Five Penn Students Win $150,000 Each For Their Community Service Projects
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania has chosen five students for its inaugural "President's Engagement Prize," created for students who have a plan to make the world a better place.
Each of the students will receive up to $150,000 to carry out his or her project, making the prize one of the largest of its kind.
The winners include a business major, encouraging female leadership; a nursing student, designing an in-home cardiac rehab program; a biology major, building a health clinic and a girls' school in his native Ghana; and two engineering majors, who plan to build a water treatment system in Kenya.
"Water purification and access to water has been a passion of mine for years," notes Matt Lisle, of Bryn Mawr, Pa.,, who is on the water purification team, which will use a seed native to Kenya that's been shown to remove impurities from water better than some industrial processes.
Lisle says the one-year prize should allow them to get the project well underway, but he adds they hope to stay involved beyond that.
"We are unbelievably happy to have this opportunity," he said.
