Alisha Zhao of Portland, Oregon Named One of America’s Top 10 Youth Volunteers of 2016

Lake Oswego Student Also Honored for Volunteer Service

Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank pays tribute to both
students at national award ceremony in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alisha Zhao, 17, of Portland, Ore., was named one of America’s top 10
youth volunteers of 2016 today by The Prudential Spirit of Community
Awards during the program’s 21st annual national award ceremony at the
Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Selected from a field of more than 29,000
youth volunteers from across the country, Alisha has earned the title of
National Honoree, along with a personal award of $5,000, an engraved
gold medallion, a crystal trophy for her school, and a $5,000 grant from
The Prudential Foundation for a nonprofit charitable organization of her
choice.

Also honored this week in Washington, D.C., was Michael Murray, 14, of
Lake Oswego. Michael and Alisha were named Oregon’s top youth volunteers
in February, and were officially recognized last night at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History along with the top two
youth volunteers in each other state and the District of Columbia. At
that event, each of the 102 State Honorees for 2016 received $1,000
awards as well as personal congratulations from Academy Award-winning
actress Hilary Swank. The honorees each also received engraved silver
medallions and all-expense-paid trips with a parent to Washington, D.C.,
for this week’s recognition events.

Alisha, a junior at Lincoln High School, created a club at her school to
provide services to local homeless people, and then founded a nonprofit
organization called “Kids First Project” to expand her efforts and focus
on the needs of homeless youth. While volunteering at a homeless shelter
several years ago, Alisha realized that the families there were not
getting the help they needed to escape the generational cycle of
poverty. “I met youth who were capable of becoming doctors, dancers, and
even presidents, yet did not have the resources to achieve their
dreams,” she said. It quickly became a passion of hers to help supply
those resources.

As a freshman, Alisha started the Hope for Homeless Club, which, over
the following two years grew to include more than 300 members and
conducted projects serving 500 families and an additional 200
individuals. Then, Alisha decided to form a nonprofit that could deliver
educational and recreational programs to homeless youth through multiple
organizations and shelters. She recruited an advisory board, a board of
directors and volunteer leaders, and began organizing activities to help
homeless kids reach their potential, including arts and crafts projects,
games, tutoring, peer mentoring, life skills classes and donations of
school supplies. In recognition of her leadership, Alisha was appointed
by Portland’s mayor to be the first young person to ever serve on the
city’s Human Rights Commission.

Michael, an eighth-grader at Lake Oswego Junior High School, started a
club at his school that has collected enough food and money over the
past few years to provide an estimated 10,000 meals to hungry Oregon
families. “It became clear to me that I should focus on hunger when I
learned how many people in my community do not have access to food,”
said Michael. In 2014, he worked with his principal and one of his
teachers to get his club off the ground, then advertised for members.

A core group of about 15 students now participate in Michael’s “Hunger
Fighters Oregon” club on a regular basis, meeting weekly to talk about
how best to collect donations. At first, the members knocked on doors in
their neighborhoods, but then began to conduct collection drives at
their school. They also sell T-shirts that say “I won’t stand for
hunger.” To further educate his fellow students about hunger, Michael
delivered a 15-minute speech and a PowerPoint presentation at an
assembly for each grade at his school, speaking directly to more than
900 middle-schoolers. All of the donations gathered by his club go to
the Oregon Food Bank, which distributes them to food kitchens across the
state. “I will never be able to know exactly how many people I helped
directly,” said Michael, “but if all of this helped one person who was
hungry, then I accomplished what I set out to do.”

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards is a national youth
recognition program sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership
with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

“By using their time and talents to better their communities, these
young people have achieved great things – and become examples for us
all,” said John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial,
Inc. “Congratulations to an exemplary group of honorees.”

“These students have demonstrated a truly remarkable level of leadership
and commitment in the course of their volunteer service, and it’s an
honor to celebrate their accomplishments,” said Michael Allison,
president of NASSP. “We commend each and every one of them for a job
well done.”

In addition to Alisha, these are the other 2016 National Honorees:

Kayla Abramowitz, 14, of North Palm Beach, Fla., an eighth-grader
at Watson B. Duncan Middle School, has collected nearly 10,000 DVDs,
books and other items for 81 hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in all
50 states through her nonprofit organization, “Kayla Cares 4 Kids.”

Connor Archer, 18, of Stillwater, Maine, a senior at Old Town
High School, works to educate the public about autism and the challenges
faced by people with autism like himself, and has raised more than
$12,000 for organizations that help people with special needs.

Grace Davis, 11, of Louisville, Ky., a fifth-grader at Greathouse
Shryock Traditional Elementary School, has helped raise more than
$140,000 over the past four years to care for babies born prematurely by
distributing piggy banks to students in her community and encouraging
them to fill them up.

Maria Keller, 15, of Plymouth, Minn., a sophomore at Orono High
School, founded a nonprofit called “Read Indeed” when she was 8 years
old, and has since collected more than 1.7 million books for children in
need in 50 states and 17 other countries.

James Lea, 17, of Las Vegas, Nev., a junior at Faith Lutheran
Middle School and High School, helps brighten the holiday season for
children who have recently lost a parent by surprising their families
with an anonymous gift each day for 12 days, tied to the theme of the
song “12 Days of Christmas.”

Jungin Angie Lee, 17, of Naperville, Ill., a junior at Metea
Valley High School, co-founded a nonprofit organization that has
generated nearly $200,000 over the past nine years through annual
fundraising events to help find a cure for her rare neuromuscular
disease.

Zachary Rice, 13, of Long Valley, N.J., an eighth-grader at Long
Valley Middle School, initiated an annual 5K run/walk that has raised
more than $50,000 over the past three years to provide gaming systems
and other fun distractions for young patients at Goryeb Children’s
Hospital in Morristown.

Jackson Silverman, 10, of Charleston, S.C., a fifth-grader at
Advanced Studies Magnet-Haut Gap Middle School, persuaded a local food
bank to let him start a youth volunteer program there in 2013 that has
by now packed more than 14,000 weekend lunch bags for kids in need.

Clare Szalkowski, 10, of Dubuque, Iowa, a fifth-grader at Hoover
Elementary School, started “Clare Cares” over two years ago to “build
friendships and make our community a better place” by organizing
projects that benefit bullied children, homeless and hungry people, and
others in need of assistance.

The distinguished selection committee that chose the National Honorees
was chaired by Strangfeld and included Allison of NASSP; Andrea Bastiani
Archibald, chief girl expert for Girl Scouts of the USA; Robert Bisi,
senior public affairs manager for the Corporation for National and
Community Service; Tracy Hoover, president of Points of Light; Reneé
Jackson, senior manager of education programs at the National PTA;
Maxine Margaritis, vice president of volunteer services for the American
Red Cross; Peggy McLeod, Ed.D., deputy vice president, education and
workforce development at the National Council of La Raza; Dru Tomlin,
director of middle level services for the Association for Middle Level
Education; Frederick J. Riley, national director, urban & youth
development at YMCA of the USA; and two 2015 National Honorees: AJ
Mattia of Washington Township, N.J., a sophomore at Holy Cross Academy,
and Morlan Osgood of Loveland, Ohio, a senior at Loveland High School.

Youth volunteers in grades 5-12 were invited to apply for 2016
Prudential Spirit of Community Awards last fall through schools, Girl
Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters,
YMCAs and affiliates of the HandsOn Network.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program was created in 1995 to
identify and recognize young people for outstanding volunteer service –
and, in so doing, inspire others to volunteer, too. In the past 21
years, the program has honored more than 115,000 young volunteers at the
local, state and national level.

For more information about The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards and
this year’s honorees, visit http://spirit.prudential.com
or www.nassp.org/spirit.

About NASSP

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the
leading organization of and voice for middle level and high school
principals, assistant principals, and school leaders from across the
United States. The association connects and engages school leaders
through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. NASSP
advocates on behalf of all school leaders to ensure the success of each
student and strengthens school leadership practices through the design
and delivery of high quality professional learning experiences.
Reflecting its long-standing commitment to student leadership
development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National
Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society, and National
Association of Student Councils. For more information about NASSP,
located in Reston, VA, visit www.nassp.org.

About Prudential Financial

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has
operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping
individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth
through a variety of products and services, including life insurance,
annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment
management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for
strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century.
For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com.

Editors: For pictures of the Spirit of Community Awards program logo
and medallions, click here: http://bit.ly/Xi4oFW

For B-roll of Oregon’s honorees at the 2016 national recognition
events, contact Prudential’s Harold Banks at (973) 216-4833 or harold.banks@prudential.com.

Contacts

Prudential
Harold Banks, (w) 973-802-8974 or (c) 973-216-4833
harold.banks@prudential.com
or
NASSP
Robert
Farrace, 703-860-7257