The Yass Prize is almost like Burning Man for education reform.

I don’t think I’ve been in a room as supportive as the Yass Prize Semifinalist room in Miami.

It's given us an opportunity to start critical discussions with our congregations, parents, community leaders and members, about the laws that govern education in Pennsylvania.

We don’t want you to rinse, wash, repeat. We want you to build and sustain.

The funding is not following children. We're trying to make better options for kids, for poor kids, middle class kids. Wealthy people have this choice, they opt out of their systems easily, why shouldn't all children have that choice?

We believe very much that microschools should be bottoms up, they come from the community. They're founded by educators who know their community really well. And they want to design a learning environment for the kids in that community.

And through that, we were able to open up our second campus in the city of Wichita.

The Yass experience has given us “permission” to do exactly that.

When we originally applied, we simply provided supplemental support services to homeschooling families. Now, we are growing into an education network that provides community, coaching, and curriculum nationwide.

The Yass Prize has empowered our youth, families and community by bringing great visibility to our efforts.

Not only because of the capital, but because of the knowledge that comes by communing with the diverse group of people as opposed to everybody that thinks the exact same way that you might think.