FSU student’s life work recognized with prestigious Diana Award

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Florida State University student Emmabella Rudd blazed a trail and has put herself in prestigious company, as she is one of just 400 people around the world to receive the Diana Award.

The award, named after Princess Diana, honors the top youth advocates in the world for their efforts to make a positive change.

Emmabella Rudd, 19, has been living with type one diabetes since she was 5 years old and has been working to ease the way people live with the disease.

“From there we decided to do everything in our power to try to find a cure and just advocate for this disease that so many people are just so unaware of in life,” said Rudd.

Rudd has put her own fundraising team together to raise over $350,000 dollars for diabetes research to continue to fight for a cure.

“There are complications that come with this disease and everything you do impacts what you do. So when your blood sugars go low or high, my continuous glucose monitor alerts me before I have to find out myself even before I’m starting to feel it,” explained Rudd. “So it’s incredible and so research has gone towards that as well.”

This work allowed her to receive the Princess Diana award, making her one of the top youth advocates in the world. Those close to her say this feat comes as no surprise.

“So she has always been a go-getter, she’s always been very clear minded about seeing things that she sees as inequalities or injustices and doing everything she can in order to remedy them or to make the world a little bit better,” said FSU Service Scholar Program Director Erin Sylvester Philpot.

Rudd works closely with FSU’s service scholar program to continue the fight for diabetes locally.

“She was lobbying and advocating to local officials, she was creating policy change,” shared Sylvester Philpot. “But now to have her efforts recognized on a global stage I think it’s a sentiment that matches what we know about Emmabella which is that she’s going to do great things.”

Rudd says she will always fight for what she believes is right.

“We have seen our healthcare system is disproportionately impacting people living in pre-existing conditions and disproportionately underrepresented communities and that’s just not fair and we shouldn’t have to live that way,” emphasized Rudd.

Rudd has fourteen years of work under her belt and she continues to ensure everyone can receive the same medical support and resources to survive.

She is currently working on a bill to help cut insulin prices on the state level for the third year in a row.