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| Augusta Good News

Augusta GA News Report Showcases SOAR Academy’s Yass Prize Journey

By Charmain Z. Brackett |
  • December 21, 2022

Grant Will Allow Academy To SOAR

An Evans’ microschool is on its way to reaching more students thanks to a $500,000 award.

SOAR Academy, currently housed at In Focus Church in Evans, was a finalist for the $1 million YASS Prize,which was awarded Dec. 14 in New York City.

“I am so happy for my kids,” said Kenisha Skaggs, who founded SOAR Academy 12 years ago.

A microschool is an independent learning center. Skaggs calls the private academy a “one room schoolhouse” with a family feel.

Eight teachers work with students who range from elementary to high school; some students have learning disabilities while others have just not kept up academically; some are autistic; and some are homeschooled students who use the program to augment their curriculum.

Sixty students are enrolled; half attend in person while the other half are online. And she has a long waiting list of students she hopes will soon be able to receive needed services. She anticipates a possible student body of 150.

At SOAR, they offer individualized learning opportunities. Central to the mission is literacy.

“There’s a huge gap in kids not reading,” she said. “We have to get kids reading.”

And if kids can’t read, they can’t hold a job or function in society, she added.

The Augusta University graduate started her program after working in a commercial learning center for several years. She was discouraged by the tenets of No Child Left Behind. She also witnessed how a standardized approach to education doesn’t work for all students through her own sister who is neurodivergent.

Experts evaluated Skaggs’ sister and gave her parents little hope that she could receive higher education and perform more than a menial job. Her parents didn’t listen and took her education into their hands. Today, she works for the federal government in a high level IT/HR position, Skaggs said.

Many neurodivergent students have computer and science capabilities, but they just don’t learn the same way, she said.

After leaving the commercial tutoring center, Skaggs started tutoring students in the attic of her house. SOAR then moved to an office complex for several years before moving to the dedicated space at In Focus, and with the $500,000, the school will move into its own space to help more children.

She and husband, Lucas, who serves as the academy’s co-director, have looked at several possibilities in both Richmond and Columbia counties and hope to have a site scoped out during the next school semester. They also want to expand into South Carolina to assist students in Aiken and North Augusta.

MORE: Augusta University Literacy Center forms partnership with Augusta Tech

Seeing the need for expansion of services, they applied for, and the school received a $10,000 VELA grant for non-traditional learning about a year ago. That prompted them to look for more grants, she said.

Receiving the YASS Prize was a rigorous process with several rounds of elimination. Skaggs said in addition to the funding, they’ve received mentoring from top leaders and have formed partnerships with other non-traditional schools. The networking piece has been an invaluable part of the process, she said, as they’ve gained more tools to help their own students.

Philanthropists Janine and Jeff Yass developed the YASS prize in response to COVID. They’d originally supplied funds for computers for Philadelphia schoolchildren to use during the pandemic, but they were disheartened that “technology was being substituted for learning,” Janine Yass wrote in an article for Forbes Magazine.

They decided they needed to do more for education.

The goal of the YASS Prize is to support “class education providers who can tackle the big education challenges of the day and deliver an education for students that is sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless. It’s more than an awards program or a philanthropic endeavor. It’s a movement intended to transform education for everyone,” according to the YASS Prize website.

“In 2022, the Yass Foundation for Education awarded more than $20 million in grants to new and alumni organizations, including the prestigious $1 million Yass Prize to transform education, given to the group that most exemplifies the STOP principles.”

Skaggs said she’s excited for what the future holds for SOAR and her students.

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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.

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

Michael B. Horn
Author,
From Reopen to Reinvent

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

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

Patricia Brantley
CEO,
Friendship Public Charter 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

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 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,

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

Success happens after many pivots and changes.

Michael Moe
Founder and CEO,
Global Silicon Valley

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 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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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