Meet Sriya Tallapragada: How One Teen Is Reshaping STEAM Education Across the Globe

A Young Changemaker Takes Center Stage

At just 15 years old, Sriya Tallapragada from New Providence, New Jersey, has launched an initiative that’s capturing national attention. Her brainchild, Girls Who STEAM, tackles one of the most persistent challenges in modern education: the severe underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics fields.

Through creative workshops and long-term mentorship programs, Sriya’s organization has already engaged over 4,000 young women across more than 17 chapters globally. Her mission? To dismantle the gender stereotypes that discourage girls from pursuing careers in these critical fields—stereotypes that often take root as early as kindergarten.

Why Her Vision Matters

Sriya’s work has earned her a prestigious honor: she’s been selected as one of 25 inaugural recipients of the Prudential Emerging Visionaries award, a groundbreaking initiative launched by Prudential Financial in collaboration with Ashoka, a leading social impact organization.

The Prudential Emerging Visionaries program specifically seeks out young people between ages 14 and 18 who possess both the vision and the drive to tackle pressing financial and societal challenges through innovative solutions. These aren’t typical volunteer initiatives—the program recognizes young leaders whose ideas can scale beyond their immediate communities and inspire systemic change.

The Recognition and What’s Next

Sriya’s selection comes with substantial support: a $5,000 award, an all-expenses-paid invitation to the 2022 Emerging Visionaries summit (April 23-26), and access to an exclusive network of young changemakers, mentors, and industry leaders.

The summit itself is designed to fuel continued growth, featuring skills development workshops, one-on-one coaching, networking sessions, and special recognition events. For high-impact participants, there’s an opportunity to compete in a pitch-off where the grand prize winner receives an additional $10,000 in funding. Prudential employees will also vote for an Employees’ Choice Award winner, providing another $5,000 in support.

A New Chapter in Youth Leadership Recognition

This initiative represents an evolution of Prudential Financial’s long-standing Spirit of Community Awards program, which over 26 years honored more than 150,000 youth volunteers across the United States. The Prudential Emerging Visionaries program signals a shift toward recognizing not just service, but innovation—young people whose fresh thinking addresses the financial and societal challenges of our time, from pandemic-related hardships to economic inequality, digital access gaps, and inclusion advocacy.

As Prudential Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey noted, this program exemplifies the company’s commitment to making lives better by solving the financial challenges of an evolving world. For changemakers like Sriya, it’s validation that youth-led solutions deserve a platform and resources to create lasting impact.