Illinois' Top Two Youth Volunteers Selected in 12th Annual National Awards Program.

Barrington Hills and Wheaton students earn $1,000 awards, engraved medallions and trip to nation's capital

Honors also bestowed on other top youth volunteers in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Rishi Sethi, 18, of Barrington Hills and Kendall Ciesemier, 14, of Wheaton today were named Illinois' top two youth volunteers for 2007 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. The awards program, now in its 12th year, is conducted by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).

Rishi was nominated by Barrington High School in Barrington, and Kendall was nominated by Franklin Middle School in Wheaton. As State Honorees, each will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C., where they will join the top two honorees - one middle level and one high school youth - from each of the other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition events. Ten of them will be named America's top youth volunteers for 2007 at that time.

Rishi, a senior at Barrington High School, founded the Barrington School District Chess Program nine years ago, and has since helped introduce the game of chess to schools throughout his district and hosted chess tournaments that have raised $10,000 for local and international charities. Rishi, who won a trophy at a national tournament in fourth grade, started a chess club at his elementary school because no one else there played the game. He launched another club when he entered middle school, and began recruiting club members to teach chess to other students. To challenge his fellow players and involve the community in his program, Rishi also began running chess tournaments in places such as a grocery store, a nursing home, a church and hospitals.

Today all of the schools in his school district have chess clubs, and Rishi's program has helped establish clubs in India, Mexico, Chile and Borneo, as well. In addition, his tournaments have raised thousands of dollars for charities such as the Adult Literacy Center, Citizens for Conservation, the Spina Bifida Foundation, Red Cross for Katrina Relief, and Heifer International. Besides teaching new skills and raising money, Rishi's program has given local students valuable exposure to different cultures. "Chess is popular in the rest of the world, and it can help students in Barrington connect with other cultures," he said. "It is exciting to find a common language such as chess with which we can communicate with people all over the world."

Kendall, an eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School, formed a nonprofit organization that has raised $50,000 since 2004 to benefit AIDS orphans in Africa. Kendall, who has faced her own struggles as she underwent two liver transplants, was inspired to volunteer by watching an Oprah Winfrey TV special about the African AIDS epidemic. What she saw stunned her. "Some of the children were living alone, taking care of younger siblings," she said. "Kids my age were taking the place of their parents because their parents had died of AIDS. I knew I needed to do something."

Initially, Kendall used her own money to "adopt" an AIDS orphan through World Vision, but then she started to think bigger. While recovering from one of her operations, she asked for cash donations for AIDS orphans in lieu of gifts or flowers. Soon after, she and her family established "Kids Caring 4 Kids," an ongoing effort to raise money for AIDS orphans in Africa through a variety of projects, including a Web site that accepts donations and the sale of T-shirts that Kendall helped design. Kendall has sent the money she has raised to a village in Zambia to help pay for education, food and medicine. She also speaks frequently to community groups about the AIDS epidemic in Africa and reaches out to other young people to make them aware of the crisis. "I want people to see how small a contribution it takes to make a difference," said Kendall.

In addition, the program judges recognized eight other Illinois students as Distinguished Finalists for their impressive community service activities. Each will receive an engraved bronze medallion:

Bethany Figura, 18, of St. Charles, a senior at St. Charles North High School, helped coordinate a 12-hour dance-a-thon that raised almost $30,000 to support Special Olympics. Bethany served on the executive board of Project: DANCE! and was responsible for maintaining the morale of the dancers over the course of the event.

Tayler McGillis, 12, of Toluca, a home-schooled seventh-grader, established and maintains 15 permanent recycling centers throughout his community, and has collected more than 16,000 pounds of aluminum cans for recycling. Tayler donated the $9,000 he earned from reclaiming the recycled aluminum to Habitat for Humanity.

Brittany Metz, 17, of Mundelein, a senior at Mundelein High School, created a new student leadership program at her school that replaced the student council and included community service and student outreach activities. As co-president of the new program, Brittany is responsible for directing meetings, communicating with school administrators, helping to plan events, and making presentations to the Board of Education.

Elizabeth Peters, 18, of Lake Bluff, a senior at Lake Forest High School in Lake Forest, collected travel-size toiletry items to make hundreds of "Basic Bundles" for residents staying at local shelters. Elizabeth, who started the program in 2004, managed the collection process, secured corporate sponsorships, recruited her school service club to help, and distributed her toiletry bundles to several area homeless shelters.

Priyanka Vedak, 17, of Crystal Lake, a senior at Prairie Ridge High School, helped raise more than $10,000 for suicide prevention education by participating in a 20-mile fund-raising walk sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Following the suicide of a classmate, Priyanka and two of her friends solicited sponsors for the walk and distributed information about suicide and depression while raising money for the cause.

Susan Vinyard, 16, of Downers Grove, a sophomore at Downers Grove North High School, founded "Hats Off to You" when she was 10 years old to provide hats for children who lose their hair due to medical treatments. Since then, Susan has distributed more than 3,000 hats, and has personally made 75 percent of them.

Mary Welsh, 17, of Naperville, a member of the Girl Scouts-Fox Valley Council in Sugar Grove and a senior at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, helped raise almost $10,000 by organizing a team of 15 members to walk in an American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Motivated by the untimely death of her father to cancer, Mary promoted the event, recruited walkers, managed her team's camp-site, and solicited sponsors.

Brian Zimmerman, 18, of Batavia, a senior at Marmion Academy in Aurora, organized a school-supply drive that assembled and distributed 21,000 back-to-school packages for disadvantaged children at 22 schools and organizations in his area. For his "Crayons for Kids" drive, Brian recruited volunteers, solicited sponsors, collected school supplies, sorted and packaged the items, and delivered the packages.

"People as caring and committed as these young students are critical to the future of our neighborhoods, our cities and our nation," said Arthur Ryan, chairman and CEO of Prudential. "By recognizing these honorees, we hope to encourage other young people - our future leaders - and all Americans to think more about the value and importance of volunteering in their communities."

"NASSP is pleased to once again join Prudential in recognizing these young people for their amazing accomplishments," remarked Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "This year's honorees are proof that the youth of today are conscientious and capable of performing selfless acts of kindness in their local communities, on a national scale and at the global level."

All public and private middle level and high schools in the country, as well as all Girl Scout councils, county 4-H organizations, American Red Cross chapters, YMCAs and Volunteer Centers, were eligible to select a student or member for a local Prudential Spirit of Community Award this past November. More than 7,500 Local Honorees were then reviewed by state-level judges, who selected State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists based on criteria such as personal initiative, creativity, effort, impact and personal growth.

While in Washington, D.C., the 102 State Honorees will tour the capital's landmarks, attend a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and visit their congressional representatives on Capitol Hill. In addition, 10 of them - five middle level and five high school students - will be named National Honorees on May 7 by a prestigious national selection committee. These honorees will receive additional $5,000 awards, gold medallions, crystal trophies, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit, charitable organizations of their choice.

Serving on the national selection committee will be U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota; Arthur Ryan of Prudential; actor Richard Dreyfuss; Alma Powell, chair of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth; Robert Goodwin, president and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation; Amy B. Cohen, director of Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Kathy Cloninger, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Donald T. Floyd Jr., president and CEO of National 4-H Council; Michael Cohen, president and CEO of Achieve, Inc.; Kathryn Forbes, national chair of volunteers, American Red Cross; Joe Militello, president of NASSP; and two 2006 Prudential Spirit of Community National Honorees: Ajay Mangal of Pascagoula, Miss., and Geneva Johnson of the Bronx, N.Y.

In addition to granting its own awards, The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program will be distributing President's Volunteer Service Awards to more than 4,150 of its Local Honorees this year on behalf of the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation. The President's Volunteer Service Award recognizes Americans of all ages who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country.

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards represent the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer service. The program is part of a broad youth-service initiative by Prudential that includes a youth leadership training program administered by the Points of Light Foundation; a free booklet of volunteer ideas for young people offered through the Federal Citizen Information Center; and a Web site featuring profiles of outstanding youth volunteers, volunteer tips and project ideas for students, an electronic newspaper on youth volunteerism, and more (www.prudential.com/spirit). The Spirit of Community Awards program also is conducted by Prudential subsidiaries in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and is being introduced this year in Ireland.

For information on all of this year's Prudential Spirit of Community State Honorees and Distinguished Finalists, visit www.prudential.com/spirit or www.principals.org/prudential.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals -- the preeminent organization and the national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals and aspiring school leaders -- provides its members with the professional resources to serve as visionary leaders. NASSP promotes the intellectual growth, academic achievement, character development, leadership development, and physical well-being of youth through its programs and student leadership services. NASSP sponsors the National Honor Society[TM], the National Junior Honor Society[TM] and the National Association of Student Councils[TM]. For more information on NASSP, NHS, NJHS or NASC, visit www.principals.org.

Prudential Financial companies serve individual and institutional customers worldwide and include The Prudential Insurance Company of America, one of the largest life insurance companies in the U.S. These companies offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, mutual funds, annuities, pension and retirement-related services and administration, asset management, securities brokerage, banking and trust services, real estate brokerage franchises and relocation services. For more information, visit www.prudential.com.