthood.

Emily Ammerman
2023 - DETROIT

Emily is the founder of Persian Cultural Awareness Day at H.H. Dow High School in Midland, Michigan.

Cherie Animashaun
2023 - CHICAGO

Cherie is committed to creating equitable spaces for children of color through education, policy and literature.

Dania Alexa Arteaga
2023 - SAN DIEGO

By administering the nation's first student-run pop-up clinic alongside two physicians, Dania exposes the disparities in healthcare and fights for her community.

Iris Cheng
2023 - HOUSTON

Iris founded the Literacy and Legislation Initiative, a non-profit organization aimed at combating disparities in education accessibility.

Miguel Chiapetta
2023 - BALTIMORE

Miguel is the founder and co-president of the student-led diversity organization, Color of Youth, which is based in Baltimore, but serves youth across America.

Edidiong Ekong
2023 - DALLAS

Edidiong is currently the vice president of her school's Black Student Union, where she focuses her work in race relations.

Breanna Ewell
2023 - PITTSBURGH

Breanna worked to establish a Black Student Union for the middle school as a way for younger African American students to have the opportunity to learn more about their culture.

Isabella Green
2023 - CLEVELAND

Isabella is the founder and CEO of The Stem Well, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that advances racial equity and respect in pediatric cancer prevention and care.

Cameron Hong
2023 - LOS ANGELES

Cameron co-founded Published Points of View, an organization that provides journalism training for students, to lower the barrier of entry for journalism in marginalized communities, which lack critical education in expressive writing.

Essence Jenkins
2023 - NEW JERSEY (CENTRAL/SOUTHERN REGION)

Essence is a chairwoman in the Black Student Union and serves as an activist for change at her predominantly white institution.

Wendo Kimori
2023 - KANSAS CITY

Wendo is the founder and president of Lawrence's NAACP Youth Council, where she's led numerous youth empowerment projects to amplify and celebrate racial diversity in her city.

Elizabeth Komara
2023 - ROCHESTER

Elizabeth led the research, planning, fundraising, and implementation of an Interfaith Space room where students of diverse religious backgrounds can now visit and pray in privacy and comfort.

Tula Kurashige
2023 - SEATTLE

Tula founded and serves as president of Garfield's Japanese Student Association (JSA), and presides over a coalition of thirty Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) student leaders

Rekha Mahadevan
2023 - BOSTON

Rekha's work on race relations encompasses her school and her broader community.

Makyah Malone
2023 - MEMPHIS

Makyah serves in several roles at school but the Diversity Club president, Campus Ambassador, and chaplain of her senior class, are a few that are near to her heart.

Nora Ngo Mitchell
2023 - TAMPA

Nora founded and continues to lead her social justice group, Sarasota Students for Justice.

Neha Nakirikanti
2023 - ATLANTA

Neha founded a STEM Outreach Program in her community, working to provide those of marginalized communities with access to educational resources and STEM opportunities by creating after school programs in Title I Schools.

Chiamaka Okafor
2023 - NEW YORK CITY

Chiamaka serves as president of the Student Equity Association, an organization committed to promoting the understanding of equity and amplifying underrepresented voices across schools and the wider community.

Keith Grant Pemberton II
2023 - AT LARGE

Keith currently serves as the president of the High Point Youth Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Gustavo Garcia Perez
2023 - ALABAMA

Since the 9th grade, Gustavo has contributed greatly to bringing about racial equity and inclusion in his school and his community. 

Saahil Ray
2023 - CONNECTICUT

Saahil created the program 'Diversity Discussions' in the summer of 2020 as he felt students in the Newtown area could benefit from a safe space to talk about social justice.

Sophia Roach
2023 - PHILADELPHIA

Sophia is a founding member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at CAPA, as well as the vice president of the Latinx Club.

Dashawn Sheffield
2023 - NEW JERSEY (NORTHERN NJ REGION)

Dashawn created the curriculum for and aided in the implementation of a "Health and Wellness" class within his school to focus on destigmatizing difficult conversations and fostering knowledge, openness, empathy and care.

Summer Sun
2023 - SAN FRANCISCO

Summer created Read2Rise, a nonprofit organization that provides books and reading programs to underserved youth, cultivating a lifelong love of reading and the next generation of engaged citizens.

Kemi Tela
2023 - NASHVILLE

Kemi holds leadership roles in multiple clubs including the Multi-Cultural Student Union (MCSU)

Zoe Terry
2023 - MIAMI

Zoe serves as the founder of Zoe's Dolls, an organization that has promoted positive Black body images by giving away thousands of Black dolls through chapters around the country and abroad.

Michele Togbe
2023 - WASHINGTON, D.C.

Michele has been a leading advocate for increased mental health resources countywide, the incorporation of diverse perspectives in humanities courses, expanded civic education programs and career and technical education opportunities in low-income communities.

Nell Williams
2023 - ST. LOUIS

Nell started an independent research project as a part of her Spark! Bioscience class that studied medical equity and medical trust within communities of color of the past and present.

Learn more about our past Prize recipients from 202220212020 and 2019.