Jourdan Urbach is National Winner of the Prudential Spirit Award

Jourdan Urbach with Senator Hillary Clinton at Washington, D.C. Award Ceremony

NSHSS member Jourdan Urbach, a partially home-schooled junior at Roslyn High School in New York, and student at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, was named a National Winner of the prestigious Prudential Spirit of Community Award in Washington, D.C. on May 5, 2007. The Prudential Spirit of Community Award represents the United States' largest youth recognition program based on humanitarian service to America. Jourdan was nominated for this award by the Juilliard School for his national music and humanitarian endeavors and was chosen from among 20,000 nominees. He had already been named the New York State High School winner of the Prudential Spirit Award in February before being named one of the five National winners. Jourdan has raised over 1.3 million dollars for medical organizations and research involved with neurological disease through his benefit performances at major concert venues across the nation. Jourdan, a violin virtuoso of national renown, has drawn upon his reputation in the classical music world to stage gala benefit concerts across the country for sold out audiences, enlisting entire symphonies to join him. All proceeds from Jourdan's concerts have been donated to such medical organizations as: The National Multiple Sclerosis Society: Long Island Chapter, Greater New Jersey Chapter, Upstate New York Chapter, Lone Star Chapter, Rochester Chapter, The Children's Hearing Institute, the Institute for Music and Neurological Function, Beth Israel Medical Center's Hyman-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neuroscience, and Mott Children's Hospital at University of Michigan's Medical Center.

Jourdan accepted his award at the Chamber of Commerce on May 7th during the national ceremony and luncheon. After his acceptance speech, Jourdan participated in numerous radio and press interviews and met with Senator Hillary Clinton. Jourdan received a gold medallion, an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., and an $11,000 scholarship, $5,000 of which will be donated to the charity of his choice. The weekend included tours of the national monuments, The Supreme Court, Senate offices, witnessing the wreath-placing ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, and an awards dinner at the Smithsonian with keynote speaker Peyton Manning.

The National Prudential Spirit Award is the culmination of a number of honors Urbach received this year, including winning the Gold Medal at Math Fair for his 4th consecutive year and winning first place in the Rohm Haas Science Competition in the category of Biology for his research on The Role of Laminin in Remyelination. Urbach was also National First Place Winner of the NASA Explorer Video Podcast Competition Space Telemedicine in Our Future, First Place Winner of the New York State March of Dimes Essay Competition, winner of Best Project in Optics Engineering at NYSSEF, was published in Teen Ink.

Jourdan has spent the past summer working as a research intern at Harvard Medical School's Multiple Sclerosis Laboratory in Immunology.