It's not the university someone graduated from or the degree they hold.

If the entrepreneur's mindset embraces failure as learning and development, then we must hold our ideas "loosely", because there is a good chance we are wrong.

The concepts of taking chances and not being afraid to fail all resonated with me and goes against the grain of what I have always practiced and accepted as what education is all about from a traditional lens.

Entrepreneurs are the engine of the innovation economy.

Remember, you are doing the work of civilization.

The relationships kids develop at the Boys & Girls Clubs with their peers and the staff have a positive impact on their lives.

Thinking "big" is often about identifying and solving real problems today, but striving to contribute to the growing body of knowledge, and laying the foundation for future leaders to have big breakthroughs.

It's about engaging families.

These sessions have become an oasis of calm and zen in my day, where I can turn off Slack and my emails...and just focus on learning from experts and basking in the energy of this community.

Conforming is something we are trained to do pretty early on.

You are in a moment in history that we have never seen before.

I am still processing the magnitude of this experience and so grateful for meeting each and everyone of you.

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.

We see the Pulitzer prizes, we see the MacArthur Genius Grants, we see the Pritzker prize for architecture.

A takeaway about The Yass Prize - what other accelerator actually helps prepare participants for the pitch?

The myth that parents of color do not care about the educational well-being of their children is just that, a myth.

Silicon Valley is a mindset. It is like the Education Revolution that we are seeing. The mindset of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

We realized long ago that there’s a lot of money in the system, and it’s just not directed to the children.

We often jump to the what, without thinking with the community about the why.

No training and protocol can prepare you for entrepreneurship. Rather, we must experience it and do the hard work.

The special sauce of our schools is tutoring.

The pandemic didn’t stop our families, scholars and educators from learning, growing and thriving.

There are so many heroes who responded to the Covid crisis in the education sector.

What is good for families is good for the school because families want great schools.

The challenge in education is the stakes are so high.

What has been created here at the accelerator is truly incredible.

The Yass Prize shines an important light on the heroes of education who fought valiantly to serve students and were often overlooked or dismissed.

The real source of wealth in society is the human mind, not material things, because with the human mind, great wealth can be created.

The chance to be part of this group is a big gust of wind in the sails of New Way Global.

If you get to the accelerator after the application process, go in knowing you already won.

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.

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.

We really need to work on the why. Not just with our teams, but with all those we work with and around.

I hope you all think about the fact that the impact you are having, you will never even know how widespread it is.

Success happens after many pivots and changes.

Entrepreneurs are people who teach us about needs we don’t know we need.

I'm deeply humbled and grateful to be part of this group.

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.

Too often, we look for success by analyzing an education system, rather than analyzing the success of the actual learners within the system.

This group of innovators has the opportunity to show the world what is possible for kids, what doesn't yet exist for so many children who deserve the opportunity to be entrepreneurs and to shine as out of the box thinkers.

We must remind our parents that they are the ones who pay for their child's education through their tax dollars and therefore have as much right to be at the table planning their child's educational roadmap as anyone else.

It's important to give yourself space from the work to allow room for deep reflection for continuous improvement.

The Yass Prize is more than a competition to me. Yes, we want to win. However, we are winning in so many aspects. Knowledge is power!

Humbled to be considered in such great company.

Too often, we see massive amounts of funding going towards failing models or failing schools, simply because administrators are unable to recognize a sunk cost fallacy.

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.

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 now our job to unlock others' potential…

The concept of being innovative with a touch of entrepreneurial thinking seems to be a recipe for the next level work for me as a leader and for our district's continued growth and viability.