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— 2022 Yass Prize & STOP Awards —
Key Dates & Happenings
The STOP Awards include
the prestigious $1 million
Yass Prize, the Pulitzer prize
for education, named for
founders Janine & Jeff Yass.

The STOP Awards include
the prestigious $1 million
Yass Prize, the Pulitzer prize
for education, named for
founders Janine & Jeff Yass.
The mission of the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative is to identify and support more best in class education providers who can tackle the big education challenges of the day and deliver an education for students that is Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless. It’s more than an awards program or a philanthropic endeavor. It’s a movement intended to transform education for everyone.
In 2022, the Yass Foundation for Education awarded more than $20 million in grants to new and alumni organizations, including the prestigious $1 million Yass Prize to transform education, given to the group that most exemplifies the STOP principles.

The Judging Process
All applications undergo a thorough and comprehensive review process that begins with a peer review process. For the applications that move on, they will be reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of highly regarded peer-reviewers, esteemed and accomplished contributors to the education and entrepreneurial communities, and leaders in the Yass Prize alumni cohort. The review process concludes with a Blue Ribbon Panel. Meet some of last year’s judges!

The Yass Prize Accelerator Bootcamp
Each cohort of Yass Prize semifinalists participate in a 4-week business accelerator where they have access to the best of the best. With intimate access to one another, to innovators and entrepreneurs in the field, they strengthened their knowledge and their pitch, from idea generation to implementation. Their “teachers” have included such notables as GSV Founder Michael Moe and his team, LEAP Innovations founder Phyllis Lockett, Author Michael Horn, Forbes Editor Randall Lane and American journalist Moira Forbes, All Raise CEO Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, Hoque Global CEO Mike Hoque and Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell.
At the celebratory final event, the vibrancy and the excitement behind the culmination of the 4 month process for the cohort was palpable. The work and experiences demonstrated during the accelerator were so inspiring that STOP Award Founder Janine Yass was moved to reward all of them. In the end, $3.5 million was distributed to 20 outstanding organizations representing diverse kinds of education – public, private, charter, microschools, edtech and community groups. The energy, and the excellence had a captivating impact on all involved. The 2021 Cohort’s invaluable bond continues in development of several new partnerships which are creating expanded and more innovative opportunities for students across their borders.
The cohort has the opportunity to collaborate and impact the development of STOP-enabled efforts long after the initial program is over with national exposure and access to the media, representing the Yass Prize and STOP Awards at global events, becoming contributors on Forbes.com and informing policy makers on how best to replicate their work.
If you make it, here’s what you can expect – Pedal to the Metal in Miami



The Experience

Rock by Rock x Multiple Awardees
Rock by Rock, a 2021 Yass Prize Finalist is partnering with several other Yass awardees to help further their mission of ensuring all students have access to the deeper learning experiences necessary to thrive in our 21st Century economy. Arizona Autism Charter Schools is using Rock by Rock projects to support and expand their project-based learning for their elementary students, with Zeta Charter Schools, Northern Cass Public Schools, and Kind microschools to support STEM and project-based learning in their contexts.

STEMuli x HSRA
Teaching the history of hip hop in the STEMuli Metaverse provides the opportunity to both engage and assess students’ understanding of this pivotal chapter in history. STEMuli, a 2021 Yass Prize awarded EdTech company, in partnership with High School for the Recording Arts, has been able to put itself in a position to take advantage of the $1B California just approved to invest in arts curriculum within the state. Together, STEMuli and HSRA will pilot, iterate, and scale this revolutionary learning experience to other Yass Prize recipients with the goal to eventually scale to the rest of the nation.
Rapunzl X STEMuli X Young Women’s Prep
Working together to create an immersive financial literacy program that engages students through their smartphones, in virtual reality, and ties it together in the classroom these groups are ensuring that all students be able to use Rapunzl’s app to simulate stock and crypto portfolios like a real investor; and learn-by-doing as they complete tasks such as opening a bank account, cashing a check, and calculating a mortgage—all in a STEMuli-supported virtual world. Young Women’s Prep will pilot this work at 2 campuses to start giving students a financial lens to view the world and can develop skills around investing and money management.

Alumni Grants
This year.
$5MM
in Alumni Grants are available
Alumni Grants will
multiply in proportion
to the winning prizes in the years to come
2021 alumni are joining forces
and collaborating to further transform the field of education



Rescue Grants
In January 2022, the Chicago RESCUE grants were launched within days of the Chicago schools crisis to quickly grant funds to schools and educators ready and able to take in students ill-served by the Chicago Public Schools. You can read more about the Chicago Rescue grant recipients here.
Applications were accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis through January 14th, and award announcements were made daily to public and private education institutions who had capacity and interest in expanding quickly to meet the needs of new students not well-served by the Chicago Public School system. In less than a month, $5 million was awarded to 28 organizations – private, Catholic, charter and community groups – who had agreed to serve more than 1200 students. A worthwhile endeavor, the Yass Foundation for Education nevertheless believes that no child should have to be rescued. All students deserve access to a STOP education, throughout the whole of their school years.
In less than a month,
$5MM
was awarded to 28 organizations
These organizations represented.
diverse education experiences
– Private, Catholic, and charter schools
Together, the 28 organizations, took in
1,200 students

The 2022 Yass Prize Roadshow
We’re taking the team on the road to visit our winners to see first hand how their work is transforming student lives. From SailFuture where we started to Discovery and Oakmont in the midwest, then south and eventually west, we are promoting, celebrating and expanding the Yass Prize universe.
The Impact
The diverse tapestry of Yass Prize awardees represent dozens of approaches, interests, and student needs. Their impact is being noticed in national forums, by the media, in Congress and State Capitols – and it’s just beginning.
Are you involved with an innovative education provider delivering unique value
and impact to learners? Submit your application now for the 2022 STOP Awards!

You are in a moment in history that we have never seen before.
Any of us with a disruptive idea have a shot at trying to prove something.
Remember, you are doing the work of civilization.
You are planting the seeds of a better world, despite any bad news, you’re doing great things.
We realized long ago that there’s a lot of money in the system, and it’s just not directed to the children.
When you are trying to advance and think beyond the status quo, this can be a lonely place, because our systems are structured to do the same thing.
It is important to surround yourself with like-minded individuals who foster innovation.
The Yass Prize shines an important light on the heroes of education who fought valiantly to serve students and were often overlooked or dismissed.
It’s our commitment that their example is seen, learned about and replicated all over the nation.
Entrepreneurs are people who teach us about needs we don’t know we need.
This is the fundamental basis of what we are doing.
What is good for families is good for the school because families want great schools.
It's not the university someone graduated from or the degree they hold.
Do they have the resilience and perseverance? Do they have grit? It's the most important skill.
We may not agree on much of anything, but one thing that is a uniting force that we all agree on is that education opens doors, it’s the great equalizer.
Unfortunately, the bureaucracy that’s behind the school system is more interested in perpetuating jobs and keeping the system in place, rather than giving children the freedom they deserve.
I'm deeply humbled and grateful to be part of this group.
The last month has been a tremendous experience and I'm so inspired and motivated by the amazing work this group is doing. Collectively, we’re working towards a real-world goal and it’s leaving me empowered and motivated to apply what we learn.
We are so inspired by the Yass Prize participants, semi-finalists, and the courage, innovation and leadership of educators from across the country who have amplified the application of their brilliance to make the lives of their students better as they faced the daunting challenges of the pandemic.
We see the Pulitzer prizes, we see the MacArthur Genius Grants, we see the Pritzker prize for architecture.
But for the one field that drives everything, education, there is no definitive prize. The Yass Prize has filled that vacuum -- it's more than just the money. It's about spurring ideas, it's about spurring innovation. We are very very proud to be a part of it.
The fact that education has become partisan is upsetting, and I just hope that this award will encourage more states to view this as a bipartisan issue.
I hope you all think about the fact that the impact you are having, you will never even know how widespread it is.
That’s the beauty of education, you impact lives in such a deep way.
We often jump to the what, without thinking with the community about the why.
The real source of wealth in society is the human mind, not material things, because with the human mind, great wealth can be created.
Success happens after many pivots and changes.
Our Yass Prize partnership with Forbes and CER has been one of the best things we’ve done in education over the past 25 years.
If you get to the accelerator after the application process, go in knowing you already won.
The fact that you are now with a group of your peers you really get to see how world class the education profession is.
Connect with us
2022 STOP Awards Key Dates & Happenings
64 Quarter-Finalists Announced
32 Semi-Finalists Announced
5 Finalists Announced
STOP Award Finalist Celebration and Yass Prize Winner Announced