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

I'm in the process of going through the construction of a 20,000 square foot $11.5 million dollar building dedicated to career and technical education for the students in the Philadelphia region.

It's actually mind blowing. I really see myself as an education entrepreneur, but this expanded me.

and I couldn't be more grateful for what it's done for us, and helping us serve more students and families.

going against the common core and focusing on what we know is important for kids really works, and having a network of people now that also agree was super huge.

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.

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 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?

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

in innovators who are doing this type of transformational work, so that others can learn from it and replicate it, so that you can actually grow yourselves.

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.