$1 Million Competition Opens to Education Innovators
Applicants for the Yass Prize will vie for 64 awards totaling more than $13 million
NEW YORK—On Thursday, March 23, 2023, the Yass Prize, in partnership with Forbes Media, will kick off this year’s search for the next $1M winner, in New York, New York.
The launch event, which will be held at 3 p.m. ET, is invitation-only, and will be live-streamed via YassPrize.org or at Twitter @YassPrize. It will feature a series of brief spotlights on current awardees, remarks by Forbes Chief Executive Steve Forbes, Yass Prize founder Janine Yass and other notable educators.
Each year, the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative recognizes the nation’s top education innovators who outperform for underserved students. In addition to the grand prize, finalists receive $500,000 and quarter- and semi-finalists will vie for $100,000 and $200,000 awards, respectively.
The Yass Prize is sector agnostic, meaning that there is no preference for any type of education other than it be Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding and Permissionless. Chosen from among 2,700 applications, last year’s awardees included a traditional public school district focusing on delivering a transformational rural education, a financial literacy app that engages students to earn while they learn with simulated investing competitions, an a charter school focused on students with autism, and an entrepreneurial private high school which educating foster care and at-risk students while providing training and paid internships along with a world-wide sailing expedition, which was once featured on Good Morning America.
“Our awardees have done work in a very creative way focused on the children,” said Yass Prize founder Janine Yass. “They said, ‘we are not doing this according to how the system wants us to perform.’ We are hopeful they will inspire people at every level—public, private, microschools, and education entrepreneurs—to ignite and state this fire that will spread throughout the country.”
“At Forbes, we know the qualities of great entrepreneurs and ours are changing the landscape of education,” said Chief Content Officer Randall Lane.
The Application portal will go live on the Yass Prize website at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 23.
Press interested in attending the event in person should RSVP to Liz Hill Braun at [email protected].
