Awardees
Awardees
![](https://yassprize.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/valiant-1-e1702394505123-1024x1024.jpeg)
The 2023 Yass Prize Winner!
Valiant Cross Academy
Congratulations to Valiant Cross Academy, the 2023 Yass Prize $1 Million Winner! Located in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, Valiant Cross Academy sits just across from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church – a symbolic inspiration driving the school’s commitment to fostering success for its all-Black male students through faith and academic rigor.
The 2023 Finalists
2023 Yass Prize Semifinalists
Meet the 33 Semifinalists selected for the 2023 Yass Prize
Other State Initiatives
Responding in real time to policy opportunities as well as challenges.
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Odyssey Leadership Academy
Oklahoma City, OK
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Old Sturbridge Academy
Sturbridge, MA
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One City Schools
Madison, WI
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OnYourMark
National
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Open Sky Education
National
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Optima Academy Online
Naples, FL & National
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Partnership Schools
New York, NY
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Positive Tomorrows, Inc.
Oklahoma City, OK
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Prenda
National
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Prichard Preparatory School
Whistler, AL
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Purdue Polytechnic High Schools
Indianapolis, IN
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Randolph Eastern School Corporation
Union City, IN
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Rapunzl
Chicago, IL
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RCMA Immokalee Community Academy
Immokalee, FL
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RISE Hybrid Academy
Fredericksburg, VA
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Rock by Rock
National
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SailFuture
St. Petersburg, FL
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Savannah Legacy Academy
Savannah, GA
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School of Hope
Fayetteville, NC
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SOAR Academy
Evans, GA
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Sora Schools, Inc.
National
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Special Care
Oklahoma City, OK
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St. Francis de Sales School
Philadelphia, PA
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St. George Municipal School Unit
Tenants Harbor, ME
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St. Philip the Apostle Catholic School
Camp Springs, MD
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Thales Academy
National
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The Discovery Center of Springfield
Springfield, MO
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The High School for Recording Arts
St. Paul, MN
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The Innovation School
Bismarck, ND
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The Lab School of Memphis
Memphis, TN
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The League of Young Inventors
Brooklyn, NY
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The Melanin Village
National
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The Oakland REACH
Oakland, CA
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The Oaks Academy
Indianapolis, IN
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Trivium Charter School Network
Lompoc, California
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Tutwiler Community Education Center
Tutwiler, MS
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unCommon Construction
New Orleans, LA
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Urban Preparatory Academy
Wichita, KS
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UrbaNeXt
Cincinnati, OH
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Valiant Cross Academy
Montgomery, AL
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Verdi EcoSchool
Melbourne, FL
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Vertex Partnership Academies
Bronx, NY
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VictoryXR
National
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West Virginia Academy
Morgantown, WV
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Wildflower Schools
Minneapolis, MN & National
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Workshop Middle School
Brooklyn, NY
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Young Women’s Preparatory Network
Dallas, TX
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Zeta Charter Schools
Bronx, NY
End of Awardees
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Education is one of the most fundamental pillars for democratizing opportunities for success that we have in our society.
It’s thanks to organizations like the Yass Prize that our children are going to have a better tomorrow.
I'm a Yass Prize finalist from last year.
And through that, we were able to open up our second campus in the city of Wichita.
The Yass Prize process has created an awareness of the education freedom movement within churches and communities.
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.
Having the status of Yass Prize Semifinalist has opened doors that we’ve been knocking on for years,
including public recognition from our Governor and partnership conversations with other education innovators from around the country.
The Yass Prize is centered around ensuring that this [program] provides you a stepping stone...
We don’t want you to rinse, wash, repeat. We want you to build and sustain.
One of the missions of the Yass Prize and the Yass Prize movement is really surfacing best practices in innovation—
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.
Believe in your mission… Ground yourself… Never give up…
Because of the Yass Prize, we were able to add an additional pre-K classroom.
If you're committed to wanting to be one of the change makers of the future in education, I believe that this is a place for you.
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.
Yass brought us together, creating opportunities to create an educational universe within which we can look at education differently…
we have to find academic experiences that represent neuro-divergent learners, kids who want to learn about gaming, who want to do stuff online, who dropped out of school.
The Yass Award is about celebrating and rewarding those who make students the priority.”
Being a part of this experience has amplified the access we can give to our students in a way that nothing has, and the access is just critical.
The Yass Prize is almost like Burning Man for education reform.