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STOP FOR EDUCATION

Road Show

Doing What It Takes for Opportunity Youth in Cleveland, OH

The Yass Prize Road Show STOPs at Oakmont Education

  • April 25, 2023
It’s not every day that you enter a building bursting with energy and exciting educational enterprise involving students who had long disengaged from traditional school. Some call them drop-outs. Oakmont Education VP Cris Gullacy-Worrel, a former dropout herself, calls them “opportunity youth.”

On average, Oakmont’s first-year enrollees are 18 years old, have been unsuccessful at two previous high schools, and score at the 5th grade level in literacy and numeracy. Compared to their peers in the traditional system, Oakmont students have faced more adverse childhood experiences, have had more contact with the juvenile justice system, and have higher levels of special needs.

But the Oakmont team welcomes these students and accelerates them through an innovative, engaging, 21st Century approach to education that helps break the cycle of failure with a genuine support network, individualized hands-on education and skills-based job training.It’s a brilliant academic model combining an individualized, self-paced program with hands-on work experiences that respond to each student’s particular needs. This allows students to earn their diploma while earning industry credentials in skilled trades, construction and manufacturing, information technology, the retail and hospitality fields, and community health.

It was the second stop of the second Yass Prize Road Show, and it was mind-blowing. There were no cookie-cutter textbooks or teachers lecturing, no standard worksheets or kids zoned out.  Instead, students were the drivers of their education.
In one room, students were working with the company Brixilated, using LEGOs to learn the skills of inventory, production, quality, packing, and distribution. Their kits will be sent to Shriners Hospitals internationally, giving student’s significant meaning and purpose behind this project.

In another, students were studying health science and phlebotomy, working towards earning critical certifications to be the next generation of nurses and healthcare professionals.

Another classroom of students wore chef hats and professional aprons, not only learning the safety and basics of culinary arts, but also putting what they are learning into practice every single day in their state-of-the-art kitchen facility – making us a sumptuous lunch, all under award-winning chefs.
And perhaps most exciting was the classroom led by fellow Yass Prize finalist Rapunzl Brian Curcio and Myles Gage, who are partnering with Oakmont’s kids to help them understand smart investing principles and breaking down the ivory tower of Wall Street.

Where traditional schools see – and offer – little or no hope to these students, Oakmont sees exciting opportunities for success and achievement, connecting young men and women to their potential by aligning learning to their unique needs.

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The Yass Foundation advances the four core STOP principles: Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. Each year, the Foundation will reward dozens of organizations, building a growing network of innovative providers that
demonstrate these qualities in their commitment to new ideas, technologies, and approaches to learning that bring education into
the 21st century. The Foundation is powered by the Center for Education Reform (CER) in partnership with Forbes.

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

Ceci Schickel
Senior Director of Organizing and Advocacy,
Mastery Charter School

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.

Randall Lane
Editor,
Forbes

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

Michael B. Horn
Author,
From Reopen to Reinvent

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.

Christopher Simmonds
Principal,
CARE Elementary School

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.

Randall Lane
Chief Content Officer,
Forbes Media

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.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

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.

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

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

Patricia Brantley
CEO,
Friendship Public Charter School

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.

Alyssa Farah Griffin
Co-Host on The View and CNN Political Commentator,

Success happens after many pivots and changes.

Michael Moe
Founder and CEO,
Global Silicon Valley

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.

Jeffrey Imrich
Co-Founder,
Rock by Rock

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.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

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

Steve Forbes
Editor-in-Chief,
Forbes Media

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.

Phyllis Lockett
CEO,
LEAP Innovations

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

We may never know how pivotal this really is for education in America right here, right now. This group of people will work together to force real change permissionlessly.

Rob Blevins
Executive Director,
Discovery Center of Springfield

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

This is the fundamental basis of what we are doing.

Carl Schramm
University Professor,
Syracuse University

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.

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

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

I look forward to continuing our transformative work in our communities and together.

Taylor Shead
Board Member,
Dallas Education Foundation

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

Janine Yass
Founder,
The Yass Prize

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